Introducing the Roamer 17 in Arctic, Onyx and Slate
Stuck between a van that's a touch too tight and one that's more than you want on the towbar? The new Roamer 17 sits right in the middle, and it comes in three colours.
There is one worry that keeps caravan buyers awake at night, and it is not the price. It is the size. You walk through a 16ft on a Saturday, love it, then lie in bed that night wondering whether you will regret it the first wet week in Haast when the four of you are all inside at once. So you look at the next size up, and now you are second guessing the towball weight, the driveway, the ferry booking and the fuel bill.
That gap is exactly where the new Roamer 17 lives. Same van as the Roamer 16, same layout logic, same rear door entry, just one foot longer. And it launches in three colours: Arctic, Onyx and Slate.
One extra foot changes more than you think
A foot does not sound like much on paper. Inside a caravan it is the difference between squeezing past someone at the kitchen bench and walking past them. It is a longer run of bench, more usable floor between the bed and the storage, and more breathing room on the days when the weather decides your plans for you.
What it does not change is the towing picture in any dramatic way. The Roamer 17 keeps the compact, sensible footprint that makes the 16 so easy to live with on New Zealand roads: single lane bridges, gravel access tracks, tight DOC campsites and the kind of provincial back roads that never appear in the brochure photos. You get the extra space without stepping up to a rig that suddenly feels like a job to reverse.
Like the rest of the range, the Roamer 17 is available in both couple and bunk layout options, so families and retirees are both covered without compromise.
Three colours: Arctic, Onyx and Slate
Colour is one of those things people pretend not to care about and then care about a lot. Here is what each one brings.
Arctic
Classic white. It is the proven choice for a reason: it hides dust from unsealed roads better than dark finishes, keeps the van looking clean between washes, and sits cooler through a Central Otago summer. If you want a caravan that still looks fresh in five years without much fuss, Arctic is it.
Onyx
Straight black and easily the boldest of the three. Onyx is for the buyer who wants their rig to look like it belongs behind a modern ute rather than parked at the end of a row of identical white vans. It pairs particularly well with your custom decals if you want to take the look further.
Slate
A blue grey that sits neatly between the other two. Slate is the middle ground: more character than white, more forgiving than black. In grey West Coast light it looks smart, and on a blue Northland day it looks even better.
What comes standard, and what you can add
We are straight about how we sell. Mad RV works on a base model plus add-on structure. You start with a well built, genuinely functional caravan, then you choose the upgrades that suit how you actually travel.
That same flexibility runs through layout, interior design and exterior decals. Customisation is not a special request at Mad RV. It is how the range is built.
Designed in New Zealand, informed by a decade in rental
Mad RV designs in New Zealand and ships direct from our factory to depots in both islands, which is a big part of why the value stacks up the way it does. Fewer hands in the middle, more van for your dollar.
The other part is what sits behind the design. Our sister company, Mad Campers, has spent more than ten years renting campers out of Auckland and Christchurch. That means a decade of watching what real travellers actually use, what they break, what they ignore, and which storage decisions look clever on a drawing and annoy people by day three. That operational know how goes straight into how the Roamer range is laid out: where the bench sits, how the storage is arranged, how the systems are specified, and why the rear door entry makes so much sense on a Kiwi site.
Where the 17 sits in the range
If you are still weighing up sizes, here is the quick version. The Roamer 16 is the compact, easy towing option for couples and small families who want to keep things nimble. The Roamer 17 gives you that extra foot of living space for very little change in footprint. The Roamer 19 steps up again for families who spend longer on the road, and the Roamer 21 is the full sized option for buyers who want maximum space and are set up to tow it.
There are plenty of good caravan brands in New Zealand and Australia, and we are not here to run any of them down. Where we back ourselves is on value, on layouts shaped by New Zealand conditions and New Zealand travel habits, and on how far we will go to customise a van to suit you rather than the other way around.
Ready to see the Roamer 17?
Pick your colour, pick your layout, then tell us what you want to add. Full specs, layout options and pricing for the new Roamer 17 are on the Roamer 17 page, and you can browse the rest of the range and get in touch with the team at madrv.co.nz.
Arctic, Onyx or Slate. Tell us which one and we will build the rest around you.