The beach feeling of the Beachy 360
“A simple Caravan that smells of the beach.” With these words, general director Holger Schulz introduces the first Hobby Beachy Caravan, Hobby's second brand, designed for the new generation of campers. We took a look at the Beachy 360.
Simple, yet with a fresh look. That's what stands out when we look at the exterior of the Beachy 360. The Caravan is designed for smaller and electric passenger cars: ready to drive, the smallest model weighs 750 kg and you can load it up to 900 kg – leaving 150 kg of payload – the rest of the holiday gear has to go in the car. You can also get the Beachy with a maximum permissible mass of 1200 kg. If your car can tow that, you can take as much as 450 kg of holiday luggage with you.
Exterior
The Beachy has smooth panelling and fresh, minimalist striping. What's striking is the absence of the drawbar box – that saves weight. The drawbar box is on the options list, for extra storage space. The Caravan has one side window and two doors, both with porthole windows. One on the side and an extra wide door at the rear: handy for sliding in a surfboard, for example.
The rear door opens in two parts: the lower part opens sideways, the upper part opens upwards. Striking is the wavy shape of the roof, inspired by the sea. We see the same 'wave' in the Beachy's striping, a nod to the beach feeling with which the Beachy was designed.
Living, eating, sleeping
The Beachy is available in three versions: 360, 420 and 450, referring to the body length. The layout is largely the same: a kitchen plus wardrobe at the front and a lounge area at the back, where the longitudinal benches can be converted into a bed of 200 by 180 – so you could even sleep three people there. The wide rear door is handy for large luggage and also provides an Instagram-worthy view from your bed.
We only see cupboards in the 360 under the kitchen worktop – otherwise, the Beachy is equipped with open shelves on the left side wall and above the kitchen, with elastic bands preventing the contents from falling out during travel. Together with the – standard – wicker baskets, it looks very stylish. The longitudinal benches have comfortable, sand-coloured seats and back cushions that are used together to convert the seating area into a bed. There are no bench boxes: the open space under the benches can be used to place a weekend bag with clothes, for example.
Behind the backrests, felt is applied to the walls for extra insulation and ventilation. The shape and colour are reminiscent of scaffolding wood. A bathroom or toilet is missing, but you can take a porta-potti in the hanging cupboard. This will, however, be at the expense of storage space. The kitchenette has a stainless steel sink with a mixer tap; you cook on a separate stove with a gas cartridge – the Beachy has no gas installation on board. In one of the kitchen drawers is the Dometic cool box with a capacity of 38 litres.
Installations
We can be (very) brief about installations: there aren't any. No heater, no gas installation, no bathroom. It all fits the Beachy's design philosophy: campsites have excellent sanitary facilities and you usually cook outside, on the BBQ. And there's nothing wrong with that if you're aiming for a younger generation of campers.
Conclusion Beachy 360
The Beachy has a fresh design that, together with the rear door, seems inspired by the #vanlife hype. The sober equipment keeps the price down, but couldn't it be even lower? Take the Adria Aviva: two thousand more and you do have a bathroom with toilet, shower and a full kitchen. But perhaps that new target group isn't waiting for that at all...
PLUS & MIN
+ design
– price
– payload
Technical information
DIMENSIONS
Body length, with drawbar: 366/508 cm
Width: 207 cm
Height: 267 cm
Headroom: 205 cm
SEATING & SLEEPING
Number of Berths: 2-3
Bed sizes: 200×180 cm
WEIGHTS
Ready-to-drive weight: 741 kg
Max. permissible mass: 1900 kg (optional 1200 kg)
Payload: 159 kg (optional 459 kg)
Price from € 11.950
More information can be found at www.beachy.de
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