Full review

AUTO-TRAIL has sunk a lot of time and effort into perfecting their take on the latest trend to hit the motorhome world – that of the compact (relative to those massive tag-axle efforts) island bed motorhome.

Until recently, this sort of motorhome was practically non-existent on these shores. Yes, there was the odd island bed model within the rarefied realms of top-end tag-axle monsters the size of coaches, but not much else.

Clearly today, the industry thinks demand in this country for such a motorhome is here to stay, irrespective of dark mutterings audible from some nay-saying corners of the UK.

But even the best of the current breed have to concede compromise somewhere in their make-up.

The problem is that where traditional en-suite longitudinal fixed bed motorhomes manage to keep enough floor space back to create a good-sized kitchen and lounge up front, island bed designs take up a good third of a 7.5m-long motorhome’s interior length with the bedroom, meaning compromises have to be made elsewhere to avoid the lengthening of the chassis to include six wheels and the body up to 8.5m or so.

Some, like Chausson, Itineo and Esterel, try to get around the problem by making the island bed transverse, while others – Burstner, for instance, have decided that the missing inches can be found by making the kitchen smaller.

Auto-Trail, however, has taken the rather radical decision of sacrificing the Delaware’s lounge to the laws of physics. The thing is: was that the right decision to take?

On the face of it, the pragmatist would have to say – and with some justification – that it wasn’t.

A motorhome’s lounge is, after all, its social heart, and there will be those who will cross the Delaware off their shopping list for no other reason than it can’t physically sit more than four folk for a sociable evening.

And yet, this is, at the end of the day, a two-berth motorhome. Granted, it can sleep three at a pinch (four or five if you take up the no-cost option of an overcab bed in lieu of the low-profile’s lockers), but it has been designed specifically for just two people and it only has two travel seats (those in the cab). Looked at in this light, the lounge suddenly doesn’t seem so bad after all.

First impressions of the galley are rather mixed, as you take in the encouragingly good news – the dual-fuel domestic-style cooker, 149-litre true fridge/freezer, ample locker space, more than ample worktop space, good lighting – only to discover that Auto-Trail appear to have deemed a kitchen sink an unnecessary luxury.

A closer look reveals, of course, that the upper section of kitchen unit that impinges into the central walkway actually slides further out still, revealing a good-sized sink, but not at the expense of valuable worktop space.

Granted, you can’t physically walk past the kitchen into the washroom or bedroom areas with the sink cover extended, but in terms of sheer simple genius, the Delaware’s kitchen is arguably right up there with the likes of Autocruise’s Rhythm and Wentworth.

The Delaware’s washroom is split into two separate rooms across the motorhome, with the shower cubicle on the offside and the toilet/washbasin on the nearside.

And its bedroom is one of the best of the current breed. The bed itself measures 6ft 2in by 4ft 5in, although the raised rear floor level (which extends to the washroom area) does cut available headroom therein from the super-generous 6ft 7in enjoyed by the rest of the motorhome to a more restrictive 6ft 1in.

Verdict

The bad news – small waste water tank, some cheap-feeling washroom fittings small lounge, high price – is far outweighed by the good news with this latest addition to the sub-8m island bed ranks.

Like its rivals, it’s not perfect, but it is closely matched to the similarly priced Rapido 7090+. And praise doesn’t come much higher than that.

A full version of this review first appeared in the April 2008 issue of Which Motorcaravan. To subscribe to the magazine, click here.