Sprite Musketeer TD caravan

A five-berth layout in a short length, solidly built and with bags of style - meet the new Sprite Musketeer TD caravan

Sprite Musketeer TD caravan

GOOD things sometimes happen more than once. Layouts, once successful and popular and then forgotten amid the tide of innovation that sweeps through caravan design every year, sometimes deserve a second chance. 

That’s what the new-for-2010 Sprite Musketeer is all about. It’s a five-berth – and it achieves its sleep-three family area at the rear by means of a double bed making from a dining area and a bunk rising above it from the nearside wall. 

This layout sprang up in the 1970s, achieved popularity – and then demised in favour of new and different ways of sleeping five. Now, though, it is re-launched, fresh and inviting, spacious in a short length – and with a more luxury image than you’d expect from something calling itself a budget caravan.

And the name? Apart from defining an infantry solder equipped with a musket, the name Musketeer designated a Sprite model as far back as the 1960s… Today’s Musketeer sticks, as you would expect, to the values that first made Sprite’s name a lot earlier than the 1960s – simple specification and good build quality. 

Importantly, the Musketeer has two dining areas – that’s what TD stands for. The rear area has a three-seater table. A freestanding table goes up between two front short settees. There’s a coffee table at the front that you can hinge out of the way when it’s not required. 

But back to the important rear section of this layout… The clever bit about creating the double bed here is that two metal bed-base poles slide out from the side of the rear-facing seating unit to create the bed shape. A wooden piece slots into the slide-out section and upholstery follows, to make the mattress. 

This bed is not designed for adults; the mattress is half the thickness of the upholstery in daytime seating mode (each section folds out when you make up the bed). 

But it’s perfect for younger caravanners and, crucially, with the double bed in place, there’s still enough corridor width to access the (offside) corner-toilet room easily. 

This little room is another clever part of the Musketeer’s layout. The shower area is amazingly large for a caravan that’s only 4.74m long. The door is roller-style, in metal-look plastic, substantial in construction, firm in its tracking – and very good looking.

Forward of this dining area is a unit that incorporates heater, drawer and two-shelf cupboard. 

Above is one of the 11 head lockers; storage is excellent in this layout. All head lockers on the 2010 Sprite models have metal, substantial, positive-click catches and they’re handle-less; you open them by applying a little pressure to the medal bar hidden under the edge of the flat-fronted locker doors. 

Each locker has a metal-look strip along its base to add style, and front mains lighting is a single square.

Any negatives? Well, sorry to say, there is one. It’s in the rear dining area. Either the table is too high or the seating is took low – or both. 

Result: You have to sit with your elbows in the air – or sit on as cushion. Even for an adult, the distance between table and seatbase is too great. You don’t get the same problem in the front dining area, though.

Upholstery is a happy combination of creams and fawns with an injection of grey. Curtains are plain nut-brown shade and all the fabrics give you the impression they’re very durable. The carpet, too, gets our praise for its practical mid-brown colour. 

It’s a layout that we think will work well in night-time mode. In day-guise it gives you plenty of space considering the body length is well under five metres. 

But the distance between the rear table height and that of the seat bases makes eating at this table a rather elbows-in-the-air affair. Answer? Even adults will want to sit on a cushion to be at a comfortable height to the table.

If you need to sleep five (or four) in a lightweight, inexpensive caravan, you like large shower space and you seek high build quality, the new Musketeer should be on your shortlist. 

One of its great plus-points is the amount of floorspace in the central corridor area of the caravan opposite the kitchen – and overall it feels much more spacious than its 4.74m body length.