One minute the Jayco Expanda is a tiny-tot towing package that's easy to manoeuvre and the next it's a roomy summer holiday house
 
You all know Doctor Who? The Time Lord and his good-sort sidekick travel through time and the universe battling all manner of evil beasts and machines - such as the Silurians and the Daleks - from a phone box known as the Tardis.

The most remarkable feature of this Tardis - apart from being a time machine, of course - is the fact it manages to pack a full-on space ship interior (complete with obligatory flashing lights) into a box with a one-metre base. This big-in-smaller phenomenon was conveniently explained by the good Doctor once when he walked some distance away from the phone box, held a box of matches up to his sidekick's face, and asked her which looked bigger: The box of matches or the phone box? Of course, the matchbox looked bigger, because it was right in front of her eyes. And that explained how the Tardis could be bigger inside than out. Um, right.

So, that brings us to Jayco's Expanda range of caravans that increases interior living area with pop-top lids and drop-down ends. Not quite the Tardis, but impressive nonetheless.

Talking technically

Our Expanda Outback was the 16.49-1 pop-top model. Measuring 16ft (just under 5m), two drop-down bed ends liberate an extra couple of metres giving it Tardis-like interior room. We'll take a look at the interior in a minute, but first let's take a look at how and what it's built on.

Jayco's 'Millennium' chassis employs deep, widely-based chassis rails (galvanised for rust protection) riding on a solid axle with eight-element leaf springs. The Outback pack we evaluated was fitted with large six-spoke alloy wheels with 235/75 off-road tyres to provide increased ride height and small dampers (protected by stone shields) to offer a less jarring ride and greater stability. The rolling chassis is the foundation for a conventional wooden floor and what Jayco badges its 'Tough Frame' construction, a well-engineered sandwich of square-tube aluminium frame and insulation skinned in a composite of ply and fibreglass.

But it's the drop-down bedrooms that give the Expanda its name and best asset: plenty of space. These solid panels are supported with steel cables and feature tent-like framed canvas above double-bed-sized mattresses. In travel mode, they're clamped closed with fiddly screw-thread jobbies reminiscent of carpenters' G-clamps. Up top, a steel perimeter frame supports the composite pop-top roof on lift-up four-bar mechanisms aided by gas struts.

Unfortunately, while the Expanda's design intent ticks all the right boxes, construction quality on our test model wasn't too crash hot. Silicon sealer was blobbed a little too roughly and some of the plumbing and wiring underneath looked a bit ordinary too. Sure, it may not affect how things work, but a bit of pride doesn't go astray.

Inside story

As in a tent, the huge zip-out windows in the Expanda's bedrooms let in a gentle breeze for summer camping. So, it was kind-of silly of us to test the Expanda mid-winter, the night after the second-coldest day in Sydney's recent history. Yep, it was a bit chilly that night. Thankfully, in addition to the thick comfy foam mattresses, our test Expanda was optioned with a heater that we used to keep the interior toasty.
With the beds in the ends, more space between the walls can be dedicated to daytime use. Jayco uses it well, with plenty of bench space on both sides of the kitchen. The sink is opposite the stove, which helps liberate usable room, too. The ambience is great in the lounge area with two wind-out Camec windows, but there are no windows to look out while preparing dinner.

Seven overhead cupboards provide storage for tucker but they're j-u-s-t too narrow to stack dinner plates. No matter, there's plenty of other space and Jayco includes a cutlery drawer. The stove is a three-plus-one gas/electric unit with a grill and it's backed up in its cooking duties by a high-mounted microwave oven. The fridge is a three-way Dometic 90-litre (ST climate class) and all doors and drawers have press-button latches.

The lounge area has seating for five although it would be tight if everyone wanted to eat at once; three would be a more comfortable number. Not sure if I was doing something wrong, but no matter how hard I tried to clamp it tight, the dinette table flopped around like a doll's leg. Once we returned the rig to the dealer, however, it was fixed in moments.

In the end

The Expanda idea is terrific and makes great sense as a three-season caravan, providing plenty of room and that great outdoors sensation you only get from sleeping under canvas. But niggling quality issues on our test model let the unit down. Hopefully there's only one in a hundred units affected like ours and problems should be fixed quite quickly once pointed out to a friendly dealer. Ideally, however, the problems wouldn't be there in the first place, but built by hand and hand-made are two different things...

Article published in Caravan+RV magazine, Spring 2007. Words Glenn Torrens, photos Phil Cooper.