A new camping trailer that's full of surprises, the 2026 Low Tow from Australia's Prattline RV looks at first to be as brand, spanking new and cutting-edge as some of the latest all-electric trailers developed in Silicon Valley. But it's actually a modern redux of a nameplate that dates back over half a century. The trailer still looks so fresh and unique today, we can only imagine how folks must have looked on the original like it floated to Earth from a far-flung planet in an undiscovered galaxy.
"Everything old is new again." It's a phrase observers are often compelled to repeat when seeing a new product with signature operational or design features similar to those seen years, decades, even centuries earlier. Like the way electric vehicles – motorized carriages, to be specific – beat ICE vehicles to a 19th century existence nearly 200 years before modern EVs started gaining real momentum in the automotive industry.
Of course, no one would say a modern EV is the exact equivalent of an early-19th century motorized carriage – there's plenty of inevitable evolution and innovation that happen, even when general concepts and categories are rehashed.
The 'old is new again' mentality is particularly apt when looking at the RV industry, where classic concepts like teardrop trailers, Westy-like pop-up camper vans, and molded fiberglass trailers and truck campers either persist in popularity through the decades, evolving with new features and materials, or undergo periods of innovation, dormancy and revival.
As with EVs, and the motor and battery tech underpinning them, that doesn't mean modern innovation is absent. Newer evolutions of old RV concepts often apply the latest materials, manufacturing techniques and features to improve upon age-old paradigms, like how many teardrop trailers have moved past aluminum skinned wood on to rot-free zero-wood constructions and hardened, ruggedized off-road specs.
The new Prattline Low Tow is the epitome of a revived and improved innovation from generations past. When we first happened upon it, we thought it was born from the growing contemporary trend of power-lifting hard-sided trailers, a style that's recently become something of a favorite for production and concept caravan designs built to reimagine caravanning with the newest technology. As it turns out, though, the Low Tow has much deeper roots and is a modern reimagining of a product dating back well into the 20th century.
Prattline is one of the original innovators of telescopic hard-sided trailer design and an Australian pioneer in the category. While it can't claim to be the very first in the world – that appears to be the American Hi-Lo camping trailer, as far as we can tell – it was one of the well-known manufacturers that left a big impression during its time on the market.
Prattline was founded by Dick Pratt in 1957, around the same time Hi-Lo was getting up and running across the Pacific and Alaskan Campers was developing a telescopic hard-sided truck camper. Prattline worked in more conventional camper designs until sometime around the 60s/early 70s when it developed the first Low Tow.
Like the original Hi-Lo trailers, the Low Tow (not to be confused with the Tow Low, an American Hi-Lo competitor of the era from Ratcliff Industries) was a two-shell design with an upper shell that nested neatly over the lower shell to drop center of gravity, improve aerodynamics and provide more flexible storage potential. The upper shell lifted with a manual hydraulics crank to full-height camping form.
Prattline sold various iterations of Low Tow trailer for several decades into the 1990s before going out of business.
Now, a small group of RV industry professionals has revived the Prattline name and reinvented the Low Tow design with modern technology. Instead of a slow hydraulic crank operating its roof, the new 22.7-ft (6.9-m) Low Tow prototype operates instantly at the punch of a button, electric actuators at each corner raising the upper shell into full 9.3-foot (2.8-m) base camp height. That then opens up 6.2 feet (193 cm) of standing room inside.
During the drive, the caravan lowers down to a height of 6.9 feet (2.1 m), which is still fairly high and likely a bit taller than the tow vehicle. But that's largely because Prattline has built the new Low Tow for off-road travel, planting it on a high-clearance tapered galvanized-steel chassis. It then secures a 2,600-kg dual-shock independent coil suspension between that frame and each 16-in alloy wheel and finishes off with a pair of 265/75 R16 Goodride radial mud-terrain light truck tires and 12-in electric brakes.
The Low Tow body is shaped by a vacuum-bonded fiberglass frame, its sidewalls secured together with a single-piece roof and an anti-rot honeycomb floor. In place of the two-piece Dutch door on Low Tows of old, the all-new model features a clever sliding dual-height design that closes neatly whether the trailer is set to drive or camp height.
The Low Tow's unique shape was derived from past Low Tow models. Not all Low Tows came in that particular shape, but it was prominent during the nameplate's original decades-long run, as evidenced by many of the photos and videos we've been able to track down of older models. The shape gives the trailer a curvaceous nose that appears more aerodynamic than the vertical face a boxier design would create, and it adds to the upper interior volume of the trailer in comparison to walls rising straight up from the lower half.
The red/orange/yellow stripes are another nod to Low Tow heritage and fit perfectly with the newly ruggedized design, bringing to mind the three-stripe patterns worn by rugged Ford and Toyota TRD off-roaders in the 1970s/80s through to today.
An addition we haven't seen on classic Low Tows is the slide-out exterior galley. This unit works naturally with the 2026 Low Tow's more rugged, off-road design as a common element of Australian off-road trailers in general. It comes nicely equipped with a four-burner gas stove, sink with dual-level drying rack, and extendable worktop.
That doesn't mean you can't escape cold or wet weather and cook meals inside, though. The Low Tow prototype also includes a sleek indoor corner kitchen with slim rectangular sink, dual-burner induction cooktop and 12-V compressor fridge.
The interior is based around a 78 x 59-in (200 x 150-cm) island bed with high-density foam mattress. The vis-a-vis dinette just past the foot of the bed can convert to create a second bed. A wet bath completes the floor plan, but instead of mimicking the telescopic hard walls of the exterior design, the bathroom compartment uses a fabric upper body that collapses when lowering the roof.
The final element of the Low Tow's modernization program comes in the form of a robust off-grid electrical and multimedia package. That's grounded in a 600-Ah LFP battery supported by 600 watts of solar and a 2,000-W inverter switching DC current into the AC so much more useful for everyday appliances and gizmos. Wired up in strategic parts of the cabin are a 24-in smart TV with HD antenna, stereo head unit with speakers, and multiple fans.
Other features that fill out the preliminary spec sheet include a reverse-cycle A/C-heating system, water heater, 80-L fresh and gray water tanks, and an outdoor shower.
Prattline tells us it's been developing the Low Tow, the clear technical highlight of a new lineup that also includes two fixed-height caravans, for the past two years. It's still finalizing the production spec, so some of the numbers mentioned might change, but has been busily showing the prototype at various RV shows around Australia. It's also been taking preorders for the AU$79,990 (approx. US$55,000) trailer, as well as its other models.
While it feels a bit early to talk about internationalization for a brand-new startup in an Australian RV industry that's been a bumpy rollercoaster of new innovations and bankrupt brands, Prattline does have its sights on eventual expansion into global markets like Europe and the US.
Source: Prattline RV
