Van Cruiser Interceptor

Would you be brave enough to roll up to a Big 4 Holiday Park in a canary yellow caravan? How about free camping in a bright orange, blue, or green one?

Test your reaction against the colour of your car and perhaps you’ll learn something about yourself, because when it comes to caravans and motorhomes we are, with very few exceptions, a very conservative, perhaps boring bunch, fearful of standing out from the crowd.

Carrum Down-based boutique caravan manufacturer Van Cruiser is doing its best to brighten our outlook. Earlier this year, it was its Ferrari-red 19ft 10in Grand Torino off-roader that stopped visitors in their tracks at the Victorian Caravan & Camping Supershow.

More recently at Melbourne’s Leisurefest, it was an orange 18ft 2in Customline and its adjacent bright blue 17ft 10in Thunderbird (both pictured) that stole the show.

Reactions were mixed, but a surprising number of visitors, mainly women, thought it was a breath of fresh air blowing through a notoriously staid industry.

We were curious whether there was substance behind the shock value, so we recently borrowed a less arresting, but still colourful Van Cruiser Interceptor to find out.

The Interceptor is a new single axle 18ft 2in entry model to the Van Cruiser range.

Priced from $53,490 in base ‘dirt road’ spec, or as an off-road van with Control Rider independent trailing arm coil spring and shock absorber suspension from $56,490, it can conceivably be hauled by a Toyota Prado depending on how you tick the option boxes.

However our review van was equipped with a number of options, taking its price to a still-reasonable $66,990, but raising its ATM to 2660kg, 160kg above the Prado’s legal braked trailer towing capability.

Finished in a combination of green, black and silver, with distinctive centre-striping, it was a standout. Personally, I liked it, but a walk through Van Cruiser’s compact factory and showroom fronting the Dandenong-Frankston Road soon established that not all its customers are as gregarious.

More subtle white and silver vans were either on the line or awaiting collection, but all shared the same Alucabond exterior cladding that a number of other manufacturers employ, albeit much more sparingly, or subtly.

Alucabond is a 3mm thick aluminium composite material that is widely used in the building trade by companies from Woolworths to the Mona Gallery’s Pavilion Hotels in Hobart, but more recently has been ‘discovered’ by the Australian RV industry.

Van Cruiser founder Enzo Gnocato has been one of the first Australian caravan makers to truly embrace Alucabond’s full potential, just as he has done with other new products.

It’s is not as light as ‘profiled’ (ribbed) aluminium cladding, but more impact resistant and Van Cruiser offers it in seven basic colours – red, white, silver, orange, green, yellow and blue. However, as it can take automotive finishes, it could also be supplied in a matte or even a pearl finish if required.

The cladding is attached to a traditional meranti timber frame, with 3mm ply on the inside walls and polystyrene foam in between, so it’s also thermally efficient.

Once you get past the colour, the Interceptor we reviewed was appealing in a number of other ways. Its rather blunt, sharp-edge styling might not be the most aerodynamic, but it’s very practical and has allowed Van Cruiser to pack a lot of space and features into a compact full-height van.

There’s no front window – something I like as it minimises the chance of water leaks and serves little purpose at the bed end anyway – but the four aluminium-framed Aussie Traveler side windows are large, easy to open, have very effective binds and let loads of light into the van.

Combined with the charcoal painted G&S Supagal chassis with its 50mm riser and 150mm x 50mm A-frame, the black Alucabond used for the lower side panels and the matching black rubber padding with a ‘Propeller-plate’ pattern employed on the van’s front and rear, it gives the impression of a smaller van.

Aluminium checker plate for these stone-prone areas is an option.

There’s no front boot as such, but a black checker-plate tool box straddling the A-Frame behind the twin gas bottles takes care of the dirty stuff, like jockey wheels, hoses, etc. while the full tunnel boot through the front of the body is intrusion free and swallows other essentials such as chairs, mats, and so on.

Inside, the Interceptor looks larger than it’s external dimensions.

Part of this is the van’s huge 2.04m headroom, but its conventional yet well-thought-out layout, combined with the smaller intrusion of the single-axle wheelboxes helps here.

