The small print on payloads
Comments
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Kjell, visibility in commercial vehicle door mirrors is far superior to that in cars. Depending on your layout, you may not have any visibility at all through the rear view mirror. It's the same for many a white van man.
I think you need to get out there and test drive something of the right size even if it's the wrong layout.
If I may be so bold as to say so, I think you have so many concerns that you need to do a lot more soul searching yet.
Not at all, these are not my concerns, I am merely discussing our DD's concerns, after all this is the "chat" section.
Perhaps I should have added a "smiley", but that did not seem appropriate to me.
I myself have no such concerns. Over the years I have driven many different vehicles, from an army lorry to our current 12.75m , 4.5+ tonne outfit, so am relaxed about driving a 7m MH. And I can see that the mirrors will give me a good view.
DD has apparently been watching some stuff on TV about cyclists for some reason coming up on the inside beside large vehicles signalling to turn, drivers not seeing cyclist for some reason, cyclist going straight ahead, large vehicle turning left and "squashing" cyclist.
Yes, a test drive would be good, just to get the feel of things, is this generally offered by a dealer?
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I'm going to stick my neck out even further, Kjell, and mention two things that jump out and hit me. I've no wish to cause offence here.
Firstly, I get the feeling that your heart isn't in this and you'd rather stick with the cvan which suits you with its familiarity.
Secondly, harsh as this sounds, I think you need to find a MH that suits you and your wife and not one that will accommodate your family members as well. It's a huge ask to find something that will meet all your criteria and, assuming you find the elusive beast, when it's just the two of you using it won't you curse the extra unused seats/beds that actually reduce your kitchen or washroom space?
I hope you accept my comments in the spirit they're intended.
Edit: We cross posted, Kjell. Thankyou for elaborating.
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PS. Any dealer who wants to sell will let you test drive something. Like buying a car, you can't buy before you try.
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Yes TW, I understand what you mean, and this is exactly the conversation we had today with DD.
We have told her that we would buy this MH to suit us, and if she wants to use it she will have to fit in with our needs. We would however like to be able to take a grandchild or two along now and again, hence looking for 4 seats and 4 berths.
I was indeed initially not that keen, the original suggestion of a MH was made by OH, however I am now coming around to the idea as I can see it does have some advantages.
We would like to tour the Scottish Islands, much easier in a MH, we would like to spend more time in Scandinavia, also much easier in a MH, so it does sound like it could be a good move.
It will be a substantial outlay for us, so we do not want to get it wrong, we are doing lots of research, picking brains on here, asking for advice from those with experience, which I think is quite sensible.
We have not seen (on paper) any purely 2 berth vehicles that we like better than the Hymer, fewer berths often seems to also mean unsuitable (for us) shower facilities.
I don't know how many dealers you have down your way, but up here they are extremely thin on the ground. Even caravan dealers are not that common, so we can really only look on-line to start with, not go out for the day and visit several dealers and see
a good range of vehicles, unfortunately.0 -
Kjell, I think you have thought of most pitfalls and I hope you didn't mind me being blunt but I'd hate to see you make a mistake by not putting yourselves first. I'm pleased to hear you sounding more positive.
Dealers are very thin on the ground down here as well. Mainly they are around 100 miles away but we did strike lucky in eventually finding our MH in the closest dealership about 40 miles from us. Prior to that, we had done our research at dealers whilst
away in the cvan.Good luck.
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Thanks BB, I think, after initial reluctance, that I may just be tending towards becoming a MHer!
As I said above, I can see there would be several advantages. We did consider a MH back in 1998 when we returned to caravanning , but dismissed it on cost grounds at that time, still having kids at school/university who we were supporting.
Now, however, I have my pension lump sum to call on, and the kids are well flown the nest, so we can afford it. However it is a big decision to spend that amount of money, so lots of thought required. Not yet ready to sell the house in favour of a MH!!!
The Hymer 598 does seem to offer everything we want, so all we need now is to actually see one.
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Kjell, I think you have thought of most pitfalls and I hope you didn't mind me being blunt but I'd hate to see you make a mistake by not putting yourselves first. I'm pleased to hear you sounding more positive.
Dealers are very thin on the ground down here as well. Mainly they are around 100 miles away but we did strike lucky in eventually finding our MH in the closest dealership about 40 miles from us. Prior to that, we had done our research at dealers whilst away in the cvan.
Good luck.
No, of course not, that is what a good discussion is all about. We need to find out about the pitfalls we may not have thought of, it would indeed be bad to make a terrible mistake!
We will not be buying a MH if we have any concerns that it would not suit us, the caravan still has many years of use in it, and the car will limp along meantime.
We are away soon for 4 weeks, so are planning to visit as many dealers as possible to see a ggod range of MHs.
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We have used Dicksons of Perth a couple of times as they gave good deals but their after service can be poor.
This is a link for scotmotorhomes.
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OH noticed that the sink was smallish, and there was no drainer, she asked where one was supposed to put the wet dishes, was there a loose drainer supplied.....no idea.
Write your comments here...we bought a draining mat, easy to use, hang it in the shower while travelling or roll up in a drawere if tis dry.
