Big plans for Willow RV

Fledgling Victorian manufacturer, Willow RV, is set to make a big splash at next month’s Queensland Caravan, Camping and Touring Supershow, with a prominent display of nine, just-released Willow caravans and two camper trailers built at its months-old production facility in Pakenham.

Willow models on display at the Brisbane Supershow will include two Golf-like, wind-up camper trailers from its Acacia range, and six different layouts available in Willow’s Conifer touring caravan range, which includes 18ft single axle and 21ft tandem axle models.

Five of the display vans will be fitted with optional Adventure packs which include a galvanised chassis with thicker 6in main members, checker plate exterior protection and an Al-Ko off-road coupling and Enduro Outback independent trailing arm coil suspension.

Willow RV co-founders Eddie Wills and Ian Jow, together have decades of experience in both local and overseas RV manufacturing. Both held senior roles at Jayco and Jurgens over the past two decades before deciding to go it alone with Willow RV in late-2017.

Willow RV is currently building vans just down the road from Jurgens' factory in Pakenham, Victoria, using locally sourced 29mm thick aluminium-skinned sandwich ‘Insulftuff’ body panels and designs based on Solid Edge 3D modelling.

The "fully insulated" vans also feature a full composite floor as well as composite roof, and 27mm lightweight ply and foam core panels for interior furniture, Jow said.

Priced in the $60,000-$80,000 bracket, the boldly-styled Willow caravans come standard with an Australian-built welded and hot dipped galvanised steel chassis with 5in main members and Al-Ko Enduro Cross Country independent coil suspension, while the sandwich panel ‘monocoque’  body utilises interlocking construction methods in a manner similar to Bailey, Zone RV and Avida.

“We just wanted to take it a bit further than everybody else (with the Willow caravans)… we also took some weight out of the chassis as the floor is obviously working with the chassis from a strength point of view,” said Jow, who also worked at Lunar Caravans in the UK before coming to Australia.

Priced around the mid-$30,000 mark, the fibreglass-bodied Willow Acacia campers are very similar in design and construction to locally-built wind-up models from Jayco, Goldstream and Avan.

Willow RV currently has five employees building around one van a week, but the plan is to double both production and staff numbers in the near future, with a current six month backlog of orders. There are also plans to boost the range with a couple of slide-out caravan models.

Willow has dealers in NSW, Queensland and Tasmania, with a new dealer in Melbourne as well as another one in NSW coming on board soon.

The vans are backed by a three year factory warranty and Jow says the focus will be on quality and developing customer loyalty for its products.

“We don’t want to be one of those manufacturers that end up doing 2000 a year,” he said. "We want to try and keep to maybe 300 a year and keep the quality where it should be, and we obviously want to have repeat customers.”