Frontline HiAce Pioneer

By Malcolm Street

Frontline Camper Conversions is a Sydney-based company that has been in the van conversion business for quite a number of years. Using all makes of vehicles for its conversion work – Sprinters, Ducatos, VWs and Toyotas – Frontline has quite a repertoire of conversion designs in its stable.

One of the more popular light commercial vans for campervan conversions is the Toyota HiAce. Leading up to the advent of a new model, the older HiAce van became scarce, but with the appearance of the new Toyota van, HiAce conversions are back on the recreational vehicle scene again.

The new HiAce looks a little different: the front is rounded but the rear is more square, which makes things easier for campervan converters.

On the mechanical front, the HiAce has a new 2.7 litre petrol motor which delivers 26 per cent more power than the old model. A 2.5 litre turbodiesel motor is also available, which delivers more power than the previous three-litre motor.

Our review model came with the petrol motor and even though very new, in tandem with a five-speed gearbox, it gave a smooth performance. In some ways the HiAce is not as sophisticated as its European contemporaries and it lacks a walk-through because of the position of the motor but it does come with Toyota’s legendary reliability and cheaper spare parts.

Items such as dual airbags and power mirrors and windows are standard features. About the only item I found a bit retro was the under-dash handbrake – haven’t seen one of those in quite a while.

Frontline’s HiAce conversion comes in three different layouts: the Pioneer, the Freedom and the Adventurer. The Freedom has two single lounges in the rear that can be converted into a double bed, the Adventurer has a rear seat that converts into a double bed and our review model, the Pioneer, comes with a rear-facing lounge and two forward-facing seats.

Pioneering spirit

From the outside the Pioneer looks relatively standard. The pop-top roof has been designed to look like an integrated part of the roof line and apart from the Fiamma awning, the only other real change that Frontline has made is to remove the standard Toyota windows and add new tinted flush glazed glass. That enhances the appearance of the HiAce a great deal. Both the sliding door window and the corresponding window on the other side can be opened.

Setting up the Pioneer takes very little time. Undoing a strap in each corner releases the pop-top; it elevates into position very easily.

There’s a screened window in both the side walls and the front wall of the canvas gusset. Someone must have measured the Fiamma awning mounting points very carefully because the passenger door just clears the awning arms.

The internal layout of the Pioneer can be divided into two halves: the front half is the dining/bed area and the rear half hosts the kitchen and general storage. The kitchen area is a little cramped but that’s the nature of this layout design.

Along the offside, the kitchen bench has an Origo 3000 methylated spirits two-burner cooktop alongside a square stainless steel sink. Water supply is 12V pumped and gets to the sink via a flexible hose shower faucet; the shower head can be lifted out of the sink and used as an external shower at the rear of the campervan. Although our review camper did not have a hot water heater, one is available as an option (a heat exchanger unit).

Under the kitchen bench are two sliding door cupboards, one of which has two wire basket drawers and a cutlery drawer. The other cupboard has shelves. At the door end of the kitchen bench are three narrow, lipped shelves.

On the opposite side of the Pioneer is the rest of the kitchen – an Engel 85 litre fridge and an 800W Sharp microwave. The latter sits atop a small wardrobe and a shelved cupboard. At the rear end of this cabinet is a small hinged table with a lipped shelf underneath. If you happen to be a TV watcher, then the only place for it is above the fridge, where there is a flat storage area – it can only be used with the pop-top raised up.

The Pioneer can carry four people – two in the driver’s cab and the other two in the forward-facing seats in the rear. Both have lap/sash seatbelts. The rear-facing lounge can be used for just that – lounging around – but it can also be used for to make up the bed by sliding the seat, which has two legs, towards the rear and filling the gap between the front and rear seats.

The remaining space, ie, between the two rear seats, is filled by detaching the rear offside seat back and sliding it into position. This arrangement means you can stumble out of bed in the morning to make a cuppa without too much trouble.

When used for dining, the table is mounted on a single pole such that it can be used between the seats in the back. It is strapped to the side of the van for storage. Under all the seats are the usual storage areas; part of the lounge area is taken by the house battery.

Electrics are both 240V for the general powerpoints and 12V for the lighting. The 240V circuit breaker was tad awkward to get at – right at the back of the offside cupboard almost at floor level. Light fittings consisted mostly of energy-efficient fluorescents with two halogen reading lights behind the rear-facing lounge.

The Bottom Line

It’s nice to see HiAce conversions back on the road again as they are solid and reliable. Their only real limitation is the lack of a walk-through and thus an inability to make use of the front seats as part of a conversion.

The kitchen has all the basics required for cooking and clearing up after a meal and the bed really doesn’t take any time to set up. Using a methylated spirits cooktop and 12V fridge is a plus in a campervan of this size. While metho does not quite have the calorific value of LPG, it does save the space of a gas compartment.

One of the benefits of this layout is that passengers in the rear are forward-facing and have full seatbelts. Frontline has done a nice job with this conversion and the price makes it an attractive proposition for anyone wanting to get into the campervan lifestyle for the first time.

Frontline Camper Conversions, 36 Cross St Brookvale, NSW, 2100, (02) 9939 0600; fax: (02) 9939 0611; email: info@frontlinecamper.com.au; web: www.frontlinecamper.com.au.

We liked:

Flush glaze windows give the HiAce a much smoother appearance.

Features such as the small shelves at the rear.

Dual use faucet for sink and external shower.

Forward-facing seats for rear passengers.

Reasonable amount of storage space throughout.

We would have liked:

240V circuit breakers in a more accessible position.

A swivelling arm table, as a single leg does limit the table position somewhat.