CARAVAN TEST FREEDOM JETSTREAM 1ST CLASS
Light is
LOVELY
WE SENT ROB MCCABE ON A WEIGHTWATCHING COURSE
AND HE CAME BACK WITH THIS CARAVAN TEST!
ABOVE: McCabe
minor enjoying his
Freedom
T
HERE’S small, and then there’s the
Freedom caravan. Three of us spent
a couple of nights in a Freedom
Microlite Sport a few years ago and, without
the awning that most buyers very wisely opt
for, I still don’t know how we did it. But it
left the impression of a caravan that filled its
niche very well, albeit in a very basic way.
Things have moved on a lot in the space
of those four or five years. They still look
56 THE CARAVAN CLUB MAGAZINE
pretty much the same on the outside –
jazzier graphics notwithstanding – but the
accommodation has been given somewhat
of a wholesale makeover.
You can still take away a basic Microlite
Prima for under five grand – but we’ve
gone right to the top of the range here,
with the two-berth, end-kitchen
Jetstream 1st Class, which will set you
back more than £8000.
CONSTRUCTION
Of course, the main raison d’être of a
Freedom is the near toy-like dimensions
and weight; but many buyers swear by
them because the single-skinned,
laminated GRP body is long-lasting and
extremely watertight. A leaky Freedom is
a rare beast indeed.
The fibreglass gas locker bolted on to the
front is roomy enough to stow plenty of
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other kit (noseweight notwithstanding);
just to the right of this lives the mains
hook-up socket.
Everything sits on a tiny Al-Ko galvanised
chassis and running gear, so no maintenance
problems, and of course it is of Polish
construction by Predom Caravanes,
renamed Freedom by the UK importer.
Just as well it wasn’t raining during the
test, because the plastic exterior cover of
the Fiamma rooflight was missing
completely, presumed lost in transit
somewhere. Somebody’s forgotten the
age-old ritual of checking all doors and
windows before take-off. Tsk…
I had real trouble with the catch on the
wardrobe door: it refused point-blank to
engage without the use of brute force (this is
apparently almost the norm, to prevent
rattling, but ours was exceptionally tight,
which is why such a fundamental irritant
hadn’t been sorted out).
Elsewhere inside, the quality of the wood
and the joinery used in fitting the furniture
together is very good.
TOWABILITY
If I could award the Jetstream six blobs, I
would. No, seven. Sol isn’t what you’d call
chunky, even by seven-year-old standards,
but he was able to pull the 1st Class singlehanded. Just think about how your Vauxhall
Corsa or Fiat Punto would perform, then.
Even when fully laden, it weighs just 780kg,
bringing a fully-equipped caravan within the
reach of everyone who drives a supermini or
small hatchback.
The best fun is at hitching-up or
unhitching time: it’s so light, you simply
lift it up and lower it on to the towball, or
vice-versa.
looks from the outside. I would imagine that
a couple could quite easily enjoy a mainly
clutter-free holiday on board, thanks to
decent storage that includes internal frontopening hatches to the two bedlockers.
These are somewhat on the small side, mind,
so it would be a bit of an effort to try to
liberate a duvet from them, for example.
Great that they’re there at all – frontopening hatches to bedlockers are one of the
best caravanning conveniences – but what a
shame they’re not a couple of inches wider.
The overhead lockers are also necessarily
compact, but the wardrobe is a decent size
and there’s plenty of cupboard space by the
kitchen. The gas locker at the front is a
useful size for stowing stuff that doesn’t
need to be inside. Don’t forget – you’ve got
the awning as well.
With a sophisticated 240V management
system that includes an under-seat battery
(in a cover) and charger, the Jetstream 1st
Class is a self-sufficient caravan you can go
rallying in or enjoy breaks away on a
minimum-facility CL – even if the site
listing warns of ‘Own San Ess’. That’s right,
they’ve found room – even in a thing this
size – to include a washroom with Thetford
cassette loo, handbasin and a shower.
There’s no carpet, but the laminate
flooring is handsome and supremely easy
to clean, even taking into account a sevenyear-old with a breathtaking inability to
remember to take his muddy shoes off every
time he comes in. A little rug in the lounge
Technical
RRP (inc delivery)
£8245
Internal length
3.10m (10ft 2in)
Shipping length
4.26m (14ft 0in)
Overall width
2.03m (6ft 8in)
Overall height
2.46m (8ft 1in)
Internal headroom
1.85m (6ft 1in)
Unladen weight
650kg (12.8cwt)
Maximum laden
weight
780kg (15.4cwt)
User payload
130kg (2.6cwt)
Berths
2
Freedom Jetstream 1st Class
VERDICT
Construction
Towability
Usability
Living and sleeping
Kitchen
Washroom
Lighting and electrics
VERDICT
ABOVE: “So light,
even I can move it,”
says Sol
BELOW
CLOCKWISE FROM
TOP LEFT: Quite a
smart little kitchen;
“Won’t get many
cans of cola in that,”
says Sol; the fridge
doubles as a useful
TV shelf; table for
two? – no problem
USABILITY
Some models in the Freedom range are on
the basic side of basic: the cheapest
Microlite Prima has no fridge, heater or loo,
for example (but then you do get £105
change out of £5000).
Our Jetstream 1st Class is at the other
end of the scale: at £8245, it’s the dearest
Freedom. That raised more than a few
eyebrows when chatting to my neighbours
on the Club’s Uttoxeter Racecourse site
but, to be fair, it comes with a long list of
goodies as standard, rivalling the amount of
kit most of those other caravanners enjoy
the use of in their own, bigger tourers.
