Victorian Caravan, Camping & Touring Supershow 2023: Aboutcamp BtoB video report

thank you [Music] hello everybody we are here in Australia Melbourne to the Victorian Caravan camping during Super Show I'm with Irene virgover Irena is working with about camping to be since four years and she's a marketing specialist a communication specialist and she will be our guide to this fantastic Super Show so what what we are going to to to have a look here well there's lots of lots to see here at the cavern Super Show in fact it's the biggest Cavern show here in Australia and they're celebrating the 70th Anniversary there's over 200 different exhibitors including 77 RV manufacturers so there's a lot to see we'll see some familiar faces so Global brands that we know all over the world but also a lot of local manufacturers and local accessories so we've got to have a great time okay let's go to discover the show [Music] it is my pleasure to welcome you all to the 2023 Victorian Caravan camping and touring Super Show the largest show of its type in Australia this year the Victorian Caravan part of our history from the very first show in the words circus site in the 90 to the Royal exhibition building in Carlton Jeff [ __ ] Caulfield Racecourse and now Melbourne's Premier event space the Melbourne showgrounds to celebrate our huge city of milestone we have the biggest prize pool in our show's history in our passport Freedom competition a major prize is incredible Jayco Starcraft pushback valued at seventy thousand plus 17 other great prizes in a prize pool of over 100 000. I would like to say thank you to Jerry Ryan and the team at Jayco for the Clinic of our associate social as well as other prize donors this year we've added some great additions for visitors the new Adventure Zone with both entertained and informed visitors located at the campgrounds there will be live demonstrations of a 4x4 track guest speakers will be there talking about their Adventures Plus from Harding some very important safety tips during the demonstrations you'll be able to get a close-up in person you best known and Chase Andrews from all four by four adventures and what's up down under our very own Mac up as well as some very Savvy members of our Caravan community another of our new adventures is this stage the brand new RV Master stage this stage will be the heartbeat of the show as industry leaders will be discoverations and different techniques get the most out of your car rying and camping this year you will see many new Caravans and camping products for the time with products being launched especially for this show which is located over 100 000 square meters of executive space our show has a 200 which we are proud of as the show covers everything from our industry has to offer from Caravans RVs camper trailers motor homes and fifth wheelers that's also a wide variety of things today is the CEO of the careful industry Association of Australia how are you Stuart I'm good how are you that's good yeah all good what can you tell us about the Australian RV industry well the Australian industry is booming at the moment now we've come through covered where we're really Keen through covert to keep the customers connected and so that's actually translated as we've come out of that to Australians love affair with caravaning has continued yeah more so than almost any other discretionary product so while we're seeing a bit of a hard landing around the world we're not sort of seeing that at the moment and we're continuing to see good pipeline great consumer demand and you know as an industry we've all worked together to make sure that there's great sustainability through I think and I guess astrange is their product in Australia like no other customer in the world and so you know we've got these great products that customers really connect with that you just can't import or bring in from other countries so so what do you reckon is the difference between Australians using their RV and for example Europeans using the RFP because I know it's very different it is it is very different I mean we had some of the most stunning places in the world and Australians love to get out of the cities and life going and terrain for which Caravans and camper trailers probably aren't traditionally used to and um I'll say that they trash them but you know they have a great passion of getting outdoors and going to places where others aren't yeah and the Caravans and camper trailers need to be built to accommodate that consumer demand so you know if you think of the places where you would not normally expect a car to go our consumers want not only the car to go there but they want the Caravan or the camper trailer together as well so I've been into this great quality absolutely great robustness it needs to be able to handle heat cold various terrains and so forth and I think you know we've always had a customer-centric mentality and so we've built these products based on consumer demand and you know we're sharing the benefit of that now so what does the national body do to support the manufacturers to get that great quality one thing in particularly through covert we had a number of campaigns to keep consumers connected when covert hit um yeah the first thing was right on Easter so Peak period when people were wanting to get away and we had a camp at home care Heroes campaign where you know people could camp in the backyard they could use their product in the driveway yes they wouldn't go to their normal traditional camping spot they still stayed in camping products yeah then we got people dreaming through travel Euro campaign within around a winter weekend a campaign to try and get people to take shorts trips and now we've just come off a road to a million campaign to try and get people to go out and experience the country so you know we would spend um you know we've got half a million consumers on our database we're constantly you know talking to them about the great places you can go how you can use your products how you can be inspired at the end of the day to um yeah to to get out and use these products yeah we're very big on Research very big at the end of the day in terms of government lobbying and really strong in terms of making sure our products are safe for consumers so over go with the borders were all closed like the interstate borders but especially also the international borders so a lot of people they would normally go International would have to stay in Australia now that the borders are open again do you think that causes a lower demands when it comes to Kevin what we see is that caravan and camping is part of the Australian psyche you go to school you get a job you get married you buy a house you work for 40 years and then you retire and travel around this great country in a caravan so it's always been highly aspirational yeah um nowadays it's very expensive still to travel overseas so people through covert they're looking for an element of escapism they're looking at the end of the day in terms of how can they get out of urban and still go on holiday and you know if you've got a 20 000 50 000 100 200 000 products sitting in your backyard you know you want to use it so you may still want to go cruising