Coachman VIP 565/4

The Coachman VIP 565/4 is a quality twin-bed option that has an air of sophistication, and a bedroom that feels very separate

With more than 20 options in the twin-bed sector, choosing the one that’s perfect for you might be a daunting prospect. Especially when you realise that there is so much choice, in particular, in what is best described as the luxury bracket. It's this category into which the VIP’s twin-bed model fits.
But before we investigate the VIP 565/4’s equipment, it’s worth saying that one of its distinguishing features is its door. The handle is big and chunky. The door frame is dark brown, matching the wheel arch cover and skirt. The window in the door is deep. When you open the door, you find that the lever-style handle mechanism on the inside is more like a house door than that you’d expect to find on a caravan; it turns in exactly the same way might find on a front door of a house. And when you want the door to stay open, it secures on a neat, circular magnetic catch. Now we realise that few buyers will be swayed towards a caravan because of its door, but it serves to illustrate that Coachman does things differently. And robustly.
Below the slim, deep window, a rubbish bin is mounted on a slightly recessed panel. We’ve never been fans of bins on doors (why would you want a bin in your lounge?) but this one is far more acceptable than the majority. It's smaller, for one thing, and it’s colour-integrated with the surround for that big, chunky metal handle.
So far, we’ve analysed a door and a bin. Unimportant? You might say. But the more we look at the 565 the more we find elements that make this caravan different from its potential rivals. Spec is high, speakers in the bedroom, an alarm system, an extractor fan, a floor level light in the bedroom and a solar panel mounted on the roof. Here’s another difference. This time a big one. The wardrobe is just aft of the door, where you’d often find a dresser. Its position here means that instantly the bedroom is clearly segmented from the kitchen and lounge, by a big tall piece of furniture.
From here you walk down the corridor between the beds to the shower room…
 

Showering

With a 64-cm depth of floor space, the shower room isn’t enormous. But then the caravan is of a comparatively modest body length at 5.8m. The same goes for the shower, at 67cm square; if you are looking for enormous washroom space you won’t find it in the 565. What you will find is robust fixtures and fittings everywhere. Take the shower door for example. It's a single-piece unit. It doesn’t flex when you open and close it. Again, we’re reminded of something you’d find in a house. The house analogy does on with the basin, at 49cm wide and 29cm deep, it's easily a similar size you'd find in a domestic bathroom.
Provision for towels is excellent, with a wide bar on the rear wall and, on the forward wall, a loop plus a double hook. The loop is almost directly above the outlet for the blown air heating system. That’s the Truma Combi, which delivers 6kW of output on gas and 1.8kW on electricity.
 

Sleeping

Both beds at 72cm wide. The offside bed is 1.8m long and the nearside slightly shorter at 1.83m. The mattresses are sprung, and 16m deep, they feel fairly firm. And there higher than average; the tops of the mattresses are 60cm above floor level. Which means that there is a greater storage space beneath them than in some caravans.
At the front, if you use the settees as single beds, you’ll find they are nice and wide at 76cm. Lengths are 1.51m and 1.58m, making them ideal for junior caravanners.
You can of course make up a double here; Coachman’s lounge bed construction involves a metal frame which you draw out from under the offside settee. It glides out, smoothly and with minimal effort required. The same very refined mechanism benefits the storage access procedure here…
 

Storage

The double bed frame construction precludes the inclusion of a drop-down door to the under-settee space. But that’s no problem. Because the mechanism for lifting the settee base is so well engineered that you just give the frame a quick pull and it rises on its own, on hefty gas-filled struts. There isn’t much space in this locker, though; as you'd expect, it's mainly occupied by the Truma space and water heating unit and the charger. The alarm system is in here, too.
The nearside settee locker, though, is clear of equipment. And the same easy-rise mechanism that we find on the offside makes getting in from the top a better option than using the front opening.
The 565’s wardrobe gives you full hanging depth (1.36m) and a rail width of 62cm, which puts this caravan easily into the category of models with good-sized wardrobes. Two drawers, each 23cm deep, are beneath the wardrobe. And there’s an additional drawer set into the base of the offside bed. Above this drawer is a recess, the same size as the drawer; it’s a simple yet clever design. That’s the socks taken care of, then. The bed base areas have front doors and rising mechanisms of the same smooth-action design as the ones at the front. Three lockers and two shelves are above each bed, and there are three drawers in the central front cabinet. In total, the 565’s storage capability is first-rate for a caravan of average size.
 

Dining

For breakfast or snacks, or even dinner, the pull-out chest-of-drawers top creates a table length of 82cm. when you want more dinner space, or four are eating, you can open the door of a small cabinet alongside the wardrobe and extract the large table quickly and easily; vertically-stored tabled get our praise every time compared with tables that go under seating or beds.
 

Lounging

 
It’s not the longest lounge in caravans but it is nice and cosy. Fabrics are slightly traditional, with floral backrest detail that's repeated on two of the four cushions; the other two are fawn, matching the curtains, and with a raised, tactile geometric pattern that also edges the curtain tie-backs. The whole fabric effect is rather classic in appeal. The lighting design, though, is ultra modern, with white light streaming across the ceiling from rows of LEDs concealed above the lockers, and from more LEDs set into curved fitments in each front corner. The modern light design melds pleasingly with the classic fabrics.
 

Kitchen

VIPs have permanent, recessed drainers and single hinged glass tops which, when in position, create the majority of the working surface. When it’s down, there is a length of 92cm. When it's raised, though, you have only 25cm, from the forward edge of the drainer to the end of the kitchen. This section, though, is deeper, at 70cm, than the main part of the kitchen, because the surface extends over the fridge, which is slightly deeper than the kitchen units. It's a kitchen in which careful organisation would be needed but, accepting that, it’s fine.
Lower storage, though, isn’t generous. The cabinet, between the fridge and the oven, is 34cm wide but there is only one shelf, because the lower space is occupied by gas taps and, behind these, the wheel arch. But with all that storage space elsewhere, options for stowing kitchen stuff exist under the settees, under the beds and possibly the two drawers under the wardrobe, it's just a case of thinking outside the kitchen…
Higher cabinet space, though, is good. Two top-hinged doors reveal cabinets of 39cm and 50cm in width. Fitments for four mugs, plates and bowls are in here, plus clips for two bottles and, in a section fronted by a tinted acrylic panel, recesses for six stemmed goblets. The doors are cream, with metal banding and large brushed steel handles; it’s a very stylish look.
Strips of very bright LED lights run above both the sink-drainer area and the (dual fuel) hob, providing a good spread of lighting exactly where you need it.
 

Towing

VIPs are equipped with AL-KO’s stability control system, ATC; buyers will value its presence on a single axle caravan of this weight – even though on its test tow, inherent stability was a trait that was obvious, it’s good to know there is something electronic underneath the caravan, providing an extra safety margin. For those who aren’t aware, ATC detects a first sign of snaking and automatically applies caravan braking to correct it.

The Coachman VIP 565/4 is a caravan for connoisseurs, for people who seek quality and a high level of equipment, for people who like drawers and doors to close with a resounding clunk that tells you they are robustly made, and for buyers who appreciate the finer things in caravan life.