Fleetwood Sonata Concerto caravan

Triple-bunk caravans have really come of age, this one tucks them into the corner.

Fleetwood Sonata Concerto caravan

THREE windows, one above the other; they’re a dead giveaway that what you’re looking at is a family caravan with a triple bunk. 

Bailey now makes four versions, one for each of its ranges (Ranger, Ranger GT60, Pageant and Senator). 

Lunar joins the party in time for this autumn’s NEC show, with its Quasar 546. And now the Slovenians have joined in, building the Sonata Concerto for Fleetwood as well as the similar Adria Altea. Seven triple bunk caravans to choose from – so should Fleetwood’s be up there on your wish list?

Inside, where the Baileys have the bunks opposite a dinette, creating a self-contained, children’s lounge, Fleetwood has gone for an entirely different approach. 

No separate end lounge, and you get a side dinette  instead. In theory you gain a family eating area which you can use when the front dinette’s made up. In practice, while it’s wide for a side dinette, it will only comfortably seat two adults. 

The three bunks tuck neatly behind the washroom at the back of the caravan. I can imagine most kids scrambling happily into these tunnel-like bunks as if they were Lister in Red Dwarf. Each bunk gets its own reading light and window.

The bottom bunk has one great advantage over competitors in that it has an outside door, making this ideal luggage space in transit and great for storage if you have fewer than three kids.

At first sight, tucking the bunks behind the washroom seems like a great space saving idea but this is deceptive. The internal length is within a few centimetres of the internal length of the Bailey Ranger 540/6. 

In my opinion Fleetwood missed a real trick here by including the side dinette – if they’d gone for a really compact layout instead we might have been looking at the tiniest of all triples.

The side dinette is handily positioned opposite the kitchen. This is pretty well equipped for the price, with a Spinflo Caprice Mk III oven and grill, a 97-litre, curved door Thetford fridge and a three burner hob. 

The overhead lockers have locking latches, just over the kitchen area, to stop your crockery falling out en route. One of them has a plate rack and space for a car stereo.

What the kitchen is lacking is worktop space, especially when you consider that the Lunar Quasar 546 has a vast amount. It’s going to get messy preparing food over on the dinette table. 

Fleetwood’s answer to this problem over the last three or four years has been to provide a section of worktop which pulls out from a slot above the fridge. Pull it out by about a third and it gives you a small area to rest things on – though without support from underneath. 

If you pull it out completely it’s a breadboard, though there’s very little space on which to stand it.

There’s a large wardrobe between the kitchen and the triple bunks, and it houses a Truma blown air heater (there’s an outlet at foot level to one side of the front dinette).

I particularly like the curved seating in the front dinette. You have to perch gently on the end bench, but it’s a much more sociable arrangement than the usual drawers. 

Fleetwood have been thoughtful about your electrical needs, providing three sockets: two at dinette floor level and one at the side table next to the dinette, where you’d probably want to sit the TV.

The equipment levels throughout are good. There’s feature strip lighting (though see over the page for lighting at a while new level); a spare wheel is included and there’s an AL-KO AKS stabiliser. Corner steadies are heavy duty. 

And the interior feels light and modern, with simple upholstery that will take a while to date. 

You’ve just got to weigh this layout up against the other triples: I really value that exterior luggage door at the back; I value the exterior styling; but I also value the ability to draw a door across the kids’ bedroom and you lose that here.

Fact file:

Price: £13,495 plus delivery
Berths: 6
MRO: 1058kg
MTPLM: 1300kg
Overall length: 7.23m (22ft 8in)
Overall width: 2.23m (7ft 4in)
Overall height: 2.72m (8ft 11in)
Headroom: 1.94m (6ft 4in)
Bed sizes: Front  double 2.11m x 1.36m (6ft 11in x 4ft 5 1/2in); or front single 1.9m x 0.79m (6ft 1/4in x 2ft 5/8in); side single 1.83m x 0.66m (6ft x 2ft 2in); bunk 1.83m x 0.9m (6ft x 1ft 11in)