Rhinomax planning $350,000 caravan

As in every economic slow-down, it’s the lower end of the market that usually feels the pinch first, but it seems there’s still plenty of money around for top end products, like luxury off-road caravans.

That’s the picture emerging from the Australian industry, where the $100,000-$200,000 sector is seeing significant growth, with several makers venturing beyond $200,000 and at least one planning to break the $300,000 barrier.

If you’re graduating from a camper, that might seem unimaginable, but if you're comparing the combined tow car and caravan rig cost of a fully-equipped and self-sufficient specced-up caravan to a more conspicuous cruising boat, or a holiday home, the numbers stack up pretty well. Besides, many people get sea-sick!

Queensland’s Kedron recently built a custom, feature-loaded tri-axle caravan for deep-pocketed customer that cost around $220,000 and it's not hard to spend similar money at ZoneRV on an optioned-up Summit Series.

Prices for large Bushtrackers have consistently been in the high $100,000 bracket for years and even quiet achiever Evernew – which traditionally undercuts its major off-road rivals by tens of thousands by dealing direct and eschewing shows, – has just launched its most costly-ever caravan: the fully-loaded 20ft 10in, E2000 RTX, with prices starting at $134,000.

At this year’s Melbourne Leisurefest, we saw two more respected off-road name-plates join the $$$ club – Albury’s Mountain Trail, which showed off its new $163,500 LXV 6.7 full-width caravan, while the Sunshine Coast Rhinomax took the wraps off its long-awaited 18ft 5in narrow-bodied $149,990 Lost Trak.

The Lost Trak is particularly significant here, as it’s the first of what Rhinomax is calling its ‘Expedition Series’, with the promise of further versions to come stretching into the mid-$300,000 market. Add an optioned up Landcruiser, Range Rover, or American pick-up to tow it and you’re looking at a rig investment of more than $500,000.

This barrier has already been broken for luxury 4WD truck-based motorhomes, remote area adventure vehicles and big American-style 5th wheelers, but none of these has really captured the imagination of adventurous Australians. Due to their size and our love of cutting down tall poppies, they are usually relegated to the ‘naughty corner’ of our ageing caravan parks that, with some notable recent exceptions, were laid out in the 16ft Bondwood caravan days,

But with increasing real estate values, as well as the growth of self-sufficiency, it's in this upward direction that the market has seen the most recent growth.

While the new Mountain Trail and Evernew don’t pretend to be anything other than very comprehensively-equipped off-road caravans, the Rhinomax Lost Trak with its narrower 2.1 metre body, comparatively short length and relatively light 2350kg Tare weight is still able to negotiate many tracks its larger rivals can’t.

Seen with all its decals in place at Leisurefest, the Lost Trak looks like a worthy rival to AOR’s Aurora and Kimberley’s S Class Kruiser.

Inside, via its rear entry door, there’s a nest of nine drawers surrounding a hanging wardrobe, a recessed microwave oven and a 110-litre large compressor fridge/freezer across its rear wall to your right, with a combined shower and composting toilet sharing the same corner cubicle straight ahead.

A large U-shaped lounge on the right can be configured as a super-single bed by lowering the oblong single pedestal table and re-purposing the lounge cushions, while in the curved nose there is an elevated queen bed with twin-drawer storage below its foot on each side and adjacent open storage pods.

The Lost Trak offers buyers two choices of cooking – indoor or out. Inside, there’s a  three burner gas cooktop with a grill and oven below, plus a separate microwave oven, while the slide-out exterior kitchen contains three more gas burners, beside an adjacent stainless steel sink with a mixer tap. An 82-litre cabinet fridge also glides out of the A-frame mounted tool locker.

Power for off-grid living comes from a  200AH Enerdrive lithium battery, a 2000 Watt inverter and 680 Watts of roof-top solar panels.

Two fresh water  tanks holding a combined 210-litres, plus a separate 85 litres of grey water storage and the long-lasting compositing toilet, complete its impressive remote area armoury.

Rhinomax reports that interest has been high, with production of the Lost Trak now sold out until nearly mid next year. How many buyers take up the top-spec, $300,000-plus Lost Trak variant remains to be seen...