Take Your #Vanlife Game to the Next Level With This Go-Anywhere 4×4 Winnebago Camper

Now THIS is how you roll.

Dan Carney

Sep 25, 2017

Sure, we all love the #Vanlife photos and stories of hitting the road and sleeping wherever we park our vans. But classic VW buses are getting insanely expensive and they are still terrible antiques to drive. No worries, Winnebago‘s got you covered with the new four-wheel drive Revel camper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEPanglcJWk

So if blowing $291,500 (plus auction fees!) on the 1961 23-window Volkswagen Deluxe Microbus that sold at Barrett-Jackson’s Palm Beach auction earlier this year doesn’t strike you as the best way to embrace the van life, then the $134,799 Revel could be just the thing.

“I absolutely love what is going on with this hashtag vanlife movement,” said Russ Garfin, Winnebago’s product manager for the Revel. “It is really cool to watch all kinds of people just doing really fun things and and creating a new culture. We’re providing something right off the showroom floor built to our safety standards and durability standards that we know customers can be comfortable with.”

As the best-known American RV manufacturer, Winnebago has been inundated with requests for a camper with the ability to get into the boondocks, rather than just plugging into the grid at a KOA campground.

“We have a lot of customers who are using these RVs in ways that RVs were never used before,” Garfin explained. “People want to go off the grid. The Revel was created to fill a need that isn’t met today, and that is a 4×4 off-road vehicle that people can use all year round and that’s available through dealerships throughout the country with a nationwide service network.”

Here’s what you get: a Mercedes Sprinter 4×4 chassis with a 188 horsepower, 325 lb.-ft torque 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder turbodiesel. The four-wheel drive system features a torque-multiplying low range and the Sprinter includes a hill descent mode to help you get back down the mountain you’ve climbed using the low range and the knobby off-road tires.

While you’re in the outback, you can enjoy amenities like a refrigerator and an electric stove top thanks to solar panels on the Revel’s roof, so you don’t have to bother with connecting propane tanks with this camper.

The bed is on a lift above the rear cargo area, so you can pack in bikes and other bulky items while you’re on the road and then lower the mattress to sleep at night.