Hardcore High Country live axle caravan arriving soon
Cheaper Melbourne-built off-road van with trick live axle airbag suspension arriving early-2021Victorian dealer Wangaratta Off-Road and Caravans is planning to offer a more affordable off-road caravan featuring the cutting-edge ‘CrzrVan’ chassis with live axles and airbag suspension that debuted in 2019.
Wangaratta Off-Road’s Brad Healy said the plan is to build a cheaper and more traditional timber-framed, aluminium-clad caravan body on the bespoke CrzrVan chassis, to bring the starting price for a ‘Crzrvan’ down to around $80,000 compared to as much as $140,000 for the more high-tech, hardcore full composite versions.
The plan is to deliver the Victorian-built Crzrvan chassis with its trick self-levelling airbag suspension to the Melbourne factory of Latitude Caravans, where the 'stick and tin' bodies will be added and finished off.
Latitude currently builds a range of High Country-branded caravans for the Wangaratta dealership.
“We’re aiming for it to be priced around $80,000 so it can compete with more high-volume off-road caravans like the Lotus,” Healy said.
“It will be a CrzrVan chassis with the High Country body on top; it’s essentially going to be called the High Country CrzrVan, if you like.”
According to Rhys Conti, the founder of Shepparton, Victoria-based Crzr Industries, the Crzrvan chassis is a “super strong” 150x50x3mm steel structure with a “one piece member front to back”.
Bespoke features include live axles that allow water tanks to be tucked up higher than usual for improved weight distribution and ground clearance, while the Air Ride suspension set-up includes extra-large Firestone airbags delivering up to 200mm of travel, with the ride height at each corner adjustable via a smartphone app.
Also part of the custom set-up are Cruisemaster axles and brakes along with radius arms, bump stops and panhard rods from the Toyota 79 Series, while the adjustable shock absorbers from Superior Engineering feature off-road buggy-style remote reservoirs to stop the shocks from overheating on jarring corrugations.
Healy said the plan is to have the first 19ft 6in tandem axle High Country Crzrvan built by early-2021, with a lithium battery system among the standard features.
He said the design and development of the High Country Crzrvan had been delayed due to the “crazy demand” for caravans at the moment, with up to a six month wait on new orders at the dealership.
“It will be built in a more traditional way rather than the composite construction of the CrzrVans,” he said. “We want to bring ourselves into 90 per cent of the market, rather than the 10 per cent (with the CrzrVan).”
Related:
High-tech CrzrVan raises off-road bar
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