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2026 Sprite Range

Mel

Mel

Moderator
Anyone keeping an eye on the caravan market will have noticed that the spec on 2026 Sprites has been considerably striped down so that effectively the 2026 Challenger range is now what Sprite used to be.
That does make Sprites cheaper and lighter.
However, the spec has been so stripped back that an Alko Hitch Stabiliser is no longer a standard feature!
Given this is an entry level van, quite possibly aimed at newcomers to Caravanning and with little or no towing experience, who have no idea that a stabiliser device was important; I thought this was dangerously irresponsible. Whilst you can of course pay extra to have one fitted, I can’t imagine the salespeople are saying, “don’t tow it without a stabiliser”
I am sure that there are experienced vanners who would say, It will be fine. It certainly wouldn’t be something I would contemplate and Newbies wouldn’t know to consider it.
Thoughts?
Mel
 
Mel said:
Anyone keeping an eye on the caravan market will have noticed that the spec on 2026 Sprites has been considerably striped down so that effectively the 2026 Challenger range is now what Sprite used to be.
That does make Sprites cheaper and lighter.
However, the spec has been so stripped back that an Alko Hitch Stabiliser is no longer a standard feature!
Given this is an entry level van, quite possibly aimed at newcomers to Caravanning and with little or no towing experience, who have no idea that a stabiliser device was important; I thought this was dangerously irresponsible. Whilst you can of course pay extra to have one fitted, I can’t imagine the salespeople are saying, “don’t tow it without a stabiliser”
I am sure that there are experienced vanners who would say, It will be fine. It certainly wouldn’t be something I would contemplate and Newbies wouldn’t know to consider it.
Thoughts?
Mel
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100% support your views. They must be absolutely desperate to achieve sales.Whether it will appeal to younger owners I am not sure as caravans “aren’t cool” compared to campervans, tent boxes, tents over the hatch and tents etc.
 
Mr Plodd said:
Stabilisers should be a compulsory legal fitment on all caravans. They are a proven road safety system, its as simple as that.
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Unfortunately, it's not that simple.

Let me be clear, I am all for improving road safety, and especially for towing, which does require the driver to use more spatial awareness and driving skills. Those also should include a better understanding of how to safely load an outfit which is a crucial requirement for safe towing.

This forum has seen numerous instances of mainly (but not exclusively) new caravanners who clearly don't know, and after their first outings wonder why their outfit was unstable. We of course only read about the ones who either have incidents or who have the courage to ask. I often wonder how many more there are out there we don't know about.

A properly loaded out fit should remain fully under control when driven correctly. The should not require the installation or intervention of a control system such as friction pads or automated differential braking.

As such all anti sway devices should be treated like Safety Belts, only. To be relied on when the driver really exceeds the outfits natural abilities WHEN LOADED CORRECTLY.

No outfit should be considered safe if during normal driving any anti sway device has to activate

You should never should need to rely on an anti sway device to make an outfit drivable. I believe if such devices were made compulsory, lots more inexperienced drivers would see or use them to off set poor loading and driving habbits.
 
Prof you are absolutely spot on correct.

Sadly we are of a different generation where we had no driving aids worth mentioning.
Double declutching, no synchromesh on 1st, non servo drum brakes, no power steering, ABS was something you drank,rare to have an auto box.
Now we have gone full circle. Imagine driving a modern car with no whistles and bells🙀

Mel has raised a very important point .The cessation of fitting a fundamental safety aid is definitely a retrograde step. I believe ,like you ,a comprehensive understanding of correct loading and towing in its basic form is mandatory. Hence imo every new tugger should attend one of the Clubs towing courses.