At the top of that list is a British-made
awning that Freedom assures me can be
erected in minutes – although I haven’t been
able to put that to the test myself. Even
putting the awning to one side (no gags
about what else you would possibly want to
do with an awning, thanks…), the Jetstream
is a superb example of how so much can be
created from so little space.
Okay, so you can’t exactly compare it with
the Tardis, but it feels bigger inside than it
DECEMBER 2006 THE CARAVAN CLUB MAGAZINE 57
CARAVAN TEST FREEDOM JETSTREAM 1ST CLASS
hot and cold running water and shower is
more creditable still.
I was particularly taken with the useful
cubby hole that lives behind the loo:
opening the lid reveals a space big enough
to stash a couple of fresh water containers.
However, I wasn’t quite so enamoured by
the amount of care needed to avoid a
spillage when emptying the tip-up basin.
There’s such a narrow lip on the edge of the
basin, it’s an altogether more hit-and-miss
affair than it should be.
The header tank for flushing is filled from
within the cassette compartment, an
arrangement I find much more user-friendly
than the fiddly-to-fill receptacles found on
the sidewalls of the majority of caravans.
LIGHTING AND ELECTRICS
“The fibreglass gas locker bolted on to the front
is roomy enough to stow plenty of other kit”
ABOVE: Do you
remember when all
gas lockers were
this accessible?
would add a touch of luxury in the evenings,
maybe: easily achieved with an offcut from
the carpet shop and a Stanley knife.
If you’ve never set foot inside a
Freedom before, the soft, padded walls
and ceiling will be a talking point if you
ever do. It certainly makes the interior
look warmer, and I’ve spoken to owners
who tell me that it all but eliminates
condensation in colder weather.
You will never feel the cold in this
caravan: indeed, the standard Truma
S3002 space heater verges on overkill,
inviting analogies about sledgehammers
and walnuts and stuff.
LIVING AND SLEEPING
Let’s get one thing straight: the Jetstream
does not have wraparound seating. Even Sol
turned his nose up at parking his diminutive
frame on the perch along by the front
window after a few minutes, and it’s totally
useless for anyone bigger than him (ie, just
about everybody else). It’s not a complete
waste of space, though: it makes a good
footrest when you’re lounging.
You can lounge in reasonable comfort,
albeit, of course, not as sumptuously as in
bigger, more upholstered tourers. The
Freedom has a nice, fresh, modern feel to
it that makes it pleasant to sit in and watch
the world go by.
At night time, the flat cushions make up
an equally flat bed that was absolutely fine
for us. There isn’t anywhere to stow the
free-standing table so, if you don’t want to
put it in the awning overnight, it fits neatly
under the bed when folded. On the
occasions when we didn’t need the table,
58 THE CARAVAN CLUB MAGAZINE
I simply laid it flat against one of the kitchen
cupboards at the back. Not ideal, but it
didn’t make much of a nuisance of itself
back there.
The combined blinds and flyscreens
fitted to the front and rear windows are a
quality touch. Sadly, the side windows in the
lounge are protected by nothing more than a
pair of flimsy curtains that are ripe for an
owner upgrade. At least the net curtains
allow a degree of privacy during the day.
KITCHEN
The two-berth, end-kitchen layout has a
strong, loyal following among caravanners,
so it’ll be of interest to many to see such a
configuration in a caravan of this size. Its
fitments are handsome and stylish, too.
With four gas rings and a grill, chef is
fairly well catered for: and, if you’re not
using the space for a TV, the big shelf on
top of the fridge will easily accommodate
a low-wattage microwave or compact
conventional oven.
Mind you, if you do that you’ll lose the
only possible source of workspace – if you
discount the glass-covered sink, into which
the tap folds. The single striplight on the
underside of the overhead lockers casts a
glow that’s just about passable. There’s
plenty of storage space back here.
You’ll have to be ruthless when stocking
the fridge: with a modest 60-litre capacity,
it’ll quickly fill up.
Every single Freedom has 230V mains
electrics; our test caravan additionally
comes as standard with an electrical
control panel that sits just inside the
entrance door. It’s a one-stop-shop for
switching between 12V operating options,
turning on the battery charger and
operating the water pump.
The Jetstream 1st Class is the only
Freedom to have an external water socket –
another fitment that brings this particular
model into the mainstream.
Lighting – a striplight over the front
window, another in the kitchen, two
downlighters in the lounge, an awning light
and one in the washroom – is enough to get
by, but a table lamp for the evenings makes a
huge difference to the ambience.
You get just the one mains socket as
standard, although a second (as fitted to our
test caravan) costs just £55 as an option,
which strikes me as a no-brainer. I was
slightly concerned that our kettle had to sit
on the floor to be operated, as the lead
wasn’t long enough to stretch from either
socket to a table top.
The standard Truma water heater is
electric-only. You can specify a gas-operated
unit, but you’d have to really want one – it’s
an £800 option.
VERDICT
If circumstances dictate that you need such
a diminutive caravan through necessity –
smaller car, tight space at the side of the
house, unwillingness to tow anything more
unwieldy – you should be heartened that
the Jetstream calls for so little in the way of
compromises. It’s perfectly comfortable,
smart inside and well put together.
With so much equipment included in the
price – awning, spare wheel, water heater,
fridge, space heater and fully-featured
washroom – it’s a reasonable bargain, too.
WASHROOM
The very fact that such a titchy caravan even
has a washroom is a huge bonus. That it has
the full house of cassette loo, hand basin,
i
Insurance: 01342 336610
Info: freedomcaravans.com
www.caravanclub.co.uk