New family van at Queensland show

Regent Caravans is tapping into the growing ‘family’ caravan market with a new variant of its entry-level Weekender offering buyers single, two or three-bunk formats at no extra cost.

The new family van was shown for the first time at the Queensland Caravan & Camping Show (June 4-10) along with 10 other Regent vans in the company’s enlarged and revamped 2014 range – the largest Regent line-up ever seen at a caravan show.

Priced at $57,990  (in Victoria), the 20ft 6in Regent Family Bunk van slots in at the top of the (now) three-model Weekender Mk II range, above the 18ft 6in single axle twin bed and similar-size tandem axle queen bed models – both of which feature café-dinette formats.

The new Regent Family Bunk van has a north-south queen bed with L-shape lounge/dinette and rear ensuite, but its party trick (like the Jurgens Narooma released in Melbourne earlier this year) is its rear bunkroom, with the buyer’s choice of two or three single bunks opposite its separate shower and toilet ensuite.

Order the three-bunk model and you get the bunks vertically stacked, each with its own 500mm x 350mm window and access by a common ladder, but you can fold the bottom bunk up to create more storage space.

If you order the double bunk model, you get two windows and a dedicated lower storage area with doors in the space where the third bunk would sit, but you can also order a single upper bunk version, in which case a small dinette below converts to a second bunk.

This dinette is intended as an area for the kids to play and draw during the day and also frees up the dining table for dinner.

The van’s L-shaped lounge can additionally form another adult-sized bed, turning the Weekender into a potential six-berth van.

With a tare weight of around 2100kg, a modest ball weight of 100kg and a load capacity of around 400kg, the Weekender Family Bunk is Toyota Prado friendly, with enough room for most of the things people take on a family holiday.