Review: Kakadu Caravans Kindred Spirit VI Extreme Off Grid

You might be free-camping, but that doesn’t have to mean you can’t be comfortable. That’s the point of caravans, after all. Some, of course, offer more comfort than others. Which brings me to the subject of this review, the Kakadu Kindred Spirit VI Extreme Off Grid.

As the name suggests, this is an offroad caravan. However, it is fitted out with more standard equipment than you could shake a stick at.

There are quite a few offroaders in the Kakadu range, from the 17ft 6in single-axle Drifter, to the 22ft Mulga. Our review van had plenty of points of difference, though, so on a horribly wet, cold day, we found ourselves in Ballarat, Vic, to hitch it up and take it for a test tow.

INNER GLOW

Our review Kindred Spirit VI is a 22-footer. While there are numerous layouts available, I’m quite partial to the one seen here. It’s all about family living, with a separate kids’ room in the back, large kitchen and dinette in the middle, and a forward bed for the parents. It really takes advantage of the space on offer to create a very functional, liveable layout for a family.

Let’s start in the rear. This van comes with two offside bunks, each complete with a Sirocco fan and a reading light that contains built-in USB charging points. The rear wardrobe contains a decent amount of space for kids’ clothing, despite the fact the bottom cupboard is where Kakadu mounted the front-loader washing machine.

My favourite aspect of the back of the van, though, is how the nearside bathroom ‘opens up’ to create a genuine sense of living space for the kids. The bathroom uses a concertina door – something I’m usually not a fan of. However, in this instance, it works particularly well. The door folds flat against the doorway when open and is held in place by a magnetic catch. When it’s open, the bathroom ‘feels’ as though it’s part of the kids’ room, with the major benefit of providing more space to dress in the morning or rummage through your things. It is rather brilliant.

The bathroom itself contains a stylish vanity, mirror, cassette toilet and a fully-moulded fibreglass shower. With a couple of overhead lockers and a cupboard beneath the washbasin, the bathroom also contains a generous amount of storage space.

This van’s 12V system is one of its major benefits. Fitted with three 200Ah lithium batteries, which are mounted behind protective checkerplate on the offside chassis rail, as well as three 210W solar panels, a 3000W Projecta inverter and BMPRO BatteryPlus35 battery management system, there’s little chance you will ever find yourself short on power. In fact, we were hunkered inside the van, trying to stay warm, when I decided to flick the inverter on to power up the reverse-cycle air-conditioner in order to get some heat. It worked brilliantly – I was very grateful to have all of that equipment on board on that day!

The 12V equipment also includes a Trek digital display, which shows things like the battery state of charge and battery levels. You can also have this info sent to an app on your smartphone via the onboard OdysseyLink system. All of these systems and controls are kept neatly in a locker above the dinette.

The angled kitchen on this van is also appealing. It comes complete with a four-burner cooktop, griller and oven, a decent spread of storage, a compressor fridge-freezer and microwave.

And that leaves the bedroom. While there is plenty of space underneath the bed, despite the fact the tunnel boot encroaches somewhat into this space, there are also overhead lockers and side wardrobes with niches. I love that each niche comes with its own mini LED light bar – a very welcome, and unusual, touch.

KAKADU CARAVANS EXTERIOR

The Kakadu Kindred Spirit VI Extreme Off Grid is built from meranti timber and smooth composite aluminium cladding and black checkerplate. It rides on a 6in SupaGal chassis on 3.7-tonne-rated independent coil suspension with dual shocks.

Now, this van is no lightweight and it’s worth pointing out that it will require a heavy-duty 4WD for towing duties when loaded. It weighs in at 2680kg Tare but it has an ATM rating of 3700kg. Therefore, to take full advantage of this van’s payload capacity, you’ll need to look into a Dodge Ram, Silverado or another similarly-rated 4WD.

Due to its impressive ATM, the Kakadu has been fitted with the 4.5-tonne-rated DO45 coupling, rather than the DO35 fitted to many offroad caravans.

Despite the horrible weather conditions – which included very strong crosswinds – the caravan remained firmly planted to the road as I towed it around town with my Isuzu D-MAX (the van weighed close to Tare at the time).

This van contains an impressive storage system. Up front, there’s a large checkerplate storage box with slide-out trays and jerry can holders on either side. There are two 9kg gas cylinders too, but a mesh stoneguard to protect it all would be welcome.

Underneath, the van is equipped with three gal-protected 95L water tanks as well as a 95L grey water tank, so you should be well prepared for three or four nights off-grid.

Kakadu Caravans has also given this van a rack to suit two bikes, as well as a rear-view camera and an LED light bar front and rear.

The nearside of the van hasn’t been forgotten, either. It has been given a full-length roll-out awning, a couple of speakers hooked to the internal CD/stereo system, a fold-down picnic table, and ‘entertainment locker’ with TV mount and relevant connections.

The storage space is enhanced by a rear-offside locker, which provides access to the space underneath the lower bunk that you can’t otherwise access internally. Clever.

The fit and finish both inside and out appears to be to a high standard – I didn’t notice anything of particular concern. It really does present as a good, solid van with a very long list of standard equipment.

GORV’S VERDICT

If you’re in the market for an offroader that should never need anything else added to it, take a look at the Kakadu Kindred Spirit VI Extreme Off Grid. It literally comes out of the factory ready to keep you supremely comfortable when you’re away from mains power and I see no reason why it wouldn’t be a faithful long-haul companion.

THE SCORE

FIT AND FINISH –

LAYOUT –

INNOVATION –

HITS & MISSES

COMPLETE SPECS