New Tvan lookalike from Pioneer

Former WA and now Melbourne-owned camper trailer specialist Pioneer Campers set a cat amongst the pigeons at the recent Melbourne Leisurefest when it took the wraps off its new hard-roof camper that clearly targets Track Trailer’s award-winning Tvan.

Similarly wedge-styled, equipped and priced, the Pioneer Mitchell was developed over a 12-month period and trumps the 16-year-old Tvan with a rear-hinged roof for greater internal headroom and a quicker-to-erect drop-down hard floor and sewn-in tent.

Again similar to the Tvan, it has aluminium composite walls, but its roof and rear lid are fibreglass moulds.

Whether its home-grown Grafta independent trailing arm suspension that it shares with other Pioneer hard-floor campers can match the Tvan’s state-of-play asymmetrical link MC2 suspension in the rough stuff remains to be seen, but on face value it looks a worthy rival.

Pioneer was a well-respected Western Australian camper trailer manufacturer until it was purchased five years ago by Dandenong-based metal fabrication specialist Atco Pickering Metal Industries that amongst other things specialises in building bodies for utes and, also like Track Trailer, for Defence contracts.

Track Trailer built the Tvan on the back of one of its early Army contracts and since its launch in late 1999 it has carved a unique niche for itself in the void between canvas-based camper trailers and pop-top compact off-road caravans.

Its only serious competitor in this time has been the Melbourne-built Vista RV, built since 2006 by former Tvan sub-contractor Louie Cretella, but like the Porsche 911 the Tvan has retained its market edge based on its history and engineering.

The new Pioneer mirrors the Tvan’s concept wedge-shaped profile, with a hard shell cabin, a top-hinged opening tailgate and a drop down two-piece rear hard floor with an enveloping tent.

Large storage areas upfront allow the Mitchell to swallow everything from a large top-loading compressor fridge to a 2kVa generator and a Weber Baby Q, while a Smev three-burner cooktop and stainless steel sink with hot and cold water emerge from a left hand front locker.

The big difference between the Mitchell and the Tvan though is the former’s rear-hinged fiberglass roof, which allows considerably more headroom over the north-south fixed bed and its folding rear floor and tent.

Unlike the Tvan, in which the aluminum floor folds out first and the tent then drops from its clam-shell fibreglass roof lid and needs to be bungee-strapped to the base, the tent in the Mitchell is attached to the floor and unfolds as a combined unit.

Its fibreglass hard-shell lid then shields the sleeping area from wet canvas should you be unlucky enough to pack up in a downpour.

Like the Tvan, there are plenty of option boxes to tempt you, but at its introductorily price of $58,485, many of them are already ticked.

For that money you get a five-year warranted hot-dipped galvanised chassis, 12-inch Al-Ko drum brakes with 16-inch Sunraysia steel wheels, a single 120-litre fresh water tank, a Truma 14-litre hot water service to the kitchen and outside shower, a single 110Amp/hr AGM battery, an 80 Watt Redarc fixed solar panel and a Redarc batter charger.

In its weight, it again tracks a top-spec Tvan, with a tare of 1320kg, a load capacity of 680kg and a ball weight of 145kg, while its price is pretty much on par, depending n the Tvan model.

Let the battle begin!