you still may want to go overseas but you haven't lost your connection in terms of our industry so it's a it's not a substitution conversation anymore it's actually an addition to people want to get either way so yeah so just just popular probably even more popular because people were able to try it so so what's the role of the national body when it comes to government lobbying and putting the industry we've got a a very proud long and proud local manufacturing product so we're one of the last bastians of Automotive product that are left in Australia so it's very um you know every time we go and have a conversation in Canberra and we need to make sure that they're aware in terms of how big we are how many people that we employ the need that we need to protect and encourage and support in terms of this local manufacturing so it's not lost like so many other Industries like the bus industry and and car industry which have which are slowly migrating or have completely gone offshore so you know really important and particularly important in Victoria where you know there's so many jobs that are dependent in terms of from a caravan perspective and there would be more than you know 200 Caravan manufacturers that are still based in Australia producing good quality robust product next up is Paul witters he's the CEO of leisure Tech Australia hello Paul thanks for having us today thank you Irene so what do you guys do here we're the major sponsor so Leisure Tech group distributes three brands truma malenko and Mike Coleman and Truman is the major sponsor of this show and has been for the last three and a half years yeah perfect that's good to hear and how is it going so far like what do you think oh look it's great to be outdoors in the in the in the Caravan show back on the agenda and the Australian consumers wanting to get outdoors and helping them get on their Journey whether they're buying a caravan from the show or or a air conditioner or a heater or something that helps them on their Journey a portable fridge to go four-wheel driving yeah so we had a through limiter here in Australia what's new for tomorrow yeah we've got some exciting products we've got some new Heating and Cooling products so where we had some previous we've just been able to reduce the size of the units so they're more compact that way you can enjoy more of the Caravan other than more of the appliance yeah we heard before talking to some of the suppliers but also Daniel from the CIA Victoria that the weight is getting a bigger issue as well do you see the same for that yeah definitely weight is a big problem uh obviously after they consumer buys the van and then loads it up that's the weight concern so truma in their r d and Manufacturing facilities in Germany are conscious of weight and air conditioning and any new products will always be light on what they were previously to bring that weight down yeah watching a lot of my cool man fridges on the show today can you tell us a little bit more about the brand and the product yeah our background at laser tech has had 40 years in portable refrigeration and we launched the my Coleman Grand brand three years ago now and it's manufactured under our facilities overseas and we we launched a range of 13 fridge freezer models and we came up with the game changing power pack okay yeah yeah is it about to power back the power pack allows you to take the fridge out of the vehicle and to the beach or to a favorite event or a winery and they can now enjoy your fridge outside without the benefits of plugging into any 12 volt or Mains so that means that the power pack is actually attached to the fridge to keep it running even without yeah we developed the power pack it's a 15 amp power pack with magnetics and it sits on the outside of our fridge this is what the Australians need right we're outside all the time like yeah the ice box with water running out at the end of the day Irene you better to have the power pack where your drinks are nice and fresh [Music] we're meeting with Daniel salberg today um CEO of the Caravan industry Victoria Daniel we just learned that 93 percent of the Australian RVs are built in Victoria can you tell us a bit more about that yeah it's quite amazing is it in Irene Victoria is the heartland of Caravan manufacturing here right in Australia so it came a rock came across from Adelaide in the initial stages in the 1930s but what it did it's grown and grown and grown so from the mid 2000s to now Victoria has about 120 130 Caravan manufacturers alone put a lot in the north of Melbourne but yeah we are now 93 of all towables in in the country it's pretty exciting yeah that's amazing well done um in the careful industry Victoria what do you do to support your members and to support those manufacturers yeah so we do obviously a number of things and we're here at the uh wonderful Victorian caravan and camping and touring Super Show here our 70th show consecutively so we run the big Caravan shows here in Victoria but we do a lot of B2B and a lot of b2c business we we announced that we've got a membership benefits program we provide legal support we provide business assistance we create templates but we've also announced today that we're going to be rolling out our RV Master manufacturers accreditation program okay which will be setting the bar for Caravan manufacturing here in Australia and obviously is the lead state of manufacturing we need to do that we need to drive it so we work very closely with them to and our members we've got 246 members here from a trade side so suppliers manufacturers dealerships retail dollars and also the service repair companies there the mainstream but we do have Caravan parks and Affiliates as well but really we we are a connection to the industry both from a consumer point of view but also a business point of view yeah perfect yeah and what we learned today as well is that weight is a big issue in Australia yeah so we've been working on this for a while and my background is technical compliance and looking at all this sort of stuff I used to design Caravans as well but um we've been doing a project for about three years we've pick roads which is the regulatory body here the road authority we've got a government grant project to investigate manufacturers dealerships for newer news products but also the consumer products and we're finding lots of things we're we're almost finished this project we've done in the middle of the year but we're probably about 80 to 90 percent of product overweight so the Caravan or the car now what the the best way to describe that is a lot of stuff's done aftermarket so our manufacturers produce and they've got areas but the consumers like to add on and add on and particularly with the growth of technology and then wanting to add more things what happens is they can continue to evolve and add more product and typically it's the car that's over but the Caravans do as well so really we're focused on Gathering the data to understand what's going on but then also educating and that's our key focus is educating the consumer on what you should be doing and that's what we're trying to do we've got a partnership now with a company down here that's going to be going around Weighing