Canada's Leisure Travel Vans continues to build out its line of spacious, efficiently packaged Type C motorhomes with its first all-wheel drive offering ever. Taking advantage of the newly added AWD option on the 2020 Ford Transit, Leisure pulls the homey rear lounge layout over from its Sprinter-based Unity, offering a spacious flex bedroom with stowaway Murphy bed and L-shaped sofa. The 2021 Wonder Rear Lounge also packs the latest in driving tech and smart (mobile) home features.
Leisure launched the Sprinter rear lounge Unity motorhome last year, and it immediately struck us as a very impressive combination of day/night space. The addition of the rear lounge as the latest Ford Transit Wonder floor plan pulls the price of an LTV rear lounge motorhome down by nearly US$13,000 as compared to the Unity.
The lounge has been reconfigured for its new home, the side of the sectional couch pulled over to the driver side, the near floor-to-ceiling double window moved over to the passenger side. The footrests have a squarer shape, turning two of the sofa seats facing the TV with soundbar into proper recliners. At night, the 58 x 74-in (147 x 188-cm) bed folds down from the rear wall to sleep the two occupants aboard. The toilet room serves as the front wall, so with the exception of the occasional trip to the kitchen a couple feet farther forward, campers can essentially hunker down in this rear space for days on end.
The expandable table can be used in the rear lounge or up at the front of the camper, where vis-a-vis side bench seats are joined by swiveling driver-area captain's chairs to seat four. A second TV hanging on the kitchen wall provides a viewing option from this position.
The kitchen's L-shaped counter packs in a sink at one end and a stove at the other. A tall, narrow slide-out pantry provides an efficient storage space for dry and canned foods, and a standing-height Dometic fridge/freezer across the aisle offers plenty of room for perishables.
A Transit camper van would no doubt be limited to a slim wet cell, but the extra floor space of the Type C motorhome makes possible a dual-compartment dry bath. The driver-side toilet room behind the kitchen houses both the toilet and sink, the passenger-side shower room left entirely to showering.
Onboard power comes from a dual-AGM battery system and 2,000-W pure sine inverter. A 7-in touchscreen command center and satellite touch panels offer control of lighting, water pump settings and temperature, along with monitoring of critical systems. An accompanying app lets the owner carry that control all around the cabin and beyond. LTV will offer a lithium battery option in the future.
The big addition to the updated 2020 Transit chassis is of course the optional intelligent all-wheel drive. The Ford chassis is powered by a 310-hp 3.5-liter twin-turbo EcoBoost V6 with 10-speed automatic transmission and includes an 8-in touchscreen Sync 3 infotainment system. The Wonder comes standard with driver-assistance features like lane-keeping, forward collision warning, and pre-collision assist with emergency auto-braking.
The 297-in (754-cm) Wonder Rear Lounge is available to order now and starts at US$130,000. Deliveries will begin this summer (Northern Hemisphere).
Source: Leisure Travel Vehicles
