Kedron leads off-road innovation

Queensland’s Kedron has taken the high ground with a raft of innovations available on its latest off-road caravans, many of which were unveiled at the Queensland Caravan Supershow at the Brisbane Showgrounds in early-June.

Perhaps the most interesting of these was Kedron’s unique CAD-designed Filtered Compression Hatch seen on one of its large Top Ender vans.

Designed to minimise dust entry via the industry-mandatory gas vents, the roof mounted hatch can be raised when travelling off road to create positive air pressure within the van, preventing dust from entering.

An easily-accessible, Australian-made washable filter ensures that no dust particles enter via the roof hatch.

Also displayed was Kedron’s novel hydraulic spare wheel loader/unloader fitted to the same Top Ender that lowers either of the two spare wheels independently to road level for easy access and can then be used to raise the changed wheel back into its vertical travelling position.

With the average large 16 or 17-inch spare wheel and off-road tyre weighing up to 45kg, the wheel loader is expected to be a popular option with Grey Nomads, for whom the task of changing a large off-road wheel is a challenging solo task.

Also at the rear end, Kedron is offering a new hazard light system that warns bystanders when the caravan is reversing by cycling the three tail lights up and down.

Another innovation is Kedron’s tailor-made rear locker designed to house an Almac folding boat trailer, instead of having to store it vertically on the back of the van while the ‘tinnie’ sits on the tow vehicle’s roof rack.

Meanwhile, Kedron is still uniquely offering its combined flexible solar blanket front window shade that supplements the fixed glass solar panels fitted to the roof of most of its vans.

Another innovation from Kedron displayed at the Supershow was its new 6-tonne chassis with truck air brakes that sits beneath the company’s latest 26ft triple-axle TE7 off-road caravan.

Displayed naked, the chassis showed off Kedron’s bespoke designed and built suspension, that featured pressed steel trailing arms and air bag suspension.

Believed to be a first for an off-road recreational caravan in Australia and described as a “massive industry first” by Kedron’s Glen Gall, the ADR-approved chassis took around 12 months of development and offers up to 1500kg more payload than any previous production Kedron at around 4500kg.

The truck air brakes were incorporated into Kedron’s latest ‘ALS’ auto-levelling airbag suspension, with the monster van hooked up via a 6000kg-rated pintle hook hitch with Airsafe shock absorber attachment to help smooth out the ride and red and blue ‘air brake’ hoses feeding the brakes.

The new six-tonne rating adds to a long list of industry ‘firsts’ for the ground-breaking 26ft Kedron van, which include ‘Kooltherm’ roof insulation, 500 litre-plus water carrying capacity, four picnic tables, a chilled water tap, heated lounge seats, and a ‘solar’ front window awning.

The six tonne rated tri-axle Kedron will be priced from $220,000-$300,000, depending on options.