Elddis Avanté 574

£15,949 • MTPLM 1435kg • MIRO 1285kg

The latest Avanté brings twin beds to this mid-priced range of caravans. It’s a layout similar to the Elddis Crusader Shamal, at £4350 less

Review first appeared in Caravan Buyer magazine March 2012

Showering 7/10

A strength of this type of twin-bed layout is that it allows you to have a full-width shower room, which you can get to easily via a clear aisle down the centre of the caravan between the beds.

The Avanté 574’s shower room is respectable for its price range; though it’s smaller and understandably less luxurious than its big brothers the Odyssey 650, the Crusader Shamal and Supercyclone.

The shower itself is fully lined and has domestic-style fittings, but it’s very close to the sink and this compromises the width of the doorway, making it feel quite narrow. There’s good provision for hanging towels, and two shallow areas of shelving for your bits and bobs. The loo at the far end has ample knee room too.

The shower room has a massive mirror, bright and practical, although there’s no full-length mirror in the caravan, and it’s not particularly practical for drying hair; you’d have to stand at the foot of the bed with the shower room door open to see what you were doing.

Sleeping 8/10

The single beds are high, comfortable and a great idea for sleeping at night and for lounging by day. Each has its own reading light and there’s one TV bracket (the caravan has two) at the foot of one bed. This is technically a four berth, but it’s unashamedly designed for use by a couple; the bed arrangement that makes up in the lounge would only work as a transverse double, not two singles, because the seating isn’t full length.

Storage 16/20

All these caravans with single beds benefit from two huge cavities underneath the mattresses, and we think this storage is much more practical than the cavern under a double bed. In the Avanté 574’s case there’s not much in the way of equipment or panelling to restrict that space; just a small amount of tubing for the blown air heating.

One bed has a hatch to the outside too. The overhead lockers are respectable, though less deep than those you’ll find in 2012’s more rounded profiles such as Crusader. The wardrobe’s ample for two people – even though doesn’t have the multiple rails that Elddis has put in its more costly ranges this year.

Dining 8/10

Comfortable seating with curved corners to the armrests make this a practical area; we’d opt for the U-shaped seating instead of the front cabinet, at an added cost of £149, and the practical Aquaclean fabric option at £249. This is stain resistant and is also the plainest and, in our opinion, most attractive Avanté fabric this year.

Lounging 7/10

It’s comfortable, it’s convenient for the kitchen and there’s a TV bracket exactly where you need it, on the wall by the caravan door. Just one power point here, though, so watching DVDs (if your DVD player is separate from your television) could be a bit of a challenge – the nearest power point for this is over the corridor in the kitchen.

Kitchen 13/20

Some of Avanté’s kitchens seem tight on space this year when compared with the cheaper Elddis Xplore range. Xplore layouts have incorporated Whale underfloor heating and freed up cupboard space. Only one Avanté model has that layout advantage to date. To be fair about this, one otherwise very useful cupboard is occupied by a microwave. This 574 has a more satisfactory kitchen than some of its sisters. There’s a row of three drawers and a cupboard, plus a large plate locker and a 115-litre electronic ignition fridge and we think this kitchen is perfectly adequate for a couple. Workspace is about 30cm next to the sink, plus a toughened glass cover to the four burner hob. One thing we do like is the contrasting locker doors and microwave mount in this year’s Avantés. We think they look a lot smarter and the microwaves are a much neater fit than in some other caravans.

Build 6/10

This model has Grade III Thermal insulation, though it’s fair to say that most modern British caravans are built to be warm in winter these days. All Elddis awning rails are filled with white padding this year; we’re hoping this will reduce the vertical streaking that black awning rail padding can cause on caravan sides.

Towing 7/10

There’s very little to report here – Avantés are good as gold. They are on BPW chassis so you will notice slightly different handbrakes and hitch head stabilisers. We strongly recommend upgrading to have iDC stability control, at £549. It corrects early signs of snaking by applying the caravan’s brakes. SP 

 

VERDICT 68/100

Good value, but look out for more versions of this layout to come

TOWMATCH INFO

Weight (MTPLM): 1435kg

To tow this caravan at 85% you need a car kerbweight of 1688kg

To tow this caravan at 100% you need a car kerbweight of 1435kg

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