http://www.weg.co.za go! Drive & Camp^ September 2019 |^89
Settle in
The standard Tonga has no brakes, which means you may rely
only on the corner steadies to keep the caravan from rolling away.
There’s one at each corner, but the steadies don’t have a jack
mechanism which would otherwise allow you to rest more weight
on them once they are lowered. Each is simply a square leg that
you drop to the ground and then tighten with a knob.
You can stabilise the caravan by lowering the front first with
the jockey wheel’s crank, until the hull leans forward a little. Now
drop the two rear steadies and tighten them. Crank the jockey
wheel out again to lift the nose slightly past where it would be
level. Drop the two front steadies to take the load off the jockey
wheel, and tighten them. There you go.
The Tonga’s interior is open plan – the mattress lies folded up
in front of you against the nose side, leaving more than enough
storage space for all your bedding, camping furniture, gear and
other luggage.
The Tonga has only one door. The rear hatch lifts up until it is
perpendicular to the hull allowing you easy access to the entire
interior volume.
Drop the foyer
A tent is stowed on the inside of the hatch
- so when you open the hatch, the folded
tent faces downward, with two fibreglass
rods and a nylon strap that secures the tent
in place. To unfold the tent, you need to
release the rods and strap.
The hatch thus forms the roof of the
tent section – a fibreglass rod fits into each
corner to pitch the corners of the tent,
not unlike like a dome tent. The section
between the interior of the hullandthe
tent is open, of course, but thet
the door’s edge with a velcrost
corner is secured with a tentpe
there is: the Tonga’s antechamb
The Tonga also has an
awning that covers the entire
caravan and is stored in a long
box that is secured to the left
of the roof (along the length
of the caravan). If you want to
use the awning, you should
deploy it before opening the
rear hatch, otherwise you’ll
struggle to swing the awning
over the antechamber tent.
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