Elddis Crusader Cyclone

The Elddis Crusader Cyclone is rare caravan with two distinct rooms. It also has high spec and the enhanced stability of twin axles.

For at least two generations of caravanners, Crusaders have been tourers to which buyers have aspired. They’ve been long considered to be up there among the best, in terms of high levels of equipment and finesse. They’re relatively heavy, and pricey, as a consequence of all that equipment. But that’s not a criticism. Those factors actually enhance Crusaders’ appeal to the discerning buyers for whom they are designed.

If you’re in the market for a £24,499 caravan (that’s the price of the five twin-axles in the seven-model range for 2014), you expect a big, high-spec tourer and you probably already have the ideal vehicle to tow it. So what, apart from length and weight, defines 2014’s twin-axle Crusaders? We had a Cyclone, and a week to find out.

Our cold-weather test provided ideal opportunity to flex the muscles of the Alde central heating system. Not quick to warm up on electricity (our test caravan wasn’t supplied with gas) but impressively efficient once it gets into its stride; the hot water that circulates around the caravan warms everything from the walls inwards, in an evenly-distributed, cocooning manner.

The Cyclone’s layout is now a rarity amid the fashion for island beds to be aligned across the caravan. This one has its headboard against the rear wall, with separate shower and toilet compartments forward of the bedroom. There is only one other twin-axle caravan with this layout for 2014; that’s the Buccaneer Caravel.
Time for a shower? This wasn’t a live-in test but we can pretend…
 

Showering

The Cyclone divides itself distinctly into two rooms. Few caravans have such an obvious delineation between lounge-kitchen and bedroom area. You open a door (just like one in a house) and enter the bedroom, with en suite showering facilities. You close the door behind you and you in a very separate room. This is surely caravanning splendour, in layout terms.

The shower is on the offside. It’s almost circular, about 65cm in diameter, which isn’t large by caravan standards, compared with rectangular showers. But few will complain, for this shower’s key attribute is its position. You step out of it straight into your bedroom. But before you step out, linger a minute, under the seemingly endless supply of gorgeous hot water feeding through from the Alde system and the 40-litre onboard tank, to take note of some style points. A very bright cluster of LED lights is set into a black circular mount in the centre of the roof. More smart black defines the recesses into which the riser bar and tap are set. Stunning! But although this shower has a soap tray, there is only a small ledge, around the riser bar, for shower gel and shampoo.

There’s no shortage of shelves in the washbasin and toilet room, across the corridor on the nearside, though. Alongside the washbasin, a tall cabinet gives you six shelf spaces. A cupboard is under the sink, and there’s surface space on the wood-clad wheel arch housing that also features three outlets for the central heating system. A towel loop is high up on the wall above these outlets, ideally placed to facilitate drying. But this is the only place to hang towels; a second loop, hook or bar would be wanted by most buyers (hardly a major issue, though).

So that now we’d finished our imaginary shower routine, and dressed and preened in front of the big mirror over the washbasin and plugged in our hairdryer by the mirror in the bedroom, we open the door. Or do we close the door? Both are correct. The door to the bedroom-shower area is also the door to the toilet-washbasin room. And there’s also a pleated partition, to the rear of the shower corridor, to divide off the bed area. It’s a brilliant arrangement. And it’s important if you are using the Cyclone as a four-berth…
 

Sleeping

The Cyclone’s major appeal is to couples, but this is a true four-berth, with settee-single beds 1.63m long (good for children) or a double making up by sliding out a slatted central base. In family mode, that pleated partition in front of the rear bed becomes important, and access to the toilet and shower can be had from either end. This layout has obvious advantages over one with a rear toilet-shower room, in which lounge-bed occupants have to walk through the bedroom to get to the loo.

Looking back from the lounge, down what seems to be a long corridor, to the bedroom, there’s a feature that seems to elongate the Cyclone. It’s a long caravan, at eight metres from tail lights to hitch, but it actually looks even longer. That’s because the wooden base of the bed is shorter than the metal frame within which the slats are mounted. By 33cm. So you get 33cm more floor space, which has both a practical and visual impact. There is ample space, even with a duvet in place and overhanging the bed, to walk around it to the wardrobes on the rear wall at each side.

