Capsule Mini R 2025

I was so intrigued by the Capsule Mini R caravan when I first had a look at it back in September 2024, that I felt I really ought to take it out for a more thorough test.

The van, which won two categories at the Practical Caravan Awards 2025, is made in Turkey and is currently being sold in this country by the Leeds Caravan Centre. It certainly makes a pretty captivating prospect.

It’s quite a while since you have been able to buy a more or less conventionally sized caravan for less than £17,000 brand-new. This one has the added advantage of being monocoque, too, which usually pushes the price sky-high, but doesn’t do so here, one of the features which saw us name it the best small caravan at our annual Awards.

Better still, go for the ‘R’ spec level – that’s ‘R’ for ‘retro’ – and you’ll end up with a look that is quite a remove from what people might expect when they think about tourers, especially budget caravans.

There are jolly colours on the outside, and a stylish interior that wouldn’t look out of place in a design magazine.

But how would it fare on the open road? To answer that question, I took the Capsule Mini away to spend a couple of days on the east coast of Yorkshire last autumn. Here’s what I discovered.

Design of the Capsule Mini R

There’s no denying that the Capsule Mini stands out, not just at the caravan park but on the road, too. This is an innovative caravan – I really like its retro look, right down to the one-piece wheel hubs with the white lining and the rather basic lettering along the side.

The slash of either bright orange or olive green is a refreshing sight in the current caravan market, where rather less exciting greys and browns have become all too common.

When I initially tested the Capsule Mini R in September, it did not come with an awning rail. But since then, I understand all Capsule Minis will come with one fitted as standard. Leeds Caravan Centre is also providing a customised full awning for £1075, and a simpler poled canopy for £199.

Towing the Capsule Mini R

I found the caravan a very easy tow – not surprising, really, given its MTPLM of just 750kg, which makes it suitable for towing with even quite modest small tow cars.

It does come fitted with a seven-pin plug only, so you’ll need to have an adaptor, and find some way of curling the associated cable around the A-frame without any part of it touching the road. You might have to resort to a bit of gaffer tape.

Given the narrow size of this caravan, you might not need towing mirrors. I’d always recommend them, so used them anyway, but vision around the vehicle was excellent. You never really feel you are lugging something along, either.

Pitch and set-up

The Capsule Mini R was very easy to position on my pitch at Southfield Touring Park, near Hornsea in East Yorkshire. You’re not going to need a motor mover with this lightweight van, because you can pretty much push it into place singlehandedly.

You are also highly unlikely to jackknife your outfit when reversing a caravan, unless you happen to be particularly unlucky.

The gas bottle locker, which protrudes onto the same A-frame, is easy to access, thanks to a lid that unclips and opens wide. If you are on the tall side, you won’t have to bend down as often as you do with modern British caravans to retrieve something buried away deep inside.

The corner steadies are easy to locate, and the water inlet can be found halfway down on the offside, while the electric hook-up is to the side of the door.

I was a little surprised that this is only covered by a vertically sliding panel, which is not completely covered when the cable is attached. I wondered how this might survive in the kind of horizontal rain we often get in this country.

However, having said that, it was only during the following morning that I realised there was a pretty much unobstructed run between my pitch and the open sea a mile or so away, and I hadn’t had any short circuits overnight!

Lounge in the Capsule Mini R

It’s an easy step up into the van from the door at the rear. The door itself is perhaps a little on the small side for some of us. But it hooks back onto the side of the caravan with a proper metal ball and socket system – no magnets or plastic clasps here.

Inside, the door closes with a rather flimsy plastic catch, but you still get a blind for the window in the door, and a useful pocket for magazines and brochures.

The caravan layout sees the lounge at the opposite end of the van from where you come in, but is surprisingly comfortable considering the size of this caravan. Four people could probably sit in a group on these cushions and feel comfortable for some hours.

They should be able to find their way in relatively easily, too – although the table is permanently sited, it can swing either way, to allow people to squeeze in. I did find, however, that you have to be a little careful not to swing it too vigorously, as the tabletop is only attached to the pedestal by a simple if large screw and bolt, and so can come loose if you swing too hard.

The windows around the lounge aren’t as generous as they are in conventional tourers, but they still allow in sufficient daylight. At night, the area benefits from six LEDs – two in the ceiling and two underneath each of the lockers.

Those windows are all fitted with blinds and flyscreens, which clip together with magnets, not the plastic clips you often see that feel as though they might come away in your hand.

In fact, the finish inside is reassuringly domestic. You get basket-weave panels on the locker and cupboard doors, and real pine for all the worktops, including the top of the cupboard by the door, which would be an ideal place to put the best caravan TV.

There is a mains socket and USB port handily placed underneath the settee.

You really appreciate the monocoque design when you sit in here. On the day I arrived, a bit of a gale was blowing in from the North Sea. But I might easily have been sitting in the cosy kitchen at home, listening to the wind outside, the type of feature the best caravans will provide.

That said, the Capsule Mini doesn’t come with a heater as standard. Leeds Caravan Centre offers three different heaters as cost options: dual-fuel for £1100, gas-only for £700, and electric-only for £260. Opting for any of these would very likely eat into the available storage space.

Kitchen in the Capsule Mini R

Although it’s a conventional height – it has an interior headroom of 1.91m – the Capsule Mini is still a small van, so you can’t expect a huge kitchen in this type of caravan. There’s a single-burner hob under a glass cover, combined with a small sink, plus a bit of worktop and an extension flap. All this is lit by the window and by LEDs under the overhead lockers.

There is more work surface above the half-height compressor fridge – perfectly adequate for two – just opposite.

