Full review

Chausson has surely become the market leader when it comes to low-profiles equipped with a drop-down bed. We’ve seen just about every possible permutation from this innovative French firm, even lowerable single beds and, new this year, bunk beds.

Chausson calls them Hideaway beds and in its Maxi Lounge models they form the main sleeping area, although you can still reassemble the lounge seats to make a bed underneath the drop-down one – creating sort of double bunks – if you need four berths.

Maxi Lounge models, predictably, major on living space rather than offering fixed beds, so they seem ideally suited to British tastes.

In the 2018 range there are four such models: 510 (the compact one, at 5.99m overall), 610 (which Chausson describes as “the reference” – its big plus over the 510 is the large rear garage), 630 (with unique drop-down single beds) and the new-this-season 640. The 640 is closely related to the existing 630 but, rather than lengthways single beds, it has a king-sized transverse double.

As in certain other Chaussons, the bed comes right down to seat level, once you’ve also lowered the dining table, too – there are switches for both in the galley, with a key-operated cut-off to stop little fingers being tempted to play. Fully lowered, the mattress is just 820mm off the floor. More impressive, though, is the 1.91m by 1.60m size of the bed – there’s plenty of room to spread out here.

The lounge is roomy, too, with space for six folk to be comfortably accommodated. The fold-in-half table does snack and gastronomic roles in its two positions but cannot be removed altogether. That doesn’t really matter because it doesn’t seem to get in the way in this very open-plan layout and the rear passenger seats that adapt from the settees are on either side of it.

The kitchen (on the UK nearside) has loads of worktop area, thanks in part to an extension flap at the forward end. New for the British market, too, is a better cooker with mains hotplate and combined oven/grill: you’ll see it in our kitchen image, while the rest of the shots show a French spec ’van. Both UK and Gallic versions come with a 167-litre Thetford two-door fridge/freezer with Smart Energy Selection (so it chooses its own power source).

As in the 610 and 630, there’s a step up into a huge rear washroom, where you’ll find a supersized wardrobe, XL shower and plenty of worktop next to the basin. This is a near-perfect washing and changing room.

Equally impressive is the garage that resides beyond the bathroom, in the stern. It has three large loading doors, 1.25m internal headroom, 12V and 230V sockets and heating and lighting. The only limiting factor, perhaps, is the 150kg maximum weight for this huge loading space. The 640 is available on both Ford and Fiat (as shown) base vehicles and in Welcome (here) or Flash spec (for £2,810 less).

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