Each wardrobe gives you 38cm of hanging width and just over a metre of length for garments. Beneath, you have three deep shelf spaces for shoes and folded garments. More storage is above the bed head, and two corner cabinets are on the forward bedroom wall. The one on the offside has a mirror, a bright light set into the ceiling above it, and the power point we “used” earlier to dry hair after our imaginary shower.

There’s a second power point, on the side of the offside corner cabinet, plus a 12-volt and aerial socket, so that you can connect your television that you can mount on the bracket high up on the wall. If watching television in bed is an element of your caravanning luxury wish-list, put your feet up, and nestle into the pillows and bolster cushions (part of the optional extra bed set, at £249).
 

Storage

There is a space measuring roughly 1.3m x 1.6m under the bed. Gas-filled hinges take the weight of the bed base, raising it up with a mere flick of the wrist to get it started. You can walk around three sides of the bed to get at the contents here; so easy!

Four top lockers in the lounge have positive, button catches on wide feature chrome handles. And there are four drawers in the central front cabinet. Storage, in Cyclone-caravanning, would never be a challenge…

 
Dining

…Neither would dining, with the table in its own cabinet in the fore-end of the kitchen, or an 81-cm table for two created when you extend the chest of drawers top.
 

Lounging

Time to sit back amid four big cushions and against firm, rounded armrests, and take notice of the Cyclone’s long list of equipment and ambience, from the top… There’s a sunroof and roof light linked by a white glossy surround into which lighting is set. It’s bright when the lights are on but daylight is slightly subdued, on our test example, by tinted windows on the sides. These are a no-cost option; our preference would be for clear windows all round, matching those at the front.

There’s an alarm system (the PIR is in the centre of the lounge ceiling), plus a lot of attributes that are hidden. Like the tracker security unit, the leg sensors connected to the alarm system, and the intelligent controller fitted to the water system that turns the pump off when the water runs out.

You can’t see the GRP underskin that protects the floor from road spray. And you don’t notice the GRP sides that are resistant to dents. And you certainly can’t see, cosied up in the Cyclone’s lounge, the construction system that distinguishes Elddis, and other ranges in the Explorer Group portfolio, from all others. That’s the SoLiD system of chemical bonding, which spreads stresses evenly across all joints in the caravan’s structure and creates a barrier to water ingress. SoLiD stands for Strong, Light and Dry.
 

Kitchen

More of the features that all add up to create a top-luxury caravan re in the kitchen. The Dometic 155-litre has a 26cm-deep removable freezer compartment. The microwave is above it, at a height that will be comfortable for the majority of people. The storage capacity of the three drawers, each 68cm wide, and cabinet alongside them, is simply enormous.

Storage cabinets above have fitments for goblets and bottles, plus plates and mugs (only two mugs, though).
You have the choice of cooking on gas or a mains hotplate. And the sink is made of a black granite effect substance that we are pretty sure would be completely resistant to scratches and staining.

Surface space is ample, and two of the caravan’s five mains sockets are here.
 

Towing

Crusaders for 2014 are on BPW chassis. They’re equipped with hitch-head stabilisers and BPW’s anti-snake device, called iDC (Intelligent Drive Control). We’re accustomed to the easy-tow characteristics of win-axle geometry (extra stability, extra-predictable cornering) so we were expecting not to have to work hard on the Cyclone’s road test. The photographer’s XC90 was with us during this test week so it got the job. The outfit may be as long as a lorry but it handled with accurate ease, and did not display any tendency to twitch even when provoked by the wind influence of a high-sided vehicle that zoomed past us at speed on the A1.

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The Elddis Crusader Cyclone is a caravan to consider if you’re looking for an apartment on wheels. Long, superbly appointed, robustly constructed and with twin-axles and electronic stability control to increase your safety margin, this high-spec, luxury caravan with two distinct rooms is surely value for its £24,499 price tag.