Dark days for Aussie RV industry

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AC/DC’s ‘Back in Black’ should have been the theme song at this year’s Victorian Caravan Supershow, held in late February.

And salespeople on many of the stands could have trotted out that famous Henry Ford quote, whenever a potential buyer enquired about décor options: “You can have any colour as long as it’s black."

Just about everywhere you looked at the huge Melbourne show was a caravan with a predominantly black or very dark exterior colour theme. Many examples were built in the Australian caravan manufacturing hub in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, where trends travel fast and the tough, macho look including bold checker plate and chunky mud tyres has been in vogue for years.

Of course, black has been the clothing fashion colour of choice for trendy Melbourne types for years and long been popular with buyers of prestige European cars, so it was only a matter of time before it caught on in the caravan industry.

Not that long ago black caravans were a novelty; apart from the odd one-off like the shiny all-black New Age Oz Classic from a few years ago, or the sinister black-wrapped German Hobby van built for a heavy metal festival.

Then following domestic interior design trends, caravan manufacturers started using black tapware, sinks and showerheads, followed by black furniture fascias, black handles, and black splashbacks, to go with black leather upholstery.

First it was black checker plate and black alloys for the exterior, but now we’re seeing many off-road caravans with black toolboxes, picnic tables, awnings and external speakers. Like the black exterior surfaces found on the latest Melbourne townhouses, caravan cladding is now getting the blackout treatment, often with splashes of silver or grey so the vans don’t completely disappear when the sun goes down…

Leading the move to the dark side at the Melbourne Supershow was Lotus Caravans, who had more than 20 mostly black or dark-theme caravans with their trademark marine-grade composite panels on display. While Lotus offers nine exterior colour ‘splashes’ on its website, few were on display at the show – the themed stand even including a matching shiny black Toyota ATV.

Lotus’ range of super-luxury Universal vans were not immune from the blackout, while Lotus' eye-catching interiors included matte black sinks and taps, dark cabinetry with black handles, black leather upholstery and black towel rails, along with black Fusion audio unit, fridge, microwave, oven and speakers, to offset the white walls and light timber-look benchtops and splashbacks.

Unlike last year's crop of colourful caravans – and those unforgettable pink, lime and bright orange Aussie-spec Winnebago vans— the only splashes of bright colour on these latest models are underneath, with the Lotus vans sporting bright orange shocks and red coil springs as part of their G&S off-road suspension.

Even motorhome manufacturers are in black-out mode, with Regal giving its latest custom-built motorhome a glossy black rear end including the rear slide-out, that will have its new owners spending every spare minute with cleaning cloth in hand.

And you know its ‘peak’ black when Jayco brings out its own black-out model with the All-Terrain off-road campervan, and a Retreat Fraser caravan at the show had a black finish inside the tunnel boot!

It’s not just RVs that are getting in on the black act; Dometic’s range of CFX portable fridges has gone from grey to predominantly black, as have ARB’s new Zero fridges, while Thetford’s latest gas and induction cooktops stand out with their mirror black bases.

What’s next? Will we see a return to lighter, more neutral colours or traditional white, or  something a little different like the white with white checkerplate 'winter' look that New Age tried a few years back?

Or perhaps the Melbourne caravan brigade will remain in the ‘dark ages’ for a little while longer, and follow the advice of Wednesday Addams from Addams Family fame:

“I'll stop wearing black when they make a darker color.”