on all the long weekends and public holidays and holiday period they're going to be going out weighing product for no cost and to help consumers understand their weights because it's very misunderstood because in Australia we've got big products big off-road products that go over into the bush and stuff like that we're very different to probably what we would see overseas where we've got the big big products so there's a lot more weight you know we've got four water tanks 100 liters each as an example but then there's Jerry cans for more water it's it's very big here in Australia yeah new at the show this year like it's a super show it's the biggest in Australia we all know that what's new so not only do we have obviously new product Launches on display and we announce the world first we'll paint a product at our launch today a brand new Hub system from the guys at Spartan Innovations um but but obviously also we've focused on a few key areas our first priority was tourism and destination so we had the most lockdowns I think in the world here in Victoria um so tourism was really decimated in Victoria so we've tried to bring that back as an association we've invested into it so a lot of our regional tourism bodies have put it on display so we brought that back on but our Market's evolved and there's a lot of off-road 4x4 with that going off grid so to speak so we've created a brand new location called The Adventure Zone and there's an off-road track down there there's the weight demonstration so tying in the weight to educate people down there as well but we've also got our RV Master stage so what we're trying to do is be the Masters to educate the consumer so we created a brand new stage called the RV Master stage and it was a little bit clever by me it's ties into our accreditation program the RV Master manufacturers accreditation program it's the same branding in the towing yeah perfect nice because 4x4ing is very popular here in Australia yeah it's massive and um I just missed out but we've got some economic data and some consumer data we've been surveying for five years our consumer we were going to release a prior to cover but we knew it was going to change I think the data will tell us at about 61 of all consumers go off-road yeah so it's amazing it's good quality Caravans 100 yeah most definitely well thanks wait time no worries thank you Irene thank you very much we're here at Jayco Australia by far the biggest manufacturer here in Australia and I'm talking to Bruce who's manager motorized efficient um we're talking camper fans and motorhomes how popular are they compared to the towable vehicles certainly not as popular as Caravans but we're seeing a real a real growth in motorized in Australia as well yeah it hasn't changed over covert as well in the last couple of years yeah I think so I was bringing some new people to the market and they've been a little bit more inclined to drive than want to tow so it's we're certainly finding that the motorhomes are starting to to pick up certainly not to the likes of of Europe but but certainly uh becoming more popular here in Australia and what are some of the trends that we see here in Australia when it comes to motorized vehicles uh well the off-road Mercedes that's behind us there that's that's been quite popular with the fact that it can go off-road which we like to do that in Australia and most of the vehicles that are on a normal license have been really popular as well so perfect well we're going to have a look around to see what's new for you yeah the features of this unit is it's four wheel drive capabilities so it's on the Mercedes Sprinter all-wheel drive cab or van it has off-road tires so it'll certainly go you know places your normal vehicle won't go looking inside it has a champion a separate shower and toilet so it's got full amenities a nice sized kitchen a good sized fridge and accommodation down back with single beds that can be made into a double within a spring mattresses so giving great comfort at night good ventilation with big windows and of course up front all the Mercedes features of the luxury vehicle another proper vehicle in Australia is the Fiat jacato Elco chassis based motorhomes and we have one here on display which is uh 25 feet in length but still still able to be driven on a normal license and it's a very popular vehicle here in Australia moving inside it has a large slide out area which accommodates both the dinette and the bed so it gives great a great feeling of space inside and it has a full ensuite down back which has a separate shower and toilet so it's a really roomy motorhome as I said earlier still able to be driven on a normal license so this is the Jayco Silver Line This is the flagship the top of the Range model that we have it comes in a touring and in an Outback it runs an electric awning which is used by an app or a push button inside we have modern furniture modern European furniture with leather seating European overhead doors we're running nice Chrome black taps with a oven for burner oven Grill a touch panel with Suburban hot water service in it that's instantaneous we're running in the 216 liter fridge and as we go down you can see we've got a slide out with a double bed and underneath the bed we have a battery management system that's running 30 amp charging with DC to DC and solar mppt and a lithium battery this unit here has a trimavario heater and it has its own ensuite so we're running a ceramic toilet a fiberglass shower and again all modern modern features with the showers the Basin and the Chrome taps okay so this is the Jayco all-terrain grid X so this was released late last year the features of this again electric awnings a checker plate with a outdoor kitchen for cooking where you can have a barbecue or a sink and a drop-in cooker inside we have a double bed in this model and again leather seating compressor fridge where it's got a fridge freezer in the in the end down here we have bunks for the for the children as well as a shower and a toilet ensuite and there's a washing machine as well and then underneath the bed we have a battery management system that has a 3000 watt inverter a 180 amp charging mppt solar charging it's running Wireless lighting a level so you can look on your phone app and it'll tell you that the van's level for the optimum of fridge working then we have 400 amp hour lithium battery so all of this is can connected and talks to itself so if there's an issue it'll shut down if if it needs more charge it'll it'll charge and then on the up on the screen you can track your power in you're out your water tanks your solar if you've got your inverter turned on this unit here will run an air conditioner when you're totally off-grid with no no Mains power it'll control your pump and your lighting and also your hot water service every Australian caverner knows everything Kevin and camping they're by far the biggest online community when it comes to caravanning and camping so I'm here today with Cole who can tell you all about the platform yeah thanks very much Irene um so the Facebook community group started back in 2014 as a place where people could ask questions and gain knowledge about everything caravaning and camping and