There’s room to move around the north-south island queen bed up front and the robes and drawers that flank it, plus the two overhead cupboards above the bed head, are all large and very useable thanks to the van’s relatively upright front profile.

That’s just as well, as there’s limited storage under the lift-up bed due to the intrusion of the full-width tunnel boot.

The central galley, opposite the padded leather café-dinette relies on the lid of the Dometic three-gas plus one electric hob cooktop, grill and oven or the drainage board of the stainless steel for preparation space – a limitation imposed by the van’s compact length – but its acrylic splashback is stylish and easy to clean.

On the plus side again, the cupboards below each and also lining the upper walls are square and generous in size – another benefit of the Interceptor’s boxy shape.

Like all Van Cruiser furniture, that in the Interceptor is glued and back-screwed into place through the frame for added rigidity, while the drawers employ steel runners for longer life and strength.

Another normally unseen sign of Van Cruiser’s attention to detail is the 8mm diameter main wiring harness used throughout the van.

Beyond the 175-litre Waeco 12 volt compressor fridge/freezer, topped by a Dluxx microwave, the Interceptor’s compact ensuite sits across the rear of the van.

The toilet area is a bit squeezy, as it has to share space with a cupboard alongside that houses the van’s optional 3kg Sphere top-loading washing machine that involves stretching over the toilet to reach.

However the shower’s fibreglass cubical is roomy and separated from the other wet areas by a glass door, while the central vanity has a good-sized island bowl and mixer tap and lots of cupboard spaced below.

As mentioned previously, our review van was equipped with a number of options taking its price to $66,990, with it’s impressive specification including a Truma Aventa reverse cycle roof-mounted air conditioner, Truma gas space heating, three 105Amp/hr AGM batteries and three 100 watt roof-mounted solar panels.

With this equipment it weighed in empty at a Tare mass of 2260kg, which combined with its load carrying capacity of 400kg took its ATM to 2660 – right at the top end for as single axle caravan.

WE LIKED:
>> Adventurous colours
>> Compact, space-saving design
>> Attention to detail
>> Roomy, light-filled layout

NOT SO MUCH:
>> Limited kitchen benchspace
>> Access to washing machine difficult
>> Some interference between bathroom cupboards

VERDICT

There’s a lot to like in the Van Cruiser Interceptor. It breaks the mould with its colourful cladding, yet its sensible boxy design maximises space and renders it to be a very functional caravan for its size.

The attention to detail in its equipment and construction is also impressive, while its internal headroom will make it instantly appealing to taller travelers.

VAN CRUISER INTERCEPTOR 18ft 2in 

Travel length: 7.58m
External body length: 5.53m
External body width: 2.30m
Travel height: 3.20m (inc AC)
Interior height: 2.04m
Tare weight: 2260kg
ATM: 2660kg
Ball weight: 180kg
Body: Meranti timber frame with aluminium flat composite panels
Chassis: 150mm x 50mm G&S Supagal chassis with 50mm riser and 150mm x 50mm A-frame
Suspension: Single axle Control Rider independent
Brakes: 12-inch electric
Stability Control: Dexter ESC
Wheels: 16in alloy with General Grabber LT265/75 tyres
Fresh water: 2 x 82L
Battery: 3 x 105Ah deep cycle AGM
Solar: 3 x 100W roof-mounted
Air-conditioner: Truma Aventa reverse-cycle
Heating: Truma gas
Gas: 2 x 9.0kg
Hot water: 23L Suburban gas/electric
Cooking: Four-burner gas/electric Dometic cooktop, plus grill and oven
Fridge:  Waeco 175-litre 12v compressor
Microwave: Dluxx with grill function
Toilet: Dometic cassette
Shower: Separate fibreglass cubicle
Washing machine: Sphere 3kg top-loader
Lighting: LED
Price (as reviewed, ex-Melbourne)  $66,990
Base price: from $56,490 (off-road spec)
Options fitted: 150mm diameter chassis, front-load Camec washing machine, roof-mounted solar panel.
Supplied by: Van Cruiser, Carrum Downs, Vic