New van choice, Brands?

We have a Hymer B698 and have owned it for three and a half years. Apart from problems with the Dometic fridge, we are very pleased with it. We live in it most of the time, the build quality is excellent (apart from one or two minor annoyances) and the bed is as comfortable as we have ever slept in anywhere. I can't say whether other brands are not as good but I can recommend Hymer.
 
pughed2 said:
Chablis..........someone above has mentioned an Adria Twin on fiat ducato. but only if you want to throw away £10.000 on a new one, as the identical but slightly less appointed trigano. Tributes on fiat ducato are £10.000 cheaper approx. The Adria interiors are made to be admired as far as I can see, not used. I do not see you made clear whether you want a pvc or coach-built, and sorry, most of these new ones only return somewhere about 30 mpg diesel, whereas an older trigano tribute carefully driven gives well over 43 mpg diesel, and I have logged 57 mpg out of mine, even though some on here refuse to believe it.........steve bristol
Click to expand...

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the info. One of our main requirements is to be able to carry four bikes inside the van, and sadly all the PVC's I looked at had no storage space at the back, now if you could have a drop down bed that stored in the high roof, I could have a seperate shower and a decent garage, we only need two berths. I sent an e mail to Murvi asking about changing/customizing the internal layout but they have not replied. The vans are defo big enough to fit everything we need in, but there is not a layout that gives big garage space, I like the idea of PVC as much more secure, and of course easier to drive than some 'compact' vans.
 
Personally I would not buy a new van as usually too many faults . Go for a good low mileage 2nd hand van. Our Autotrail still had wrapping on oven and had far fewer faults than an earlier new swift. Have heard many disappointing stories from people buying new vans
 
chablais said:
Hi Steve,

Thanks for the info. One of our main requirements is to be able to carry four bikes inside the van, and sadly all the PVC's I looked at had no storage space at the back, now if you could have a drop down bed that stored in the high roof, I could have a seperate shower and a decent garage, we only need two berths. I sent an e mail to Murvi asking about changing/customizing the internal layout but they have not replied. The vans are defo big enough to fit everything we need in, but there is not a layout that gives big garage space, I like the idea of PVC as much more secure, and of course easier to drive than some 'compact' vans.
Click to expand...

How about either converting it yourself or getting a custom conversion done by a specialist? There are loads about and you'll get exactly the layout you want. You can even get them to do the tricky stuff and do the easy stuff yourself.

You could source the van yourself then just get it converted.

In terms of security I'd say yes and no. The bodies are definitely more solid than that of a 'flimsy' so might take a small whack a bit better, and the doors are more solid, but anything with motorhome style windows can be got into with virtually no effort as they are about as robust as a cheese slice.

The other thing I'd say about van conversions is they are more tricky to insulate well, and I've seen many pro converters that seem to have barely bothered trying to insulate the doors and door pillars, whereas, non PVC are essentially built from an insulated material these days.

I'd not pay too much attention to the insulation grades touted with some of the newer vans, particularly PVC as the testing seems inherently flawed, relying more on the ability of the heater than the effectiveness of the insulation. Essentially you could probably get a top rating by putting a patio heater in a convertible.

I prefer PVCs and converted mine myself, but they do require a little more thought, and if getting a pro built one I'd definitely take a look at how they've insulated the tricky bits.
 
Wow that's an impressive budget !
We have an old hymer 644 , and paid less than 7k for it . We have looked at newer 'all singing and all dancing ' motor homes , but I can honestly say " what have they got that cost 20-30k more than what I've already got !? The only thing is turbo !!!! Which we don't really miss.
Everyone's choice of vehicle is soooh different
Don't think you can wrong with a hymer. 😎
And out of all the nice shiny new white campers and parked up, it's always our old hymer that makes people stop and look !!!
Just take your time , list the things that's important TO YOU. And stick to your list.!
 
Motorhome needs

Chablis........it looks like for your needs, you are going to need a coach-built van with garage, and have to sacrifice mileage, possibly down to 25 mpg. I have though seen a few larger PVCs with bikes laid flat on roof........there's loads of variety, and the guy suggesting a secondhand, is good advice.......steve bristol
 
Hi Folks

So after an accelerated learning curve since visiting the show at the NEC, we are about to purchase a used Carthago Chic I44, private sale. We had thought we would buy new, but could not find anything that we where happy to blow upwards of 65k on. So secondhand gives us the opportunity to learn all about motorhome ownership and use and we can go from there. Just a house extension to start and finish, then convince the Mrs to pack in work and we will be off.
Thanks for all the advice, I am sure I will be asking plenty of questions in the future as I come to operate all the systems on board and sort internet access, solar, etc.
Chablais
 
Having just read through this thread, I was anout to suggest Cathago..