now there's more than 350 000 members it's the largest community group in that space in the Southern Hemisphere and it's wonderful we get a tremendous feedback yeah that's great and now it's not just on socials anymore right because I heard you've got a big website as well that's recently launched yeah that's right that's now 12 months old everything caravan and camping marketplace where we invite sellers to sell directly to the consumer anywhere from four Drive products to camping fishing obviously caravanning and yeah it's a great resource for for everything outdoors nice and it's very interesting we have we launched it last year at Dusseldorf and we're taking it ECC Global uh and it's uh yeah been been fantastic we've had a great response already so what else is new yes uh everything Caravan camping ECC Parks has recently partnered with family parks and there's some exciting things happening uh in the future no he's looking forward to hearing all about it thanks so much for your time Cole thank you thanks very much foreign [Music] managing director from Dometic in Australia thanks for your time friends thanks all right um how's the medic doing in Australia we see you in all defense nowadays so we're actually doing really great the covert and the pandemic has been fantastic for us the industry's grown we've launched a number of new products and dometic's going really well at the moment that's good to hear what do you think are the main differences between the European and American markets and the Australian Market when it comes to RVs and Trends yeah we see there is a bit there is quite a significant difference especially with Europeans which are more motorhomes and more Camper vans whereas you can see at the show today we've got a lot of uh sort of American style or Australian style Caravan so typically a body on chassis and they're usually off-grid and off-road so a lot of our campers a lot of our RVs tend to take off-road which means our products also need to be different yes so quality good quality good quality reliability temperatures so we obviously operate in a much higher climate so all our fridges need to be Tropic rated as well too yeah yeah what's new we've got a couple of new things one of them is we're launching a new range of air conditioners coming up later this year we don't have them at the show but we'll tell you when they're coming shortly also we're doing a couple of iterations of our products so one of our DRS products our dust reduction system that's coming up for its second generation at the moment and a lot of our new products are also in the adjacent segments for the RV so caravanning but also camping and outdoor Leisure and we'll walk through those shortly yeah perfect yeah because you mentioned outdoor unless you I can see your products more and more like at the big retail it's a big camping stores is that a direction that dometic's heading here in Australia well it is but I guess we need to follow where the market and consumers are changing and going to so RV is still very important for us it's a large part of our business and you would probably know that over 50 000 or almost 50 000 RVs were imported or manufactured in Australia but if you contrast that to Vehicles there's about 20 million vehicles on the road and a lot of Australians are using their vehicles to do outdoor activities it might not be towing a caravan but they might be camping they might have rooftop tents so a lot of our products now in that adjacent area or we call it vehicle-based activities they're all about getting outdoors and camping using your vehicle yeah yeah let's come and have a look and this is our DRS or dust reduction system this is unique to Dometic Australia where we basically use a passive or a forced air ventilation to help pressurize the RV and stop dust from actually coming in when you're driving so it's a standard fit on a number of Caravans and you'll see it around the show as an optional fit very simple very effective no moving paths one of the one of the features of the standout of this year's show is our transparent Caravan come and have a look inside and you'll see these are typically all the products that we use for OEM fitment in the RVs from toilets to our class-leading Rua fridges which are fitted to many a number of Caravans cooktops sinks drawer fridges as well and even windows so we do a range of windows and doors and of course Dominic is famous for air conditioning another Innovation which has been in Dometic stable for a couple of years is actually our slide kitchen so the concept here is it's a slide away kitchen that's fully integrated into the side of your RV you have a three burner cooktop a sink a chopping board a drainer and even a storage area underneath and again this is class leading Innovation from Dometic another area of Dometic strength or their history is fridges believe it or not demetic invented the absorption fridge hundreds of years ago so obviously we have our range of Premium Ru Series in both absorption and compressor and then we go to the more value for money in the affordable rmd which again is a much more compact sized fridge right down to the smaller units of our smaller drawer fridges and crx's we're here at Retreat Caravans together with other Retreat Caravans was the first Australian manufacturer that went fully electrical dearly could you tell us a bit more about yeah sure all right well back in 2019 we came out with the concept of an all-electric Caravan so it actually starts with the construction of the Caravan so Retreats industry-leading rxp wall construction is basically a full composite shelf flooring walls and sidewalls uh and sorry and the roof it's fully composite meaning that when it's hot outside it's cool inside when it's cold outside it's warmer inside so the thermal properties are allowed to stay inside the Caravan because we don't have many if any vents at all so what that means is that when you're running your air conditioner or your heater inside the Caravan that temperature stays exactly how you've set it now that's only powered by the dcx system so we've got a 14.3 kilowatt battery system that's chassis integrated so unlike other people that might install a lot of batteries underneath the bed we Mount ours directly underneath the Caravan as well as an array of anywhere up to 2 thousand four hundred watts of solar panels on the roof and model say they are a commercial grade solar panels so we don't use flexible panels because we know that they're not really that um well they're not really that good in in the hotter conditions now we make our Caravans for Australian conditions because it is Australian Caravan fully off-road all electric like we said so you know someone like you or me if we were camping out and about of course you know you can use a hair straightener well so I'm boiling a kettle for our coffee or whatever it might be it's all possible without the use of a generator yeah perfect so is it a popular model here in between your full range yeah so the layout so you can you could probably buy it in about maybe five or six different layouts however the model itself it's fast becoming one of the most popular ranges in all of the retreat Caravans and for the people that don't want to go all electric for whatever reason it might be because they're so used to gas we actually have another model called the Daydream model and the Daydream is actually a a half between a full electric or an all-electric and a gas model so instead of having 14.3 kilowatts of battery power you've got 7.1