Bear in mind that the pine worktops have been initially treated, but will need re-oiling at regular intervals during their lifetime.

Washroom in the Capsule Mini R

Like the kitchen, the corner washroom is fairly basic. But it still includes a tiny basin and a shower, and thanks to the monocoque design, you shouldn’t have to worry about water seeping out anywhere.

The shower has nowhere to be fixed when you pull it out from the basin: you have to hold it. And there is only one drain hole.

The room is never dingy, however, because it has its own (clear) window.

The washroom doesn’t come with a fitted toilet, but a Thetford 565E Porta Potti – the same height as a standard Thetford cassette toilet – is supplied as standard, taking up most of what would be the shower tray.

At least it can be removed when you have a shower, or if you would rather use this area for storage, or feel you can do without an onboard toilet on this particular tour.

Beds in the Capsule Mini R

You start making the bed by reaching right under the table and loosening the large bolt to lower the top to the same height as the seat bases. But that is not all: the backrests, which you then remove to place above the lowered table, are backed with boards to fill in any gaps in this arrangement.

They make a snug fit, and the resulting bed is very comfortable, something which will is likely to be important when you’re looking for the best 2 berth caravan. If you leave the backrest at the front of the lounge in situ, the bed is just under 1m wide – possibly enough for two, but a bit of a squeeze.

If you haul this backrest off and stow it in the washroom, where it just about fits, the bed is a good 10cm wider.

I thought the monocoque design would be a boon at night-time, blocking external noise in the same way it did during the day. Unfortunately, I became conscious of the noise emanating from the compressor fridge, possibly because it is unusually close to the bed. The blue light around the USB port also proved distracting.

On the plus side, the gangway to the toilet was clear and unobstructed.

Storage in the Capsule Mini R

I’ve already mentioned how easy it is to access the gas bottle locker in this caravan. It can hold a lot more than just gas bottles, too: corner steady winders and even a small water container could possibly fit in here (although be careful not to block the vents).

Internal storage, for a caravan of this size, is equally impressive, with a large cupboard positioned right by the door where you could easily store most of your clothes and your caravan essentials for a short trip.

The two overhead lockers are capacious, although you do need quite long arms to reach down to the back of them.

There’s a good sized storage area under all three sections of the settee, although you have to remove the base cushions to get to the trap door that leads to this area.

The kitchen includes two drawers and a pan locker in the base unit, while you can still make use of the overhead lockers.

Opposite, there is a shallow pan locker under the fridge, and a tall cupboard next to it – although this isn’t shelved, so it would probably work better as a wardrobe if you were to insert a hanging rail.

Storage in the washroom is pretty minimal, providing a very small, basic locker underneath the handbasin.

Don’t forget to make sure you know how to load a caravan before you start packing your tourer either.

Kit and value

The Capsule Mini is designed first and foremost as a low-weight, budget caravan, so it is hardly surprising that it doesn’t come with a huge amount of kit.

A Porta Potti is included as standard in the washroom, and you also get a single-burner hob, a compressor fridge and a basic electricity network, complete with LEDs and USB ports. But that’s it.

Cost options include a variety of heaters, as mentioned above. Fans of caravanning off-grid can also opt for an off-grid pack for £780. This includes a solar panel, an 85Ah leisure battery and a mains battery charger.

All of the adaptations to include this in the caravan are included in the price. But you need to bear in mind how much this and other options would add to the weight and take from the storage. The electrics for the off-grid pack, for example, are housed in the wardrobe. Adding these items would still make this a budget caravan, however.

Seen at

Leeds Caravan Centre

Capsule Mini is also available from Freedom Caravans, in Staffordshire, with a different spec. Freedom’s model is a standard Capsule (not the ‘R’ version) with grab handles, an AKS 3004 stabiliser, and a Truma water inlet instead of the onboard water tank. It costs £16,595 OTR.

Measurements

• Price: £16,995
• MPTLM: 750kg
• MiRO: 650kg
• Payload: 100kg
• Awning size: N/A
• Shipping length: 3.78m
• Interior length: 2.79m
• Overall width: 1.98m
• Overall height: 2.3m
• Front double: 1.90 x 1.09m

Perfect partner

Matching a car to a caravan will always be crucial for staying safe on the road – here, an 85% match requires a car with an 882kg kerbweight.

Alternative models

The Camperlands Campmaster Duo CE is a two-berth with a folding bed, a comfortable lounge and an electric heater, but it doesn’t have a washroom.

Then there’s the Hobby Beachy 360, a tourer with an MTPLM of 900kg, a bright and airy interior, and a stylish, contemporary design.

Standard kit

Construction

Fully braked Al-Ko chassis with shock absorber, glass fibre monocoque shell with timber frame and 50mm polystyrene insulation, Burnt Orange or Olive Grey exterior colour, shell hub cabs

External equipment

Gas locker, mains hook-up, water inlet, awning rail

Heating in the caravan

Available as a cost option: dual-fuel (£1100), gas-only (£700), electric-only (£260)

Lounge/bedroom kit

U-shaped lounge, telescopic pedestal table. Natural pine worktops. Basket-weave panels in overhead lockers. Blinds and flyscreens to all windows. LED lighting. Mains socket and USB port

Kitchen kit

Single-burner hob with inline sink and glass cover, compressor fridge

Washroom kit

Washbasin tap doubles as shower head, Thetford 565E Porta Potti as standard

Something you could consider adding to your tourer will be a router, to help you stay connected when on the road. Don’t miss our guide on how to get Wi-Fi in a caravan to find out the steps involved in achieving this.

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