Elddis Avanté 372

The Elddis Avanté 372 is the second tiny, lightweight two-berth from Elddis – with an amazingly clever layout

When Elddis launched its miniscule Xplore 302, the manufacturer gave us the shortest caravan made in Britain. Now, two years on, we have a second tiny two-berth…
The Xplore 302 set two new standards in caravan design. It was the first caravan to use the Whale blown-air heating unit that’s mounted under the floor. And its innovative layout, with an L-shaped lounge, enabled the designers to make a caravan that’s just 3.2m long. A 304 (four-berth) followed; now, the concept of the L-shaped lounge and short length has leaped up into Avanté spec, in the shape of the 372 – and with a shower room that is ingenious…
 

Showering

The 372’s shower room sits behind the kitchen and occupies just over half the caravan’s width. You step straight into the shower tray and the toilet is on your left, with a bi-fold door between the two. The 372’s star feature its washbasin: this swings out over the toilet from beneath a curved plastic cabinet. That’s loo, basin and shower all crammed into a room only 66cm deep and 1.22m wide. It’s a brilliant design and very practical.
 

Sleeping

You could use the lounge as two single beds; each of the settees is 2m long. But your feet would be sharing the area in the corner. We think most 372 buyers will make up the double bed, by drawing out the wooden base from under the front settee. The brilliance of this design is that when the double bed is made, you still have a seating area. In a more conventional two-berth, the bed swallows up all the seating.
 

Storage

That cabinet between the settee and the door is where we begin our evaluation of the 372’s storage facilities. There are four drawers here, plus a cupboard beneath them with a drop down door. That’s more storage capacity, in total, than you get in the two wider drawers at the front of a parallel lounge layout.
The 372’s wardrobe is almost as ingenious as its shower room. It has two rails, one above another. Ample space is underneath for shoes. And there are two shelves on the left side of the wardrobe.
There’s just about enough space for your duvet and pillows under the nearside settee. Access here is easy, either via the front hatch or by lifting up the upholstery.
Further storage opportunities in this area are a drawer under the front settee and a small cupboard under the offside window.
 

Dining

As with all L-shaped caravan seating, you can’t sit opposite your partner to dine. You either sit side by side, or one sits at the shorter end of the table, with feet astride the table legs.
 

Lounging

Lie back and relax! This is a lovely lounge. The person who nestles their back into the nearside corner of the L-shape gets the best deal, of course. But two cushions can create comfort at either of the other two settee ends. You could put them against the wall near the window or, at the other end of the “L”, against the cabinet where you’ll find your television sockets. How you decide to sit here depends on whether you’re watching television or looking out of the windows at a fantastic view.
   A deep window on the offside lets in plenty of light and a ledge beneath it gives you somewhere to put your coffee mugs.
   Both outlets for the Whale blown air system are in the lounge. One faces down the caravan, the other across its width. The heater unit is mounted under the floor. That’s a key reason why all the furniture you need can be crammed into a short length of caravan; there is no Truma heater to accommodate within the layout. On test, we found the Whale heater to be impressively efficient. It warmed the 372 in 10 minutes in a temperature of only 5 degrees C.
 

Kitchen

The kitchen is 1.82cm long, which seems incredibly generous in such a small caravan. And it has more storage space than many kitchens in caravans much longer than the 372. A 74cm-long stretch of working surface lies to the left of the large, circular, brushed-steel sink.
   The hob has four burners. The microwave is to the left of the oven and grill, in a conveniently low position. The large cupboard underneath it is almost cube-shaped, at 53cm high, 53cm wide and 55cm deep. Two huge top lockers give ample space for tall cereal packets and other lightweight food items. There’s space here for  tableware, too. Two shelves to the right of the top lockers give space for items when you’re not towing; the top shelf has a pale green frosted plastic edging that looks like glass – a very nice, simple, touch of design, matching inserts in the white-fronted top lockers here.
 

Towing

You can push the 372 onto pitches easily, by hand. You can easily pull it forward to your towball by hand, too. But how does it tow? The simple answer is: Like a nimble goat. We found it to be firm on corners and roundabouts and overall gave us an easy tow – albeit behind a vehicle that’s much heavier than one needed for the 372. This caravan is light enough to be towed by cars in the VW Golf bracket.
 

The Elddis Avanté 372 has a brilliant layout, brilliant weight and is brilliant quality. A star buy