This year’s sell-out Caravan, Camping and Motorhome delivered a huge variety of caravans, motorhomes, tents, trailer tents and accessories to suit all budgets across its five halls.
In addition, there was a host of new features and an impressive line-up of guest speakers, including the Club’s President Julia Bradbury.
Hall 4, the new Tent and Camping Hall, sponsored by the Club, had some exciting new products and old favourites from the likes of Vango, Regatta, Zempire, Opus and Cabanon, including the Cobra 2 from Coleman - a lightweight, two-man tent weighing just 2.8kg, ideal for backpacking.
The wedged tunnel design and tough WeatherTec fabric ensures the Cobra 2 is able to withstand strong winds and rain. The tent’s brand-new colourway is in line with the rest of the brand’s new range of active tents for 2023.
In Hall 5 UK-based Tentbox launched two new roof tents based on its popular TentBox Lite.
The new two-person Lite 2.0 (below), sees an additional skylight added, a new dual layer memory foam mattress, a foot-friendly flat-step ladder and a new rainfly design with fewer poles, for easier erecting. The fabric cover is also brand new, made from matte black Cordua that won’t fade over time. And, proving just how light the Lite 2.0 is – just 50kg – TenBox showed it off on top of a Fiat Panda.
The Lite XL, is a super-sized version of the TentBox Lite 2.0, aimed at families and sleeps four. It weighs just 62kg and has an internal weight limit of 300 kilograms.
In Hall 4 visitors could try out Vango’s newly launched Augmented Reality technology. Vango ViewAR enables customers to view full-size, virtual versions of its products from their smartphone or tablet in 3D by scanning a QR code. Available on its range of Sentinel Tents and driveaway awnings you can view, measure, and compare the tents and awnings to scale in real space. You can even move around the space with a few turns of the camera.
In Hall 4 British company Nagonic Design showed off its new Solar Lander, a device to help you get maximum power from your solar panel into your unit by rotating it in step with the sun. The portable platform weighs three kilogrammes and can hold any suitably sized OEM portable solar panel. At £499 it’s not cheap, but Nagonic claims it can give you up to a 40 per cent increase in output compared with a stationary panel.
It was first time at the show for ARB UK who, in association with Truckman, bought along its bestselling camping range, 4x4 and outdoor adventure ready roof tents, camping accessories and cooking set-ups, including the Outback Draw System (right) which has a full slide-out kitchen, that fit effortlessly into the back of a four drive to make cooking on the go a breeze.
Dream bigger, think smaller was the message from Bailey was showcasing its second-generation Discovery range. The range of compact, lightweight caravans (see below) includes two popular models from the previous series, the two berth D4-2 and the four-berth D4-4 which have both been redesigned.
There’s also an all-new layout, the D4-4L. This has a parallel seat front lounge which creates a double bed, and a side dinette with a swing-up bunk that gives you an extra two single beds. It also has a large kitchen, a modern washroom, and the premium quality interior you’ll find across the range.
With continental-built units in particularly short supply, Knaus Weinsberg was the exception to the rule, with a good variety of models on show including the tear-drop-shaped T@B, the ever youthful Sport and Fun and a smart campervan from Weinsberg that's a neat coachbuilt motorhome squeezed into a campervansized footprint. You can read more about this coachbuilt here.
Northern Ireland retailer Jans Lifestyle made its show debut showing off its new partnership with campervan manufacturer Bespoke. Its VW T6 Highline and Startline campervans have NCC whole vehicle type approval and VW approval and are ideally suited for use as an everyday vehicle with the ability to go camping rather than being a pure touring unit. The vehicles are competitively priced, starting from £54K, or if you fancied touring Northern Ireland, the company offers hiring options.
The big news for Auto-sleepers last year was the company’s launch of a Ford-based tourer, this year sees the marque introduce a Mercedes model. The new 7.15m M-Star is packed with features, quality and height you don’t typically see in smaller campervans. There’s a full height shower, toilet, a tall dual opening fridge-freezer, an oven and grill with four burner gas hob, sink and microwave.
The eye-level storage cupboards, carefully crafted to maximise the shape of the van, sit above two couches that turn into single beds or a large double.
It also offers USB and USBC charging ports, well-situated storage pockets, a perfectly executed Alde Flow heating system and a full-length mirror.
This prototype won’t be cheap when it hits the market, at six figures, but if you can afford it, you’ll probably want it.
In Hall 1 the largest and by far the most expensive unit on show was the Morelo Empire Liner, a German motorhome on a classic Mercedes chassis. With a maximum mass of 12 tonnes you will need to upgrade your car driving licence to drive it and fork out £467K, but for that you get unparalleled luxury, down to electronic opening doors so you don’t even need to pull out a handle to enter this boutique apartment on wheels.
Check out more new products at the show here.