Dethleffs Nomad 560 SB

The Dethleffs Nomad 560 SB is aA maximum-width caravan with stylishly stark continental looks and a spacious layout

One thing marks out Continental caravans from everything made in Britain; that’s styling. The continentals, it seems, prefer stark, minimalist looks. That’s not to everyone’s taste in Britain, which is one reason why UK-made caravans far outsell imports here.
At present, two of the best-known continental players on the British caravan market are Adria and Dethleffs. And they have more than just the continental style factor in common. Both manufacturers produce caravans that are of the maximum legal towable width in Britain. Adria’s new Astella (of which there are now two layouts in the UK) is 2.48m wide and the Dethleffs Nomads are 2.5m, taking advantage of a change in legislation which now allows caravans of this width to be towed by conventional vehicles. Lowdham Leisure World, at Nottingham, is the UK importer of Dethleffs caravans.
There are three models to choose from. The most popular, in terms of sales numbers, is the fixed-bed layout 560 SB.
At £23,495, expectancy is high in terms of equipment as well as quality. With an 1800kg MTPLM, it’s in the top bracket for weight; it’s also in the top bracket for robust build. Every aspect of the furniture looks chunky and feels well constructed. The dining table, for example, is large and heavy – so sturdy that it’s designed to stay in position when you tow. And of course the extra width of the caravan contributes to the weight, too.
Heating is the Truma blown air system. Now that Alde heating is appearing in an increasing number of caravans at this price level, will British caravanners shun this mode because it doesn’t have Alde heating? We don’t think so.
The 560’s layout gives you a wrap-around lounge, an offside kitchen and a full-width rear   shower room…
 

Showering

The Nomad is comparable with the Adria Astella in many ways – but here in the shower room we discover a feature which sets the two caravans apart in a major way. The Nomad’s shower is fully plastic lined, whereas the Astella’s is wall-boarded. That feature will inevitably enhance the Nomad’s appeal to British caravanners who are accustomed to finding plastic-lined showers, simply because that’s what most UK manufacturers do. So, marks are earned for the shower walls – and more marks gather for the immense amount of shelving and storage space in the shower room. There are eight shelves and three cabinets. There’s plenty of floor space, too, making this a true dressing room.
    In addition to the mirrored doors of the cabinet above the washbasin, there is an enormous mirror to the left of it. Brilliant, then, for preening and checking your attire! More practical, though, are the arrangements for towels. There are three hooks on the wall, and two wide towel rails mounted in the door.
 

Sleeping

The bed is larger than most, because the cut-off area takes only a small amount of width off the mattress – and that’s because the caravan is wider than most. But the mattress is rather soft, compared with high-priced British-made caravans’ much firmer spring mattresses, so marks were lost there, simply because most caravanners expect a domestic-firmness sprung mattresses at this price level.
The U-shaped lounge makes into a double bed, as you’d expect. The base of the table folds, easily and smoothly, with the click of a lever, so that the table descends to the level of the settees. The centre section of the mattress is made up of seat backs and an additional upholstery section; during the day we found the best place to store this was under the double bed.
Perhaps inevitably, owing to the mattress being made up of several pieces of upholstery, it’s not completely flat; this bed is designed to be an auxiliary, in a spare bedroom sort of way. This element categorises the 560 as primarily a caravan for couples. But don’t write off its family possibilities just yet, for the settees are just about long enough to make child-sized single beds. That factor puts the 560 firmly into the family-caravan frame – until your children grow to adult height, that is.
 

Storage

Praise on storage, though – the 560’s head-height locker count is 12. Shelves run under all the lockers. There’s an ingenious double magazine rack arrangement, disguised as a cabinet alongside the door. A wardrobe and a cabinet sit beside it. Alongside the bed is a dressing table with two cupboards. And of course there’s the expected cavernous space under the bed. The under-lounge storage opportunities are typically continental in design in that there are no front access hatches. You raise the wooden bases – and there are no stays to hold them up while you reach inside, so we had to take marks off for that factor, even though, overall, the amount of storage space is nothing short
of excellent.
 

Dining

With a big, substantially constructed dining table and brilliantly spacious U-shaped seating, dining’s a pleasure here. There’s ample room for four around this table. And, because the corners are cut off, effectively creating a hexagon, sliding around the table to the front of the caravan is easy.
 

Lounging

There’s ample space in which to lounge here. Two can relax with feet up and shoulders nestling into the corner sections. This seating is foam, albeit dense and high quality; like the mattress. We think that, no matter how much the lovely stark continental styling appeals to you, British caravanners still expect to find that sprung seating goes hand-in-hand with a £23,495 price-tag. If, like us, you love the Dethleffs styling, we’d urge you to be open-minded about the seating construction, because, on test, it proved to be really comfortable.

 
Kitchen

From the first glance, you are led to believe that the Nomad’s kitchen is designed with serious cooking in mind; a label at the base of the top locker run, right in the centre, tells you this is the “Dethleffs Gourmet Center” (forgive the American spelling). The words are repeated on a panel alongside the oven, just in case you missed the top label…
But, when compared to British-made caravans of this price, the level of equipment doesn’t match the gourmet message. Cooking kit is a combination grill-oven with three burners; there
is no microwave. The  presence
of an extractor fan directly above the hob brings in some extra
marks, though.
The design of the hob and sink is utterly brilliant. It’s all one unit, a single piece of matt stainless steel, with a glass lid arrangement that’s divided into three sections. This design enables you to keep part of the hob covered while you use the rest, so that you can adjust the amount of working surface as you need it. You can use one burner and keep two covered, or vice-versa. And the sink cover is designed with an aperture to enable you to use the tap while the cover is in place.
To the left of the sink is a working surface that’s 25cm wide,
Top storage comprises three cupboards, each with a shelf. The centre section has superbly styled pale grey plastic doors – really cool and stark. Alongside the oven-grill is a deep cabinet – the ubiquitous tall cereal packets and soft drinks bottles would easily find a berth here. Below this cupboard, extending under the oven, too, is a wide drawer. In total, we think the storage element of this kitchen is very practical.
 

 
Towing

At 1800kg MTPLM and just over 8m long, on a single axle, the Nomad distinguishes itself yet again from everything made in Britain apart from the Adria Adora and Astella, which are also long bodies on one axle.
In common with most caravans from mainland Europe, the Dethleffs 560 SB has a longer drawbar than we’re used to seeing from British manufacturers. Another factor is the position of the axle – it’s further towards the rear of the caravan than most made in Britain.
On the road the Nomad surprised us (given its 8.12m length and 1800kg MTPLM on one axle) with an exemplary performance. Its towing characteristics proved to be straightforward. It felt well balanced, there was no pitching and no noticeable oversteer from the caravan.
 

The Dethleffs Nomad 560 SB is brilliant on style and storage, less glowing on kitchen equipment.