Verdict
In all honesty, we were fully expecting the new 2016 Sprite Freedom to be nothing more than a depressingly gutted standard Sprite. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. Yes, it shares its dearer sibling’s styling and build quality (a good thing) but it has a character all of its own and stands a good chance of attracting newcomers into caravanning.
Pros
Terrific family layout
Good build quality
Impressive washroom
Huge kitchen and lounge
Quality feel throughout
Cons
Lower bunk needs a window
The blanked-off fourth burner looks odd
Anyone who has been into caravanning long enough will likely have a huge, fuzzy warm regard for the Sprite brand. It is, after all, the caravan with which many of us started off, either by trading up from a tent or trailer tent, or simply by opting for the cheapest, lightest and least complicated model we could find on the market.
In truth, many newcomers to caravanning want nothing to do with the unknown quantities on offer on secondhand caravan forecourts, preferring the peace of mind that comes with a brand new caravan backed up by a factory warranty.
The problem is, Sprite has come a long way since the heady 1960s, when you could almost buy one with your loose pocket change and tow it with a bicycle. The latest models have alloy wheels, for heaven’s sake. Fully-fitted kitchens. And five-star washrooms. Some are even hoofing great twin-axles. All very nice, but a far cry from the old cheap ‘n’ cheerful days.
So has Swift forgotten about where its grass-roots superstar originated? It would appear not, because when we visited the Swift factory shortly before the official trade launch, we found an unfamiliar new Sprite parked alongside a full-on standard Sprite. It’s called the Freedom. And it marks a welcome return to the concept of a cheap, lightweight caravan. But is it any good? And to see other Sprite caravans for sale, click here.
Like the Sprite Major 6 TD upon which it is based, the Freedom 6TD has another lounge out back
Pitching & Setting-up
There’s always the risk, where affordable and easily towed caravans are concerned, that the manufacturer in question will simply take their next cheapest caravan, throw 80 percent of the equipment away and call it good.
That might have worked in the 1980s and 1990s, but the 21st century caravanner is not so easily fooled. So how does the new Sprite Freedom fare?
Well, at first glance, it looks like more of the same. The exterior looks pretty much the same as a standard Sprite, albeit with a single front window, no A-frame fairing steps and no hitch stabiliser. But since the latest Sprite is at least as well made as last year’s Challenger (the current model’s moved on to the Elegance’s SMART HT construction, of course), that’s a very good thing. And we always loved the way last year’s Sprite looked.
Elsewhere, the bright and breezy graphics are minimal, the wheels are steel and covered with plastic trims and there’s no window in the door. The other windows, too, have a paler tint to them than that used on the standard Sprite. Better still, all the services are ranged along the offside wall, with only the fridge vents to break up the nearside wall, and all four corner steady winding bolts are easily reached.
Living
It’s increasingly the case, these days, that any caravan that doesn’t have some sort of panoramic rooflight fitted to it can feel just a little dark and gloomy. And yet, while such heady luxuries aren’t available on the Sprite Freedom (there’s no big opening sunroof, either), the trademark single front window really does allow the daylight to flood in. The side windows aren’t exactly tiddlers, either, which further helps to keep the Sprite’s main living area bright and airy.
By night, lighting is provided by a couple of reading lights and a two-stage roof dome that, to be honest, looks a bit lost in that vast expanse of ceiling.
However, would you just look at the size of those settees? They might not be of equal length (the offside one is slightly shorter than the one opposite), but they are absolutely enormous. If a big family of six can’t socialise and dine in there without feeling like they’re on top of one another, then there’s something seriously wrong, somewhere.
Better still, like the Sprite Major 6 TD upon which it is based, the Freedom 6TD has another lounge out back, this one clearly designed for the juniors of the family. There’s a quasi-pullman dinette in the corner that can accommodate up to three, and there’s a TV point alongside against the rear wall. Pull the concertina partition across, and you’re left with a self-contained playroom. It fits in perfectly with this caravan’s youthful, family-friendly feel.
What’s really impressive about this new caravan, however, is that it doesn’t feel like a cheapie inside. The woodwork is of a good standard, the soft furnishings are every bit as comfortable to sit on as they are attractive to behold, and the windows are fitted with proper cassette blinds and flyscreens. Squint a bit, and this could almost be a Sprite…if that makes sense!