kilowatts again chassis integrated yeah but then you still have your gas appliances absolutely you could choose to have a bit of gas and full electric realistically it's the best of both worlds yeah perfect we see more and more manufacturers picking up this system going electric do you think that this is the future of Australian paraffining it's undoubtedly the future you know we're glad to be the innovators um so like I said here five years ago in 2019 we launched the first all-electric Caravan there are other manufacturers that have adapted this technology but the good thing is that we'd like to hang our hat on that Retreat Caravans is that we're well and truly ahead of anybody else because we've been validating it in the field and obviously in the r d Department back at work for over five years we know that whatever we've got coming out the other manufacturers are still chasing a little and hopefully in the future we'll be further along developed perfect looks good thank you so much for your time Taylor we're going to have a look around so as I mentioned earlier the battery is chassis mounted so if you look directly underneath here this is the 14.3 kilowatt battery so it's actually got a crushed Zone in the battery so what that means is if you're going through some rugged terrain and you've actually hit the hit the battery you're not going to damage it because there's a there is a core Crush Zone in there and the other thing about the batteries as well is it's up to one meter submergible in water so if you do go through any creek crossings don't be afraid to see if you're going to ruin the battery or not we've done all the testing and you'll be absolutely fine the the other thing I must point out from the battery system from the aussex Corp Company is almost everything as you can see all these connections here they're all Plug and Play So for whatever reason if you're ever traveling through Australia and you have an issue it's a case of unplugging all of the cables if a new battery is sent out wherever you are remotely basically they're hot swappable so you can just interchange them quite simply alright so we're inside of the Erv the electric Caravan and as you can see here the roof there's absolutely no air conditioner on the roof because we're using the roof as real estate for solar panels our air conditioner and heater is right here underneath the bed so it's blowing out nice and cool air and as I mentioned with the construction of the rxp composite walls once we've closed the doors all of this cool air will stay within the Caravan now having an electric Caravan like I said means you don't need gas so cooking wise we have an induction cooktop here which what runs on 240 power of course as well as a convectional microwave oven so if you want to roast or if you want to cook anything in there this works directly off the the house battery which I showed you before and all of this is made possible by the 5000 watt inverter the inverter lives underneath the lounge in this model why don't you come and have a look at it so this right here is our 5000 watt smart inverter so as I said to you before the circuit breakers here indicating that it's running multiple power circuits so when you're using your hair dryer your Kettle your induction cooktop your air conditioner whatever it might be everything is powered through this 12 volt 240 volt smart inverter so as I mentioned the inverter this is exactly where it lives here so this is a 5 000 watt inverter it has the ability to power up your air conditioner your microwave your hot water service your hot plate your induction cooktop your electric barbecue outside all simultaneously up to 5000 watts and as I mentioned before people like cooking with gas in an electric Caravan we actually have provided to us by Weber the Weber pulse electric barbecue so it doesn't matter where you are if you want to cook your snags or cook some steaks you can do so on this electric BBQ it works exactly the same as a normal gas BBQ all you need to do is just plug it in the PowerPoint which is located here in the boot and then you're cooking but not with gas foreign stand set for Australia talking to Daniel Dunn the general manager of Thetford Australia thank you so much for your time Daniel thank you what can you tell us about the Australian market and the test of products in the RV industry well as most people know that it's a global leader in sanitation and refrigeration and we're also quite strong in the cooking segment within the Australian Market I think we have a high market share in all three of our categories predominantly we're known for our sanitation but we're really starting to be recognized with our cooking and Refrigeration products what we see walking around is that a lot of the manufacturers go more to electric fence as well is that a trend that you're seeing as well yeah look we're seeing quite a quite a large Trend towards electrification particularly we've introduced a range of compressor fridges in recent times and we've seen a huge increase in our sales and compressor fridges 12 volt fridges but also electrification in cooking as well we have a range of induction Hobs that um that are selling quite well and they're seeing a very very strong demand for those moving forward yeah perfect okay well let's have a look around to some of your products so as I was saying earlier the trend of electrification in Australia we're finding that most of our customers now want a absorption and a compressor fridge option so as you can see here we've got two fridges the n4175 being an absorption option and the t2175 being our compressor the beauty of this range is that both both fridges fit in the same cutout so for the oems they can have the one cut out and offer both a compressor compressor and absorption fridge next to it we have our induction Hobs which we have a combination of pure induction but also a dual fuel option so the two burner induction hob and the single induction with the two burners very nice range that the oems are really starting to to get on board with as we're seeing better battery power in in OEM products so quite an exciting range quite an exciting development for the industry in Australia and we will be bringing out more and more of the electric electrified products industry talking to Danny Peterson national sales manager for Crusader Caverns how are you very well thanks darling and thanks for having this chat with us no worries are you having a good show so far yes I mean it's just starting today but already they're sitting down they're buying Caravans Crusader Caravans so we're anticipating a fantastic show perfect that's good yeah and what's new for Crusader Caverns because so notice a lot been happening since you won the two manufacturing of the manufacturer of the year or manufacturing Excellence award yes let's do let's do that again so what's new for Crusader Caravans well A lot happened