Coachman Laser 650/4

The Coachman Laaser 650/4 caravan has all the trimmings including a water tank and a safe. It’s the bedroom, though, that makes this new arrival for 2015 a truly awesome caravan. This caravan won Caravan magazine’s Best Luxury Caravan Award for 2015.

Just occasionally the British caravan world is taken by surprise with the arrival of a layout never before seen. Coachman’s ground-breaking layout for 2015 gives the buying public an exciting new option, with a bedroom design that looks like a miniature, and delightfully cosy, ensuite hotel room.

The bed head is against the rear wall. That feature marks the 650 out as unusual amid the current domination of transverse island bed layouts. The 650, though, isn’t just unusual. It takes a giant step out into caravan layout invention. It’s not just the head of the bed that’s against a wall. The foot of the bed is against a wall, too. It’s a three-part wall, with two outer sections that are sliding doors.

Slide the doors closed and you have surely the cosiest bedroom in any tourer, completely closed off from the rest of the caravan. Open either door and you are in the ensuite area, with the shower on the nearside and the toilet opposite.
A door on the forward end of the ensuite room leads into the rest of the caravan. It’s an awesome arrangement.

The 650/4 was launched in October 2014, bringing the number of layouts in the twin-axle, high-spec Laser range to three.
And there’s more news from Coachman. The identical bedroom and ensuite layout also appears in a new single-axle model, the VIP 545/4. Which is important to buyers who prefer their caravans on two wheels rather than four, and who are looking for something lighter and with a lower price. The VIP 545/4 costs £2650 less, at £23,995 and has an MTPLM figure of 1670kg. Both models have Alde heating. This shorter, lighter version of the same layout has been achieved by making the kitchen smaller.

Laser spec is up there with the best. When you step inside a 650/4 there are elements of that spec that are much less obvious than the luxurious layout and looks that catch the eyes first. There’s an alarm system with PIR and tilt sensors. The control is a keyfob that also has a switch for the awning light. And extra security comes in the form of a Phantom tracking system.

Even less obvious are the 80-watt solar panel mounted on the roof, and the slim, single spindle, high gain, omni-directional aerial which receives TV as well as radio signals. And you’re not likely to notice the onboard water tank, although you’ll truly appreciate its presence especially when you’re caravanning in winter.

It’s the innovative shower arrangements, though, that grab the attention first in the Laser 650.
 

Showering

 
The showering and washing area spans the full width of the caravan and is one metre deep. That’s about the size of the average end washroom and is bigger than many.

The shower is semi-circular, measuring 70cm x 76cm deep. Two towel hooks and a loop are on the wall directly alongside the shower, above the Alde-heated towel rail. Full marks for towel provision, then. The washbasin is in the centre, mounted on the wall that divides the bedroom from the washing area. Floor space is good and so is illumination, with 18 bright LEDs set within frosted sections of the mirror, plus four ceiling lights.

A top-opening linen cabinet, 49cm deep, sits against the forward wall. It’s lined with a cotton bag, secured by press-studs so that it can be removed. The idea is to stow items waiting to be washed here but we think if the caravan were ours we’d use it for storing towels or clothing ready to be worn, rather than ready to be washed.

Perhaps the aspect of the washing area we like best is the two doors. Or should we say three… You can open the door by the shower and leave the toilet area secluded. You can do the same with the shower side. And you can close the forward door, so you can’t see any aspect of the washing and sleeping area from the lounge.
 

Sleeping

 
The bed is only 1.81m long, which won’t suit everyone. And you can’t overhang your feet because the end of the bed is against a wall.

Wardrobes are on each side of the bed, with shelves and deep cabinets under each one.

Heat from the Alde system emits from meshed apertures in wooden casements that run alongside the walls under both windows.

These windows have folded pelmets, matching the fabric of the lounge curtains and bringing the gorgeous bright blue shade of the lounge into the bedroom décor. The headboard is blue, too. Strips of LED lights are concealed above the windows and there are two spotlights above the bed. Two more, tiny, spotlights are set into the base of the bed. We felt, though, that the overall illumination level was a little too low as daylight faded.

The Ozio vertically-lapped polyester fibre mattress feels quite soft to sit on, yet when you like on it, it feels very supportive.

This is a bedroom designed for television watchers. There’s a bracket for your TV in the centre of the dividing wall, together with the master light switch.

Is it the cosiest bedroom in any caravan? We think so.
 

Storage

We started our storage analysis in the bedroom, under the bed. It rises easily. There’s no frame to get in the way of lifting things in and out. And there’s a surprise under the bed: an AL-KO safe, mounted to the floor; it’s part of the standard equipment.

Upper lounge storage consists of six lockers. There’s a full-length door to the space under the nearside settee. You get into the corresponding offside space by raising the settee base; that’s because the base of the lounge double bed forms part of the settee base structure.
 

Dining

The extending centre-front table top gives you a surface measuring a generous 82cm x 63cm. When you need the four-seater table, getting it out of its dedicated cabinet alongside the door is an easy task.

 
Lounging

This is a four-seater lounge, with armrests at both ends. The fabric scheme is beautifully designed, with settee back edging matching the top sections of the armrests. There’s good shelf space below the wide sunroof. And good illumination, from lights above the top-lockers, a ceiling lights, two concealed corner lights and four spotlights.
 

Kitchen

The kitchen has three drawers and two cabinets. The forward cabinet is 42cm wide and has two shelf spaces. The second cabinet, although 60cm wide, effectively only has one shelf because the wheel arch intrudes into the space. But that doesn’t matter, because the overall storage capability of the kitchen, with two large top lockers, is generous.

The fridge is opposite the kitchen. It’s Thetford’s new slimline 140-litre model, slightly smaller than that 175-litre fridge freezer in the other two Lasers, but then compromise is easy to accept to achieve such a magnificent bedroom arrangement.

The extractor fan is brilliantly positioned almost directly above the hob.
 

Towing

It goes without saying that a caravan in this spec bracket will have the ATC stability control system. With four chunks of rubber to keep you glued to the road one might say its presence is not as important as on a single-axle caravan. But it’s nice to know the automatic electronic control device is there anyway, especially if you encounter gusty winds.

There was no wind speed to deflect the Laser on its test tow, though, and it performed smoothly throughout. And on typical caravan site speed humps this caravan’s suspension is noticeably smoother than most caravans we tow.

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Coachman Lasers are created for discerning buyers. The latest Laser performs an additional function. Its bedroom design sits on a fence between a cosy hotel room and a caravan. And that could just be the key to drawing a new sector of people into caravanning; people, perhaps, who had never before considered caravanning; people whose hitherto holiday mode is about renting plush studio apartments, with, yes, a bedroom and ensuite and a separate kitchen-lounge-diner, just like the Laser 650.