Hymer and Knaus Caravans - Any good?
My wife and I visited a Knaus and Hymer caravan dealer in Cumbria the other day and we were quite impressed by the van layouts.
We are new to this caravan business (some of you will probably recall my Airstream thread) so what are your thoughts on the quality of the Hymer and the Knaus range of vans and are they worth the money.
I've been following the 'New Caravan Quality' thread so I'm wondering if the foreign vans have the same quality issues as Swift etc.
Thanks,
Andrew
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The German vans are supposed to be superior but I’ve no personal experience. I’d choose one over an Airstream any day.
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We've had a 2006 knaus for the last 5 years and it will probably be our last van. It's uk spec but heavy. The only repairs we've carried out have been replacement locks on one service door, new microswitch on washroom tap and a new light fitting when the glass broke when I changed a bulb. I'm not counting pump failures which would happen to any make
No problems with parts. Knaus uk are incredibly helpful and there's a much bigger network then when we bought ours. Parts are still available for ours at 12 years old unlike the Bailey we had previously
The latest uk spec Starclass is a stunner. If we thought we had ten more years of vanning in us we'd change to the two berth. May still go for a sport and fun if one turns up at the right price
Hymer are probably the top of the tree but knaus are chasing them.
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We have a two Hymer dealers close to us. I am impressed by their superior build quality and use of space. Also any Knaus caravans I've seen have also been impressive.
British caravans are built down to a price, but pay just a little extra and you will be the owner of a van built to exacting German Quaiity Standards..
K
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We have had, 3 Hymer’s, 2 excellent including the current (2015) one and one so, so. We bought the one we have got now in Cumbria. That same dealer also sells Bucaneer vans, gives you a chance to compare what is touted as the UK’s best van and Hymer / Knaus and come to your own conclusion. Ps take a torch and look beyond the the bling.
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The Dutch certainly rate Knaus quite highly. Continental caravans generally come with much lower specifications than UK vans and are heavy but a UK import probably has top specification so you need to go through the list of extras carefully.
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I had a Knaus for 16 years and apart from its regular service and fitting a couple of accessories no work was ever done on it except to mend the washroom door hinges after we took the caravan to Iceland where it was subjected to many miles of unsurfaced roads and the door parted company with the hinges. For the past 8 years I've had a Dethleffs and I'm equally pleased with it. I have no reason to doubt that Hymer are just as good.
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I think that the specification requirement depends to large extent the usage. As our Hymer is basically U.K. spec. It has the oven, and Alde heating and the leather upholstery and the end bathroom with seperate shower. But we have just got back from 2 weeks in France. Basically we have used the van to sleep in and have the occasional wee. So for the last few weeks all that spec is wasted. However in January and it is below zero, the spec makes it a very comfortable place to stay indeed. The only bit of spec it doesn’t have and would be nice to have is maybe an extractor fan.
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We've got an extractor fan in our 2006 model. Underfloor and blown heating but no Alde. Compared to uk 2006 vans ours was extremely high spec. I think microwaves were optional and luckily for us the previous owner didn't get one.
As far as knaus is concerned only a portion of the full range is advertised to the uk market and i wouldn't describe them as low spec. As with hobby there are many other options if you look at the German website.
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Some great responses there - thank you
We're off this weekend to see the Knaus and Hymer range at Adventure Leisure Vehicles, Tebay, as they have a nice set of vans in stock.
I've been stacking up the figures of a secondhand Airstream and the private sellers are now wanting £65,000 for a 7-year old van that cost £50-52,000 when new. That's quite ridiculous IMO and I can't see the point when the missus and I can be financially savvy and get a new quality van for 45% of the cost of an old AS. It just seems mad otherwise.
The Knaus Starclass 695 looks really cool and it's now cheaper than the Bucaneer so we'll both take a look and report back.
Thanks again,
Andrew
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The longer draw bar found on continental caravans has two supposed advantages. Firstly it reduces the nose weight as it pushes the weight back. According to Hymer, we can carry 2x 11kg gas bottles and the spare wheel in the front locker, I assume the Knaus would be similar. The longer draw bar is also supposed to make the caravan more stable again because the wheels are pushed further back rather than being n the middle. Stability to a certain degree is subjective unless you are facing the wrong way arround on the M6. But as far as I can tell our 8m 1900kg single axle is very stable.
We have christened the draw bar area. As the patio or terrace depending on what mood we are in btw.
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The long drawbar is not a problem at all and I don't understand why it's seen as an issue.
Yes the vans are heavier than uk vans. Our 470 has a MPTLM of 1500 which is about 100 kg more than our previous Bailey 470. When you see inside you understand why. You couldn't describe the construction as flimsy in any way.
The starclass 695 is a big lump with an MPTLM of 2000 but it's also got a payload of 355kg as standard. You'd need a lump of a tow vehicle but it's an 8m van.
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Boff and Jay - those are very useful comments, especially the bit about drawbars, stability and weight/MTPLM/payload.
We would probably opt for a Ranger Wildtrak which is about 2,500kg with the towbar, full canopy and a driver so van-to-TV ratios would be good.
