Ausflex Caravans is a small, family-owned manufacturer based in the Campbellfield area of Victoria, the caravan manufacturing capital of Australia. Company owner Luch Ristevski has been in the caravan manufacturing industry for more than 20 years, opening Ausflex in 2016.
Ausflex specialises in all custom builds ranging from 12ft to 33ft. I’m told that some members of his team have been building caravans since 1972!
There are quite a few vans in the range, from the 17ft Little Wonder to the 21ft 6in Extreme family van. I must admit that the baby of the range, the 12ft Tuff Mudder, appeals to me. It’s about as small a van as you’ll get while still having a bathroom, and it looks like it’ll be an easy tow. However, the subject of this article is the Ausflex Sunchaser. At 18ft 6in, this single-axle van sits right in the middle of the range.
It’s an offroader that we threw around our coarse as part of our Offroad Challenge. In the last couple issues, we showed you the other four vans that participated in this event. But this mid-range caravan has just as much to offer, and perhaps more.
Ausflex might not have wide name recognition, but I reckon the vans being built in its unassuming Campbellfield factory are worthy of a good look. So let’s step inside the 18ft 9in Sunchaser to see what it has to offer.
INSIDE THE AUSFLEX SUNCHASER
Stepping inside, I was greeted by a light, cheerful van with a traditional layout that works well for two people. In the nose of the van is a bed surrounded by overhead lockers and side wardrobes, each with a niche complete with 240V and 12V charging pints. With Sirocco II fans either side of the bed, a skylight, reading lights, the bedroom has all the main bases covered. I felt quite at home in this space. One thing I particularly liked: the Webasto diesel heater under the bed has been sectioned off with a ply housing that will keep it protected.
The rest of the layout is quite traditional, and there’s nothing wrong with that! There’s a good reason for this layout – for two people, it works well. There’s an offside L-shaped dinette (ours was upholstered in faux leather) with a table that can be swivelled around for easy access, or lowered to create the base for a second temporary bed. The flip-up footrest is a nice touch too – who doesn’t like to put their feet up now and then?
The kitchen gets a four-burner cooktop and even a waterfall bench top – a classy touch that isn’t used enough in modern caravans, in my opinion. Between the dinette and the rear full-width bathroom, Ausflex Caravans has fitted a compressor fridge with a microwave recessed into the cabinetry space above.
Our van’s 12V system is comprised of one 200Ah lithium battery, a 3000W Kings inverter and two 210W solar panels on the roof. While it’s not the most elaborate 12V system in the world, it is nonetheless quite reasonable. It is all managed by the BMPRO BatteryPlus35 battery management system, which is mounted in one of the overhead lockers and includes the BMPRO OdysseyLink, a system that provides at-a-glance information concerning the van’s water levels, battery state of charge and more. This information can be found on the digital screen mounted near the touchscreen stereo system, but the beauty of the OdysseyLink is that it also send this info to an app on your smartphone.
This cupboard is also where you’ll find the various switches for things like the hot water service and air-conditioner – it’s always pleasing to see a manufacturer centralising these things in a cupboard where they’re out of sight.
The bathroom, meanwhile, is comprised of an offside cassette toilet (a cassette toilet should always ben on the offside, I reckon), a central vanity that hides a top-loader washing machine), and a fibreglass shower on the nearside. Given the fact this van is sub-19ft, space in the bathroom is a little tight, but the trade-off is to provide more space where it matters: the kitchen and bedroom, which is a trade-off worth making.
Other features include a dust reduction system, a smattering of reading lights with in-built USB charging points, attractive LED strip lighting above the cupboards, and while the gold tapware found on this van won’t be for everyone, I quite liked it. It’s a nice match with the black sinks. I can’t argue with the piano hinges for all cupboard doors either – I maintain that’s one of the best ways to secure these doors.
EXTERNAL EQUIPMENT
The 18ft 6in Ausflex Sunchaser is built atop a 6in RHS with a 6in A-frame that runs back to the OzTrekker offroad trailing arm coil suspension (two shock absorbers are used each side). Ausflex Caravans framed our van in meranti timber and clad it with composite aluminium; however, the company can frame its vans in aluminium too, depending on the preference of the customer.
As we hauled it over various lumps, bumps and other undulations, we were surprised by the effectiveness of the short(ish) rear overhang. In some respects, we expected the rear bumper (which also serves as the mounting point for the spare wheel) to contact the ground – never underestimate the benefit of a rear cutaway – but it seemed to do very well in this regard.
Both at the front and rear, Ausflex has given the Sunchaser an LED light bar, while a checkerplate storage box, protected by a mesh stoneguard, sits on the A-frame. The gas cylinders live in the central compartment. There’s even a tunnel boot, a protected tap on the drawbar, a couple of marine speakers, an ‘entertainment locker’ complete with the relevant TV connections, and a couple of drop-down picnic tables.
SUMMING UP
All of the above adds up to quite a complete caravan, both inside and out. Our particular model of Sunchaser had a Tare of 2340kg and an ATM of 2880kg, making it more than suitable for mid-size 4WDs, such as the Pajero Sport or Ford Everest. It’s vans such as this that make one realise you can pretty much have it and still have a relatively compact on-road footprint.
No, it’s not a tiny caravan, but it’s not a behemoth either. It offers an appealing blend of features in an easy-towing package that’s appropriately sized for offroad work.
WEIGHTS
Tare: 2400kg
GTM: 2700kg
ATM: 3000kg
Unladen ball weight: 180kg
More information: www.ausflexcaravans.com.au
