Philip Lord•15 Nov 2017

REVIEW

Coromal Princeton

Luxury slide-out van delivers apartment-style living for $100K

Up in the rarified atmosphere of $100,000-plus caravans, slides-outs have become the almost must-have option, at least for touring or on-road vans that don’t regularly encounter dust or rough road issues.

And it’s easy to see why – you get an enormous increase in living space that can make a caravan grow to nearly the size of a small, inner city apartment.

The Princeton is Coromal’s premium model in its five-tier range, and sitting on top of the tree is the 735s reviewed here. All three Princeton models now feature a slide-out – in the case of the 735s, the slide-out is 4500mm long and encompasses the living and bed areas.

The Princeton models also feature a new ‘Future Teck’ body construction for 2017, that includes one-piece fibreglass composite roof and walls and honeycomb structure floor. New features for the Princeton 735s include a 4kg front load washing machine, external entertainment, electronically-controlled reclining queen bed, RV Wi-Fi and a spice rack.

Super-sized but simple set-up

Despite its size, getting the Princeton set up for camping is simple. Like any RV at camp, you have to make sure that the van is level and then wind down the stabilising legs.

Then it’s a matter of powering out the Techno slide-out step, jumping in and waiting another 20 seconds for the slide-out to extend out after pressing the rocker switch near the entry door. Like most slide-outs, this one runs on 12volts, so when bush camping, you need to make sure that the 100/h AGM house battery has enough juice to retract the slide come home-time.

The Coromal’s layout is similar to a lot of large slide-out vans built in Australia – there’s a front kitchen, behind which is a U-shape dinette. Then there’s the east-west bed and the bathroom at the back.

If you’ve pulled up by the side of the road and want to use the Princeton’s bathroom, you either have to extend the slide-out or face an awkward shuffle around the bed to get to the bathroom. The Coromal slide-out is not alone here. Such is progress!

Lighting the way

With the slide-out extended, you’ve got an airy, spacious and light-filled layout. This particular van has a conservative palette of grey over gloss white, but Coromal offers numerous other colour options to spice things up if you prefer.

In any case, two large hopper windows on the nearside and two smaller windows on the offside plus two roof hatches allow in plenty of natural light.

For the evenings or darker days there’s mood lighting running along the undersides of the lockers and LED strip lighting on the lower front lip of the lockers. The kitchen has both these features plus down lights over the stove and three large square lights fitted to the underside of the lockers, above the kitchen that give off a soft, diffuse light.

LED reading lights also feature above the dinette and the bed.

Acres of bench space

A luxury that a layout like this offers is plenty of kitchen bench space. The Coromal’s kitchen bench not only has a hinged, benchtop-covered stove top, larger drainer and large, deep sink, but plenty of free bench space off to the side of the sink for food prep and plug-in appliances like coffee machines.

What’s more, there’s a Lazy Susan or rotating table incorporated in the corner under-bench cupboard and a large space rack fitted to the offside wall, plus loads of storage space in lockers above the kitchen and drawers and cupboards below the bench.

The only downside of this kitchen – and it’s a criticism you can also level at many other caravans – is that the microwave (which is mounted above the rangehood) is perched too high. Safely retrieving hot liquids like a bowl of soup or even a cup of coffee out of the microwave can be a bit tricky.

Invite a guest

The U-shape dinette provides ample seating room for three and has two USB charge points on the rear seat base. There’s also a drawer fitted to the forward seat base to store odds and ends.

The bedroom offers plenty of space around the bed to get in and out plus loads of clothes storage space in the various drawers and lockers dotted around the bedroom. Notable storage space includes a large hanging space on the nearside wall, as well as under the bed.

The queen-size, 1500 x 1800mm bed features a lightweight, memory foam mattress to make it easier for the power tilt feature, which raises the bed head. It’s a great idea for when you’re reading in bed, or watching the huge 49in Smart TV fitted on the nearside.

The TV’s fitted to a rail under the lockers, and can be moved with a touch of a button along a track. Doing that places it closer to the dinette, for better viewing from there. The Coromal also has an RV Wi-Fi unit fitted, which helps you hook up to the internet via pre-paid or on a plan.

Super shower

The bathroom has generous space and a large (1080mm x 760mm) separate shower cubicle, along with a porcelain sink, porcelain cassette toilet and a front loading washing machine.