Many thanks,
Andrew
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Thanks indoors - recommendations don't come any stronger than that.
There seems to be a constant flow of reports about new British vans having water ingress issues so I'm pleased that the German manufacturers at least are providing a usable product. Crickey, what happened to British engineering pride.
All the best,
Andrew
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First best to declare we own a 2008 Hymer Nova S and before that a 2002 Hymer Nova, all from new.
With the finances needed to buy a used Airstream, you could buy a new Hymer and then replace it with another new Hymer. Now is eking out the life of a used Airstream, really better quality caravanning than the life of two consecutive Hymers? Not in my opinion. Then there is the living in what my wife described as a "diner" environment to have the kudos of owning an Airstream. Not something I would even be permitted to think about, vetoed on her first glance.
As has been pointed out Hymers etc are heavy but much of that comes from sensible payloads, if buying wisely with up rated chassis.
The "A" frame makes a good coffee table , step for washing the roof, and seat for when tiding up the locker contents without straining your back.
Ps; I can't remember ever buying a spare anything other than Alde PCB which came from the UK anyway and new tyres from just down the road.
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I'm the poor relation and my only connection with the Hymer stable is the Eriba Triton I bought in 2007.
It's now 11 years old and I had to change the tyres after 8 years, a microswitch in the washroom at 9 years, an interior light bulb at 10 years, and now it looks as though the original leisure battery is on it's last legs. So few problems.....and it doesn't leak either.
Here it is at Moulin de Mellet at Agen this year in June. Admittedly Eribas are an acquired taste, but I can certainly recommend that campsite. So much nicer than anywhere we ever found in the UK. Club site designers do please take note.
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We brought a new Knaus Starclass 565 this year, so it's early day's yet to give a long term report on it. All I can say is that it's very well put together and everything about it feels very solid, when you start looking in the hidden places you can see the detail and quality of the build. We tow with a Mitsubishi Shogun so for us it's not a problem. Can tell you more in a couple of years.
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We're just considering a Knaus Starclass 480. As others have said, the Knaus appears to be very well built and whilst it is undoubtedly heavier, we feel it is solid and should outlast any British caravan. In 35 years of caravanning, nearly every caravan we have owned (all but our first!) has had damp issues. All were British, with the latest one being a 2016 model. So we now fancy a change, as an alternative to giving up caravanning!
We first noticed the Knaus Starclass 480 when it won CAMC awards this year. If we buy one then we'll report back on progress.
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We brought a new Starclass 565 this year, and the dealer we had our's from has a Starclass 480 on there website. It is a 2017 model and they are asking £20.000 for it. May be it's worth looking at. The dealer is Davan Caravans and motorhomes at Weston-Super-Mere.
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Thank you for passing this on. I'm guessing you must be well pleased with your Starclass 565 or you'd be telling us to avoid! The Starclass 480 won CAMC awards this year, but then so did our last caravan in 2016! It's a shame the CAMC don't give awards each year for reliability!
Having had so many problems with our British caravans in the past we would like to think this would be a "keeper" as it will be our last caravan (we hope). The extra cost of this model will be well worth it if it's relatively trouble-free. Thanks once again, we will report back if you will..!!
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I think we are both thinking on the same lines with this one. We have owned vans for about 35 years, but our last one before our Knaus put us off another home built caravan because of problems ongoing. I don't think that everyone has faults with new vans, but if you happen to drop on a bad one it's a lot of money wasted. This will be our last van we will ever have because of our age so like your self we hope this will last us trouble free, but only time will tell. I have always liked the German vans but never owned one, so when the Starclass came out with the door on the UK side we went for it. I think all we want is a van to go away and enjoy our hobby and not waiting for the next thing to go wrong, but instead of working on this the British caravan makers just think of new colour lines and new curtains and frills instead of getting the basic things right first.
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Anyone have experience with the Knaus Travelino 4 berth 750 kg they would be happy to share?
Looks interesting on paper.
Had a Swift Challenger 450/5 for a number of years but suffered water ingress, otherwise a good van.
In future years, when I swap towcar to electric, hopefully Travelino still light enough to continue caravanning long into the future.
Thanks
Gerry
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Well we took the plunge and have now bought a new Knaus Starclass 480. I have to say that it does appear to be a very solid and well made caravan. It has an extra-strength heavy duty fibreglass roof to guard against hailstones and heavy snow. The floor is thicker and stronger than that found on British caravans. The quality of finish is superb and it's a very stable tow, being a well balanced outfit.
Admittedly these are not inexpensive caravans, but having had so many problems in the past we felt it was worth spending the extra money to be able to have some peace of mind whilst enjoying our caravanning hobby. We will report back in the future.
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Hope you have many years of enjoyable trouble free caravaning with your new Knaus. We also brought a Starclass this year and agree with what you say. The dealer who we brought our's from is an agent for other makes of caravans and motorhomes and told us that if ever there is a problem Knaus is one of the best that they deal with. When we ordered our's it was already made and in the factory in Germany and they had it over here on the back of a transporter very quickly.
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