Roma Elegance Triple-Axle

Who would want a huge, 36ft (11 metres) long triple-axle caravan with two separate lounge areas, two rooftop air conditioners, 44 separate cupboards and drawers, but with just one deep cycle battery, no roof-mounted solar panel and just one spare wheel?

Well, a growing number of people actually, according to Mark Palmarini of long-established Melbourne-based custom caravan manufacturer, Roma, which has been building triple-axle caravans since the 1970s and believes it is the leading builder of these ‘monsters’.

For example, there’s a swimming pool mechanic who bases himself in Cairns during the extended holiday season, sub-contracting to the local pool maintenance people who simply can’t keep pace with the seasonal demand for their services from holiday apartments and caravan parks.

There are people in Queensland’s Gladstone and WA’s Pilbara who baulk at the idea of paying Australia’s highest real estate prices for a basic home in these resource boom towns, or forking $1000 a week upwards for rent on something worth well under half that elsewhere.

And there are others involved in seasonal, or temporary activities, ranging from fruit-picking to relieving chemists, whose life involves travelling to where the work is, rather than dropping permanent anchor and riding the local economy.

Palmarini calls these triple-axle buyers part of Australia’s growing ‘mobile economy’, a concept that has long been accepted in the United States, but is rapidly gaining momentum in Australia for its combination of financial and lifestyle benefits.

In a big van like the smooth, aluminium-walled Roma Elegance seen here, you plug into 240-volt power at a caravan park and don’t give a toss about paying water or council rates, or mowing the lawn. It can be very tax advantageous too if you claim your caravan as your ‘office’, while a change of scenery – or work – is just a tow away.

The advantage of having a large caravan versus a similar-size Fifth Wheeler rig or a massive motor home, is that you can tow your caravan onto a site and then use your tow vehicle for local transport once unhitched.

“The bulk of our triple-axle customers are in this moving, seasonal economy,” said Palmarini. “They embrace what others might call a ‘gypsy’ lifestyle, often with their families, and they love it.”

The triple-axle Elegance was about to be towed to Queensland’s Gold Coast by its new owner and his family behind a Land Crusier 200 series. And he needed every gram of the Toyota’s 3500kg maximum braked trailer capability as the van had a Tare (empty) weight in excess of 3000kg, leaving just 500kg for the items stowed in those 44 cupboards and drawers, foodstuff in its 184-litre Dometic AES three-way fridge/freezer.

Plus whatever was stored in its front or full tunnel side boot.

Many people on the move might prefer to put something even beefier ahead of the Triple-axle Roma but, for most, it’s not a touring van, but home. And with around 8.6 metres of interior length from its queen-size north-south island front bedroom to its expansive kitchen and rear lounge – via its central ensuite and laundry – the Elegance was every centimetre that.

The first mistake we made was to look at the van’s price tag of around $115,000 and judge it as a luxury caravan. It’s not – it’s just big, although it was hardly a poverty pack either.

Sure there was leather trimming for the rear club lounge that can convert into a second day/night slide-out queen bed for family members or visitors who can’t find the door in the van’s vastness and the kitchen has its own café dinette meals area, but many other cheaper Roma caravans are more comprehensively and luxuriously equipped.

Perhaps it was the van’s brown-toned interior timber cabinetry, faux timber floor and tan leather that helped this impression. Contrasting colours would have helped...

As previously mentioned, the front bedroom has the profusion of deep and roomy cupboards and drawers that you would expect in a mobile ‘home’ with the corridor that separates it from the central kitchen/meals area incorporating a large fibreglass shower cubicle on one side and a separate toilet and vanity on the other.

A sliding timber door can shut this entire bedroom/ensuite off from the rest of the van.

The remaining two thirds of the Elegance – around the same overall size of most regular dual-axle caravans – is the living area. The kitchen, which runs along the right hand wall, has vast bench space; even more if you lower the lid over the cooktop and fit the shaped cutting board to the sink-top.

