Suncamper Sheffield

By Malcolm Street

Keith Harrison, proprietor of Suncamper Conversions, has been in the motorhome rental business for a number of years, and in 1989 began to build vehicles for his own fleet. When both businesses became profitable, Harrison sold off his rental company to concentrate on building.

Beginning with campervan conversions, Suncamper now builds everything from a Toyota Hiace pop-top to an intriguing six-wheeler Ducato. Somewhat more midfield, the new-release, four-berth Sheffield is based on a Ford Transit T350 cab chassis, that gets quite close to 20ft (6.1m) long.

Outside

Built on a steel chassis, the Sheffield has an aluminium frame with a marine ply interior and a fibreglass skin. From the front, it’s quite a streamlined-looking motorhome, even though the Luton Peak has been raised above the rest of the roof for more bed height inside.

A Fiamma awning is standard, windows are sliding glass with insect screens, and the door is a problematic Camec triple locker; the handle is set a little too high.

Offside is the locker for the 9kg gas cylinder and the Suburban hot water heater. A small storage locker is under the gas compartment and a matching one on the nearside partly houses the battery. A handy shoe storage compartment sits just inside the door.

Inside

A fairly traditional layout includes a double bed over the cab, rear dinette, offside kitchen bench with only the fridge opposite, and shower cubicle behind the passenger seat. As a flat floor motorhome, access to and from the driver’s cab is relatively easy. Cabinet work is marine ply with a laminate finish, and all doors have piano hinges.

There are windows all round with slimline blinds on all except those for the cabover bed, which have curtains.

The kitchen bench has a stainless steel sink and a Smev three-burner stove. Both have smoked glass covers with reasonable bench space. Mounted in the locker above the stove is a Black & Decker microwave, but no rangehood or exhaust fan.

There’s plenty of storage and the 90 litre three-way Dometic fridge is on the opposite side between the door and dinette.

Seating four, the dinette is quite comfortable but the table is best for two. The table can be lifted up and out of the way, and enjoys full surround windows. The seat backs are quite high and the slimline blinds annoyingly bump against them when fully down.

Overhead lockers, complete with a small under-shelf are above the dinette. Curiously, the rear wall lockers are only about six inches deep.

The foam mattress bed has a reasonable amount of headroom: 2ft 1in (635mm). Reading lights are on the nearside and there’s also a blanket box which doubles as a bedside shelf. A lightweight but sturdy ladder gives easy access to the bed. The bathroom is a one-piece fibreglass unit with flexible hose shower, a Thetford cassette toilet, 12V fluorescent lighting and ventilation by a fan-forced hatch. The vertical towel rail may be more useful as two shorter horizontal items.

A large double cupboard between the kitchen bench and dinette houses a slideout TV/video unit which can only be seen comfortably from the nearside dinette seat. Lighting is 12V throughout, mainly fluorescents. Water is 12V, pumped and heated by an internal start Suburban unit.

On the road

The Transit T350 is not new, and is an easy drive. The intercooled turbodiesel pushes it along very easily, with power steering, power brakes and comfortable bucket seats.

The Transit rear view mirrors are large with a separate convex mirror across the base.

The Smart Shift auto transmission five-speed gearbox has a push-button control unit fitted to the centre of the dashboard, with another set of buttons fitted inside the steering wheel on both sides, should you wish to drive ‘manually’, sans clutch.

Auto transmission lovers will adjust, but I personally did not like it as it was hard to drive through corners. Comparatively, the Mercedes–Benz Sprint Shift system works in a similar manner, except that the gear change, whether auto or manual, is a short stubby lever mounted on the centre of the dash. There was one point where the Ford system was better: the gear-selected indicator was mounted at centre dash – easier to see than the Sprinter indicator – which is between the speedo and tacho, making it difficult to see when turning the wheel.

Summing up

The Ford Transit makes an ideal base vehicle for a small-to-medium-size motorhome. However, items such as the lack of sink drainage and minimal external storage could be improved upon.

Generally, the Sheffield manoeuvres well and is easy to drive – ideal for a couple of people who don’t want an oversized motorhome but still want room to move.

Suncamper Camper Conversions, 7 Brennan Close, Hornsby, NSW, (02) 9482 1225 or <a href="http://www.suncamper.com.au/"><span><u><font color="#0000ff">www.suncamper.com.au</font></u></span></a>

We liked

Layout – rear dinette gives good scenic viewing

Flat floor walk-through

Ease of driving

Headroom above double bed

Light interior

We would have liked

Larger table

Manual transmission or different auto change

Sink drainer

Larger overhead lockers at rear