By Malcolm Street
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There must be something in the air around Sydney caravan dealers at the moment – several have recently either moved or improved their current premises.
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Windsor-based Parravans in NSW, is no exception and on a visit to collect the subject of this review, a Millard Horizon caravan, head honcho Steve Edwards gave us a tour of Parravans’ impressive new sales, accessory and servicing premises.
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Millard manufactures a range of caravans: its budget Weekender, the top-of-the-range Endeavour, the more rugged Explorer and our review van, the mid-range Horizon. 
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Standard Millard construction was used with this van – hot dipped galvanised chassis, leaf spring suspension, aluminium frame, insulated walls/roof and aluminium cladding. Instead of the usual white sports wheels, our Horizon came with well polished mags. 
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With an ATM of just 1545kg, this van is an excellent towing proposition for a substantial range of tow vehicles. Although CW used a LandCruiser for our test run, it really was overkill and a Commodore, Falcon or Magna would cope with the towing load very well. Its length of just over 16ft (5m) means a van that can be manoeuvred into many tight spaces.
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On the drawbar there are obligatory items like the ball hitch, brake handle and jockey wheel plus two 4kg gas cylinders.
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I’ve mentioned this before but I reckon that two 4kg cylinders are easier lifting and more practical than just one 9kg cylinder. When one cylinder runs out, there’s another one ready.
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Also sitting on the drawbar is a mains pressure tap with a hose connection. While on the water theme, the 63L tank sits behind the axle and is fully protected by galvanised steel sheeting. 
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Most other external features are standard – quick-drop corner stabiliser jacks, rear bumper bar with spare wheel, front galvanised sheet lined boot, Camec triple lock door and Camec tinted polycarbonate hopper windows, except for the windows behind the door which is a slider and A&amp;E awning.
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Instead of a full window across the front, the two smaller windows indicate the single bed layout inside. There are two external lights, a mid-wall mounted dome light and grab handle light.
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DIFFERENT STROKES
Millard calls this van its ‘reverse layout’; what’s in a name we ask, but it does have a rear side door entry, rear kitchen, nearside dinette, small lounge on the opposite side and two single beds at the front of the van.
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It’s a layout that neatly separates into three distinct areas – bedroom, lounge/dinette and kitchen with an excellent roof height of 6ft 6in (1.98m).
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White is the predominant colour for the walls and ceiling and all the cabinetwork has a timber look. All the screened windows (except for the kitchen) have both net and full curtains.
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Not everybody likes single beds but they do add to the flexibility of caravan layout design by providing a couple of day-use lounges and giving a slightly more spacious feel to the van interior. In this case they almost negate the need for the small lounge on the offside. 
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Measuring 6ft 1in x 2ft 6in (1854mm x 762mm), the beds have a foam mattress, bedhead shelf with overhead locker above and a second shelf alongside.
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Each bed also has a halogen reading light and powerpoint beside the bedhead shelf. 
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The under-bed storage areas are accessed by either the under-mattress ply timber hatch or floor locker door.
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Windows all round plus a rooftop Heki hatch give good light and ventilation. Between the two beds sits a mirrored door wardrobe with two drawers underneath.
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Mid van the lounge/dinette offers quite a generous seating area, especially if there are only two people. Contoured foam cushions are used on both lounge and dinette. The table is relatively small, measuring 25in x 20in (630mm x 510mm).
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Above both lounge and dinette are overhead lockers and there is the usual storage area under both seats, although part of that is taken up by the wheel arches. 
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Both lounge and dinette seats have a pair of halogen reading lights. 
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At the rear, the kitchen bench is an L-shape, which results in a reasonable amount of benchtop working space. That’s helped by the recessed cooktop.
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The fridge is raised slightly off the floor resulting in a higher than normal bench height. Fitted into the kitchen bench are a Smev four-burner cooktop and grill, stainless steel sink and, around the corner, a Dometic 90L fridge. Both hand pumped and mains pressure water is supplied to the sink.
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Under-bench storage is supplied via a two-door cupboard, cutlery drawer, two pots and pans drawers (all having metal runners), small slide-out pantry and top-entry corner storage. The latter does provide a fair bit of space but without a wire basket or two (or something similar) it’s difficult to use effectively. 
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There are powerpoints at each end of the kitchen bench plus a TV antenna connection and water tank level gauge above the fridge. Bench lighting is courtesy of a downlight above the sink plus a second downlight in the recessed rangehood. 
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Above the kitchen bench are three overhead lockers plus a microwave, which is set slightly lower than the surrounding locker space. 
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The Bottom Line
In many ways, this is quite a simple van. It doesn’t have a bathroom, house battery (cabling for it is installed, though) and has single beds, but it does have all the essential features for not-too-expensive caravan travel.
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What it also has is plenty of internal area – in particular not having a bathroom does mean quite a few cubic metres of available space. Its weight is also very attractive to sedan vehicle owners and in times when we are getting more fuel use-conscious, that isn’t a bad thing at all. 
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Contact Parravans Caravan World, 130 Windsor Road, McGraths Hill (Windsor), (02) 4577 5577 or for your nearest dealer visit www.millardaustralia.com.au
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I liked
• The basic layout – the single beds give a fairly practical setup
• Good kitchen benchtop area
• For a budget van, good general and specific lighting
• Plenty of options for tow vehicles
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Now I’m being picky
• Microwave set lower as there was really only air space underneath it
• Better use made of the corner kitchen storage



Millard Horizon 

External length: 16ft 6in (5m)

External width: 7ft 7in (2.3m)

Interior height: 6ft 6in (1.98m)

Nameplate ATM: 1545kg

Nameplate GTM: 1464kg

Nameplate Tare weight: 1245kg

Frame: Aluminium

Chassis: Hot dipped galvanised

Suspension: Leaf spring

Cooktop: Smev four-burner 

Fridge: Dometic RM2350 90L

Microwave: Samsung

Shower: No

Toilet: No

Lighting: 12V

Gas: 2 x 4kg

Fresh water tank: 63L

Price (as reviewed): $29,034 

Millard Horizon

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