Caravan World – May 2019

130 caravanworld.com.au

S

unlandCaravansenjoysa reputation

asoneofthemoreboutiqueoffroad

caravanmanufacturersinAustralia.

Thatmeansit isa specialistbuilder,

whichalsomeansitsvanscomewith

somethingofa pricetag.

However,inrecenttimesSunlandhas

reworkeditsBlueHeelermodeltocreatea

vanthatsitsunderthe$90Kmark.Theidea

istobuilda vanwiththeessentialSunland

featuresbutwhilealsoreducingsomeofthe

moreexpensiveitems.

APAWFECTMIX

TheBlueHeelerhassomegreatstatistics.For

a start,it hasanexternallengthof6.02m(19ft

9in)whichmeansit offersbuyersthathappy

combinationofa caravanthatisn’tdifficult

totow,yethasenoughspaceforaninternal

layoutwithfewcompromises.

Inaddition,theweightfactorisalso

impressive.Whilstthevanhasa GVMof

PROS

CONS

Caravanweight

andloadcapacity

Externalstorage

Servicebins

Bodystructure

Generalfit

andfinish

Kitchenlayout

Under-seat

powerpoint/charger

location

Interior 12V fuse

panel location

UP

MEASURING

WELLHEELED

Althoughthevan has a galvanised steel

chassis— builtto Sunland’s design — it also

hasfewercross members than the usual

boxsectionarrangement, thus keeping the

weightdown.For a good ride, the tandem 16in

alloywheelsare fitted with Cruisemaster XT

independentsuspension complete with coil

springsandtwo shock absorbers per wheel.

Fromthefront, the drawbar looks almost

bare,sportingonly essentials such as the

CruisemasterDO35 hitch, handbrake and

jockeywheel.However, the gull wing alloy

checkerplatebox rather neatly hides the two

9kggascylinders on one side and storage

spaceontheother.

Alsokeeping the weight down is the

frameless,fibreglass composite body

structurethatincludes a one-piece roof.

Justa footnotehere, an aluminium framed,

fibreglasscladbody is also available.

Attherear,the cutaway ensures a good

“Also keeping the weight down is the frameless,

fibreglass composite body structure that

includes a one-piece roof”

ABOVE You'll enjoy an abundance of natural light thanks to large dinette windows and those beside the rear queen bed

3500kg, it also has a Tare mass of 2282kg,

which gives a massive payload of 1218kg.

Now, the 190L water tank will take up a bit

of that but it’s still impressive by industry

standards. Certainly the LandCruiser that

I was using for towing had no trouble in

handling the caravan.

Just to clarify something here which seems

to confuse a few people. Although the van

has a GVM of 3500kg, it does not need a tow

vehicle of that rating, just whatever the loaded

weight of the van is.

Let’s say your van is carrying a load of

600kg, that means the tow vehicle has to be

rated at 2282kg plus 600kg, ie 2882kg. So if

we round things off, that would be 3000kg.

This makes the Blue Heeler more than ideal

for any of the number of utes on the market

these days that claim to have a 3500kg tow

rating but is actually something less when the

Gross Combined Mass (GCM) figure is taken

into account.