BUT that aside it is still unacceptable in this day and age to remove important safety items. Even back in the early 70s I had the old cart spring friction damper Scott Stabiliser. Why? Not because I didn’t understand safe loading more as belts and braces especially with a young family on board.
Very poor show Swift🤬
 
Totally agree with your comments Prof but I am concerned for folks who don’t know what we now know.
When we picked up our very first caravan, the dealer cheerfully put all the accessories we had also purchased right at the back of the van. Hitched it up, and waved us on our way.
We had towed a trailer tent before and driven a Motorhome. I am no academic slouch and had read loads of stuff about Caravanning and OH had done the CAMC towing courses. But You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know.
What we didn’t know was the caravan had a ridiculously high nose weight when empty and so the dealer was counterbalancing this by loading at the back. We had insufficient experience to challenge this daft plan.
Newbies will be grappling with loads of information when picking up and towing for the first time. They won’t necessarily know what to challenge or ask. Not supplying a basic safety device ( as DD says back in the day folks fitted blade or spring stabilisers to vans that were much smaller and lighter than than they are now), is asking for trouble.
Mel
 
When we viewed and subsequently purchased our first caravan the dealer did not bat an eye when we turned up in our Skoda Estelle. No discussion on weights, cars towing ability, outfit matching etc. But little did he know I had the Haynes Manual and a different car at home. Yes we used spring stabilisers and my view is that they were more effective than the Alko hitch stabiliser.
 
ProfJohnL said:
As such all anti sway devices should be treated like Safety Belts, only. To be relied on when the driver really exceeds the outfits natural abilities WHEN LOADED CORRECTLY.
Click to expand...

Indeed so, but no-one ever WANTS to be in the position where a seat belt or an airbag does what its designed to do, but the fitting AND USE of them is compulsory, and has been for many years. The same as ABS systems, nobody expects them to compensate for stupid/careless driving, and nobody really WANTS to ever being in the situation of NEEDING it, but are very grateful IF they ever prove necessary.
Surely hitch stabilisers come into the same category, a very desirable safety feature (like sear belts and and airbags) that just sits there in the background ready to deploy if ever needed.
I still think they should be a compulsory fitment.
 
It could be said it is much easier for new to caravanning/motorhomes, in so much that 40 + years ago their wasn’t the information as readily available, so people worked it out themselves perhaps with help from friends etc.
 
Martin_E said:
It could be said it is much easier for new to caravanning/motorhomes, in so much that 40 + years ago their wasn’t the information as readily available, so people worked it out themselves perhaps with help from friends etc.
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My first piece of advice came from a widow near us who needed to sell the Safari caravan. She told me that whilst my Marina estate could probably tow it, the caravan was too heavy for it to be stable. She discussed a few things and recommended I get a book on caravanning. But financial constraints put a stop to things for a while.
 
Mr Plodd said:
Stabilisers should be a compulsory legal fitment on all caravans. They are a proven road safety system, its as simple as that.
Click to expand...

My instant reaction to Mel's starter post was to agree it's a dangerous and backward step. But if something is to be made compulsory then their benefit needs to be proven. And for friction-based stabilizers are they, really?
I think they came about because there was a huge demand for 'something' and it was something that the chassis manufacturers were able to devise and implement. But I doubt that increased friction on the towball can have more than a 1% influence on snaking suppression. You can still turn corners, manoeuvre whilst reversing without any apparent restraint. Yet when there's a heavy dynamic pendulum swinging from side-to-side, then gripping the towball tightly is meant to prevent or significantly reduce it? There must be close to 100% fitment of hitch stabilizers now, but still quite frequent caravan sway incidents.
I'd like to see some comparative testing and statistics. I don't really want to volunteer though.
 
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AndrewAventura said:
My instant reaction to Mel's starter post was to agree it's a dangerous and backward step. But if something is to be made compulsory then their benefit needs to be proven. And for friction-based stabilizers are they, really?
I think they came about because there was a huge demand for 'something' and it was something that the chassis manufacturers were able to devise and implement. But I doubt that increased friction on the towball can have more than a 1% influence on snaking suppression. You can still turn corners, manoeuvre whilst reversing without any apparent restraint. Yet when there's a heavy dynamic pendulum swinging from side-to-side, then gripping the towball tightly is meant to prevent or significantly reduce it? There must be close to 100% fitment of hitch stabilizers now, but still quite frequent caravan sway incidents.
I'd like to see some comparative testing and statistics. I don't really want to volunteer though.
Click to expand...
Before hitch stabilisers were marketed by Alko to increase their revenue, there was a healthy market for blade stabilisers both single for caravans and double for heavy trailers - Scott-Halley and Bulldog were the two main brands but there were others.

I don't buy the "proven" aspect of claims that hitch stabilisers should be mandatory - caravan accidents are rarely investigated to find the exact cause so I doubt there are any official statistics - so it's no more proven than the 85% recommendation!
 
