Full review

Words: Val Chapman  Photography: Richard Chapman

The Sprite Grande Quattro DB

Bunk beds, a large dining area, a separate lounge – and plenty of space… The Sprite Grande Quattro DB has all of the ingredients you’d want in a family caravan.

This is a six-berth caravan costing not much over £30,000 and with an MTPLM figure of 1,710kg, putting it within weight range of a large number of vehicles. And it has the towing stability bonus of twin axles. So, it’s a caravan with strong appeal. 

The layout

The layout gives you bunk beds and a lovely seating area for little people at the rear; a large dining area centrally located on the offside, and a spacious lounge where all six occupants can be seated together. 

The shower room is on the offside, with the basin, toilet and shower arranged in a line – and there’s almost as much floor space as in a shower room you’d find across the rear of a caravan.

While there are other six-berth, twin-axle caravans on the market (notably two models in the Elddis Avanté range, and the new Bailey Pegasus Grande GT75 Amalfi), there isn’t another of this layout – so the DB has the field all to itself. 

The bunks

This layout provides three sectors that flow into each other seamlessly, yet each has a semi-separate feel. That’s especially true of the children’s seating area, alongside the bunks. 

Think breakfast, think table-top play… Kids love to have their own zone, and this definitely provides that. 

It’s ingeniously designed, with a table on an off-centre monopod base. You can swivel the table through 90 degrees to enable the kids to get to the seating area behind it. 

This allows the table to be used for eating or, when rotated to a position parallel to the wall, as simply a side table for drinks. A mains socket and two USB ports are within this area, perfect for phones, tablets and the like. 

Storage

Storage – so important in a family caravan – will come up to buyers’ expectations and surpass them. We’ll start with the little seat at the rear. It lifts to reveal a sizeable storage box.

There’s a good storage area under the base bunk. You can access this area in three ways: by raising the bunk base, by opening the hatch on the side, or by means of the exterior hatch.

Next in our exploration of storage capability is one of this model’s great assets. It has two wardrobes (one 56cm wide, the  other 50cm wide) opposite one another, forward of the bunks. They both have large areas beneath the hanging rail for footwear. 

The free-standing table for use in the lounge is stored in the nearside wardrobe.

There’s storage space under the central dining area, accessed by raising the seat bases. Although the  forward under-seat area contains the Truma Combi heating unit, there is still plenty of space.

And, of course, there is the space under the long (1.8m) front settees. 

Head-height storage is plentiful, too, with three lockers over the dining area and three above each side of the lounge. 

We tend to take front central drawers for granted, but this one deserves more attention than most, because it is a generous 73cm wide, and contains another drawer within it.

And there is a drop-down hatch cupboard beneath this unit. So, storage is top class.

The kitchen

Would the kitchen measure up to the culinary tasks for six people? First, the sink. It’s 38cm wide, which means washing up would be easy.

The surface area to the right of the sink measures 47cm at its narrowest point and, given that there is space around the sink, and that the kitchen surface, in total, stretches 95cm from the hob to the forward edge of the kitchen, we think there’s enough space.

That’s especially true when you consider the proximity of the dining table, ideal for use when you are putting food on plates. 

Sprites have a cleverly designed additional small surface area that curves down, stylishly, from the top cabinet. It is perfect for the cooking items that you use regularly, like pepper, salt and olive oil.  It’s also where two mains sockets are sited, and there is a desk-style circular aperture through which you can feed cables from a kettle or toaster beneath.

Cooking kit is three burners, an oven, a grill and a microwave. Between the oven and the 98-litre fridge is a 40cm-wide cabinet. It contains a metal basket-style shelf. 

There’s a locker perfect for pans under the oven. The two top lockers are each 42cm wide and one  has fitments for plates and mugs. 

Altogether, then, storage space in the kitchen is not generous, but there are plenty of top lockers above the lounge and dining area that can be used for kitchen paraphernalia. 

The seating areas

Among the DB’s many strong points is the amount of seating space, and thus versatility. The central  dining area is brilliantly designed, with seating on three sides of the 71cm by 62cm table, which sits on a chunky, monopod base. 

The table can easily be swivelled, and also moved towards the centre of the caravan to create more space for those sitting on the seating section that is against the wall.

When you transform the dining area into a double bed, the table descends on its telescopic base to form the central area of the base, and extensions pull out on each side, into the corridor. 

A curtain tracks around this area and almost disappears into its recess between the offside wardrobe and the seating area.

The lounge

The lounge comfort is lovely, with squashy bolsters at the front corners, plus two scatter cushions and curtains. When you pull out the front central snack table, it gives you a space that’s 67cm deep and 79cm wide. 

The console forward of this table houses a mains socket, two USB ports, plus 12V and satellite sockets, providing a great space for a cosy night in.

The length of the lounge settees means all six occupants can sit together when you wish. And, of course, their length renders them suitable for use as single beds as an alternative to making up a double bed here. 

The washroom

The shower room contains a 60cm by 85cm shower cubicle (with a shelf for shampoos under the riser bar), a trapezoid-shaped washbasin that’s 14cm deep and 31cm at its widest point, and enough floor space for dressing as well as the towelling routine. 

There are two wall shelves and a two-shelf cabinet under the basin. All you need is here.