we've won uh two years we run won the manufacturer of the year the manufacturing Award of Excellence and we last July end of July we moved into a brand new Factory of a purpose-built factory and we've changed from our traditional build of our moranti Timber Caravan to a fully composite product and I think fully composite products are the way the industry is heading the consumer is demanding non-timber frames or no frame at all and certainly there's lots and lots of advantages of a fully so what are the advantages I guess one piece sides one piece roof so less opportunity for water Ingress thermal properties just awesome thermal properties the csiro has done some testing and it's nearly 1 000 times more thermally efficient than our traditional build the strength the um the law it's a much more modern clean look and we've been leaders in this in Australia from we've taken our lead from Europe to be frank with you have used this technology for some time we've adapted it for Australia so would you say you were to First in Australia as well to go to full crop industry we're certainly the first volume manufacturer that do it in a fully engineered way so we have three different panels we use and our Engineers have determined what is necessary for each panel what what's you know our floor is a 40 mil thick panel and it's a matte fiberglass hi there we're looking at the Crusader musketeer here it's a fantastic tandem axle semi-off-road Caravan and we're going to wander inside and you can see just what a fantastic living space it is beautiful Club Lounge queen bed really stylish kitchen with the latest black Taps and black sinks and black 12 volt fans really well coordinated with the the upper cabinets at a different color to the lower cabinets and really bright and Airy terrific air conditioning big fridge for the whole uh the big trip away it's got a wonderful bathroom with a really big shower toilet washing machine this is really a home away from home and that even opens like that a one-piece shower enough room in there to uh for anyone to fit in great pantries at the door so if we're cooking outside there's really good easy access to everything really well designed and this is a one of our mid-range Vans and certainly one of our most popular Vans we've got a table that will make down into a bed if we want it so it gives you a bit of flexibility if uh if you've got additional people coming along and need to stay the night hi we're looking at the Crusader Gladiator Force here our most popular Caravan this was launched in December 2000 and we launched it online without anyone ever seeing one and we ended up selling 50 online in a matter of six weeks it's a full composite product it's super versatile great small kitchen it's a full off-road product so you you know take it down the roughest tracks it's really a sensational product and you'll see it's made up into a queen bed there and can be just as easily two single beds I just split and there's a little table that slots in there too so it's really compact easy to tow but fully featured a great fridge it has a shower and toilet and in a 14 and a half foot van it's just feature packed the build is a full composite build so no timber frame in fact that's the composite walls and roof that make the frame and really well insulated really strong ideal for Australian conditions Pro today um Luis could you tell us a bit more about yourself and about being pro please so being pro we've been a we're actually part of a 50 year old 55 year old at company actually we turned 55 this year and we've been in their Caravan industry for about 15 20 years now and we've got the brand called BM Pro so BM Pro is a uh a business that I'll start again being pro is a brand that has a whole bunch of power management and Battery Management Systems as well as smart RV systems so in our Australian Caravans we look after the battery we bring the solar in we charge the battery we manage all the loads within the Caravan and then also we have like a smart RV smart home for the RV as well inside the Caravan so you're installed in the RVs here in Australia what how many percent what percentage do you reckon has been pro products in there so about 50 percent of all Caravans built in Australia has some form of being pro inside it so we're considered the heartbeat or the engine of the of the Caravan in terms of power perfect nice that sounds good and so what's new um for being pro in Australia is there any new products coming out so we've we've recently released uh the a sparrow system which is a power supply and a simple display so that's really for some of these smaller RVs off-road RVs so that's a fairly simple basic system that we launched that complements our our higher end system which is our Battery Plus Mark II which a lot of people have seen over the years and we continue to develop that um also we've just brought out a new DC to DC unit which is called Pro boost which is over there so we can head over there oh yes so we've brought out a pro boost 40 amp and a 25 amp so this is a DC DC so it boosts the charge from the alternator to the house battery it takes in solar as well so at uh at the 40 amps so it's got an mppt solar regulator in it uh so yeah we're really excited about this unit it's both for the Caravan market and for the four wheel drive of off-road Market you can see there it's installed in um Stuart's car which is what you normally install it or in the car you can install it in a car so it's it's managing the secondary battery for the card and make sure the fridge is cold so it boosts that voltage and looks after that house battery as well as you can have external solar panels or solar panels on the roof same in the RV looking after the house battery as a as it boosts that alternator with the smart alternators nowadays um you don't get that full DC voltage coming through from the car battery yeah looks good yes it is good we're super excited about it and then you know we've still got our Pro Smart range which is our Pure aftermarket smart RV system as well so yeah there's a lot there where uh we're adding a lot we're enhancing a lot and there's some new products coming out uh in the next six to 12 months as well so we're working hard right and what else have you been opting because I heard you're getting bigger and bigger in the US as well you're expensive yeah so that's so we've been uh supplying the RV Market in the US since uh 2019. and really there we are less focused on Power and more focused on the smart RV so we have a full switching system what in the US they call it a switching system so we take we're the smart uh smart home for the RV very much there in the US they have five slide out so we control five-siders they have three awnings they have bed lifts they have multiple hvacs which we all control through our node system so our switching and an app and a screen on the wall as well so that business for us we've been really happy with our entry into that market we're bringing out in the next couple of months a load shedding system to add to our switching system and we're about to launch with a new OEM in uh in June when at model change for them so yeah super exciting in the US and super exciting here lots of new things yeah