There are loads of cupboards above and a Swift 500 Series 3 + 1 cooktop with grill and oven below at one end and an overhead iWave microwave at the other. Unusually, there’s just a deep stainless steel sink, but no companion stainless steel drainage board.

Opposite the 184-litre Dometic fridge-freezer is near the laundry, but this is not the usual afterthought fitted to many caravans.

Stacked vertically in a cupboard with separate doors is a Haier 5.5kg top-loader washing machine, topped by an Electrolux 5kg dryer. Remember, this will be ‘home’ for most people, not just a caravan.

The café dinette opposite the kitchen has comfortable room for two adults (or four children) because of the intrusion of the triple-axle wheel arch, but the rear club lounge, which wraps around the rump of the Elegance and has sprawling room for six to eight adults, more than makes up for this.

Outside, a massive 7.5m (24ft) rollout Dometic awning provides plenty of shade for outdoor living, with the drop-down picnic table on the van’s side looking a bit like a pimple on a pumpkins.

Up front, a full tunnel boot and a separate boot in the front panel, provide good storage space for things like folding tables and chairs, hoses, power cords and the like.

At the rear, the sturdy steel bumper with protective ‘wings’ houses a single spare 195/15 Light Truck tyre, indicative that this van is designed to spend more time on site rather than on the road.

Given its dimensions, we hitched it up via its standard 50mm ball coupling with a little trepidation, but apart from needing to be aware of its length when turning and at roundabouts, the Elegance towed as easily as any other large van.

It reached 100km/h with comparative ease on an appropriate speed-limited section of country road with no unsettling sway.

A look underneath confirmed why, as its full 150mm main chassis looked reassuringly solid and while each of the three beam axles was suspended by simple leaf springs, the load sharing achieved by this configuration was probably similar or better than that on many smaller dual axle caravans. In any case, the only time this caravan is likely to leave the bitumen is when it pulls onto the grass in a caravan park!

For those wanting to chase work – or the sun – further and more often, Roma will fit a larger 75mm ball connection, 12-inch (instead of 10-inch) brakes all round and will use larger 4.5 tonne-rated axles, but you’ll probably need something big and American like a Ford F250 or a light truck to haul that.

WE LIKED:
>> Serious living space
>> Comparatively easy to tow
>> Good $$$ bang for buck

NOT SO MUCH
>> Monotone décor on review van
>> Average finish
>> Just one spare wheel and no solar standard

VERDICT
The Roma Elegance Triple-Axle is undeniably big, but it’s surprisingly easy to tow and practical if you’re part of Australia’s growing ‘travelling economy’ or simply hate mowing the lawns.

This is a lot of caravan for $115,000 and I for one wouldn’t object to it being my main address, particularly if there was a nice line of shady palm trees and lapping waves at the front door.

ROMA ELEGANCE TRIPLE-AXLE

Travel length: 11000mm
External body length: 9000mm
External body width: 2336mm
Travel height: 3040mm
Interior height: 2000mm
Tare weight: 3000kg
ATM: 3500kg
Ball weight: 350kg (maximum)
Body: Aluminium sandwich panel walls with moulded fibreglass ends
Chassis: 150mm x 50mm Duragal
Suspension: Leaf springs and beam axles
Brakes: Al-Ko 10-inch electric
Stability Control: Al-Ko ESC available
Wheels: 15in alloys with 195/75-15 tyres
Fresh water: 2 x 95L
Battery: Single 105Amp/hr AGM
Solar: Solar provision
Air-conditioner: 2 x Air Command Ibis 3
Gas: 2 x 9.0kg
Cooking: Three gas burner plus electric hob Swift 500 Series cooktop with grill and oven
Microwave: iWave
Fridge: 184-litre Dometic AES three-way
Toilet: Thetford cassetteShower: Separate fibreglass cubicle
Washing machine: Haier 5.5kg top-loader, plus Electrolux 5kg Sensor Dry dryer
Lighting: LED throughout
Price (Ex Melb): $115,000 as reviewed
Supplied by: Roma Caravans, Campbellfield, Victoria