Elddis Xplore 302
Image
Key Features
Model Year
2010
Product Class
Single Axle
Price from (£)
£9999
Berths
2
Full Review
IF you’re looking for a caravan that you can manhandle, that can be towed by a small car, can be stored in a small garden – yet doesn’t feel small inside, Elddis has created one specially for you.
The Xplore 302 is just 3.2 metres long and weighs only 796kg. Even its maximum laden weight of 950kg is far less than the unladen weight of the vast majority of caravans. This is surely one of the most exciting new caravan layouts to arrive for many years.
It looks cute and eyecatchingly miniscule. It’s as wide and tall as all other models in the brilliant budget Xplore range – and so short that it doesn’t somehow look like a caravan.
Yet, step inside, and the 302 feels deceptively spacious. That’s because its lounge is L-shaped – and it’s that L-shape layout that has enabled the Elddis designers to create a caravan of such short length.
They’ve turned the traditional concept of a two-berth layout on its side – literally. The 302’s two settees are across the front and along the nearside.
This piece of genius gives you a caravan smaller than the Adria Action at 3.61m, the smallest T@B at 3.87m, the Sterling Europa 390 at 3.38m and the Lunar Ariva at 3.63m.
But the innovation doesn’t stop at the small size and doesn’t stop at layout. There’s an access locker door leading into the shower area, ideal for popping in wet walking gear. The shower hose can be stretched to reach outside – perfect for washing muddy boots or dogs after a walk.
There’s something else innovative about the 302. A Whale blown-air heater unit is mounted underneath the caravan. That saves layout space – and removes the rigid imposition on design that is inevitable with every other blown air system, which needs a heater unit in the living area.
Like the standard Truma blown air central heating systems, it can be powered by either gas or mains electricity and is selectable between 500watts, 1kw and 2kw.
There are just two outlets for the warm air in the lounge, both under the front settee. On the five-degree-temperature day of our test the unit warmed the caravan within minutes.
You make up a double bed by sliding a slatted base from under the settee that runs across the front of the caravan.
This leaves the rear-most section of the nearside settee in position, so you have one area in which to sit even with the double bed made up.
For such a tiny caravan, the showering arrangements are impressive. Shower and toilet share the little room; a curtain partitions off the toilet and the showering area is surprisingly large. The triangular mirror-fronted cabinet is trimmed with a dark grey plastic section. The washbasin is recessed into a plinth of the same dark grey. The whole effect is crisp and modern in styling.
Bright, light styling is also a feature of the living area. Upholstery inevitably dominates the look of a caravan which is only just over three metres long and whose settees are more prominent than any other furniture feature – so colour matters much more than in a larger layout where there is more variation of furniture to draw your attention.
For this reason, the Xplore range’s plain seat bases with huge circles of terracotta defining the backrests, works even better than in larger Xplores. A small (but comfortable) seating section under the offside picture window makes it possible to seat up to six people!
Upper storage is five lockers, plus two more over the kitchen and two deep corner shelves.
The Xplore 302 is just 3.2 metres long and weighs only 796kg. Even its maximum laden weight of 950kg is far less than the unladen weight of the vast majority of caravans. This is surely one of the most exciting new caravan layouts to arrive for many years.
It looks cute and eyecatchingly miniscule. It’s as wide and tall as all other models in the brilliant budget Xplore range – and so short that it doesn’t somehow look like a caravan.
Yet, step inside, and the 302 feels deceptively spacious. That’s because its lounge is L-shaped – and it’s that L-shape layout that has enabled the Elddis designers to create a caravan of such short length.
They’ve turned the traditional concept of a two-berth layout on its side – literally. The 302’s two settees are across the front and along the nearside.
This piece of genius gives you a caravan smaller than the Adria Action at 3.61m, the smallest T@B at 3.87m, the Sterling Europa 390 at 3.38m and the Lunar Ariva at 3.63m.
But the innovation doesn’t stop at the small size and doesn’t stop at layout. There’s an access locker door leading into the shower area, ideal for popping in wet walking gear. The shower hose can be stretched to reach outside – perfect for washing muddy boots or dogs after a walk.
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There’s something else innovative about the 302. A Whale blown-air heater unit is mounted underneath the caravan. That saves layout space – and removes the rigid imposition on design that is inevitable with every other blown air system, which needs a heater unit in the living area.
Like the standard Truma blown air central heating systems, it can be powered by either gas or mains electricity and is selectable between 500watts, 1kw and 2kw.
There are just two outlets for the warm air in the lounge, both under the front settee. On the five-degree-temperature day of our test the unit warmed the caravan within minutes.
You make up a double bed by sliding a slatted base from under the settee that runs across the front of the caravan.
This leaves the rear-most section of the nearside settee in position, so you have one area in which to sit even with the double bed made up.
For such a tiny caravan, the showering arrangements are impressive. Shower and toilet share the little room; a curtain partitions off the toilet and the showering area is surprisingly large. The triangular mirror-fronted cabinet is trimmed with a dark grey plastic section. The washbasin is recessed into a plinth of the same dark grey. The whole effect is crisp and modern in styling.
Bright, light styling is also a feature of the living area. Upholstery inevitably dominates the look of a caravan which is only just over three metres long and whose settees are more prominent than any other furniture feature – so colour matters much more than in a larger layout where there is more variation of furniture to draw your attention.
For this reason, the Xplore range’s plain seat bases with huge circles of terracotta defining the backrests, works even better than in larger Xplores. A small (but comfortable) seating section under the offside picture window makes it possible to seat up to six people!
Upper storage is five lockers, plus two more over the kitchen and two deep corner shelves.
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