Chris Fincham•4 Jul 2017

REVIEW

Grand Salute Royal Guard Series II

New 22ft luxury off-road van offers plenty of bang for your bucks

Launched around 12 months ago, Grand Salute caravans are built by the former Melbourne manufacturer of Kokoda caravans and are sold by newly established Melbourne City Caravans run by Fabio Bazzacco in Cooper Street, Somerton, being its exclusive Victorian dealer.

Melbourne City Caravans also sell Dreamseeker Caravans, another brand owned by Kokoda boss George Mamo that he acquired around six years ago.

While the vision for Grand Salute is to offer a range of touring as well as off-road vans, the line-up currently consists of semi off-road and full off-road, couple and family bunk models ranging from single axle 18ft 9in to 22ft tandem axle vans, all of which are on display at Melbourne City Caravans’ small, undercover showroom.

All display vans employ Melbourne-built Roo chassis and Tuffride independent coil spring suspension rated to 2.7 or up to 3.5 tonnes, depending on model, with twin EFS shock absorbers per wheel and 65mm bearings, although other suspension options are available.

Construction is traditional Meranti timber wall framing, with 3mm thick ‘AliComp’ aluminium composite cladding. Driveway pricing spans the mid-$50,000 to high-$70,000 range, and the vans currently come with a four-year manufacturer's warranty.

Time for a picnic

The model we looked at for this review was the range-topping 22ft tandem axle Royal Guard Series II, that features a spacious two-berth grey nomad-style layout that can also accommodate a third person if required.

Like all Grand Salute models, the Royal Guard features an attractive smooth silver aluminium exterior, complemented by royal blue striping and decals, black alloy wheels with chunky tyres and big sheets of protective checker plate along the sides, front, rear and underbody.

Given its off-road ambitions, there’s a Hitchmaster DO-35 coupling on the drawbar, together with a sturdy mesh stone guard protecting an A-frame mounted tap, two 9kg gas bottles and black checker plate toolbox with two adjoining jerry can holders. The toolbox houses a slide for a Honda 2KVa or similar-sized generator, while the other half can be used for general storage.

There are also two, full-width tunnel boots, at the front and rear, accessible from both sides and LED lit, for storing outside gear and unusually, three drop-down picnic tables in total: two on the onside, flanking the ‘entertainment’ box for hooking up and attaching the 19in TV, and one on the offside.

When questioned about why you’d need a picnic table on the ‘wrong’ side of the van, Fabio Bazzacco said it was to rest a drink while doing any maintenance work on that side. Fair enough!

In another unusual move, Grand Salute has fitted not one, but two gas bayonets on the Royal Guard: one in the usual spot on the front onside, and another on the rear offside. So in theory you could run two BBQs at the same time – perhaps for a big Xmas cook-up!

Otherwise, the Royal Guard gets a big, roll-out awning, rear camera, external shower and two spare wheels located on the rear bumper.

Joining the club

Up until recently it seems just about every second Aussie caravan built had the popular ‘grey nomad’ layout of front, walk-around queen bed, central kitchen and dinette, and full width rear ensuite.

So it’s good to see a few brands like Grand Salute breaking free from the pack and offering some alternative layouts, like this front bedroom/central bathroom and rear kitchen/lounge/dinette layout more often seen in big motorhomes or fifth-wheelers, or European caravans.

This ‘caravan of love’ floorplan actually makes a lot of sense, enabling the front bedroom to be completely blocked off by up to two solid doors from the front ‘living’ area, unlike most open-plan Aussie caravans.

This wasn’t quite the case in the Royal Guard, with only the one sliding solid door separating the ‘bathroom’ from the living area. However, Fabio said a second concertina or solid door could be fitted on the bedroom side, albeit at the expense of cutting into space in the toilet or shower area.

There’s less to complain about the sumptuous front club lounge area, which is covered head-to-toe in black leather, with two auto-style adjustable headrests on each side for good measure. There’s enough room for up to six adults to kick back for an impromptu ‘Happy hour’, or just two people put their feet up and stretch out in cushioned comfort.

The multi-adjustable table is also worth mentioning: it slides and swivels most ways to cater for a variety of situations, as well as dropping down to create another bed (using a separate cushion supplied).

The only improvements we’d like to see here is some sort of solid metal or plastic kickboard at the base of the lounge, to protect the leather from shoe scuffs and dirt. It’s also difficult to lift up the lounge cushions to access the rear tunnel boot via the two hatches, if need be.

