RV REVIEW
REVIEWED IN THE GLASSHOUSE MOUNTAINS!
“ THE FRV CHASSIS
IS ANYTHING BUT
1970s-ERA FARE ”
In 2018, Coromal Caravans was acquired
by Apollo, the company behind one of the
largest RV rental fleets in the southern
hemisphere, not to mention Winnebago
Australia and Adria, and has since invested
in a program of technical modernisation for
the brand.
When I arrived at Apollo’s sprawling Northgate,
Qld, manufacturing headquarters, a company
Ford Ranger was waiting, already hitched to an
Element 553 Evolution RTV (Rural Terrain Vehicle).
The Glasshouse Mountains would be my testing
ground, its gravel, corrugated logging trails the
perfect place to put it through its paces.
BUILDING THE ELEMENT
The Ranger hauled the Coromal on the highway as
though it wasn’t there, and the van behaved itself
at all times. I experienced no sway or porpoising
on the towbar. At lower speeds, on the tracks in
the mountains, it was a similar story.
As standard, it’s fitted with the Coromal-
designed seven-leaf wishbone suspension that
the company has been using since the 1970s. The
so-called FRV chassis, though, is anything but
70s-era fare. Made of 550-grade high-tensile steel,
each section has been CNC-cut and folded, and
secured together using industrial-strength huck
rivets. The entire structure contains no welds. The
FRV chassis, Coromal says, is about 130kg lighter
than a comparable RHS caravan chassis.
The lightening holes of the chassis’ cross members
serve as attachment points for gas and water
lines, etc., though I felt that some of the plastic
components, i.e., the dump valves on the water
tanks, could be better protected.
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