The couple regularly heads out into Australia’s interior with their customers for an escape (though why they need to escape sunny Caloundra is beyond me), and these days they believe their products are so refined there’s little if any room left for improvement.
Decadence and more
The Signature model is fully loaded with just about every amenity and nifty idea you can think of. The company recently went through a fresh design exercise in conjunction with Evakool fridges to come up with an 82L fridge/freezer perfectly suited to the Odyssey.
The toolbox housing the fridge has unique valved filters that let the fridge breathe efficiently while keeping dust out. This is where the 130W solar panel is housed, in a storage cassette that locks it into place. The panel mounts on the drawbar and is fully adjustable for optimal performance.
The 12V system is rounded out by the inclusion of a 150W pure sine wave inverter (good for sensitive equipment like laptops), a 200Ah battery, a 25A C-Tek charger, LED lighting throughout and a 12V water pump.
The gas hot water system means you can wash dishes in nearly instant hot water, and have a hot shower. There’s even a shower enclosure included, which attaches to the offside of the main tent, with a proper shower head and hot and cold taps. Guys, you had me as soon as you mentioned hot water…
There is good storage on the offside of the toolbox for a generator. And you can tie things down to the top of the toolbox. The 206L storage drawer and marine-carpeted compartment under the bed provide a good wardrobe option, though you can’t get to this storage when the trailer is closed.
The stainless steel kitchen pulls out of the nearside and within a few seconds the bench space grows to provide a wrap-around cooking system. There’s a big rear work bench, a three-burner stove (with a quality folding windscreen and fold-down unbreakable glass splashback), a sink with mixer tap, a side shelf and a good-sized pantry drawer below.
Offroad acumen
Despite housing all of the trappings of the good life, the Odyssey still has it where it counts when heading offroad. I’d have no qualms dragging one of these trailers to hell and back, as long as I didn’t have to clean it afterwards. The chassis is built from Supagal, a flexible steel galvanized inside and out, and both it and the body are powder-coated.
You can tell the guys at AOC have taken these things to the ends of the earth, thought of improvements, and carried them out. The spare is mounted on a rear swing-away arm, which costs a little more, but is necessary to balance the trailer when there is a fridge up front on the drawbar. That keeps the towball weight to a reasonable 100kg when loaded. The long drawbar itself helps the trailer to track closer to your vehicle’s tracks, which is great for sand driving, or any tight situation.
The adjustable independent trailing arm coil suspension system makes for worry-free attacks on scary rock crawls – the trailer won’t be bouncing around behind you.
Useability
The Odyssey opens like most hard floors. You don’t need to adjust any of the stainless steel bows, just walk the floor over and let it pull the tent out. At 2700mm high, the tent is designed to keep hot air away from you. The tropical roof enhances hot weather performance, as do the many windows and doors.
Packing up requires a bit more patience. I wish there was another inch of space in the hard floor for the tent canvas, because folding this thing up on a windy beach by yourself can be a bit tricky. Saying that, this is really a couple’s camper, or a small family’s camper, not a lone ranger’s set-up. Every other aspect of its design is so elegant, though, you tend to take them for granted. It just works.
Summing Up
It’s on the heavy side, which can make beach driving interesting, but I pulled it around Bribie Island with aplomb in the LandCruiser and never worried about getting stuck, even in the powder-soft beach access troughs.
At $52,000 you’re allowed to expect miracles. If you’re thinking in terms of value, the real question is: if I took off all the great features of this camper and subtracted their value, would I come up with a ridiculously low number? The answer is yes, of course.
You’re paying a bit for the Odyssey Export Signature, but you can see where every dollar has gone, and how you won’t have to blow any more down the line fixing things that weren’t right in the first place.
Australian Off Road Campers, 15 Caloundra Road, Caloundra QLD 4551, 07 5499 6606, www.australianoffroadcampers.com.au
Pros
- Classy kitchen
- A real offroad camper
- Hot water system & shower
Cons
- Two-person packup
- On the heavy side
See our full range of Australian Off Road Campers at www.NewRVSearch.com.au