Double-sized kitchen

A main benefit of having such a large internal space to play with, for essentially two people, is the ability to create plenty of ‘elbow room’ around the kitchen, which in this case straddles both sides of the van.

The onside section is the cooking area, with double stainless steel sink with drainer, flick mixer tap and water filter, a four-burner cooktop, grille and oven, and rangehood, with the 184 litre fridge/freezer and high-set microwave positioned directly opposite.

The offside kitchen area offers plenty of bench space as well as storage room in the way of drawers and cupboards, although some of that is taken up by the top-loader washing machine. A flexible arm for the TV is also located on the wall here, with another TV arm in the bedroom. About the only thing missing is a pull-out pantry.

Before moving into the bedroom, there’s the roomy fibreglass shower cubicle on the left, with another glass door on the right leading to the toilet and vanity. Sitting on the swivel electric flush toilet, there’s just enough room for long-legged types.

But with the seat down, the dunny also doubles as a handy seat for doing the make-up or hair, or brushing teeth in front of the low-set large mirror, ceramic sink, and additional cupboards.

Room to snooze
The spacious feel extends into the bedroom, which includes a walk-around, lift-up, pillowtop-covered queen innerspring mattress, and all the usual storage spots on each side of the bed, including a half-wardrobe and big shelf close to 240V sockets.

There’s also more padded leather upholstery for the ‘bedhead’, to add to the upmarket feel.

Partly due to the wall-to-wall overhead lockers (17 in total), most windows with built-in blinds and screens (except for the bedroom’s), are on the small side, although buyers can opt for a less curved club lounge, which would allow room for a more panoramic-style window set-up at the rear.

One of the kitchen overhead lockers neatly contains electrical items like the 40amp battery charger, fuse box, two water monitors, and hot water switches, while there’s also a basic audio unit with three internal and two external speakers.

Electrical illumination extends to front, rear, awning and grab handle LED lighting outside, while inside there's a good smattering of roof lights and six reading lights in total. As far as roof ventilation goes there’s a pressure hatch and 12V extraction fan/hatch above the bed, and another large roof hatch above the lounge.

What we liked:

>> Spacious, nicely-finished interior

>> Central bathroom layout

>> Inviting club lounge

Not so much:

>> No sliding door for bedroom

>> Requires a serious tow tug

>> Do you really need three picnic tables?

Verdict

There’s a lot to like about this well-equipped 22ft 3in Royal Guard rough-road caravan: plenty of space, plenty of features, and solidly built to boot.

If you’ve got the tow vehicle to haul more than three tonnes comfortably, and are looking for value-for-money in a big luxury, off-road capable van, it’s definitely worth a look.

Grand Salute Royal Guard Series II

Travel length: 9300mm (31ft)

External body length: 6705mm (22ft)

External body width: 2350mm (7ft 8in)

Travel height: 3100mm (10ft 4in)

Interior height: 1985mm (6ft 6in)

Nominated Tare weight: 2873kg

ATM: 3500kg

Ball weight (Tare): 249kg

Body: Meranti wall framing with 3mm aluminium composite cladding, plus checker-plate on lower sides

Chassis: Roo 150mm x 50mm Duragal steel

Suspension: Roo Tuffride 3.7T tandem independent coil-spring with twin shocks

Brakes: 10-inch electric drum

ESC: Al-Ko

Wheels: 16in alloy with 265/75R16 AT tyres

Fresh water: 2 x 95L

Grey water: 1 x 95L

Battery: 2 x 100Ah deep cycle and monitor

Solar: 2 x 150W panel with regulator

Gas: 2 x 9kg

TV: 19in LED with Dometic AntennaTeK aerial

Audio: Sansui DVD/CD unit with internal and external speakers

Cooking: Swift 500 3+1 electric/gas cooktop, grill, oven and Camec rangehood

Fridge: Thetford 184-litre three-way

Air conditioning: Air Command Ibis 3 reverse-cycle

Microwave: Sphere

Toilet/Shower: Separate shower and Thetford swivel toilet

Washing machine: Sphere 3kg top loader

Lighting: LED

Base price $76,990

Supplied by: Melbourne City Caravans, Somerton, Victoria

More info: Grand Salute Caravans

Grand Salute Royal Guard Series II

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