Café suits couples who live outside the van. Club lounge suits cool or wet weather travel. Centre bathroom suits long trips. Family bunk suits families. East-West bed suits couples in their sixties. Pick based on how you actually travel.
The layout matters more than the model
Buyers spend months choosing between a Dirt Roader and a Sting. Most spend a week on the layout.
That is backwards. The layout is what you live in every day for the next ten years.
Café layout
Queen bed forward, kitchen along the kerbside, café dinette at the rear. The most popular layout in the JB range. Balances living and sleeping space.
Suits couples who use the dinette for breakfast and route planning, but live outside the van. The dinette converts to a third sleeping space if a grandkid joins.
Club lounge layout
Replaces the rear café dinette with a U-shape lounge. Seats four comfortably. Most variants include a drop-down table that converts to a sleeping zone.
If you travel in cool or wet country, or if you read in the evenings rather than sit around a fire, the club lounge earns its place. The 21' Rear Door Club Lounge is the most popular configuration across the range.
Centre bathroom and large ensuite
Splits the bathroom into separate shower and toilet rooms across the mid-section. The shower is a proper enclosed space, the toilet has its own door.
For long trips, the single biggest comfort upgrade in the JB range. Removes the daily friction of a combined bathroom where one person showering means the other cannot use the toilet.
Family bunk layouts
Double, triple and single bunk configurations across the Dirt Roader, DRX, Gator and Scorpion ranges. The right one depends on the ages of the kids, not just the number.
Three kids under ten share a triple bunk. Two teenagers want a single each. Five-year-olds share doubles happily and grow out by twelve. Choose for the longest window of family travel before the eldest outgrows the van.
East-West bed
Runs the bed across the width of the van with access on both sides. Either partner can get up at 2am without climbing over the other.
After fifteen years of marriage and a couple of bad backs, this is a deal-breaker. Available in the DRX 22'6 and across the Sting range. If you are in your sixties and planning a long trip, treat it as the default.
Corner shower
Shower in the rear corner, bedroom in the opposite corner, lounge in between. Gives you the most usable floor space relative to van length, roughly half a metre more open floor.
Particularly popular in the 23'6 Scorpion Sting Corner Shower Club. Pairs with the club lounge for the most generous sitting space in the range.
The honest question
If you have never travelled in a van for more than two weeks, choose the layout that suits your dream trip.
If you have travelled in a van for years, choose the layout that solves the friction you remember from your last van. Both work. They just answer different questions.
Why buyers regret their layout
Almost always because they chose based on the showroom rather than the trip plan.
A layout that looks great on a Saturday morning at the dealer feels different at 4pm on day eleven of a wet trip. Buy the van for day eleven.