First look! New AOR Sinergi off-road caravan

Queensland's Australian Off Road has responded to the upmarket demands of remote area travelers with its new tandem-axle AOR Sinergi, which slots into the top end of its range between the Matrix and Aurora full-height caravans.

Just 225mm longer overall at 7200mm than the single axle Matrix, yet 400mm more spacious inside and costing $18,000 more at $143,900, the Sinergi like all other AOR models is designed for serious off-road travel and remote area living.

With its tapered body the same width as the Aurora at a slim 2100mm (same as a large 4WD), and with similar Tare and ATM weights of 2500kg and 3400kg respectively, the new Sinergi van is designed to go further off-road than the majority of regular width off-road vans, with obsessive attention to dust-sealing and class-matching lithium battery, solar and inverter power.

Built for the long haul

Beautifully built in the AOR tradition, with many thoughtful details designed by semi-retired AOR founder, Steve Budden, the AOR Sinergi features a new front fibreglass nosecone replacing the boot that allows the buyer’s choice of a north-south queen, or twin single beds to be pushed further forward than in other AOR models.

The ’boot’ in the Sinergi instead consists of twin opposing 50kg capacity storage bins that glide out of the first two bottom-hinged dust-proof hatches in the body sides – one of which can optionally house a cabinet-style portable fridge, if desired.

Special attention has also been given into turning the wasted space at the rear of the Sinergi into more dust-free storage.

By locating the single spare wheel up-front vertically on the A-frame, AOR has created two dustproof rear lockers – one designed to hold a petrol generator and the other big enough to house larger things like a folding electric bicycle, camp chairs and a table – both lockable and out of sight.

The larger of these two rear ‘boots’ also contains the van’s external hot/cold shower.

Dust-proof interior

Inside, the overall impression is of good working space and lots of storage space. The in-house designed and built large rear entry door is sealed against dust ingress by four separate compression locks, while a flip-up flap with a removable filter covers the door’s mandatory gas venting when travelling.

Inside, AOR has re-designed the roof vent on its own rooftop positive pressure system that uses a cleanable filter to keep dust at bay when travelling. This system, introduced seven years ago, by AOR is now standard on all its cook-inside vans.

The visibly long and relatively thin interior of the Sinergi feels remarkably spacious, with the rear corner placement of the three-burner Dometic gas cooktop separated from the wide stainless sink by a section of bench space, allowing two people to work the galley at the same time.

The compact café-dinette opposite with its extendable central table and raised floor to offset the inroad of the tandem wheel arch, allows plenty of room for two people to get around each other in the centre of the van.

A long kitchen benchtop, 12 separate lower drawers and seven shallow upper storage cupboards should leave little room to complain about storage space.

Quality fittings

All cupboards and the extra-large door to the combined door-side rear macerator toilet and shower feature piano hinges for longevity in extended off-road use, while all feature push-button locking fore off-road travel, making it immediately obvious which are locked and which are not.

Thoughtful features include the plastic flip-up toilet roll cover to protect it from shower spray.

A twin-drawer 145-litre Vitrifrigo cabinet fridge sits under the kitchen bench, with the user able to choose the temperature of either cabinet so that the fridge or freezer can be uppermost.

If you’d rather cook outside, the Sinergi can be optioned with a stainless steel slide-out exterior kitchen, which when deployed sits underneath the van’s large 4.5 metre roll-out awning.

A Finscan display allows you to monitor the energy level in the twin 150W lithium batteries fed by 560W (4 x 140W) of rooftop solar power  and the total 280 litres of water stored in the Sinergi’s twin 140 litre fresh water tanks, while also allowing you to turn and dim its LED lights selectively.

There’s no central drawer-locking, as via the Redvision system fitted to Track’s latest T4 Hybrid, with Budden preferring to keep things simple in the bush.

Coil springs and discs

Working on this principle, the Sinergi, like other AOR caravans, is built on a 150mm x 50mm high-tensile Supagal powder-coated chassis, fitted with AOR’s in-house trailing arm suspension. Rather than airbags, it uses coil springs, with twin Outback Armour telescopic shock absorbers per wheel.

AOR now uses a Dexter 12in disc brake system on the Sinergi and Aurora models, along with a new hydraulic actuator mounted on the drawbar.

All the vulnerable stuff, such as electrical wires, pipes, etc. are well protected from stone strike by their location or shielding.

The only question now, is why would buyers spend an extra $20,000 on the range-topping Aurora? A little extra interior room, a true separate shower and toilet ensuite and a larger, standard external slide-out kitchen are among the reasons that Budden is confident that will keep it at the top of the AOR range. And based on current orders, there’s certainly no slackening in demand.

Budden say that AOR in recent years has entered the Christmas break with around 100 confirmed orders on its books; last year, 2020,  they had a record 178!

Watch the video below for a full run-through of the new Sinergi...

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