I saw the Khaya Monday afternoon at the outdoors show (in Harrisburg, PA).
I'm glad I went to see it. It's a very interesting camper and I met some great folks from OK4WD.
The camper looked great in person-- high quality components and well thought out.
As an FWC Hawk owner, I was at first taken aback by how small the interior stand-up space is. But compared to the roof-top-tent rig I rented for our 2011 trip, the Khaya is luxurious.
It reminded me of the main complaints we had about the RTT rig.... take-down time and cooking on windy days.
We were comfortable enough in the tent but the morning tear-down and pack-up took the better part of an hour. With animals about and the fire down, we didn't start till almost sunrise so too much of that hour came out of the best time for finding and photographing game. The RTT itself folded down quickly enough but we first had to remove and pack away the contents and I had difficulty getting the cover on and cinched down tight for travel.
We also had a good bit of wind to contend with and had some difficulty cooking on the simple stove-ring atop the gas bottle. The 'countertop' (food-prep surface) was a drop-down side door on the side of the canopy and that more or less worked but then again we were there in warm weather.
So the Khaya strikes me as the step between a live-outside RTT and the live-inside (when you want to) truck campers like the FWC/ATC/Alaskan/Hallmark/Phoenix, etc. The Khaya seems a very strongly built unit and has minimal body overhang and a very durable external surface for those narrow trails. It requires significantly less set-up/takedown time than an RTT rig. Cook inside or out. The sleeping platform pulled down and lifted up easily and does not conflict with the tent. I liked the electrical stuff in general-- Ctek and National Luna components. It did appear to be rigged for single house battery. Not sure if that would change with the optional diesel furnace.
Downsides?
- The mattress is small and only two inches thick. Sleeping orientation would necessarily be N-S and the climb up looked a bit precarious (for me, anyway).
- Food prep looked like a bit of a problem but perhaps I just don't see how it's supposed to work. The Dometic two-burner stove is integrated with the sink and has a hinged cover and right next to it is the largish top-loading fridge. Those surfaces can't easily be used for food-prep and the flat surface on the far side of the fridge is carpet-covered. Perhaps I missed something.
- I have my doubts on why the graywater tank is a good idea.
- Storage is of course at a premium.... and you don't have those long pull-out drawers of an RTT rig. Thank goodness for the rear-seat area of the truck.
- As rando pointed out, the seats are too uncomfortable to use as is (for more than a very short time)
- Single propane bottle
Some nice touches...
- the shower hanger is interesting.... a simple rectangle pulls out from under the overcab on the passenger side to hang your shower curtain. And there's a 'duckboard' you remove from the inside of the door-way hatch and stand on while showering.
- the storage for a standalone metal table under the overcab is also great. We had one like that on our trip and that worked well. Pull it out from the driver's side.
- Loved the Shadow Awn bat-wing awning.
The figure I was given for weight was 800 pounds (dry). Sounds low but of course options make a difference very quickly.
A few snaps....
Front view (note how narrow it is). And if you look closely, you can see the shower-enclosure hanger pulled out on the passenger side.
Bed-lifter strut... and an idea of how wide the shelf is up front.
National Luna battery monitor (time for a charge!)
Table-lock mechanism under the cabover. That one may take some staring. A tab is permanently bolted to the end of the table. At storage time, that tab slides over a pin and a slider adds tension.
Rear tie down (!!!)
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