Caravan Review: Wonder Roo Caravans XX3 Pearl Silver +

There are a number of caravan manufacturers worth keeping an eye on. These are companies with humble origins, growing steadily and developing a loyal customer base. One such company is Wonder Roo Caravans.

We recently had the opportunity to take a good look at a customer’s newly finished Wonder Roo, just a day or two before handover.

This 19ft 6in Wonder Roo XX3 Pearl Silver+ is a tandem-axle offroader with decent off-grid living capabilities. As Melbourne descended into winter, we hitched it up and hit the road…

HOW IT’S BUILT

Wonder Roo Caravans offers its range of vans in numerous package options: Bronze, Silver, Silver+, and Gold. Each package provides a certain level of inclusions, and this includes how the van is built. The company offers both meranti timber and TIG-welded aluminium framing options.

The Silver+ package incorporates 25mm aluminium studs clad with composite aluminium and black checkerplate. XPS foam – which is the structural material in fibreglass sandwich panel applications – is used as insulation. The roof, however, is a one-piece composite fibreglass sandwich panel, while the floor is a 17mm ‘honeycomb’ structure that will never rot. The result: strong, thermally-efficient construction that involves minimal timber.

The van is built atop a 6in hot-dipped-galvanised chassis running on 16in alloy wheels with 12in disc brakes and Cruisemaster ATX air-bag suspension rated to 3500kg. If ever you’ve towed a van with disc brakes, rather than electric drums, you’ll know how much smoother the braking experience is.

The owner of this van won’t have any difficulty on the power front, with two 200Ah lithium batteries provided along with three 210W solar panels mounted to the roof. When under tow, the BMPRO Mini Boost Pro DC-DC charger should ensure the batteries are full before you arrive at the day’s destination. A BMPRO battery management system with Odyssey Link is provided, too – it’s quite a comprehensive 12V installation. Did I mention that a 3000W inverter is also included?

Despite the decent lithium setup, this is not a ‘gas-less’ caravan. In fact, two 9kg cylinders are mounted on the A-frame between the mesh stoneguard and checkerplate storage box, which includes dual slide-out trays.

Along with the batteries, the offside chassis rail is home to the 15L fuel tank for the van’s onboard diesel heater, and it’s fully protected by checkerplate.

Other features include rear jerry can holders, the controls for the air-bag suspension, which include an auto-levelling feature, and an external shower. There’s no doubt that the Wonder Roo XX3 Pearl Silver+ is a substantial, fully-featured caravan.

INTERNAL WONDER ROO FITOUT

The layout is fairly traditional, but it’s also well executed. The kitchen comes with an electric induction cooktop, a feature that’s becoming more popular as lithium technology improves. A griller or oven, however, aren’t fitted to this particular van. While that frees up storage space, it might not be for everyone.

Given that the fridge is a 274L compressor unit, the only appliance that requires gas in this van is the Suburban Nautilus instant hot water service.

Internal storage space is another highlight. There’s a large cupboard in the entryway, and naturally there’s a large compartment under the bed base, and even the bathroom does well in this regard. Wonder Roo has managed to include a small linen cupboard next to the toilet which, by the way, is not a traditional cassette variety.

Instead, Wonder Roo has fitted a Nature’s Head self-contained composting toilet. If you’re not familiar, these units appear to be highly regarded!

The bathroom also includes a wall-mounted front-loading washing machine, a black sink and tap to match the black tapware and sink in the kitchen, and a separate fully-moulded fibreglass shower cubicle on the nearside.

A CaraFan pressure hatch, a Bluetooth-enabled Fusion stereo system, internal and external speakers, the powerful 3.4kW Houghton reverse-cycle air-conditioner and a 24in smart TV are also among this van’s many features.

Overall, the internal fitout conveys a sense of strength and rigidity – there’s nothing flimsy or breakable here.

Of course, for as much as this van truly does offer, there will always be the weight to consider. This particular caravan weighed 2774kg Tare but its ATM of 3500kg gives it a very healthy payload capacity.

SUMMING UP

The Wonder Roo XX3 Pearl Silver+ has a great deal to offer – it’s not difficult to understand the increasing enthusiasm for this company’s vans. From the respectable battery setup to the overall construction, not to mention the long list of features, this caravan should outlast any prospective tow vehicle. Wonder Roo is one manufacturer to keep your eye on.

AN OWNER’S PERSPECTIVE

We caught up with Rob and Catie Gibson, the owners of this van, to get their thoughts. Any did they decide on Wonder Roo, and what makes this van so special to them? 

We looked at a range different vans, but we didn’t want to be ‘stuck’ with just a ‘road’ van. We began to look at semi-offroad and full offroad vans, and this journey was fun and educational. There was so many vans with different frames and suspension… the list went on, and so did the price.

I was wondering how we were going to afford some of these van when I stumbled across the Wonder Roo XX3 Pearl Silver+ online. 

Much to our surprise and delight, the cost – with what seems to be almost everything we wanted – was in our price range, so we got in contact with Wonder Roo.

From here, the journey was easy – the teams was wonderful to deal with. Nothing was an issue. So we then brought our friends along for the ride and we both decided that this was the company to go with.

We visited the factory a couple of times to check to see if we were really happy, and then we went ahead. From the quote and deposit, they never asked for anything extra. We were most happy with their pricing of extras.

Every time we went to the factory, their welcome was always warm, and they are very hospitable people, with drinks and food etc, so we felt part of the Wonder Roo family.

I believe they excelled with the chassis. Coming from an electrical automation background, and working with mechanical engineers, I can appreciate this more than most people, I believe. The frame and build is great and finished better than many of the vans we looked at over three years of research.

Any issues that we did have, they were quick to get things sorted before we had to return to Sydney. This is most important, as things can go wrong and, I believe, it is the way companies look after you that makes them worthy of support. This separates Wonder Roo from others and we would recommend Wonder Roo to anyone, which we have done so many times already.

We are so very pleased with our van and can’t wait to get going.

 – Rob and Catie Gibson

THE SCORE

FIT AND FINISH –

LAYOUT –

INNOVATION –

HITS & MISSES

COMPLETE SPECS