Dethleffs Esprit I 7150-2 DBM

Base vehicle: Fiat Ducato Price from: £129,090 Berths: 5 Travel seats: 4 Length: 7.81m Width: 2.33m Height: 2.98m Gross weight: 4,250kg Payload: 713kg

The Dethleffs Esprit I 7150-2 DBM motorhome

Words: Rachel Stothert, Photos courtesy of Dethleffs

The Esprit name is one of Dethleffs’ longest running and now adorns a four-strong range of A-class models, with a choice of island and single beds, and L-shaped or twin sofa lounge configurations. This DBM model offers the L-shaped seating group up front and an island bed at the rear.

It’s no shrinking violet, at 7.81m long, but what that does give you is plenty of room. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the lounge – that A-class cab creates a much more spacious feel than in a conventional coachbuilt. This is also helped by the flat floor from cab to kitchen.

The cab seats swivel to face an L-shaped sofa and a single side seat. It’s widely agreed that the cab seats are often the most comfortable in the house and these are no exception, with integrated headrests, as well as height and tilt adjustment and two padded armrests each. And that storage unit beside the driver’s seat makes a perfect coffee table on site.

The interior

The L-shaped sofa holds the two extra rear travel seats should you want to travel with four on board – with three-point belts and height adjustable headrests. Isofix is optional for both of these.

The table is fixed on its pedestal but can be pushed out of the way. It doesn’t need to form part of the lower bed base, however, as the large double bed drops down, electrically, from above the cab as per normal A-class tradition. This also keeps the lounge free, too. You can specify lockers here instead of the bed if you don’t need the extra berths.

The kitchen

The kitchen may be relatively compact, but the fridge is a whopping 177 litres, with a door that can be opened from either side. There’s an oven above – check the height of this if you’re shorter of stature.

The position of this does mean that the storage space under the hob and sink doesn’t not need to be sacrificed if you need that vital oven and, realistically, the curved shape is likely to make fitting a low-level oven impossible.

The washroom

A washroom is positioned across the aisle just ahead of the bedroom. This room should work brilliantly as the toilet door closes the whole area off from the front and a sliding door shuts off the bedroom. This is vitally important if both beds are in use, providing both with privacy and access to the washroom facilities.

The toilet is a swivel affair, while the basin is set into a unit that provide storage and heater vents – the slot in the low-level door here is for the loo roll as there’s a holder mounted inside.

A shelf with a good retainer means you should be able to keep stuff here (even while travelling), and high-level lockers double up as mirrors.

The shower opposite has folding plastic doors that open to reveal a shower on a riser bar, a shelf for shampoos, etc, and a duckboard floor. There’s a heater outlet in here as well as ventilation and a hanging rail, which makes it perfect for doubling up to store and dry wet-weather gear or your snow stuff if you like swooshing down the mountains in winter.

While we’re on that topic, the double floor holds all the tanks etc, while the garage is heated too, meaning winter motorhoming is more than possible. There is even rear ventilation to all the overhead lockers to reduce condensation.

The bedroom

Let’s return to the star of the show, the bedroom. The island bed measures 2.00m by a very generous 1.60m, with very little cutaway on the bottom corners. That extra-wide bed means there’s slightly less space on either side, but we’d prefer a wider bed any day of the week.

This also has an impact on the width of the wardrobes on either side, but Dethleffs has solved this by making the lockers broader at the top. There are also two drawers underneath the bed and a couple of lockers above.

The bed is fairly high, but that maximises your storage space below.

This ‘garage’ is access by a door on each side, both of which have one-handed operation. It’s got a 250kg weight capacity here and it has rails for tie-down points, LED lights, a mains socket and anti-slip flooring, as well as that aforementioned heating outlet.

This Dethleffs is a must-see for anyone seeking a top-quality motorhome with an island bed.