The bathroom’s sliding door has a stopper that appears to work well in securing it for transport stages.

The Princeton is supported by a 150mm x 50mm galvanised beams with 50mm box section lateral sections on which sits the fibreglass composite body. The front boot and front window stone shield are made from ABS plastic.

The two water tanks – fitted well ahead of the wheelset – are protected by sheet aluminium, and the Princeton comes standard with Coromal’s patented independent, leaf-spring set-up.

Up front on the A-frame, there’s a tap – also protected from stone damage with an aluminium shield – and a centre-mount jockey wheel. This style of jockey wheel should be a given on a big heavy van like this, as typically a weight distribution hitch set-up will be needed (the tow ball mass at Tare is 234kg).

Let’s go outside

Being able to enjoy the outdoors is what caravanning is really all about, and the Princeton caters for this very well with a slide-out kitchen, external TV and awning.

The external kitchen offers a good amount of utensil storage and heaps of food preparation space. The only problem here is that using the prep space or getting to the storage drawers on the rear side of the slide-out is a bit awkward when the awning is out. It isn’t a deal-breaker – you can still access the drawers, and stand at the forward side of the kitchen when prepping food. The other option is to remove the awning supports and secure them to the ground.

The outside 22in LCD TV/DVD unit is housed in a sealed compartment towards the rear, and the hatch lid also serves as a handy picnic table if required.

The Princeton’s nearside external wall also provides a 240v outlet and dual aux port/double USB ports, both fitted adjacent to the entry door, and the internal audio system has two interior and two exterior speakers. Covering off the exterior features are two LED coach lights mounted to the nearside wall.

External storage

External storage is served by both a tunnel boot (accessed on the offside) and a front boot. The tunnel boot doesn’t offer full-width storage, as about half the space is taken by the slide-out kitchen.

The front boot is not the typical deep space you find in most vans as it sits just above the tunnel boot. Still, it’s a usable space (although the house battery takes up some of it) and the marine-grade carpeting – and coach light – are nice touches.

Weight matters

The Princeton has a 500kg payload, which gives you a bit over 300kg for all your food and gear once gas and water capacity is filled. At 2918kg Tare, the Princeton is a heavy van unloaded, and ideally will need a solid tow vehicle like a LandCruiser to tow it once loaded up close to 3400kg.

Given its size and features, it’s no surprise that the Coromal weighs what it does, but it would be nice to see more weight shaved off premium, large vans like this. If it wasn’t for the composite fibreglass body, the Princeton would probably be a lot heavier.

Verdict

Once you start paying six figures for a caravan, you expect all the luxuries and some. This includes some luxuries like a slide-out, but the Princeton 735s score extra points with some clever and not often seen touches like the electric bed posture adjustment, large adjustable position TV and kitchen’s Lazy Susan.

Just factor in a serious tow vehicle if you want a stress-free towing experience – we’d recommend a LandCruiser or Discovery as ideal counterweights, or an American pick-up.

We liked:

>> Apartment-style living

>> 49in adjustable TV

>> Electric bed posture adjustment and Lazy Susan

Not so much:

>> Microwave fitted too high

>> External kitchen/awning arm clash

>> Quite heavy despite composite construction

Coromal Princeton 735s

Travel length: 9110mm

Body length (open length): 730mm

External body width: 2420mm

Travel height: 2850mm

Interior height: 1980mm

Tare weight: 2918kg

ATM: 3418kg

Ball weight: 234kg

Body: Fibreglass composite

Chassis: 150x50mm RHS galvanised

Suspension: Independent, A-arms leaf-springs

Brakes: 12in electric

Stability Control: AL-KO ESC

Wheels: 15in alloy

Fresh water: 2x80L

Battery: 1x100A/h

Solar: 2x150watt

Air-conditioner: Dometic

Gas: 2x9kg

Hot water: 23L 12v/gas, electric start

Cooking: Camec three gas/one elec cooktop, grill, oven

Fridge: Dometic RMDX25 190-litre

Microwave: Camec

Toilet: Dometic ceramic

Shower: Separate cubicle

Lighting: 12v LED

TV: Samsung 49in LED Smart TV (internal), 22in LED TV/DVD (external)

Price: $101,530

Options fitted: 150w solar panel

Supplied by: Coromal Windsor Newcastle Heatherbrae NSW

More info: Coromal Caravans, Perth, WA

Coromal Princeton

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