Does size matter?

Bushtrekker

Guest
It's just occurred to me that some of us own campers, some motorhomes and some RV's. The first and last are clearly defined, but where is the boundary between camper van and motorhome. It can't be size, because motorhomes come in all shapes and sizes and my 1988 Hymer Tramp is described in Hymer's brochure as a 'Camping Car'. It can't be the facilities as a lot of VW camper vans have toilets, kitchens and showers, so what makes it a motorhome as opposed to a camper van? In mine I go upstairs to bed, which makes it more home like, but this applies to some camper vans with lifting roofs. Suggestions on a postcard please to the following address.

It's 5am and I'm bored,
Hymer Tramp
Navigation Inn
Overseal,
Derbyshire

All entries will be read, but we are unable to return thrown eggs, tomatoes etc. so please make sure you keep a copy in your fridge:)
 
This has been asked a few times before, but basically many people, espec general public, tend to refer to panel van conversions as camper vans and coachbuilts on a chassis cab as motorhomes.

In fact some modern panel van conversions are better in terms of facilities than some coachbuilts so I would tend to refer to anything with full facilites ie Shower/toilet, lounge, well equipped kitchen, double bed and possibly a garage as a motorhome whether it is a panel van or a coachbuilt.
 
I thought that might be the case.

Some of the modern panel van conversions are amazing. In my case I work on the fact that I've got two double beds, central heating, hot water, toilet and bathroom somewhere to sit and a sensible sized water tank there isn't that much difference between the van and what I have at home. OK, so it's in an area half the size of my dining room, but that doesn't really matter, because when it's raining and I've been driving for miles I can stop, turn on the gas and be warm and dry without having to put up a tent.
 
i call everything a camper,it's only got 2 syllables so it's 33% less time consuming to say,and at my age that's important
 
I just think of mine as a van, cos thats what it is. A van with an ex army camp bed in the back.

I think with some campers / motorhomes it might be hard to decide which :)

Ange
 
Firefox said:
This has been asked a few times before, but basically many people, espec general public, tend to refer to panel van conversions as camper vans and coachbuilts on a chassis cab as motorhomes.

In fact some modern panel van conversions are better in terms of facilities than some coachbuilts so I would tend to refer to anything with full facilites ie Shower/toilet, lounge, well equipped kitchen, double bed and possibly a garage as a motorhome whether it is a panel van or a coachbuilt.
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Thanks Firefox. We call ours 'The Truck' but now we can confidently say that we have a Motorhome !
 
Dunno about that

I wouldn't really call mine either a home or a camper, without blushing!

A motor-hovel would be far more appropriate.
 
The public are amazingly short of knowledge on motorhomes in general. When I say I have a converted van, they will invariably ask "Oh is that a VW?" as though VWs are the only kind of MHs/campervans :lol-053:
 
Firefox said:
The public are amazingly short of knowledge on motorhomes in general. When I say I have a converted van, they will invariably ask "Oh is that a VW?" as though VWs are the only kind of MHs/campervans :lol-053:
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I have a Gulfstream Sunsport RV but most say I like your Winnebago !!!
 
I have a Hymer and I still call it a campervan when I had problems with parking on my drive (bitter old women next door ) the council told me there is no such thing as a motorhome or campervan the term is motor caravan the best thing about it is that I own my house so what it had to do with the council I will never know
all was well in the end as the deeds stated no caravans or boats on my drive
 
Firefox said:
The public are amazingly short of knowledge on motorhomes in general. When I say I have a converted van, they will invariably ask "Oh is that a VW?" as though VWs are the only kind of MHs/campervans :lol-053:
Click to expand...

wish people wouldn't use abreiviations What's a VW? :)
 
Non-motorhomers/camper vanners often call them caravanettes. :)

I just say 'van' even though its a coachbuilt. Should I be saying 'coach' instead?
 
Yes, caravanette I have heard too, whatever one of those is! Another one is "bus" again going back to a VW (Volkswagen ;) ) with windows theme.
 
Interesting... you could say our California isn't a conversion - some people have said "who converted it?" and we always reply "nobody, that's how VW make them!"

We always think anything bigger than ours is a motor-home, anything the same size or smaller a camper-van.
 
I was told that a motorhome has more than one room.
But I prefer they are motorcaravans if they have the required spec or campervans if they don't.
 
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