Stick 'n tin vans not going away

If you're expecting Australia’s caravan ‘capital’ of Campbellfield, Victoria, to embrace the latest lightweight full composite wall and floor construction and many other cutting-edge ideas, don’t hold your breath...

Conventional twin rail galvanised steel chassis, traditional ‘stick and tin’ construction, wheels in the centre and popular layouts with rear bathrooms and rear, side entry doors will be on the agenda for some time to come for most major manufacturers.

That’s the view of Concept Caravans director Keir Smith, who presides over the three major brands in the company’s product arsenal -- Concept, Franklin and Newlands -- that together make the company Australia’s fourth largest in the industry, based on best current sales estimates, behind Jayco, New Age and Avan.

Smith defends Concept’s decision to eschew building conventional ‘stick and tin’ construction and stay away from fashionable slide-outs, pop-tops, hybrids, or caravans based on the theory of doing a simple thing well.

“Timber-framed walls, ribbed aluminium exterior cladding and styrene foam insulation in between is still the best way to build durable, yet easy to tow and repair, lightweight caravans,” he told Caravancampingsales.

“Some manufacturers are trying different ideas to get a marketing edge, but the world has moved on and car manufacturers are building more fuel-efficient models in response to public demand for better fuel economy.

“The caravan industry is the meat in the sandwich and while buyers like the idea of fuel saving, they also want more comfort features and equipment in larger vans, which in turn adds weight. To meet these demands, we must offer them everything they want in  lighter caravan and ‘stick and tin’ still delivers that!”

No faith in colourful cladding 

Smith says colourful 'Alucabond' aluminium cladding, is a heavy, marketing idea that's not as durable and significantly heavier than traditional caravan construction.

“Most of the colourful aluminium cladding is designed for buildings and outdoor signs,” he said. “It is much heavier per square metre – weighing as much as 3.8kg – than ribbed aluminium over a timber frame and some of the product available is only guaranteed to be colour-fast for around five years, although there are premium products that will last longer.

“In contrast, ribbed aluminium is specifically made for caravans and has the combination of long service life and repair-ability that has ensured it remains the industry’s favourite”.

Smith is also a champion for Meranti timber wall framing that has been a favourite of Victorian caravan manufacturers for years, in contrast to their Queensland cousins who prefer aluminium wall framing.

“Meranti is a really fine-grain hardwood that is as light as many softwoods, but will hold a staple, won’t crack ad stands up well to water,” he said. “Being an organic material, it also  moves with the caravan, whereas rigid steel or aluminium framing cannot absorb shocks as well and can be prone to cracking unless you are talking about an expensive, fully-welded structure.”

Cheaper to build

He also defended ‘stick and tin’ wall structures over one-piece composite wall panels.

“People say that traditional construction is more expensive because it is more labour intensive, but if you are looking at the big picture you need to factor in the cost of a large vacuum press that forms the one-piece walls.

“Our framers work to a simple template and they are very skilled at what they do and the time difference, when you factor in everything is not great at all.

“There is also the extra weight of composite panels, which is significantly greater. It can add 200kg or more to the wright of an average 19-21ft Australian caravan, which is a lot.

"We try to keep the tare weight of our most popular caravans in the 2000-2050kg range, which allows then a good payload and means they can be towed legally by the most popular mid-size four-wheel drive tow cars.

“What most people don’t realise is that under the requirements of RVMAP certification (an organisation which most of Australia’s major caravan manufacturers are members of), tare weight is not based on a caravan’s size, but its purpose ‘as manufactured’. So, if you offer sleeping for two, four or more, the minimum parameters governing a range of things from water capacity to payload change.

“We’ve seen the weight of similar-size caravans produced by some of our rivals and they can only be pulled by larger, more expensive and less economical tow cars," Smith claimed.

“People ask me if we lose some sales to rivals who offer full composite walls, because that is what may customers ask for because they regard them as better insulated and more hail resistant."

Composite buyers not welcome

Smith said he accepted that he might lose some sales to customers who insist on buying a composite walled caravan.

"My answer is ‘yes’, but that if that’s in the order of 20-30 caravan sales a year to other brands, because of this is that it doesn’t cost me any sleep.   We do what we do well and we know it works, so we have very few issues with water leaks and so on.

“People ask ‘what about hail?’ but we use a stucco finish on the roofs of our vans and this overcomes this issue to a large extent without the weight penalty.”

Smith said Concept – unlike its major rivals Jayco, New Age and Avan - only built conventional caravans, not slide-outs, pop-tops, hybrids or camper trailers.

“If those companies want to cover every market segment, good luck to them, but having different products, different lines and different constructions costs money and we’d rather stick to our core business,” he said.

Despite making relatively conventional caravans, Smith said that even a large manufacturer like Concept could still accommodate limited customisat6ion from customers.

“For example, if someone wants a rear bathroom and a side rear entry door on our new (21ft) Innovation 640, they can as long as the layout is changed to have the fridge forward of the axles to deliver the correct ball weight and balance. If they insist on having a rear fridge, then the van has to be fitted with a front boot, which effectively increases the ball loading and preserves its stability.

“When you are building around 22 similar caravans a week in the range of 17ft 6in to 24ft, you know what works.”

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