Do you leave an inverter on all the time? 

RV inverters can seem like relatively complicated electrical devices, and it's hard to know when they should be left on or turned off. For most installations, an inverter should be turned off when not in use. This is because an inverter can drain power from batteries even when there is no power being used.

​Gary and Brett made a trip to Melbourne early June to explore the fantastic Atlas caravan range. Before making the journey, we had done a lot of research and exploring for a 100% Australian built caravan that would suit our customer base and was built by a company that would stand by their product and meet the Deluxe RV Group standards and values.
Atlas Caravans is a family business owned by Aleks and Bianca Bumbaroski with Bianca's father also working on the production of the caravans, he has many years of experience in the construction of caravans within Australia.
To be onsite and see the production and build of the caravans is very important to Deluxe as we stand by the products we sell, and we expect the companies we work with to do the same. Alek's passion for the caravans is incredible with him being involved in every step of production and any little thing he is not happy with gets corrected until he is. Look at the top right corner of the photo and you will see a capping with the Atlas name lasered into it. On the first batch,  Aleks was not happy with the initial one they were using as it did not line up with the join across the front 100% so they all got binned and new ones made so it looked correct. These were the kind of little details that make all the difference to the finish of the caravan and impressed us. For those that know Brett, he is very fussy and things like this must be right. The interior colours and finishes are very modern and carefully selected. 
 
The caravan construction is full aluminium framed with poly insulation. All products used to construct the caravans are readily available through Atlas, which also helped us make the decision to take them on as a brand. This helps us assist our customers with service and repair work.
The models we have going into production are going to be to a New Zealand specification which we have worked through with Altas. Nothing appeared to be a problem with them understanding the differences between Australia and little old NZ. This is something you can do with a smaller manufacturer that has the passion and dedication to their product. They will leave the Atlas factory ready for the NZ self-containment rules with twin fresh and grey water tanks and all other NZ requirements.
 
We also visited the chassis manufacturer whom we had met while he was delivering a chassis to Atlas. Between Atlas and FP Chassis it was like a match made in heaven. Frank at FP Chassis has an impressive proudness for his chassis’ building one thousand chassis a year and supplying five different caravan manufacturers.
His knowledge and dedication are rather hard to explain with him building a chassis that the caravan covers most of. To say we were blown away by the factory and the finished product is hard to find words for.
Every chassis is built to order for each manufacturer with the door accesses being in different places, water tank mounts off road and on road the list just goes on.
He has designed lots of very neat ideas that help the caravan manufacturer with their build. All chassis are made DuraGal steel. DuraGal® steel is a trademarked type of pre-galvanized steel. Many manufacturers only use a black steel.
Once the chassis is complete it is then painted with a specialised paint for a nice finished appearance. This means if you do get a stone chip on your painted chassis the Duragal below prevents it going rusty.
Working and welding with Duragal is a much more difficult task than black steel and needs a more professional approach which Franks team have mastered.
I have seen this in person in Malaysia with a bus building company who normally used black steel and had orders for vehicles in NZ to be built with Duragal, the mess of galvanised blobs on the floor left a lot to be desired. (hence a lot use black steel).
Complete galvanising is also an option available to order to customers, however adds quite a bit of weight to the chassis. 
Extra little things with FP chassis, laser cutting the caravan manufacturers name into the chassis which you can see in the photo under the caravan makes it much more professional. There are points to hang your safety chains on quick release drop down legs. The locker on the front of the caravan is designed for a bike rack to be mounted on the top. The handbrake cables have rollers to run over not just an eyelet.
 
We were both very impressed with the total package and have entered into agreement with Deluxe RV Group being the exclusive importer of Atlas Caravans. If you have interest in a competitively priced true off road Atlas Australian built caravan please contact us for more details and early enquiry. We have a range of the layouts coming which will be here in NZ before summer.