TESTED: TRACK TRAILER T4 SYMPHONY

THE ALL-NEW TRACK TRAILER T4 SYMPHONY HYBRID CAMPER PROVES ITS WORTH IN A TOUGH OUTBACK TORTURE TEST.

HERE’S NO doubt that Track Trailer Tvans have an enviable reputation in Australia that has been built on 20 years of production, as well as having been hauled to some of the most remote parts of the country. However, as an all-new model, the Track Trailer T4 hybrid camper has still to prove its mettle, and the example you see here is one of the first T4s off Track Trailer’s Bayswater production line in Victoria.

To see how well the T4 would perform, we joined Track Trailer on a test loop that would see us head through outback SA, up the Oodnadatta Track across to Coober Pedy, and out along the Anne Beadell Highway to Voakes Hill Corner. We would then swing south onto a lesser-used track and then, by a series of old mining roads and Aboriginal business roads – some of which are bloody rough and deep in bull dust – we would find our way to Cheetima Beach, west of Fowlers Bay. From there we would head back to Melbourne via the blacktop.

Prior to our trip, the all-new chassis and its MC-2R suspension had been subjected to severe and extensive testing on the ripple strips of the impressive and very trying Anglesea Proving Ground Following that the van had been subjected to considerable on-road testing (both blacktop and gravel) and daily use in the Victorian High Country, along the Murray River, as well as a few coastal camping sojourns; so in its short life it has copped a pretty rough, near continuous workover.

There are three models of the T4 on offer: the entry-level Symphony is $105K; the more luxurious Rhapsody is around $108,500; and the Concerto Family Bunk model tops the line-up at just under $109,500. The model tested here is the Symphony.

The T4 body’s striking looks make a styling statement very different to its predecessor, the Track Topaz, with the walls featuring longitudinal creases for greater torsional strength and impact resistance. The two-piece insulated roof, the distinctive nose cone and the rear shower pod are all fashioned from fibreglass, while the riveted sandwich-panel walls and the roof structure are linked by a laser-cut external aluminium frame, colour-coded to

THE T4 BODY’S STRIKING LOOKS MAKE A STYLING STATEMENT VERY DIFFERENT TO ITS PREDECESSOR, THE TRACK TOPAZ