Forty years in business is certainly cause for excitement and festivity, which explains the celebratory mood of NSW central coast dealer Alan Graham’s Caravans and RVs. It is also why Concept Caravans was asked to build a special 40th anniversary model for Alan Graham’s, aptly dubbed the AG40.
The AG40 is a 6.4m (21ft) caravan that weighs in with a Tare of 2159kg and an ATM of 2574kg. Inside, the rear door entry opens into a spacious front island bed, full-width rear bathroom layout. Realistically, the Tare weight/ATM of the van puts the AG40 over the popular Prado limit, so a tow vehicle with at least a 3000kg towing capacity should be considered. But, certainly for me, it was not a difficult van to tow.
CONSTRUCTION
Built in the time-honoured Concept style, the AG40 is built on a SupaGal box section chassis with 150mm (6in) main rails and drawbar and a ball coupling up front. Load-sharing leaf spring suspension is fitted to the tandem axles. Both the galvanised sheet protected water tanks are fitted forward of the axles, which leaves the rear sub-chassis area fairly clear, except for pipework and drainage connections, most of which are strapped up neatly out of harm’s way.
For the AG40’s colour scheme, Alan Graham’s ordered something black and white – literally – both inside and out. The ‘Pearl White’ external aluminium cladding contrasts nicely with the black composite panels. External storage is quite generous with both a front boot and three-quarter tunnel boot along with a small compartment at the nearside rear. Its conventional front boot means the house battery, battery charger and solar panel regulator are all located there and don’t take up space elsewhere.
INTERIOR
Inside the van, the black-and-white theme continues with all the upper cupboards and overhead lockers in white and the lower ones in black.
The white ceiling and walls certainly give an even light distribution both by day and night, and there are plenty of LED light fittings for night time use.
KITCHEN
A noticeable feature of this van’s design is that it has a decent-sized kitchen bench. Even with a Swift cooker/grill/oven combination and a stainless steel sink/drainer there’s still some very usable benchtop working space. Additionally, that means plenty of under-bench storage capacity including three well-sized drawers and a cupboard. In the overhead lockers above, shelves have been fitted to two of them. Instead of using valuable storage space for the electrical control panel, a smaller and shallower panel has been created in a section of the bedroom adjacent to the kitchen bench. It contains the 12V fuses, mains circuit breaker, water tank gauge and hot water switch. Against the bathroom wall, a microwave oven sits atop the 190L fridge.
DINING AND LOUNGING
A good-length kitchen bench also means the traditional flat screen TV mounting point on the wall between bedroom and kitchen can easily be accommodated, and therefore easily seen from either the dinette opposite or the bed up front. That’s important in the case of the dinette because both seats are fitted with slide-out footrests making sitting back and relaxing all too easy. The double-hinged table is easily used for that scenario or can be folded out for more serious dining. Four can be seated at the dinette but two is definitely more comfortable.
BEDROOM
There are no real surprises up front. The bed measures 1.85x1.52m (6ft 1in x 5ft) and has windows all round. Given the small space of the bedside cabinets, the shelf under the front window is definitely a welcome addition. Lifting the posture slat bed base reveals good-sized under-bed storage.
BATHROOM
Across the rear, the bathroom has all the expected items – full-height shower cubicle on the offside, Thetford cassette toilet opposite, large wall mirror and a vanity cabinet, complete with washing machine in the middle. A small bonus is the full-height cupboard beside the toilet. Ventilation fan hatches are fitted above both the shower and toilet.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Well, I reckon anyone who has been in the caravan business for 40 years has done well and must know a thing or two about the industry. Congratulations are in order here. Concept Caravans hasn’t been in business quite that long but still know how to build a caravan and the AG40 is certainly a very good and typical example.
HITS AND MISSES
Pros
- Colour scheme
- External storage
- Good-sized kitchen
- Comfortable dinette
Cons
- Single powerpoints fitted
- No 12V/5V USB charger points
Weights and measures
- Overall length 8.23m (27ft)
- External body length 6.4m (21ft)
- External body width 2.41m (7ft 11in)
- Travel height 2.95m (9ft 8in)
- Internal height 1.98m (6ft 6in)
- Tare 2159kg
- ATM 2574kg
- Payload 415kg
- Ball weight 115kg
Price as shown
$59,990 (drive-away)
The full feature appeared in Caravan World #564. Subscribe today for the latest caravan reviews and news every month!