Kitchen
Step into the Sprite Freedom’s kitchen from, say, a Challenger, and you’d probably say that it looks a bit sparse and a bit bargain-basement in there. But to do so would be to miss the point completely. Chances are most of the people who step into this caravan will be doing so from the perspective of having holidayed under canvas for years, and therefore cooked pretty much everything on either a primus stove or a barbecue. Viewed in this light, it probably looks like the Ritz.
And that’s not to damn the Sprite with faint praise, either. Granted, the cooker fitted is basically a three-burner hob (the fourth burner is simply blanked off) with a grill underneath, but that’s at least one more hob than most tenters are used to, and as for the idea of a grill…
There’s a proper fridge with an in-built freezer, too, together with generous worktop provision and, in the absence of any new-fangled microwaves or stack fridge-freezers, more cupboards and drawers than you get in most caravans, including a whopper where the oven would normally be, and two more at eye-level
Washroom
In truth, we would have forgiven the Freedom 6 TD if its washroom had been rather less than impressive. It’s a cheap caravan, it’ll spend most of its life on full facility sites and since it will likely only really be used during the warmer, drier months of the year, it probably doesn’t really need a hotel-standard washroom.
And yet, the Sprite Major 6 TD origins come to the fore once again to provide a centre washroom that wouldn’t have disgraced a mid-range foot soldier not so long ago, including a door that folds flat against the adjacent wall and doesn’t impinge on through-passage outside.
The first thing that will likely slacken your jaw is the presence of a wholly separate shower cubicle. Granted, it’s unlined, there’s a degree of wheelarch intrusion and there’s a clingy dividing curtain where, on pricier models, you’d find a bi-fold door, but this sort of provision at this price level is, frankly unprecedented.
The rest of the room is pretty good, too, with the same Thetford C260 swivel loo you get in a Conqueror, a couple of shelves and a washbasin/vanity, complete with mirror. There’s even an opening roof vent.
Beds
We’ve no complaints about the beds in this six-berth. The front settees are so enormous that they’re perfectly useable as single beds and convert into a simply gigantic double (2.02m x 1.80m) by the simple act of pulling out some slats and flipping a few cushions. The front nearside single measures 1.90m x 0.72m. The front offside single measures 1.80m x 0.72m.
There’s even less effort required out back if you have a family of four; simply lay down the kids’ duvets and blankets (or, more likely, their sleeping bags), plus a couple of pillows, and they can crawl into their stacked fixed bunks straightaway. There is one small example of cost-cutting in here that we could perhaps have done without – only the upper bunk warrants a window, leaving the lower bunk area looking rather dark and gloomy – but we doubt this will be a deal-breaker in practice.
As for the fifth and sixth berths, they emerge simply by folding out the tried and tested cantilever bunk system above the rear dinette, dropping in a few tailor-made bed bases – and that’s it. Better still, the partition is there to give each bedroom a degree of privacy.
The nearside side single bed is 1.80m x 0.67m; the nearside side bunk is 1.76m x 0.59m. The side fixed lower bunk is 1.83m x 0.57m and the side fixed upper bunk is 1.83m x 0.57m.
Storage
Again, the relative paucity of equipment in the kitchen area comes to the fore, here and helps the Freedom to warrant another high star rating, thanks to the additional storage space it opens up. Up front, only one of the bedding lockers is useable to its full potential (the other is half-filled by the battery box and mains control centre), but each can be accessed from inside.
Out back, the lower fixed bunk has a useful space beneath, once again accessible via an internal drop-down door, and there are more handy and good-sized voids beneath both of the dinette seats.
The wardrobe forward of the washroom is a little on the narrow side, but there’s plenty of hanging space in there, together with a low-mounted shelf for shoes. Factor in the large and mostly uncluttered roof lockers, and the only improvement we can think of in this respect is perhaps having a couple more roof lockers over the front windows.
Technical Specifications
| Berth | 6 |
| MiRO | 1170 kg |
| Payload | 180 kg |
| MTPLM | 1350 kg |
| Shipping Length | 7.48 m |
| Width | 2.23 m |
