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Knaus Sport and Fun
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Key Features

Model Year 2016
Class Single Axle
Price From (£) 14,495
Internal Length (m) 4.80
Shipping Length (m) 6.25
MRO (kg) 1020
MTPLM (kg) 1,200
Max Width (m) 2.23
External Height (m) 2.57
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At a glance

The Knaus Sport and Fun is ingenious, practical, versatile, spacious, light in weight – and cool; the latest Knaus for 2016 is designed for extreme caravanning!

Full review

The giant Knaus caravan enterprise, founded in 1960 and with dealers and workshops in 23 countries across Europe and beyond, has made very little impact on the British caravan market. Until now.

For the 2016 model year, a range of Knaus caravans has arrived, including this one, the Sport and Fun. With splashes of vibrant green and blue across its angular bodyshape, this caravan makes its intentions clear at first glance. Leading a trend in tiny touring caravans, it’s built for action-packed holidays. Indeed, Knaus describes it as “the extreme sports athlete of caravans.”

Into its modest 4.8m body length this caravan packs a double bed, a good-sized kitchen, a “garage” under the bed and a vast central area designed to enable you to transport bikes and other outdoor equipment.

There’s even a ladder attached to the rear of the caravan, so that you can attach a top box to the rails that run along each side of the roof.

And the Sport and Fun has two doors, one on the offside and the other at the rear, almost a metre wide, for you to load in your bikes. And the bed folds upwards, to increase capacity beneath it.

The Sport and Fun may be designed for activities and transporting all you need for your chosen sport, but for all its load capacity credentials, it’s also a fully-fledged caravan.

And it’s full of surprises. We didn’t expect to find a tall fridge-freezer, for example. Or a ceramic-bowl toilet. And ingenious storage arrangements surprised us, too, like the hammock-style place to put clothes above the bed.

Heating comes from a Truma blown air unit (gas only) with a Truma Therme water jacket system; an insulated metal jacket surrounds a section of the warm-air ducting, under the settee; water in the jacket gets its heat from the warmed air flowing through the ducting to the two outlets in the central area of the caravan.
 

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Showering

We did expect, though to find a shower. There’s a toilet and neat little washbasin, plus a mirrored corner cabinet and another below the sink. But no shower. In a caravan designed for sport we think a shower is a necessity. But close inspection of the toilet compartment reveals a clue to showering possibilities. The floor of the compartment is raised, and a drawer is within this raised section. A shower tray can be fitted here as an optional extra, though it has to be said you’d be showering in the middle of the caravan. A shower curtain and rail comes as part of the kit.

 

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Sleeping

The double bed runs the whole width of the caravan, giving you just over two metres of bed length. It’s 1.43m wide, which is full domestic double bed size, with only a minimal cutaway shape at the point where the bed curves very slightly towards the door.

The mattress is made of dense foam. It’s only 11cm deep, and feels very firm; too firm for some, we think. But keep in mind the context; this is not a luxury caravan designed for comfort, it’s a caravan designed to be a base for sports-oriented holidays.

There’s also a single bed, created from the seating that runs along the side of the caravan, in an L-shape. Or you can make up a double bed here; an additional bed base section rests on the table which lowers for its bed function.

 

Storage

With a central corridor that’s 1.05m wide and almost 2.5m long, bikes of all sorts are easily accommodated here. Watersports gear, too, would be easy to load in; even a small kayak, using the space above the bed, too.

The “garage” runs the full width of the caravan under the double bed. It’s 77cm deep, unless you want it deeper, in which case you raise the bed base (gas-filled struts make it an easy task) and anchor it by a webbing strap with a buckle that clips to a fastener at roof level. If you’re planning to load lots into your Sport and Fun it’s wise to opt for the weight plate upgrade which increases your load margin by 300kg; the cost is £325.

The gas housing is in the front offside corner of the garage, a separate compartment that’s 63 x 55 and 67cm tall, so if you don’t want to fill it with big gas cylinders, there would be space around smaller ones for other stuff.

Interior storage is also impressive. There’s a conventional wardrobe with 60cm of hanging width and full depth. And a totally unconventional drawer under the fridge, in a cube shape measuring 40cm on all sides. You move the drawer out towards the centre of the caravan and lift the lid to get at the space inside. This isn’t just a storage box, though. It’s a seat a square upholstered unit is supplied to fit on top. Ingenious!

A top locker unit measuring 1.6m long runs along the nearside above the settee. It’s shaped, so that the base is narrower than the top, to preserve headroom. And the space inside is divided into thee shelf areas. It’s a clever storage solution for small items.

Even more impressive is the hammock-style fabric “shelf” that runs the whole width of the caravan above the bed; perfect for clothes.

There’s storage space under the main settee unit but the battery, the Truma Therme water heater and the wheel arch intrude into the space her. There’s also space under the short section that forms the L-shape, though.

 

Dining

The dining table is a sort of wedge shape. Four can sit around it, three on the L-shaped seating and a fourth on the seat that’s formed when you pull out the storage box from under the fridge; an ingenious space-saving arrangement!

 

Lounging

You could be forgiven for thinking of the Sport and Fun as lacking in lounge comfort. After all, the primary purpose of this caravan is not for relaxing, it’s as a base for activities. But there is genuine cosiness here. A carpet is provided, though we didn’t put it down during our review. And, although the settee base is extremely firm, the backrest is very supportive, in a sit-upright sort of way.

Styling is simple, with gorgeously bold turquoise as the main fabric theme, and a zig-zag pattern, using yellows and browns, on the backrests and bed base, to add interest,

In typical continental fashion, the windows have voile curtains in addition conventional curtains.

 

Kitchen

The kitchen is surprisingly large, with a long, slightly curved surface. Cooking equipment is just a hob; three burners arranged in a line. The sink is circular and just large enough for washing normal-sized dinner plates.

The Sport and Fun’s kitchen storage space is amazing. There are two large cabinets, each with three shelves, plus two drawers and a cabinet below them. At head height three cabinets provide a total of eight shelves. And there’s more. A full height cabinet to the rear of the kitchen gives you four shelf spaces and a TV cabinet; a substantial bracket slides out to enable you to watch your television from the dining-lounge. But bear in mind you’ll have to get an aerial fitted (£200). The Sport and Fun’s kitchen capacity is far greater than that usually found in caravans much larger than this one’s modest length.

But the kitchen lacks an oven, a grill and a microwave. It also lacks a power point for a kettle. In fact the Sport and Fun only has three power points, and two of them are deep within the TV cabinet. The third is close to floor level in the seating area.

 

Towing

Our review Sport and Fun was on loan from Barnsdale Leisure. MD Charles Schofield had delivered it to Woodland Waters Holiday Park and we returned it. So this caravan’s test tow was somewhat longer than usual, 68 miles long, to be precise, most of the journey along the A1.

It was a light delight to tow; our 2-litre car was barely aware of its presence in power terms; this versatile, ultra lightweight tourer is suitable for cars at the lighter end of the tow-vehicle spectrum.
 

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Our verdict

The Knaus Sport and Fun is stunning in shape and exterior colours. Its capacity and adaptability for a wide variety of sporting activities is awesome. Its storage space and design is phenomenal. The Sport and Fun fulfills its role superbly, providing the British market with a caravan made for a specific sporty purpose and destined to appeal to people who might not otherwise consider caravanning. Knaus Sport and Fun caravanning brings a whole new meaning to our pursuit.

Advantages

The garage!
The huge amount of kitchen storage space
The ingenious layout
The ultra light weight
And the style!

Disadvantages

Only three power points; two of which are in the TV cabinet
No oven, grill or microwave

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