Trakkadu 4Motion Campervan 2006 Review

By Malcolm Street

Persons of mature years who have been 4WDing for a long time have plenty of stories of frustration.

A common tale is wrestling with the steering wheel of an early Land Rover along quite punishing tracks for several hours and, upon arriving at a favourite campsite, discovering a VW Kombi campervan already parked there.

Whether or not that is an urban myth, there is no doubt about the abilities of the legendary Kombi. VW has always had an enviable reputation with the Kombi and the current T5 generation of VW vans look set to continue that.

The T5 van was an innovation because most light commercial vehicle builders start with the assumption that a van design will be used commercially.

However, VW began with the concept that the T5 would be used as a people mover, hence its Multivan design.

The spinoff, a T5 converted to a campervan, wasn’t far behind. Trakka was quick off the mark with its Trakkadu campervan, which proved to be a very popular design.

A further development of the T5 was the 4Motion, an all-wheel drive van (or car depending on your point of view).

4Motion works on the basis of choosing the best transmission characteristics for the prevailing road and weather conditions, thus giving good control whether on loose gravel, rock or snow and ice.

For this Trakkadu 4Motion campervan conversion, Trakka basically kept the interior layout of the 2WD Trakkadu but made a few changes in the mechanical department.

The list is quite impressive – five all-terrain tyres (Goodyear Wrangler 235/70 R16), changed spare wheel carrier, Seikel HD raised suspension (including Bilstein shock absorbers), Seikel engine and gearbox guard, Seikel low ratio gearbox and Seikel air intake (which keeps the intake away from water entry during river crossings).

There are no water tanks underneath the van, both grey and fresh are custom designed and sit inside the van.

VW’s T5 comes with a few options in the engine department.

Those available with the Trakkadu are all turbodiesel, and are either the 77kW 1.9L engine bolted to a five-speed manual gearbox or the larger 128kW 2.5L which comes with either a six-speed manual or equally interesting six-speed automatic ‘Tiptronic’ gearbox.

Tiptronic simply means that the gearbox can be used in full auto mode or driven ‘manually’. However, the latter is not available with the 4Motion.

Our review vehicle came with the 128kW motor coupled with the six-speed manual gearbox. To say the least, it is a very potent combination and there is nothing sluggish about it at all.

Equally as important are the front and rear axle independent suspensions that help to produce a generally good handling van.

CW tried the Trakkadu out on the curves of the old Pacific Highway north of Sydney, as well as some rougher country, and it performed a treat.

On a rough track which looked very much like real 4WD territory, the Trakkadu handled everything in a very sure footed manner, even on one occasion with one wheel off the ground.

While photographing the Trakkadu, our instructions to Trakka’s Dave Berry were “take it slowly so we can get some good pics” and that undoubtedly applies to the general 4WD driving style – driven carefully, the Trakkadu 4Motion will handle most road conditions.

Behind the wheel, just about everything is where it should be. The very car-like steering wheel has multi-adjustment as do both driver and passenger seats.

Power steering, disc brakes, external mirrors and windows all make driving a breeze, as does cruise control, remote central locking and the very efficient cab air-conditioning.

The gearshift is dash mounted and therefore not in the way when moving to and from the driver’s seat. The handbrake is also dash-mounted on the left of the driver, and set low enough to be out of the way but not a stretch for the driver.

In its original form, the T5 VW is a very stylish looking van. Items like the windows are flush fitted and give the van a very streamlined look. In keeping with this, there are few external indications that it is a campervan.

The rising roof has been designed to have a very streamlined look about it and the only indication on the roof is the Fiamma awning, but even that has been designed to integrate into the roof moulding, rather than look like a later addition.

Along the nearside, the only addition is a rail on the sliding door for the clip-on table and on the offside a gas cylinder compartment.

Also fitted on the offside is a drainage point for the grey water tank. Something that also should be mentioned is if you don’t like the ‘whirr-clunk’ that accompanies side-door vans, then a power sliding door is available as an option.

The Trakkadu sleeps two but can easily be used as a passenger vehicle since it has seating for four people – two in the cab, naturally, and two in the bed/seat behind.

The latter has two integrated lap/sash seatbelts and child seat anchorages. Since the seat/bed can be moved back and forth on its floor mounting rails, the integrated seatbelts are a very desirable feature.

Both the driver and passenger seats have armrests, adjustable lumbar support and swivel around. It is features like the swivelling seats that make the difference between a good campervan layout and a not-so-good one.

Space is very limited in a van like the T5 and it’s a good design that makes effective use of all of it.

Lifting the rising roof is quite a simple procedure – it’s virtually a push-button operation. Undo the two front retaining clips and, when the button is pushed, the roof rises easily assisted by two external gas struts.

Two large screened windows are either side of the vinyl gusset. Located on both sides of the roof are zipped canvas ‘tubes’. These neatly hold the pop-top gusset sides when the roof is down.

In a van like the Trakkadu, the lounge, kitchen, dinette and bed are almost one integral unit. Almost, but not quite! The simple kitchen sits along the offside behind the driver’s seat and consists of a combined three-burner cooktop and sink, both with separate glass covers.

Under the cooktop is a 12V IndelB compressor-driven fridge.

Next to the fridge is a roller door cupboard with two drawers and there’s a third drawer beside the rear seat. Roller shutters are a great space-saving way of keeping cupboards closed. The table, which clips to the side of the kitchen bench, can also be used outside.

A twin fluorescent fitting gives good light immediately above the cooktop and sink area and that is backed up by a second fluorescent light in the rising roof. The van’s 240V power is supplied by a twin GPO fitted at the end of the kitchen bench.

Setting up the bed is no problem at all. The rear seat has been designed with an angled back (several angles in fact for relaxation) and an angled squab for travelling comfort.

However, when laid out for a bed, it folds out flat. In conjunction with the foam cushion in the rear of the Trakkadu, it forms a bed of 6ft 2in x 3ft 8in (1.88m x 1.1m).

Storage is not going to be extravagant in something like the Trakkadu but it has still been carefully thought out.

There’s a hanging cupboard in the rear, again with roller shutter doors, under the rear seat is a large drawer (it moves with the seat) and there is a storage area under the rear platform.

Even for a small campervan, the power system is quite sophisticated.

The Trakkadu is wired for both 240V and 12V, with the 240/12V battery charger, like the vehicle alternator, supplying both the house batteries and the VW starter battery.

Trakka’s LCD electronic control system also displays items like battery condition and water levels.

Sitting in the rear corner by the water tank filler is an external shower which is fitted inside rear door.

Hot water for the sink and rear shower comes from a 15L heat exchanger/240V tank.

There’s not much doubt the Trakkadu 4Motion adds a new dimension to campervan travel (albeit very sophisticated) around Australia. The Trakkadu may not suit everyone’s style but it is, apart from anything else, a great weekend escape machine, as well as being a comfortable around-town car.

For details contact Trakka, 9 Beaumont Road, Mt Kuring-gai, NSW 2080, (02) 9472 9000, email: info@trakka.com.au, web: www.trakka.com.au

We liked:
• Driving the T5 VW
• General layout which gives room to move and sit around, and a bed which does not take long to set up
• Ease of lifting the roof
• Good storage in a van this size
• Space-saving roller shutter doors

We would have liked:
• More time to play
• Reading lights above driver and passenger seats
• Sink drainer