Full review

The new Elddis Avanté 868 is an eight-foot-wide family model with a double bed and bunks in a rear bedroom.

This is the first time a layout of this type has been produced by a British manufacturer. Elddis caravans are made in County Durham by the Erwin Hymer Group which now produces 11 eight-foot-wide caravans in Britain.

Layout

The 868 is a six-berth caravan with both a fixed double bed and two bunks in a rear bedroom which has a solid sliding door. The shower and washing arrangements are forward of the bedroom, with the shower on the nearside and the toilet and washbasin on the offside. The hinged door forward of this compartment closes across the caravan to separate the entire bedroom and washing area from the kitchen and lounge.

The bedroom layout is one which has only been made possible by the extra width of the caravan. The Avanté 868, at 2.45m wide, is 19cm wider than standard-width Avanté caravans.

Kitchen

This model has the Dometic 145-litre fridge with removable freezer compartment.

Lounging

The lounge is long enough to make single beds or can be converted to a double bed.

The 868 model will appear in the Compass Casita range, with different woodwork and fabric styling.

Equipment in the Compass and Elddis versions of this model are the same. The Elddis seating fabric has a subtle herringbone pattern and the four cushions have a pastel mauve-fawn hexagonal pattern outlined in paler fawn.

Casita fabrics are pale fawns with near-white cushions that have a white mauve and green sprig pattern.

Heating

A new Whale heating system has arrived in the Avanté and Casita ranges. This is the Whale CompleteHeat system which, like the similar system which has been fitted to the Erwin Hymer Group’s Xplore range for some years, is mounted under the floor.

The new system 2020, which has taken three years to develop, is lighter than the original Whale blown air system; the unit weighs 8.7kg compared with 11kg for the standard 4kw unit. One reason for this is that the casing is plastic, rather than metal.

The new system has three electric settings, low medium and high. The low setting is 0.75kw; medium is 1.5kw and high is 3kw. The system can be used on a combination of electricity and gas; that option delivers 5.45kw. When the gas-electricity combination is used, warm-up time is increased by 40%; that figure is derived from Grade III testing, in which caravans are taken from -15 degrees to +20 degrees.

Avanté and Casita caravans also have Whale’s water heater, which is mounted under the floor.

Verdict

This new layout, with a bedroom designed to sleep four, in a double bed and two bunks, is a revolution in British family caravan bedroom layout.

This layout wouldn’t be possible in a standard-width caravan; the extra width (2.45m, which is 19cm wider than standard-width Avanté models) means that there is not only space for bunks plus a double bed but also a reasonable-sized corridor between them. This is a layout which will appeal to families with very young children, in particular.