Swift Kon-tiki 635

Berths: 4 Travel seats (inc driver): 4 Base vehicle: Fiat Ducato Maxi Al-Ko Maximum weight: 4,250kg Payload: 534kg

Few British motorhomes have the cachet of a Kon-tiki. Swift got its name bang-on when it used it to spearhead its advance into motorhomes in 1986.

At 8.06m long, this year’s 635 isn’t even the biggest of a five-model line-up.

You get a 4,250kg Fiat Ducato/Al-Ko chassis with a double floor and Swift’s latest SMART bodywork construction.

There’s a not over-generous 534kg payload capacity, although options are restricted to Comfort-Matic transmission, roof rack and ladder, towbar, and Impala upholstery, so you won’t be eating into that figure too much. You could do away with the rear travel seats and go for two inward-facing settees in the lounge, but the version we tested will have wider resale appeal.

The interior doesn’t lack for a wow factor. Alde heating tops a standard spec that includes upgrades in the cab (DAB stereo, Bluetooth, leather wheel, dashboard trim).

With its kitchen the 635 trounces much of the opposition. You get a Thetford cooker with dual-fuel hob plus separate oven and grill, as well as a fitted microwave directly above at a convenient height.

Kitchen storage is generous, too, thanks to dedicated crockery fittings, a cutlery drawer and two slide-out metal baskets. The fridge is a 190-litre whopper, complete with AES and a removable freezer box.

The washroom has a swivel-bowl toilet, fixed basin and step-in, fully lined shower cubicle with moulded step area, but the ceiling panel and light fittings restrict shower standing height to 6ft. There’s no window, either, and a washroom like this may struggle to compete with the totally separate shower and toilet rooms provided by many European rivals.

The free-standing table in the seven-seater lounge is a little small, and you can’t use the circular pivot table at the same time.

The bedroom gives you twin 6ft 2in single beds or a 6ft 8in transverse double. You can sit upright as none of the five overhead lockers get in the way. There’s an extra set of speakers for the stereo here, too, although you’ll still have to venture to the cab to turn it all off. A curtain partition gives you some privacy.

There’s a second wardrobe and shelved storage at the foot of each bed. That still leaves plenty of space in the garage area below.

This is an abridged version of the full review appearing in the July 2015 issue of Which Motorhome.

There’s sufficient spec to set this Kon-tiki apart from some of its rivals, and give it a price edge over them.