Full review

If you’re looking for length, high spec, a fixed bed – and the on-tow benefit of twin-axle stability, the 2012 Delta RS could well deserve a place on your shortlist.
At £24,000, you’d expect a high level of equipment – and you get it. The real surprise is the weight. At only 1710kg, the RS is one of the lightest caravans in its class.
It’s also distinguished by the shape of its lounge. Or rather the three shapes of lounge you can choose. You can have the standard parallel seating; or wrap-around seating (for an extra £119); or the L-shaped lounge of our review model, at an extra £175. This gives you more floor space and a more open aspect than with the more familiar parallel seating.
There are lots of niceties in the RS, including loads of lighting. But the main appeal of the RS is the amount of living and cooking space you get.
The mattress is pocket-sprung and really comfortable. The shower is a large one – and has a door which is hinged about 10cm inside the door frame, so that when the door is open, it takes up less room. The shower head is the ‘Eco Camel’ model, with an air inlet at the base of the handle; when air mixes with the water it increases the flow rate, so you use less water.
Redesigned kitchens incorporate a Sanyo digital microwave for 2012, plus new kitchen locker doors and a chunky domestic-style swan-neck mixer tap.
 

Showering

End washrooms are always a bit special and this Delta’s is no exception, with a proper, chunky domestic-style door and acres of space for washing, changing and general pampering.
There’s the latest Thetford C-250 loo with electric flush and 18-litre wheeled cassette. There’s also a mirror above the basin. The large step-in shower cubicle has a deep lip and big, simply stylish, clear door. Plenty of storage is available in a cabinet under the sink, and there are various shelves. There’s a single locker over the loo – and a nice touch in the form of what you might term a laundry basket. It’s a cabinet with a linen bag inside, suspended on four hooks – very practical and keeps stuff out of the way. A radiator and towel rail indicates the presence of Alde’s central heating system. The obscured window and roof vent let in ample daylight light.  By night, there are three separate lights in here – including a light inside the shower cabinet and a pull-cord to operate the main light.
 

Sleeping

The roomy fixed bed towards the back of the Delta RS has a firmly supportive pocket-sprung mattress, providing a comfortable sleeping environment, although very tall folk might be better off making a bed in the 2.1m long transverse front double that you can make up in the lounge.
As with most side-mounted fixed beds, this one tapers towards the foot end, meaning one occupant might end up sleeping at a slight angle to avoid getting cold feet during night.
You can separate the sleeping compartment from the lounge by closing the Venetian blind at the foot of the bed and drawing a concertina partition across the central gangway.
As you’d expect in a luxury caravan, lighting is excellent throughout, with an array of directional LED spotlights, ceiling lights and corner lights.
 

Storage

We kept finding more and more spaces to store things every time we opened another door. For starters, the Delta has 12 overhead lockers in the lounge and bedroom, then there’s a big wardrobe with a set of drawers underneath, plus a huge amount of kitchen storage space – and yet more options in a cupboard and drawers in the low-level dresser opposite. And if that isn’t enough, there are more gargantuan stowage opportunities underneath the fixed bed and the front settees.
With so much storage space available, it’s unlikely that a couple will ever want for space to stow clothing or personal effects and, even with all the clobber associated with children, the Delta should still have ample room for everything to have its place. Bear in mind that the payload is 160kg; the danger of having so much storage space is that it puts you at risk of overloading the caravan. Just because the space is there, you don’t have to fill it!
 

Dining

When it comes to mealtimes, the front lounge is the only option for dining in this layout and, truth be told, it’s lacking a little in the shoulder-room department if four adults are going to dine in comfort. It’s fine for two grown-ups and two children, but is less well suited for entertaining friends. The stand-alone table is spacious enough for four place settings. But with an L-shaped lounge you are restricted on the number of people who can sit around the table; if you need to seat four on a regular basis, the wrap-around or parallel options would be more practical.
For quiet dinners for two, however, the sumptuous upholstery, extensive range of lighting options and the culinary capacity of the superb kitchen mean that five-star fare is definitely on the cards.
 

Lounging

For such a large caravan, the lounge is actually quite small and is only just big enough to accommodate four adults in its parallel-seated form. The designers have taken space away from the lounge and used it in the kitchen area amidships, which is absolutely huge. So, although the lounge seating area is quite modest, the wide open space adjacent in the kitchen, with the low dresser opposite, creates the impression of an enormously spacious caravan.
    If you go for the L-shaped option of our test example, the lounge looks and feels more open. And the U-shaped option gives you more seating space.
The oatmeal upholstery feels very lavish and is nicely supportive. The textured fabrics are quite traditional, and the inclusion of four scatter cushions and back rolls lends a really expensive feel. To increase the lounge’s comfort and capacity, we’d be tempted to go for the £119 wraparound-seating option.
 

Kitchen

This is one of the Delta’s real strengths and we were seriously impressed with the RS’s large, well-equipped kitchen. That compact lounge frees up a huge amount of space around the kitchen, which is ideal for enthusiastic chefs. There’s plenty of worktop space on the long galley, which incorporates a four-burner hob and separate oven and grill, with a digital microwave over the huge 171-litre fridge-freezer.
The low dresser opposite the kitchen offers extra space for storing plates or accommodating completed culinary masterpieces prior to dishing up and the whole uncluttered area is just a joy for folk who take their cooking seriously. There’s a huge amount of storage in the shelves and pull-out wire racks under the work surface.
 
 

Towing

A twin-axle caravan is bound to earn praise from us in terms of stability simply because two axles are better than one at maintaining stability. Add in the reassurance of AL-KO’s ATC system and stability doesn’t come much better than this.