Colorado Bushranger

I’ve often wondered about the wisdom of taking a large, off-road caravan into the Outback. 

What if it rains and the black or red soil beneath your wheels turns to mud? 

What about the cost of hauling a three-tonne plus tandem axle van behind a big LandCruiser, Land-Rover or hard-working crew cab? Where do you store it when you’re not travelling?

After reviewing the 23ft (external body) long Colorado Bushranger and talking to Colorado owner/builder Jim Moutsias, I think I have the answers.

For a start, the sort of person who lays down around $86,000 for a fully equipped Bushranger plans to enjoy living in it with many of the comforts of home for an extended period in otherwise probably unfriendly terrain.

So it if rains, snows or scorches, they’re insulated from extremes of discomfort. If the road is impassable, they’re well-prepared to stay put in comfort until whatever it is passes.

The cost of hauling a 3200kg laden caravan around is almost irrelevant in this context. Regardless of what many people think, fuel is cheap in Australia by most overseas standards and few Bushranger owners will be trying to pack 700-800km of travel into each day anyway. More likely that will be their weekly quota.

And when they finally make it home, there’s every chance that their property, warehouse or a dedicated caravan storage yard will have plenty of room to house it until they are ready for their next adventure.

Looking at Outback travel this way, instead through dripping canvas or from the prism of a small off-road caravan, I began to come around to the idea and wondered ‘why hold back?’

Spending time with the Colorado Bushranger also made it much easier to appreciate its owners’ mindset. This is a beautiful, well-built, spacious and luxurious caravan, whose five star comfort features rival and often surpass its million star Outback surroundings.

Size is luxury and the Bushranger has this in spades. Outside it’s fairly conventional, although the White Glass high profile aluminium cladding over high-mounted black checker plate stone-shielding all round, with Colorado’s distinctive waist-line blue and black striping, disguises its 23ft external body length to some degree.

The galvanized Preston chassis employs sturdy 150mm x 50mm main members, with a stone-mesh on the similar diameter A-frame extension, tipped by a Hyland off-road hitch.

Al-Ko ESC is standard – a welcome feature on a large caravan that is destined to cover many kilometres on all manner of roads and in all weather conditions.

Underneath is worth a look, as there you will find Cruisemaster XT coil and shock absorber 3.7 tonne-rated independent trailing arm suspension, three, galvanized steel-shielded 85 litre fresh water tanks, underslung checker plate boxes for the twin 120Ah AGM batteries (fed by a 170 Watt roof-mounted solar panel), while at the rear there are two spare wheels and two jerry can holders on the steel, four-arm rear bumper.

Nothing unusual here – just all the right and proven off-road caravan kit.

The optional checker plate clad, two burner plus sink mini-kitchen fitted to the review van slid out of the front locker on the door side, with a smaller but unencumbered storage locker on the opposite side. If you don’t option the kitchen, you’ll get a smaller Swift BBQ, which allows a full front tunnel boot.

Meanwhile at the rear there are separate external hatches to house a portable generator or other objects that won’t fit in the shallow, galvanized steel lined front boot. All pretty normal and expected for a serious off-road caravan of this size.

Conveniently, the mains water inlet allows you to fill the three fresh water tanks while connected to mains pressure town water.

But it’s when you step inside (via the centre door with its power-operated aluminium step) that the Bushranger begins to stand apart from the pack and the 15 years industry experience of its family owners shows through.

Décor is a matter of personal choice, but the flat-fronted, richly-toned timber furniture of the review van combined with cream-coloured benchtops and the matching cream leather of the U-shaped club lounge, created the feel of a luxury home, rather than a caravan.

If friends stay over, the table drops down and the lounge converts into a second bed.

The quality and finish of the Bushranger’s cabinetry is impressive and this is best shown in the timber-capped arches that separate the bedroom and bathroom from the central living area.

Further enhancing the homely feel is the huge double-glazed picture window behind the club lounge, nicely framing the great outdoors outside as you entertain inside.

As you’d expect in a caravan of its size, there are more cupboards and drawers than you’ll ever need to fill, plus more storage space under the lift-up queen-size bed.

However a couple of the kitchen cupboards and draws fouled each other when opened simultaneously, something that Colorado vowed to rectify on this and future production Bushranger vans.

With this exception, the galley of the Bushranger is one of the best in the business, with an angled stainless steel sink and drainage board on the left, the three gas burner plus electric hob cooktop, grill and oven in the centre and large and unencumbered bench space to its right.

We would rather the Daewoo microwave oven wasn’t mounted so high, but this is a packaging issue for most caravan builders.

LED lights under the kitchen bench lip seem a bit gimmicky at first glance, but they provide excellent low level lighting at night while watching the standard 24-inch LED TV as well as illuminating the inside of the drawers below.

Other things we liked included the liberal fitting of double power points throughout and the Four Seasons ventilation hatch over the bed, which allows good ventilation without flooding the bedroom with early morning light.

The Thetford 184 litre three-way fridge/freezer opposite is the right size for a large off-road caravan and, like the twin slide out pantry drawers to its left, has the same classy timber finish as the rest of the interior.

Although conventional in its layout, the full ensuite continues the quality feel to the rear of the Bushranger, with the 3kg front-loading Dometic washing machine at a sensible height on the rear wall, next to the van’s Thetford cassette toilet.

The central vanity will win smiles from female travelers with its quality bowl with flick mixer tap at one side, freeing valuable bench space ahead of a very large and well-lit mirror, with plenty of drawers and cupboards below.

To top it off, the rectangular separate shower cubicle to the right is large and private.

VERDICT

I never thought I would want to live in a large and heavy off-road caravan, but the Colorado Bushranger won me over.

What I really liked was its honesty of purpose. Outside, it’s very well specced with all the necessary equipment for serious and sustained off-bitumen travel, while inside it’s equally uncompromising in its comfort and quality fittings, with the attention to detail reflecting the regard this small family company has for its customers.

If you really want to take a luxury home experience to faraway places, the Colorado Bushranger seems a good bet.

WE LIKED:
>> Quality construction and fittings
>> Roomy interior layout
>> Great entertainer kitchen
>> Quality off-road equipment

NOT SO MUCH:
>> Some interior drawers and doors fouled each other
>> Where’s the Jacuzzi… and the capsule coffee machine?

COLORADO BUSHRANGER 23ft 

Travel length: 9.21m
External body length: 7.112m
External body width: 2.44m inc awning
Travel height: 2.97m
Interior height: 1.98m
Tare weight: 2740kg
ATM: 3200kg
Ball weight: 200kg
Body: Meranti timber frame/aluminium cladding/polystyrene foam insulation
Chassis: 150mm x 50mm Preston Duragal chassis
Suspension: Cruisemaster XT trailing arm off-road with coil springs and shock absorbers
Brakes: Al-Ko 12-inch electric
Stability Control:  Al-Ko ESC standard
Wheels: 16in alloy with LT265/75-16 General Grabber tyres
Fresh water: 3 x 85l
Battery: 2 x 120Ah AGM
Solar: 1 x 170W roof-mounted
Air-conditioner: Air Command Ibis reverse-cycle
Gas: 2 x 9.0kg
Cooking: Four-burner gas/electric Thetford Caprice Mk III cooktop, grill and oven
Fridge: 184-litre Thetford three-way
Microwave: Daewoo
Toilet: Thetford cassette
Washing machine: Dometic 3kg front-loader
Shower: Separate fibreglass cubicle
Lighting: LED
Options fitted: Slide out mini-kitchen
Price (Ex Melb)  $86,000 as reviewed
Supplied by:

Colorado Caravans, Campbellfield, Vic