Travelling light is a must when you are on your caravan holidays, so carrying a single tool that can perform many tasks is a great space-saving, weight-saving and money-saving idea for when you’re on tour. Practical Caravan’s expert team reviewed the Gerber Steady to see if it was up to the job.

We reviewed this 10.2cm multi-tool (15.2cm when open) as part of the Practical Caravan multi-tool group test – the Gerber Crucial was also tested. The Gerber Steady weighs 164.5g and although boasting nine tools, it doesn’t have as many as others we reviewed, however it does have a rather neat, cool trick up its sleeve: if you unfold the two legs and attach the sucker, you’ve got a tripod!

The Steady has an adjustable mobile phone and screw-in camera mount, and can hold compact digital cameras up to 340g and smartphones that weigh up to 170g, so it’s great for taking photos, watching videos on your smartphone, or maybe making a video call via Skype.

So, what other features does the Gerber Steady have? There are two blades, one serrated, one with a fine edge. It also has three screwdrivers, a micro flat one, a square cross one and a medium flat one. But that’s not all, as you’ll also find a bottle opener, wire cutters and needlenose pliers. And it comes with a neat nylon sheath.

All of which meant it performed well in our test. As we’re looking for tools that can be used for a variety of purposes when you’re touring in your caravan, we had a list of challenges for every multi-tool tested, to see if they were up to the job. We wanted to see how the Gerber Steady got on trimming wire, screwing screws into wood, opening cans and bottles, sawing pallets, metal and plastic, removing twisted, bent nails from pallets, sharpening pencils and also trimming finger nails, wrapping paper and tape – well, they are meant to be multi purpose gadgets!

Its plastic body makes it light, despite its high quality, stainless steel tools, and it was the most comfortable tool to use, beating the overall winner, the Leatherman Wingman, in this respect. Its black and green design also makes it stand out from the crowd.

At £64.99 it isn’t cheap, but its slick design and the fact that it also doubles as a tripod – an unusual but arguably very desirable feature for a multi-tool – will make it worth the money for some. It costs more than the group test winner, the Leatherman Wingman (£39.95), but less than the most expensive multi-tool we tested, the £116 Victorinox SwissTool Spirit III. And order it online and you can have it engraved. Another, much cheaper, option is the Am-Tech 12-in-1 Axe Head Multi-Function Tool (£9.59), or how about the Cobb Multi Tool (£27.50) – while the Victorinox SwissTool Spirit III is at the other end of the price scale at £116, but was very impressive. We also tested the Leatherman Wave, which carries a price tag of just under £100.