Royal Flair elevates sleeping

It’s amazing that few other caravan makers have done it before – take a leaf out of the motorhome manual and raise the bed to the roof to create more floorspace.

But that’s the innovation Melbourne's Royal Flair brought in a big way to its 2020 caravan range unveiled at the recent Victorian Caravan, Camping & Touring Supershow.

The chain-raised powered caravan bed was centre stage on two of Royal Flair's latest models: an eye-catching 13ft 6in long Raptor toy hauler, and a feature-packed 20ft Piazza touring caravan complete with fold-out Sky-Deck verandah.

Borrowing cues from the tiny home and motorhome industries, the display Raptor’s rear queen bed tucks away neatly above the rear lounge/dinette before electrically dropping down in its made-up state at night. The clever design frees up room in the compact layout for a combination shower/toilet along with a good-sized kitchen positioned along the front wall.

In the case of the Royal Flair Piazza, the spacious couple's floorplan saw the rear queen bed in its lower resting position sitting out of sight behind a mirrored privacy wall. When not in use it rises flush to the ceiling on its chain drive to reveal twin leather-clad sofas in the rear lounge area beneath.

Lowering the queen bed to its lowest position allows full view of the big-screen TV mounted on the wall, while the mirror on the other side is one of the largest fitted to any Australian caravan.

Although Jayco recently introduced an electric bed caravan layout, it’s amazing that few have done this sort of bed in a caravan before, although one stumbling block on many caravans is that it requires a tall and robust wall construction to support the weight of the bed and its mechanism in a rig that in the case of the Raptor at least, is likely to travel on some rough, less-travelled roads.

This is addressed on the 2020-model Royal Flair Raptor by its 10-point roll bar that not only stiffens the entire structure, but is fully customisable and can incorporate additional rooftop storage options for kayaks, dinghies and fishing equipment.

The eye-catching display Raptor came complete with roof-mounted aluminium fishing boat, a folding rear folding platform loaded with an ATV (quad bike) and featuring a spectacular vinyl full-body wrap.

A main benefit of this arrangement is that it allows the narrow-bodied, toy hauling Raptor to access remote area areas with its steel load platform folded, while also making a clear separation between people and their smelly, dirty toys.

The idea in really tough terrain is that you can unload your toys first and then drive them in to your river or beachside camping spot, where they can then be driven back onto the platform, via its side-mounted access ramps.

The 20ft electric bed Piazza on display at the Supershow was priced at $114,200 while the 13ft 6in Raptor was priced at $97,600.