Lunar Zenith 5
Image
Key Features
Model Year
2009
Product Class
Single Axle
Price from (£)
£11495
Berths
5
Full Review
AT little over £11,000 and sleeping five in a classic, proven layout, the Zenith 5 places itself firmly in the family bracket where competition is hot and sales are won and lost on attention to detail.
Step inside a 2009 Zenith and your first impression is of clean lines, light woodwork and modernity everywhere you look. Look down and your next step across that delightfully herringbone pattern wood-effect flooring will take you to lounge one – that’s at the rear.
Stop there for a moment and take in the soft furnishings that are this caravan’s distinguishing feature. Cool blue teamed with a couple of fawn shades and a little dark brown for emphasis places this in the drawer marked “stylish and a bit IKEA”.
Front-end arrangements are two long settees – so either two single beds or a double. The rear configuration of shorter settees gives you a double bed with bunk above, which hinges down from beneath the rear head lockers.
It sleeps five – and dines anything up to eight, because this layout’s great plus-point is that it has two tables, both freestanding.
There’s plenty to praise in the Zenith 5. Like the hinge-down table designed for a small television. The aerial socket and power connections are here, too. But you’ll have to budget for an aerial. That apart, at £11,490 you get a lot of very well designed caravan for your money.
Cooking arrangements are three burners and a combination grill/oven. The advantage of the smaller combined grill/oven is not only weight-saving, you get a capacious cupboard capable of storing cereal packets and tall fizzy drinks bottles, even the kitchen roll and the pans as well.
Just as well, though, for this is your only kitchen storage space except the two overhead lockers which are fitted for table-wear and leave little room for other items.
Next for examination is the washroom. It’s stereotypical of this classic layout, with shower and toilet in one compartment. Where it scores is in the three sizeable cupboards that form the sink-and-vanity unit base.
There are two large mirrors above this unit and a shelf running the width of the compartment above the loo.
Another way in which this layout scores high marks is the amount of under-bed storage space it generates. There are four large areas to cram in sleeping bags and shoes, and still room to store the removable carpets.
The front lockers have whole-length apertures, which makes access really easy – much easier than holding up the cushions and lifting the wooden panels that form the settee-bases.
That’s an area, of course, where cost and weight have both been saved over the alternative slated bed base design. And you can’t see it until you lift the bed. Like the majority of weight-saving in this Lunar range, you don’t notice it, such is the quality of the design.
One hallmark of so called entry-level caravans you will notice – and, I’d venture to suggest, like very much, is the one-piece front window.
Some say it’s a visible reminder that this is a budget-end caravan. Others, though – and I’m among them – think panoramic windows are a plus-point that manufacturers would do well to extend upwards into their ranges.
No economies when it comes to gas bottle compartment lid struts – this one comes with gas-filled struts rather than fiddly little metal arms and hooks that we see in some entry-level caravans. And access is good in the central gas bottle area. There’s a recess for a spare wheel but none is provided, so you’ll have to budget for that as well as a television aerial.
Woodwork quality is high – and pleasing to the eye. Notice the positive-click as you close the head lockers, and the chunky, chic dull-metal handles, with feature stripe of darker wood just above them. Notice, too, the corner shelving ideal for books.
Specification:
Price: £11,395
Berths: 5
Internal length: 5.05m (16ft 7in)
Overall length: 6.64m (21ft 10in)
Overall height: 2.56m (8ft 5in)
Headroom: 1.90m (6ft 3in)
Overall width: 2.16m (7ft 1in)
MRO: 990kg
MTPLM: 1217kg
* This review was first published in the January 2009 issue of Which Caravan Magazine, the only magazine all about buying.
Step inside a 2009 Zenith and your first impression is of clean lines, light woodwork and modernity everywhere you look. Look down and your next step across that delightfully herringbone pattern wood-effect flooring will take you to lounge one – that’s at the rear.
Stop there for a moment and take in the soft furnishings that are this caravan’s distinguishing feature. Cool blue teamed with a couple of fawn shades and a little dark brown for emphasis places this in the drawer marked “stylish and a bit IKEA”.
Front-end arrangements are two long settees – so either two single beds or a double. The rear configuration of shorter settees gives you a double bed with bunk above, which hinges down from beneath the rear head lockers.
It sleeps five – and dines anything up to eight, because this layout’s great plus-point is that it has two tables, both freestanding.
There’s plenty to praise in the Zenith 5. Like the hinge-down table designed for a small television. The aerial socket and power connections are here, too. But you’ll have to budget for an aerial. That apart, at £11,490 you get a lot of very well designed caravan for your money.
Cooking arrangements are three burners and a combination grill/oven. The advantage of the smaller combined grill/oven is not only weight-saving, you get a capacious cupboard capable of storing cereal packets and tall fizzy drinks bottles, even the kitchen roll and the pans as well.
Just as well, though, for this is your only kitchen storage space except the two overhead lockers which are fitted for table-wear and leave little room for other items.
Next for examination is the washroom. It’s stereotypical of this classic layout, with shower and toilet in one compartment. Where it scores is in the three sizeable cupboards that form the sink-and-vanity unit base.
There are two large mirrors above this unit and a shelf running the width of the compartment above the loo.
Another way in which this layout scores high marks is the amount of under-bed storage space it generates. There are four large areas to cram in sleeping bags and shoes, and still room to store the removable carpets. The front lockers have whole-length apertures, which makes access really easy – much easier than holding up the cushions and lifting the wooden panels that form the settee-bases.
That’s an area, of course, where cost and weight have both been saved over the alternative slated bed base design. And you can’t see it until you lift the bed. Like the majority of weight-saving in this Lunar range, you don’t notice it, such is the quality of the design.
One hallmark of so called entry-level caravans you will notice – and, I’d venture to suggest, like very much, is the one-piece front window.
Some say it’s a visible reminder that this is a budget-end caravan. Others, though – and I’m among them – think panoramic windows are a plus-point that manufacturers would do well to extend upwards into their ranges.
No economies when it comes to gas bottle compartment lid struts – this one comes with gas-filled struts rather than fiddly little metal arms and hooks that we see in some entry-level caravans. And access is good in the central gas bottle area. There’s a recess for a spare wheel but none is provided, so you’ll have to budget for that as well as a television aerial.
Woodwork quality is high – and pleasing to the eye. Notice the positive-click as you close the head lockers, and the chunky, chic dull-metal handles, with feature stripe of darker wood just above them. Notice, too, the corner shelving ideal for books.
Specification:
Price: £11,395
Berths: 5
Internal length: 5.05m (16ft 7in)
Overall length: 6.64m (21ft 10in)
Overall height: 2.56m (8ft 5in)
Headroom: 1.90m (6ft 3in)
Overall width: 2.16m (7ft 1in)
MRO: 990kg
MTPLM: 1217kg
* This review was first published in the January 2009 issue of Which Caravan Magazine, the only magazine all about buying.
