Eco Tourer 2006 Review

By Malcolm Street

In the towed RV world there are some fairly well defined divisions of the various products – caravans, pop-tops, camper trailers and fifth wheelers.

Every now and again, however, something comes along that doesn’t quite fit neatly into any of the above categories. Take a camper trailer, install hard folding, non-canvas walls, add a sort of pop-top roof and you have the Eco-Tourer. It’s almost in a class of its own.

Undoubtedly the Eco-Tourer camper offers many of the advantages of a camper trailer – relatively small and light to tow for a large range of vehicles, yet still with hard wall, solid windows, lockable and a reasonable amount of interior space.

The Eco-Tourer was developed by the team at Melbourne dealer Caravan Court, and while initially built in Australia, is now built in China but with locally approved appliances installed.

In some ways the Eco-Tourer is fairly conventional. It has a hot-dipped galvanised chassis that rides on leaf spring suspension. Its drawbar can be folded up when the camper is parked, which means it really cannot be used for mounting items like gas cylinders.

Fibreglass is used for the body and roof construction – a combination of moulding and sandwich construction, which gives strength, relatively light weight and insulation. Moulding also gives a streamlined shape to the Eco-Tourer body, taking away the boxy shape that many campers have. Good water proofing is also assured by the one-piece moulded roof.

Just like most RVs, the Eco-Tourer has a front boot that’s totally empty, mainly because the two 4kg gas cylinders have their own compartment at the front nearside. While the door, which folds in half, is unique, the seven windows are conventional wind-out polycarbonates.

When folded up, ie in ‘touring mode’, it looks a bit like a rising roof camper trailer with a height of just over 6ft (1.87m). However, it’s in the setting up that things are different. In a nutshell, the rear of the roof is hinged, and the front, when unclipped, rises up by operating the roof winding screw at the nearside front of the camper. This is done by using either a jack winding handle or a battery drill. Unless you really like exercise, the power drill is the way to go!

As the roof rises, the side walls do too, so when they are fully in position it’s a matter of fixing the door to operate properly and then lifting the front wall into position. One final job is to fit the weatherproof flap above the front wall and everything is just about ready for use.

It takes less than five minutes and includes the corner stabiliser jacks, again made easier by a battery drill. Other outside features include a roof-mounted light, plus an optional awning.

In terms of interior design, there are currently two available for the Eco-Tourer – one with an island double bed in the rear, and our review unit from Brisbane RVs, which had two single beds in the rear with a cupboard in between.

Across the front of the camper is a two-person dinette, leaving the offside wall for a small kitchen and an angled cupboard next to the nearside door. This layout lends itself very well to the sloping roof.

Most daytime action will happen at the front where the roof height is tallest, but even at the other end there’s room to move without too much slouching. Shorter persons may not have a problem at all.

Internal colours consisted of white roof and walls, stained timber effect cabinet work and brown hue for the curtains and upholstery – brighter colours may have been more interesting here.

There’s no shortage of natural light as windows have been added wherever they can be reasonably installed, including a couple of high line windows in the side of the roof at the rear.

At the front, the foam seat dinette has been designed with a fold-out table that can be positioned easily and removed when not required. The dinette has been slightly offset to the nearside, thus allowing a storage compartment with a hinged lid to be fitted behind the offside seat. Each seat has a drawer underneath it.

As you might expect in a unit this size, the kitchen bench is fairly compact with a Cramer three-burner cooktop, stainless steel sink and a Dometic 90L fridge. Storage in the kitchen consists of three drawers, a floor locker plus a small cupboard.

Above the kitchen bench are two ‘stepped’ overhead lockers, with a Dometic slimline fume extractor sitting above the stove. The overhead lockers are going to have to be packed a little more carefully than usual when travelling because they will be at an angle when the roof is down.

On the opposite side of the Eco-Tourer is the rest of the kitchen bench, with a couple of small cupboards and a small pantry, plus the essential microwave and a kitchenware drawer. Similar to the other side, there’s a couple more overhead lockers. Given the size of the Eco-Tourer, the kitchen has a great setup.

In the sleeping department there are two single beds with 6ft 3in x 2ft 6in (1.9m x .76m) foam mattresses that sit on ply bases. Under-bed storage consists of a drawer on either side. The gas compartment and a spare wheel take up the rest of the space.

Resting between the two beds is a small hanging cupboard plus floor locker. There’s also an extra compartment above each bed.

Lighting in the camper is all 12V and consists of a generous amount of halogen downlights plus a halogen reading light for each bed. There are quite a generous amount of powerpoints too, with one beside each bed and a third at the front end of the kitchen bench, meaning it will be handy for the dinette.

Entertainment is provided by an AM/FM radio/CD player plus a flatscreen TV mounted on the ceiling so that it can be viewed from either the bed or the dinette. The TV clamps against the ceiling when not being used.

It’s not hard to see why the Eco-Tourer is going to be an attractive proposition for many RVers – campers who like to camp in style, smaller tow vehicle owners and those looking for a more fuel efficient camper.

Eco-Tourer’s design is certainly part of a very interesting concept, and it’s pleasing to see a design that looks outside the box of conventional RV design.

For your nearest dealer contact Caravan Court, 639-649 Springvale Road, Springvale South, Vic 3172, (03) 9546 9822, www.ecotourer.com

We liked:
• Basic design concept – camper trailer with class that’ll be easy to tow
• General kitchen layout – great for a unit this size
• Generous amount of lighting fixtures
• Extra features like towel rails beside each bed

We would have liked:
• Radio/CD player in different location – its location above the cooktop is not preferred
• Different colour scheme for upholstery
• Lighter initial ball weight, given that most of the loading is going to occur towards the front of the camper