Tonga steps up a gear

The Tonga has had a revamp and now boasts the kind of kitchen we've not seen before.

- Leon Botha

Because the Tonga is a small camper trailer intended for a couple, you could mistake it for a typical teardrop trailer. It is everything but. Teardrops usually have two doors on either side with the kitchen at the back. But the Tonga only has one door – at the back – and the kitchen is at the front and on the left, plus some of it is in a detached unit…

We checked out the first Tonga model in 2019 – and back then we were already impressed. The new version has been refined and improved significantly, although you can still recognise the lines.

These days, you can choose between a braked and an unbraked Tonga. For this article, we towed the latter to a campsite.

Setting up

Because our test model wasn’t equipped with brakes, a chock on both sides of the wheels comes in handy to prevent the trailer from rolling forward or backward while you set up camp. It’s less of a problem if, like us, you’re given a lovely, lush lawn – then you can just quickly hop out to put a stone in front of the wheel. Now lower all four of the corner steadies – simple square tubes with feet that you lower and then tighten in place. Just like its predecessor,

the batwing awning fits into a rectangular box on top of the roof, but the original awning has been replaced with a 270° version. The box’s lid is also no longer loose and swings open so that the awning can unfold. That’s where you start once you have levelled the trailer. The awning swings open from the front, pivoting on the left rear corner. Four beams, each with a support pole at the end that’s anchored with a rope, keep the awning nice and tight. The beams are at a good 192 cm height above the ground – high enough to not get in the way.