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Elddis Crusader Aurora
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Key Features

Model Year 2016
Class Single Axle
Price From (£) 22,599
Internal Length (m) 5.70
Shipping Length (m) 7.32
MRO (kg) 1373
MTPLM (kg) 1,526
Max Width (m) 2.30
External Height (m) 2.64
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At a glance

The Elddis Crusader Aurora is an island bed caravan with the bedroom at the rear and the washing facilities in the centre. It's divided into two very separate rooms.

Full review

Island beds are all the rage right now but, while most bedheads are attached to a side wall, a few island beds have their pillows against the rear wall. That’s the layout of the new Aurora.

This configuration brings the washing facilities into the centre of the caravan. So, when the lounge is used as a bedroom too, those sleepers can get to the loo without walking through the main bed area. This arrangement makes rear island bed caravans an excellent choice for buyers who are planning on having occasional guests.

Crusaders are eye-catching caravans, with distinctive Champagne-coloured sides that sparkle in the sunshine; a feature introduced for 2016. These are caravans made for connoisseurs, with Alde heating and 40-litre water tanks; ideal, then, if you’re looking for a tourer to use in winter. And they’re equipped with the Alde load monitor, which enables you to prevent overloading your pitch’s electricity allocation. It detects the current you are drawing, and switches off the Alde heating while you’re using a hairdryer or kettle, for example, and then turns on the heating again when the other appliance is no longer being used. That’s a brilliant feature in preventing caravan park embarrassments if you overload and trip out your supply, of course.

It’s the Aurora’s rear-bedroom, central shower room layout, though, that is its principal appeal.
 

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Showering

When you open the toilet-washbasin room door, it closes across the caravan’s corridor, sealing off the whole shower-toilet-bedroom facility in an ensuite, home-from-home way. The shower, on the offside, is circular, and has a bright LED cluster placed centrally. A small shelf plus a soap tray provide ledges for shampoos. The showerhead is the EcoCamel Orbit style, with a halo of nozzles and an air inlet in the base of the handle to increase flow rate.
 

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Sleeping

From the lounge, the Aurora’s bed looks a long way away, yet this single-axle caravan is a modest 5.7m in body length. The illusion is created by the amount of space at the foot of the bed; when the bed is pushed back into its retracted day mode, there’s an extra 40cm of carpet space to walk on. And at night you extend the base and mattress to its full 1.9m length by pulling on a handle at the foot of the bed. As you pull out the base, a section of mattress under the pillows drops down to become level with the rest of the mattress.

When it’s fully extended the gap between the corner of the bed and the wash-toilet room wall is only 12cm but we found that’s just enough space to walk along here to the side of the bed. There’s more space on the offside of the bed, though; the gap here, between the corner of the bed and the neat, triangular dressing table is 20cm.

This is a delightful bedroom area that looks and feels really luxurious. Storage in the bedroom is excellent, too…
 

Storage

Wardrobes, each 31cm wide, are on each side of the bed, with three drawers below them. There’s a generous amount of top locker space above the bed head, plus a cabinet in the dressing table. The space under the bed is this caravan’s greatest storage asset in terms of space, of course, but the single gas-filled strut doesn’t fully support the weight, so you have to hold it up while you delve inside.

The Aurora is equipped with a 40-litre water tank; it’s under the bed, neatly out of the way.

The under-settee storage spaces have full-length hinge-down doors. The lounge has an unusual storage feature; there are four drawers under the pull-out table. In total this caravan’s storage capability is fine for its length.
 

Dining

For snack times, you can create a table that’s 81x65cm.

The main table has its own cabinet on the fore end of the toilet-washroom. The ledge above it is the ideal place for your TV; connections are here.
 

Lounging

The lounge has a power point in the nearside corner, one of six in the caravan. And beside it is an unusual feature in a caravan: a USB point.

Aurora lounges are four-seaters, with big curved armrests at the rear, and seat backs that extend around the front corners to create supportive comfort. Four big cushions enhance that comfort factor. And if you step inside a Crusader, we guess it’s the cushion fabric that will visually impress you the most. Two of the cushions have exquisite embroidery; a rather traditional floral creation in shades of lemon, subtle yellows and browns. The other two are shiny brown fabric, matching the bands and edging on the curtains, which are a beautiful fine pattern combination of white and shiny cream. The whole effect is luxurious.
 

Kitchen

It’s a couple of years now since Elddis introduced its big, black shiny sinks with small drainer sections close to the tap (just enough space for two mugs). We love them not just for their appearance (very much like basalt rock with tiny sparkly bits) but also for their practical size; 32x38cm is enough space for easy washing up. That’s important in a caravan, when you consider that, as most people have machines at home to do the boring after-meals task, on holiday, the job has to be easy.

The Aurora’s kitchen isn’t well blessed with lower storage space, so good organisation about what goes where would be needed. When we owned a caravan with a kitchen of very similar dimensions, we bought a couple of plastic boxes and used them under the lounge seating, for kitchen paraphernalia. It worked well; we kept the caravan for seven happy years.

Upper storage space is fine for all tableware needs; the double-doored cabinet alongside the microwave is 71cm wide. And you won’t have to find space here for your goblets; there is a dedicated cabinet opposite, above the TV position, with eight goblet holders and a recess for a drinks bottle.

Lighting in the kitchen is first-rate, both in practical and styling terms. Four clusters of bright, white LEDs focus light down on the surface and dual-fuel hob. And a stream of yellow light is directed down the front of the kitchen cabinets from a strip of LEDs hidden under the front edge of the surface; a lovely feature!
 

Towing

As you’d expect, Crusaders are equipped with AL-KO’s ATC automatic electronic sway detection device that corrects the first sign of snaking before it has chance to develop into something concerning.

On its brief test tow the Aurora-SsangYong outfit felt great; I could have set off across the continent happily with this mid-length, mid-weight caravan.
 

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Our verdict

At £22,599 the new Aurora compares favourably to its competition. Its equipment level is high, with Alde heating, an extractor fan and lots of impressive lighting features. The Aurora’s internal and external appearance is distinctive; this is a caravan to pick if you want to be noticed on the road and on pitches!

Advantages

The 40cm bed retracting facility
The Alde heating
The level and style of lighting
The Champagne sides!

Disadvantages

You have to hold the bed up when you need stuff from its storage area.

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