What a player! On our recent travel trip to the Stanford and Swellendam areas, we had the opportunity to bring on a new team member for our trip. It was no other than the tough-as-nails Conqueror Companion 4 berth off-road caravan kindly offered to us by the Cape based Conqueror rental division called Nomadiq.
- Full review
- Specs & features
- Build & quality
- Setup & usage
- Tale of the tape
The Conqueror Companion has everything you need for an extended stay in the bush, and it will certainly follow whatever pulls it with ease. We had the new Isuzu M-ux 3.0 litre diesel automatic and the Conqueror Companion towed like a dream, staying straight and true on tar, gravel and off-road.
We even towed the Conqueror to many of the wild campsites on the mountainside above Rivers End Farm and campsite in Stanford and the Companion handled the soft sandy conditions with ease.
The Conqueror has a positive pressure fan that can be switched on when travelling on dust roads to limit the ingress of dust and thus keep the interior clean. There is nothing worse than arriving at your destination to find a sand dune residing in your caravan and having to clean it out before you get settled.
Our Companion was fitted with the standard Insta-Awn awning that offers excellent shade and coverage from the elements. It was incredibly easy to set up. Below the awning is a large 315 litre grocery storage cupboard with its door opening to offer two fold down work surfaces and additional storage. Set inside the grocery storage cupboard is a conveniently placed multi-plug for all you appliances.
Conqueror Companion dimensions & specs
- Exterior length: 4740mm
- Exterior width: 1892mm
- Exterior height: 2150mm
- Suspension: 2.5t independent
- Tare: 1380kg
- GVM: 1800kg
- Water capacity: 160 litres
- AC charger output: 24A/14.7V (max)
- Add-a-room (optional): 2
At the front is a heavy duty jockey wheel, a power plug to attach to the vehicle and an Anderson 12 volt DC charging plug. Set just behind the coupler is a dedicated dual gas cylinder storage unit and behind that is a large nose cone storage area which houses the air suspension leveling switches and air hose.
The air suspension switches can be used effectively to level the Companion at the campsite, with ease. There is also an air hose present, housed within the same nose cone compartment, that can be used to inflate tyres to the correct pressure. This is especially handy if you’ve had to deflate tyres for soft, sandy conditions.
The Companion has external LED lighting which aids when preparing food and offers great light when sitting outside enjoying nature. At the rear of the Companion there is a fold-out shower cubicle with a hot and cold water shower and a wash basin. There is also an emergency spare wheel, two Jerry can holders, LED tail lights and a low centre of gravity water tank. The Companion is shod with 16” all-terrain tyres and decent looking mag rims, designed to handle off-road conditions.
The large grocery cupboard door opens and has two fold down shelves offering additional surface space as well as storage. The slide-out kitchen with fridge offers a hot water washing up facility and a two plate gas cooker, allowing for easy cooking during overland trips or at your favourite campsite. The two drawers below the gas cooker house crockery and cutlery for six people.
The rear of the Companion offers a split fold down/fold up entrance door. Inside, on the immediate right when entering the caravan, is a slide out double bed. There are lots of zip canvas storage compartments in the interior for clothing, toiletries and other items. Straight ahead is another slide-out double bed and both have very comfortable mattresses. The roof is raised to offer added interior space and there are zip open canvas vents with mosquito netting for added air flow in summer.
Companion Interior specs, features & bed dimensions
- Front bed size: Length 1950mm x width 1740mm
- Side bed size: Length 1740mm x width 1430mm
- Internal cupboards: 4
- Large foldout table: 1
- Cabin fans Platinum: 2
- Cabin fans Classic: optional
- Media centre: optional
Setting up is simply a matter of getting to know where everything clips open and then the setup is quick and easy. If you are unsure, a quick Google search will point you in the right direction. We are confident that we will significantly reduce the setup time of the Companion on future trips. Practice makes perfect. The quick fold-out stabiliser legs offer excellent rigidity when the caravan is set up at the campsite and the patented independent air suspension offers easy leveling.
Tale of the tape
How did the Conqueror Companion fare on the trip? Well, it fared admirably. This off-road caravan is built tough and designed to handle almost all terrains with ease. Not only is the Companion incredibly well designed, it has lots of great features that make camping a highly enjoyable experience. Would we use another Companion if we had the chance? That’s a resounding yes, but before we stake a claim for a Companion, we’d also be very keen to try the various other Conqueror products such as the Conqueror Commander, the UEV-25 and the UEV-17 … nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
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