Ultra-modern design and sleek interiors characterise the first caravan range from log cabin manufacturers Dunster House
If someone was asked to describe a caravan to a person who had never seen one before, they might well begin by illustrating a white box shape. Unlike motorhomes or cars with their wide range of colours, design treatments and concepts, caravan manufacturers appear to have a consensus on what works when creating the optimum touring vehicle. However in 2009 a highly atypical caravan design was launched by a company which had never made a tourer before. Sporting an all-black nosecone reminiscent of US fighter planes, in tribute it has been called the Stealth.
Dunster House is a family-run business best known for manufacturing log cabins and outdoor buildings. Founded in 1994 on the principles of in-house design and extensive use of protypes, the firm has always prided itself on research and innovation. Yet its ultimate challenge was set by Alex Murphy towards the end of the last decade when he began to think about his hobby of caravanning.
In his mid-thirties and a keen tourer of some years, Murphy saw “an opportunity to modernise the caravan industry, bringing it into the twenty-first century with a radical change of image, layouts and concepts”. Rather than create a variation of the existing industry standard, he chose to rewrite the rules to create something entirely original – Stealth Caravans.
In particular what bothered Murphy and his design team was how the caravans they had used previously did not meet their requirements in looks, build and layout. He had a particular set of criteria for the Stealth in mind from the outset. “I wanted somewhere comfortable and practical, with a large kitchen worksurface, a large end washroom with a shower cubicle, and a fixed island bed with no corner cut offs. These key features are the focus of the new unique layouts.”
The interior design was not only dictated by function but by the particular form Murphy wanted the Stealth to take. Adamant that it could “not look or feel like another caravan” he wanted something “that was more akin to a luxury apartment, yacht, or high end motorhome – with High Gloss finishes, premium quality fittings and furnishings, modern colour schemes”. As a result the caravan has split opinion with resistance from those used to more cottage style interiors.
Technically the caravan contains all the modern underpinnings one would expect with the industry-standard AL-KO ATC chassis. In addition to this Dunster House have developed “Overseal Technology” designed to combat the old age problem for caravanners of water ingress. With an ambitious set of aims married to a unique design, the Stealth caravan can certainly lay claim to be unlike any other on sale today.
In October 2011, Dunster House officially launched a new luxury range at the NCC Motorhome and Caravan Show. Named the Concordia, it features a choice of three single-axle layouts, ranging from two to five berths.
