Xplore 554 caravan

There’s a wide choice of end shower room, transverse bed layout tourers. We explore your options, from the lightest – the Xplore 554 – to the upmarket, higher-spec alternatives

Words: Val Chapman  Photography: John Chapman

The Xplore 554

The transverse bed, rear shower room layout is a best-seller for several manufacturers. Chief among them is the Erwin Hymer Group, which makes the lightest caravan of this layout, the Xplore 554 – and offers a choice of six more caravans with this layout. These are in its Elddis Avanté, Affinity and Crusader ranges, and also in its Compass brand ranges, Casita, Capiro and Camino.

Other single-axle, standard-width tourers of this layout include Bailey’s Unicorn Vigo and Phoenix+ 644; Coachman’s Acadia 575 and VIP 575, and three from the Swift Group, the Sprite Major 4 SB, Challenger 580 SE, and Conqueror 580.

Each of the variants of this super-popular layout has its own character and, although the Xplore 554 is the lightest, at just 1,325kg MTPLM, many of the higher-spec tourers of this layout are well within tow-scope of a great number of mid-range towcars. The Swift Challenger 580 SE, for example, has an MTPLM of 1,585kg, and the Elddis Affinity 554 has an MTPLM of 1,470kg. 

We went to Preston Caravans and Motorhomes, at Clifton, near Preston, to review the Xplore 554, and discovered that this retailer of Swift and Erwin Hymer Group caravans has several tourers of the transverse bed, end shower room layout among its caravan selection – including Preston Caravans’ own special edition Swift Kudos 530 SB (based on the Sprite Major 4 SB), and Elddis Supreme 554 (based on the Elddis Avanté 554). We took a close look…

The special edition spec

The Elddis Supreme 554, which is priced at £30,349, including the £750 delivery fee, and has an MTPLM of 1,470kg, shares the Xplore’s delightful pale woodwork and its equally pale upholstery fabric. It’s a classy caravan, with a long slender skylight running above the lounge and kitchen.

It has a lot in common with its Xplore sibling. Storage capacity in both models is excellent in all areas; so, too, is the amount of kitchen surface space. And the shower room is identical.

The caravans in the Supreme range offer lots of extra kit including an extractor fan, an alarm, a 100W solar panel, a barbecue point, an exterior hatch to the nearside under-sofa locker with a mains socket, and niceties including backlighting surrounding the stylish headboard.

The bedroom

All caravans of this layout have a bed structure that incorporates a retraction system, and a mattress that is hinged at the pillow end, so that you can push the bed towards the wall, increasing floor space at the foot of the bed, making the corridor to the shower room wider.

In the case of the Xplore 554, the corridor becomes 64cm wide.

The Xplore 554 and Supreme 554 have something else in common. The bedrooms have a cosy aspect, nicely separated from the kitchen by the position of the forward wardrobe and the part-wall alongside the cooker.

Both models have a large mirror on the wall that divides the bedroom from the shower room. This has the effect of making the bedroom appear more spacious than it really is.

The washroom

Both models have identical shower rooms – and they are surprisingly spacious for caravans of modest length. The shower room is 70cm  wide, creating plenty of space for dressing.

The washbasin is generous in size, too, at 14cm deep, and almost oval in shape. There are two towel hooks on the wall just outside the shower.

A soap shelf is incorporated into the shower rose riser bar and there is a small shelf for shampoo bottles beneath. Cabinets both under the basin and on the offside wall together provide plenty of accommodation for preening paraphernalia.

The kitchen

Although the Xplore has only three burners and a combined oven/grill, the other caravans of this layout have grills and separate ovens, and three burners plus a hotplate.

In both the Xplore 554 and the Supreme 554, the microwave is opposite the main kitchen area, integrated into the dresser that gives you 54cm by 54cm of surface space; this can be used as extra kitchen space when you need it.

Television connections and two mains sockets are within the dresser and there are two mains

sockets in the offside kitchen area, too. Kitchen surface here is generously proportioned, at 57cm by 65cm forward of the sink. 

In the Xplore 554, there’s a cutlery drawer beneath this surface area, and two drawers, 33cm wide, plus a cabinet between the fridge and oven/grill. And there’s a deep cupboard below the oven/grill.

The dresser provides more storage space, in the form of a locker above the microwave, plus a drawer and a two-shelf cabinet below. Kitchen storage provision, thus, is first rate.

The storage 

The same can be said of storage space elsewhere, too. The bed is easy to raise to get to the vast area beneath it, and there’s an exterior hatch.

The space under the sofas in the Xplore is accessed via the top; the slatted sofa bases are self-supporting on spring hinges, and there is no need to remove the upholstery to do this, so it’s an easy task.

Four lockers are above the lounge; that’s two more than in other caravans of this layout, because the Xplore is the only one that has lockers above the front window, instead of a skylight.

Bedroom storage is generous. Lockers are above. The bed the forward wardrobe is 46cm wide with three drawers beneath. The aft wardrobe is 23cm wide, also with three drawers beneath.

Summary

It’s clear the 554 is an excellent layout for couples, in particular, and we think the budget-friendly Xplore is one of its best.

<p>With more than a dozen standard-width, single-axle tourers of this layout on the market, the choice is vast. All variants are excellent caravans for couples who want end shower room (en suite!) luxury.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The 554 layout is a proven best seller. Whichever fabric hue catches your eye, and whichever spec level meets your requirements and suits your budget, you can find it. The Xplore 554, though, remains the benchmark; the lightest and the one with the lowest price tag.</p>