Interesting comments. Having worked in a setting where everything we did needed to be evidence based; I scurried to the literature.
It seems that the University of Bath has done a number of studies on caravan stability.
Like this one
This demonstrates efficacy of friction stabilisers although this is has some limits and still relies on sensible driving

I think our very own Prof John may have been part of related research and I look forward to his input.
Mel
 
Mel said:
Interesting comments. Having worked in a setting where everything we did needed to be evidence based; I scurried to the literature.
It seems that the University of Bath has done a number of studies on caravan stability.
Like this one
This demonstrates efficacy of friction stabilisers although this is has some limits and still relies on sensible driving

I think our very own Prof John may have been part of related research and I look forward to his input.
Mel
Click to expand...
Thank you, that’s an interesting paper using real sized vehicles. I had seen a previous one by University of Bath using small scale models in a laboratory but the use of real vehicles takes that earlier laboratory research a major step forwards.
 
Thanks for raising the University of Bath stuff again Mel. Afaik it is the only independent text available on the subject.I have seen the model in action at a Show years ago.

I recall my old Scott stabiliser friction damper nut needed tightening so that it could take an approx 40 kg load before rotating.
I suggest , needs checking, the Al-ko stabiliser when correctly set up will require similar if not more than 40 kg before rotation.

We all know these devices are not primary safety units ,but shall I say supplementary to correct loading. But say in the event of gusting side winds you will be glad you have one.
 
Mel said:
Interesting comments. Having worked in a setting where everything we did needed to be evidence based; I scurried to the literature.
It seems that the University of Bath has done a number of studies on caravan stability.
Like this one
This demonstrates efficacy of friction stabilisers although this is has some limits and still relies on sensible driving
Click to expand...
Yes - interesting. They cite (ref 7) another IMechE paper that looked specifically at friction on the towball. I can't see the full paper because of the paywall, but did manage to get to images of the figures. They showed that in some circumstances, increased friction at the towhitch made the sway oscillations worse. The conclusion in their abstract was - The friction damping, especially when its level has to be chosen by the user, is shown to give dangerous characteristics, despite having some capacity for stabilization of the snaking motions. It is concluded that pintle pin friction damping does not represent a satisfactory solution to the snaking problem
 
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Mel said:
Interesting comments. Having worked in a setting where everything we did needed to be evidence based; I scurried to the literature.
It seems that the University of Bath has done a number of studies on caravan stability.
Like this one
This demonstrates efficacy of friction stabilisers although this is has some limits and still relies on sensible driving

I think our very own Prof John may have been part of related research and I look forward to his input.
Mel
Click to expand...
Their conclusion includes "A friction stabilizer is shown to be helpful in improving the system stability, although in these tests the stability was not increased hugely."

Are there any statistics to show that the number of killed or seriously injured (KSI) are reduced by the use of friction stabilisers - KSI is the normal measure for proving the value of road-related safety issues.
 
RogerL said:
Their conclusion includes "A friction stabilizer is shown to be helpful in improving the system stability, although in these tests the stability was not increased hugely."

Are there any statistics to show that the number of killed or seriously injured (KSI) are reduced by the use of friction stabilisers - KSI is the normal measure for proving the value of road-related safety issues.
Click to expand...
In past discussions I have posted DOT papers on trailer accident statistics but cannot recall stabilisers being mentioned. Prime causes were speed/driver behaviour loading and tyres. Any serious accident involving a caravan snake would require a very detailed forensic investigation and a simulated reconstruction of the outfit. Virtually impossible to expect such an undertaking.


otherclive

Post in thread 'MOT Passed 😁'

Hutch said:
My Santa Fe goes in next wednesday for it's MOT, 82k miles. Fingers crossed all will be Ok.
Is it time that trailers in the UK should have some time of an an annual or Biannual "MOT" similar to some countries in Europe.
Click to expand...
I posted the HoC committee report recently on trailer accidents. The conclusions were that to bring in some form of registration plus testing showed a negative cost benefit. Accidents re caravans where mechanical failure was a cause were statistically insignificant. Majority, and again low incidence rate, were tyres, driver error ir other road user. So absolutely no...
 
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