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Sterling Eccles Jewel
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Key Features

Model Year 2010
Class Single Axle
Price From (£) 15,831
Internal Length (m) 5.50
Shipping Length (m) 7.18
MRO (kg) 1290
MTPLM (kg) 1,500
Max Width (m) 2.29
External Height (m) 2.61
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At a glance

The Sterling Eccles Jewel competes in a packed arena of similar layouts, all vying for your business if you’ve decided a fixed bed is your next move. So how does it differ from the rest?

Full review

The single-axle Sterling Eccles Jewel’s layout is repeated many times across many ranges and, like most of its competitors, it’s in the weight range suitable for the middle-weight towcar bracket typified by Saab 93s, Mondeos and Passats.
The Jewel, on paper, is indistinguishable from the pack…  Until you step inside. Then you realise that the Jewel is one on its own among those with similar layouts – principally for one reason: décor. The Eccles range, like Sterlings, has woodwork like nothing else in caravans. It’s pale and it’s teamed with dark brown work surfaces and locker edges.
Specification is high and includes a PIR and tilt-sensor alarm system. The shower (although it’s shared with the toilet) is fully plastic-lined and divisible by a sturdy bi-fold plastic boor. The carpet is 45oz pile weight. (We took it up for the photoshoot because its pre-sale protective plastic cover was sewn to the edges of the carpet and Grantham Caravans, which loaned us the Jewel for the test, naturally wanted it back just as it had gone out with us –  ready to go back on the forecourt!).
The sprung mattress is deeper than many;  we didn’t sleep in this Jewel during the test but we own a Sterling with the same mattress and can vouch for its comfort.
The wardrobe is properly rectangular, with no cut-off to create bedside corridor space, so there’s no diminution of hanging width. The vanity area, just behind the wardrobe, is reasonably spacious, there are two good-sized mirrors and a large cupboard under the washbasin.
At initial glance the kitchen looks short of cupboard space. There is a slim cupboard between the fridge and the oven, with one small cutlery drawer. But turn around and you’ll find two more (much larger) drawers and two good-sized cupboards in a dresser-style unit that also houses the microwave and heater.
Specification includes a gas barbecue point, heavy duty corner steadies – and a big round sink that looks like polished granite. It’s not, of course –  but in durability terms it’s nearly as tough. Since Swift introduced these resin sinks we’ve towed many models featuring them and we’ve discovered they’re much more durable than metal ones; you can tow with a plastic washing-up bowl inside the sink, for instance, without this resulting in the fine scratches frequentally created by vibration on metal sinks.
Storage, as you’d expect in a fixed-bed model, is excellent except for one thing. Only one of the five (good and deep) overhead lockers in the bedroom has a splitter shelf; had Swift given all the lockers intermediate shelves, that would have doubled their capacity.
In case you’re wondering how we work that out, think of it this way: the items likely to the stowed up here are small. They’re socks and t-shirts and pants. And if you stack items of this type as high as the locker, most of it will tumble out each time you open the locker, especially after you’ve towed.  if the same quantity is placed on two smaller shelves you don’t get that problem. This minor head-height locker gripe is by no means confined to this caravan  – or indeed Swift; it’s something, though, that we as caravan owners notice because storage issues and conveniences are so very important.
 
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Our verdict

Robustly built (as are all Swifts) and with stunningly different and essentially modern interior style, the Eccles range is right at the top of the design and quality tree. If this model is for you, don’t get hung up on our shelf criticism because it’s the bigger picture that counts – and that is of a popular layout with bags of specification that extends to AL-KO Secure wheel lock receivers and five mains sockets. An excellent package.

Advantages

Fixed bed
Offside kitchen
Pale woodwork
Sprung mattress

Disadvantages


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