Adria 512PU Altea van

G'day John, I have no direct experience with Adria but recall reading about them
& nothing very encouraging..European design..very light..not suitable for Oz conditions etc etc...but all this is hearsay, & you can make your own judgement. Try
a search on this site..bound to be some info..maybe even an owner or two. I have
seen an odd one on the road..they look too big for one axle. I suppose the light weight allows this..but as you have had one roll over I would be wary..cheers....oldbaz.

Keep it on the bitumen and good non corregated dirt roads.
OJ


PS> What was the cause of the Jayco Roll over.
Van fault, weight distribution, speed, driver, other driver?

Hi John
Adria did a test on the 512 up the Birdsville track. I did have a copy of the engineers report but have filed it somewhere safe! Perhaps if you contact Adria in Queensland you may be able to get a copy. We have an Adria Altea 432 and have had it for 3 years. We have had a number of vans and off road campers over the years and this van is by far the best constructed we have owned. We do not use it "off road" but certainly are not against taking on outback gravel roads. So far nothing has broken or nothing has fallen off!
We tow it on a RAV 4 v6 and it tows brilliantly.
I was convinced to buy it after a lengthy test tow at Frankston, and was amazed at the stability of the van. Adria have these vans engineered for Australia and warranty them for gravel roads.
They are not in my opinion suitable for very rough and corrugated roads, but I have also seen a number of off road caravans needing major suspension repairs after travelling on these road.
The new Bailey caravans and Jurgans use a very similar suspension.
I wou;d also look at the Slovenian Adria website and view the videos on their test track.
Hope this helps
Mike

The not built for Oz conditions furphy comes from the stupidity of the Viscount Caravans organisation with their Ultralite range. Alko chassis come in various weight models for different weight vans. Viscount used a chassis that was too light for their smaller models. When they built bigger vans they used the same chassis and extended it. They overload on the chassis far too much.

When you overload anything you should expect it to crack up. Just because someone (Viscount for example) overloads something and causes a lot of failures it does not mean that something is a bad product when used correctly. There is nothing wrong with Alko chassis, they will last the distance when used correctly. Viscount were the only mob I know of that did not use them correctly. One of the big problems with the chassis was the suspension, it kept getting out of alignment. That was caused by the chassis cracking up and not in the suspension itself. The suspension is the same type that Barry Davidson used under his Phoenix off road vans.

I had dealings with Trevor Baker when I purchased a Regent van in 1994. Our conversations at one point turned to Ultralite vans and their chassis. He said that he would dearly like to build some vans with Alko chassis. The only thing stopping him was he was not confident in being able to market them after Viscount effectively killed any market for vans with Alko chassis.

Some of you will know of Collyn Rivers and the outback travelling he does. He did some travelling up north of the Arctic Circle and into Eastern Europe. He described the roads there as being in keeping with our worst. The van he took was one with an Alko chassis. He said he was far from being alone, there were other vanners there with similar vans. So there we have the situation where the Europeans use their vans on extremely poor roads and we have the uninformed here saying don't do it.

John, we have the usual situation of forum members acting on here-say and not really sure of what they are posting. Don't let them put you off purchasing your dream van. If you don't go thumping around the outback roads like the 4WDers do with their camper trailers you will be perfectly OK.

Hi John
When I did the test tow with Fritz at Frankston I could not believe the stability of the van. Fritz swayed the van from side to side at 100 kmph then straightened it up and it pulled straight back into line. He also did a crash stop from about the same speed and once again it pulled up straight.
We have towed ours in high winds in outback NSW and Queensland without any dramas.
On the way back from our daughters home at Bryon Bay not long after we bought it, and travelling down the Newell near Narrabi, my wife was driving and swung out to doge a big pothole. The road was in poor condition due to the floods. She overcorrected, and then overcorrected back again. I thought it was rollover time, but got her to straighten up, and hold in a straight line. No worries, the van just tracked back into line.
I find the override brake system excellent, and the Alko antisway hitch easy to use and every bit as effective as the Hayman Reece we have used on other vans.
Andrew Gallop who owns Hardings caravans and worked for Swift in England is full of praise for the build system they use.
Adria have sold about 800 vans in Australia.
ike