lots of new good to see you thanks thanks for your time pleasure we're now on the stand of Avida motorhomes and Caravans probably the biggest motorhome manufacturer here in Australia we're talking to Billy Falconer sales and marketing manager for Avida how are you I'm very good how are you I'm good thank you very much what I find very interesting for from a Global Perspective is that in Australia only five percent of the market is motorhomes yes why do you think it is why are they less popular here in Australia than they are for example in Europe I guess there's different reasons it's you know there's an age demographic of buyers there's also you know still um in Australia it's a lot about having a car when you travel around so when you're towing a caravan you've still got your car when you're on you unhook the Caravan and as people go through the cycle like the cycle Village yeah they tend to then go to motorhome so yeah yeah I guess there's no one reason for it but yeah the demographic that we sell to for motorhomes predominantly 65 plus whereas the Caribbean Market you've got people from you know 25 30 families Young is everything buying Caravans which is a broader group okay yeah that makes a lot of sense and most popular people probably know you from the motorhomes in it however when I look around I see more and more Caravans as well yes we do Caravans yes we do we got back into Caravans in 2013. we also do camper Camper vans as well a couple of new models there yeah so not just motorhomes anymore homes and launched some new motorhomes recently as well so it's been it's been a good few years I guess through covert it's been a good couple of years but yeah it's um it's been been strong for us good and so what is new um our latest launches is uh the Aveda diversion camper van which is the one we have here on display at the show um so that camper van is unique in a few few areas it has an electric roll down bed so with nice long lounges in the back it's a nice LED mood lighting it has a larger fridge which campervans normally have the smaller fridges this has a larger fridge so a very luxurious camper van built on a on the latest Mercedes-Benz Sprinter um so a nice camper van for two people for couples it looks good yeah okay well let's have a look around so this is our latest Evita diversion built on the Mercedes Sprinter um chassis comes in two-wheel drive or all-wheel drive very well specced with inverter solar panels lithium batteries and some unique features which we'll show you inside like the electric roll down bed and things like that so as you come into the modem you'll see this camper van here you'll see quite a large fridge so we have a big 150 liter fridge microwave good covered space some cooking and sink so nice kitchen layout here looking to the outside of the camper van plenty of cupboards large lounging area Smart TV and then electric roll down bed which we can show you the bed coming down all in one speaker you've got here as well so that's Bluetooth USB Etc so you've got very good features and benefits in this luxury camper van in the bed here to the electric bed we're talking about so this comes down from the ceiling so by day you have your lounges and by night you have your bed ready to go bring it down to the lounges just lower your table and you're ready to go so another popular motorhome in uh in the Evita range is the Evita Esperance which we have here also on display at the show built on the iveco chassis rear wheel drive available in the 50c 180 horsepower or also the 50c 210 horsepower as you can see some nice features outside you've got the outside entertainment unit Smart TV speakers Etc at the back of the motorhome you have a nice storage compartment here fits in a barbecue with a barbecue Point down the bottom there so inside the motorhome we have a nice dinette layout with a large bed and fridge and microwave in between so these panels here is basically your entire slide out the whole side of the motorhome slides out increasing your living space inside the motorhome here so again nice kitchen bench space soft closed drawers so handle free overhead cupboards so no handles so we have the handles underneath plenty of storage um large TV Smart TV again radio and full rear ensuite with shower and toilet and we also do this with the bed up the front or you can get an option of no bed up the front which then lifts up if you want to be sitting and swivel your seats in the front chassis to entertain with your friends in the motor so to drive this Esperance motorhome you need a light rigid license we do have plenty of motor homes and campervans that are a standard license but once you get to a certain weight limit which this Esperance is you have to have a upgraded license and with most of our customers this being a very popular motorhome most of our customers already have that upgrade or it's a simple process to go through to get your upgraded license to a light rigid and be able to drive one of these larger motorhomes so this is a virtual showroom we're building for our dealers for when there's lack of stock you're able to share the customer virtually what a product looks like so here is an example of a product that we haven't built yet or the dealers don't have on display and you can actually virtually walk through have a look at the product see what it looks like and you can actually walk through to the back into the bathroom Etc and check out the whole motorhome and have a look around and see what the motorhome will look like when it's built our next phase of this that we're looking at as you can see virtually quite easily to use look at the bathroom shower Etc what we're working on at the moment and the next stage of this is where customers and dealers will be able to pick their colors change the color to suit what they want or bench top upholstery Etc and virtually have a look at the product and see what it would look like before they even purchase it we're here at the Sierra station here for NC NC is one of the major Distributors here in this for the Australian Market Jared what can you tell us about the market and your products yeah so nce has been always been a big supplier of Timber into the Caravan industry we are very well known for our Timber but we also have quite a very large product range under our group so we have about 700 different product lines that we deal with and we pretty much deal with every single manufacturer in Australia so here we have a range of our canned cooktops out of Italy we have quite a few different models of these we also have different models in the drawers on display so every single one that we bring into Australia basically is on show here at the moment so we have quite a fair bit now again obviously this is all approved for the Australian Market in this display we also have a range of our Windows which we sell which I call our European style blinds so very nice pleated line we also have range hoods so we have a brand new range hood which we launched last year which is a flush mount with our drop down panel and then we also have our other model which we've had for quite a few years now which is very popular in the Australian Caravan and motorhome industry so we'll move on to our next