We use out van in winter for skiing too. We have a Levoyageur ( lux Pilote ) . Fully winterised. Never had an issue at -25 and never had to use a bucket . We chose ours because of the layout and mercedes base.

We see many Cathagos and Concordes on our travels and people are very happy with their performance.

Enjoy !
 
Hi Gaspard

Yes, I wanted a Mercedes 3lt or an Iveco with twin wheel rear axle as opposed to a tag axle, however, good used ones are hard to come across. Seems owners tend to keep hold of them. I wanted the weight capacity they give and the ease of driving.
I have had the van for a week now, so much to learn! Also so much to buy!! What matress covers and sheets etc do you use?
Do you know if the fresh water tank has an overflow?
It appears that when filling using a Heos hozelock style connector I can end pressurizing the tank, I thought it would have breather and overflow, hard to see all the connections on the tank. Also do you drink from the fresh water tank?

How much gas do you get through when ski ing?
We have Alde wet system, and also a Webasto diesal fuelled heater.
How long can you last off EHU
How many and what AH batteries
do you have solar and how effective is it in winter ski conditions
do you fit winter tyres as opposed to M+S

Apologies re all the questions, it is our first van, we are used to bike touring and backpacking...............
We anticipate a winter tour of euro ski resorts, maybe via the Jura and down into Italy, Dolomites

Any and all tips greatly appreciated

Andy
 
chablais said:
Hi Gaspard

Yes, I wanted a Mercedes 3lt or an Iveco with twin wheel rear axle as opposed to a tag axle, however, good used ones are hard to come across. Seems owners tend to keep hold of them. I wanted the weight capacity they give and the ease of driving.
I have had the van for a week now, so much to learn! Also so much to buy!! What matress covers and sheets etc do you use?
Do you know if the fresh water tank has an overflow?
It appears that when filling using a Heos hozelock style connector I can end pressurizing the tank, I thought it would have breather and overflow, hard to see all the connections on the tank. Also do you drink from the fresh water tank?

How much gas do you get through when ski ing?
We have Alde wet system, and also a Webasto diesal fuelled heater.
How long can you last off EHU
How many and what AH batteries
do you have solar and how effective is it in winter ski conditions
do you fit winter tyres as opposed to M+S

Apologies re all the questions, it is our first van, we are used to bike touring and backpacking...............
We anticipate a winter tour of euro ski resorts, maybe via the Jura and down into Italy, Dolomites

Any and all tips greatly appreciated

Andy
Click to expand...

We reckon we can do about 2 weeks on 2 x 11kg Gaslow - with gas being used for cooking and heating. (Truma blown air heating). EHU in Europe can be expensive (50-85c /kw). We have a gennie for emergencies.

Solar may not be useable if you are parked in the shade of the mountain - direct sunlight may only be "on" for an hour, if at all!

We managed well with Michelin Agilis M&S tyres. Needed to use snow socks to get up a short, steep icy bank on a campsite. We also carry chains.

Motorhome skiing is fab and you'll be amazed how popular it is! We do a mixture of long stays on sites and overnights on aires/stellplatz if we find one we like near enough to the lifts. Relative newbies at it and still learning :)

I was a bit freaked by stories of gas not working at low temps but ours was fine - the gas locker is in the garage and so is the truma boiler so it was warm enough to keep it flowing.

There used to be a whole ski section on here - you may be able to find the old threads for more info. In one, I linked to a blog I found very helpful
Travels with Ian and Sue: Europe Trip 2012/13 - Quedlinburg to Bad Harzburg
 
Last edited:
Our M/h is starting to get a bit long in the tooth - its comming up 9 years old and we have been looking around for a replacement and it would be fair to say that we have seen nothing which suits us better than what we have (AS Nuevo EK).

I love the Wingamm but when I saw the price smelling salts were required - also rare as hens teeth!
the smallest Ixeo was also nice and didnt make my bank account blanche too much but there were small things I wasnt sure about
AS Broadway I liked, I liked a lot, but it is only a stretched out Nuevo and you pay a lot extra for what amounts to slightly bigger bed and an extra cupboard
AS Nuevo four berth looks ideal but it would need to be a special order with two bench seats rather than the usual arrangement - so that would mean a brand new M/h which I wouldnt be keen on

So it looks like I shall be keeping what I got!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Back
Top