Every camping trailer, camper van or RV is, to some degree, an exercise in compromise. Attempting to cram as many of the comforts of home as possible into a vehicle or other wheeled conveyance is always tricky; too many features will make the camper unusably cramped, too few leaves it with little benefit over staying in a tent. For most such products, the main areas of compromise wind up being the bathroom and kitchen; after all, there's only so much you can shrink down a bed before it ceases to be useful.
With their new Vast travel trailer, however, the folks at North Carolina's SylvanSport have come up with an interesting way of having one's cake and eating it too — or rather, having one's kitchen and showering too. The Vast maximizes usable space by sticking the kitchen in the bathroom ... but in a very unconventional way.
The SylvanSport Vast uses a sliding indoor / outdoor kitchen
Cooking outside is one of the simple pleasures of camping, whether you're doing so in a tent or by a vehicle. While many RVs and camping trailers offer some sort of outdoor food prep area, the Vast leans hard into the idea by enabling the entire kitchen to slide out of the vehicle, letting owners make the most of the two-burner stove, microwave oven and two-gallon sink while soaking in nature. And of course, if the mosquitos get too bad or the weather too chilly, you can also cook while inside.
The kitchen lives in the shower stall when indoors
The key to the Vast's magic use of space comes from a simple idea: in a trailer this small, odds are good people aren't going to be cooking and bathing at the same time, so why not make better use of those spaces to reflect that?
So, slide the food prep area out, and a full-size residential shower can be found where it was, ready for you to maker the most of the 30-gallon fresh water tank. It's a true standalone shower, too, separate from the toilet — no wet bath to be found here, like you'll see on many other camping trailers of similar size. (Oh, and if you'd rather eat inside and bathe outdoors, there's an external shower kit, too.)
The Vast offers plenty of other handy features
As an alternative to the likes of the Airstream Basecamp 20 and Airstream Bambi, SylvanSport's Vast packs sleeping space for up to four, thanks to a pair of queen beds — one that lowers from the ceiling, and another made from reassembling the couch. With both beds stowed away, the back of the trailer becomes a gear garage big enough for a couple bikes. If water sports are more your cup of tea, well, the Vast also offers port side-mounted equipment racks capable of carrying a pair of canoes, kayaks or SUPs. There's also a storage bay up front capable of holding up to 18 cubic feet — more than many car trunks.
Granted, the Vast may not have the timeless design of an Airstream, but its black-and-green aesthetic — one shared with the company's smaller pop-up camper trailers and rooftop tent — is certainly more appealing than the endless parade of off-white Nineties-soda-cup-patterned trailers seen clotting up campgrounds. With a starting price of $69,995, it's not cheap — but then again, good luck finding another travel trailer with a kitchen that uses space this well.