display and have a little bit of a lookout so behind us here we have our range of stainless steel sinks so we have normal stainless we have black we have full-size kitchen sinks all the way down to small ones for your smaller little Caravans and again we have more models inside of our drawers so we actually have quite a fair bit of a range of sinks in there in our stock again we also have from Australia this is an Australian company called Pure Tech we have a range of TAPS now these are a three-way tap so you've got your hot and cold water and you also have filtered water so obviously a very good thing to have in Australia our next display we'll close this up we have TVs so again we're very large in the TV Market into Australia we have a couple of brand new models up the top here which are our webos TV so various very smart TVs very fast operational very easy to control and then we also have our other range of products here so we we have TVs from 24 inch to 28 inch 32 inch all the way up to 42 inch and they are all 12 volt Australian TVs so over here we also have microwaves so again our microwaves are very popular in the industry here more canned products we have another product which is Australian made Australian designed and owned which is our Smith's portable barbecue which comes on a slide out system this is great for obviously cooking your steaks in the outback also pizzas you'll be on you'd be surprised how good this thing actually Cooks a pizza we have a brand new product here from cairn this is a slide out kitchen now this has been available in Europe for the last couple of years but we've just got all the approvals for the Australian Market to come to Australia our product is on the water and it's going to be here very soon so we're excited about this product you know we've gone from gas to Water Products to sinks we also have induction cooktops so we have a couple of different induction cooktops here to suit our market and again they are all certified for the Australian Market over here we have our range of washing machines we have wall mount washing machines we have a washer and we also have a washer dryer version we have top load washing machines we have basins for your bathroom we have a whole different range of basins to suit different sizes and everything we have shower rails we have bathroom accessories we have your toilet roll holders towel holders cups to put your uh put your toothbrush in Lots we have stereo systems so we have a range of different stereos we have speakers we even have a Wi-Fi router for your Caravan which is great to obviously pair up with our Smart TVs we also have our gray aircons so gree is a very very well known company out of China their aircons are one of the best this is a brand new one that we've just got certified for the Australian market so this is an inverter style aircon it has a higher BTU output and it has a lower decibel running noise so we're very excited about this model here we also have obviously more windows on display we have our current aircon which we have been selling into the Australian market now for the last four or five years it is this is a great unit now one thing that the whole Australian industry is excited about is our dcx power supply system so this here is the DNA to your electric Caravan now this also got launched into America last year and you're going to be seeing big things about this into the future so what we have here is a 14.3 kilowatt lithium battery which is chassis mountable so it gets the battery out of the living quarters we have this paired up with a 5000 watt inverter and this can also take up to 4 000 watts of solar input so the beauty with this is during the day in Australia when the sun is pumping we can actually directly run all of our appliances directly off the solar on the roof of a caravan so that is a massive Game Changer in the Australian industry we're here at the MVC stands talking to Steve Ballinger who is the national sales manager Embassy is probably one of the biggest and well most well-known camper trailer Brands here in Australia something we don't see as much in Europe why do you think Steve or camper Trail is so important and popular in Australia most of it's their climate just look around today we're at 23 degrees we have a light Breeze blowing through if you're sitting down beside the river having a beer doing a beneficial with the family there's nothing better to do yeah so camber trades are all about Outdoor Living Outdoor Living not as much about strong he's a big noun for their barbecues yeah this is just the next step we take the barbecue down to the river everyone sits around make some memories Irene as we're sitting here in our xtt it's the best selling camper trailer in Australia it was so good we took it to the USA just recently all our American friends are loving it and you can just see why we've got a queen-size bed at one and we've got to double it the other big Lounge here I'm a big guy plenty of room to sit full ventilation running through full outdoor kitchen rim for a 95 liter fridge there's not much else you want when you want to go camping lightweight construction same Caravan chassis that we put in all our Caravans they're built to go anywhere as tough as nails we're standing here beside our 16 Island it's another model we've taken from Australia and put into the USA all our USA friends are loving it but look at this outdoor kitchen here servery table it's built to go anywhere and if you step up inside here with me you can't help but love this full Dinette sink burners inside as well as outside queen size bed the best shower toilet in the market no one beats us in a 16 foot Caravan for that all the Comforts are home made to go off grid take it out as long as we've got Sun it can sit out there and you'll still be producing power full-size shower even for the big guys like myself dinette falls down to be another bunk and becomes a true three birth Caravan [Music] [Music] thank you we're here at the Masterpiece stand to introduce to you a new supplier to the RV industry here in Australia or actually I shouldn't say Australia because they're a global supplier for the RV industry called Global Heritage I'm here with Nicholas today he's the head of engineering and we're going to have a look at the first product that Global brought out which is in awning how are you Nicholas good thank you yeah are you having a good shows so far really good you know like we we are seeing our products being treated to Caravan so that's really exciting yeah perfect so what what's happening because the awning is the first product you brought out what's special about designing so this is rolling obviously we've been looking at all earnings on the market and looking at the weaknesses and strong point and trying to make the best learning in the market yeah so here we're looking at the like full Aluminum Awnings with like not like a high gauge aluminum we know the whole links have a tendency over time to to tell so we use a thicker fabric gauge so obviously to resist much longer to be more robust and the the next aspect of the awning is we worked a lot on the design so learning or any prod

2023-03-13 11:02

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