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One of the reasons we gave up caravanning was our tendency to carry too much clobber. When we changed to motorhoming we were determined not to repeat that mistake but to ensure we stayed within the 3500kg limit even though we both still have some years to
go before hitting 70.It's harder now but we still manage it. We are willing to make the necessary compromises so that we can have a 3500kg van which doesn't suffer from damp. For example, we've never been away for more than 3 weeks at a time and we have never 'wild camped' for
more than 4 days at a time. It wouldn't suit everyone but we're not everyone!I know a couple whose motorhome would be overweight if they took the grandkids away. So the children's mother delivers the kids and their gear to the family friendly campsite, the motorhome stays on site, and they either walk or get pubic transport [the
kids think the latter is a treat!]. Not ideal but it works for the odd weeks away they want to see the grandkids.Forget trying to get a quart into a pint pot and work out whether a pint pot is enough to quench your thirst for motorhoming. We find 3,500kg remains surprisngly refreshing.
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Kj I know some might say I am biased, but here goes,We have had caravans from 1969 ,then we had two m/vans over about 11yrs 1st was a pvc which was small enough to go anywhere but to small,so we bought a coach built ,more space, still not as much as c/van in given length,we kept that for 7yrs,and used pulic transport or our cycles when going out,,but were finding as we got older the downside of getting out and about out weighed the upsides, we were not going down the road of towing a car, so we went bact to tugging and on our third c/van cannot see us changing, as most say if you are going beyond our shores where there is far more space and oprtunity to keep costs down
then a m/van is the choice ,but if in the UK a c/van and car is in MHO the choice 0 -
".....and i would (at the moment) consider changing from a MH...."
I never thought I'd see the day.
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Approaching the issue from a different direction, perhaps there's a case for lobbying our MPs for a private members bill to change it to 4000Kg.
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CY, the article i was reading did mention this...
"the NCC continues to campaign at a european level alongside our partners in the European Caravanning Federation for an additional endorsement to allow motorhomers to drive a vehicle upto 4250kg with some additional training but without an additional test".....
II also read about that, but it seems it could be a long time coming.
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".....and i would (at the moment) consider changing from a MH...."
I never thought I'd see the day.
lol, you almost certainly won't
.....a little 'not' missing therehowever, as i get towards 70, and remain at reasonable fitness, i'll probably drop down to 3.5t just to make life easier (sorry Kjell if it doesnt seem easy to you so far...) re town centre restrictions which will inevitibly get tougher...
beyond that, if still have the inclination to travel (currently dont see why not, theres a lot to see out there) we may even get to a PVC (drive anywhere) or this might be the point where we decide to go back to using a car....which would (probably) mean
a (blasted) caravan.....wash my mouth out...i can hardly type the word let alone say it.....ill never be able to buy one....
wanting to keep below the magic 3500 as I had also read about these restrictions.
It does seem do-able if we are willing to compromise on a couple of things (mainly the air con) , so we are not giving up yet.
Towbars.......is it relatively easy to get one fitted to a MH afterwards? Factory fit seems really expensive. Is it any more complicated than on a car?
Sorry if I seem to be asking a lot of daft questions, but we do not buy "vehicles" that often, so have limited experience.
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".....and i would (at the moment) consider changing from a MH...."
I never thought I'd see the day.
lol, you almost certainly won't
.....a little 'not' missing therehowever, as i get towards 70, and remain at reasonable fitness, i'll probably drop down to 3.5t just to make life easier (sorry Kjell if it doesnt seem easy to you so far...) re town centre restrictions which will inevitibly get tougher...
beyond that, if still have the inclination to travel (currently dont see why not, theres a lot to see out there) we may even get to a PVC (drive anywhere) or this might be the point where we decide to go back to using a car....which would (probably) mean
a (blasted) caravan.....wash my mouth out...i can hardly type the word let alone say it.....ill never be able to buy one....I couldn't resist that
I agree that a PVC may well be the way to go and it was on our agenda last time but simply didn't suit. Perhaps in the future it will.
As for moving to a c*r*v*n in older age, I guess it depends which body parts give trouble. For us it was mainly the effort involved in fetching and removing water each day and winding steadies etc that caused problems. The other advantages of a MH such as
ease of travelling came as a bonus.0 -
I did, yes, as we talked about towing the Smart and alternatively a small trailer if we had the GCs along with bikes.
Hymer options/price brochure lists the factory fit towbar weight as 63 kg if I am correctly interpreting the last column there as the weight.
It gives air con as 33kg, which is the weight of the unit we have on the van, so I thought I was working it out correctly.
Price is given as £1200, I presume it is £s.
There is also the noseweight of any trailer to consider, I think 50kg was suggested somewhere.
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So if you don't have AC and awning that will save circa 75kg. I don't think nose weight of the trailer counts towards the overall weight so long as you don't overload the rear axle.
I got an email from Rapido yesterday and they have an island bed on a 6m or 6.5m van for 2017 so may be worth seeing what's about before buying.
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As for moving to a c*r*v*n in older age, I guess it depends which body parts give trouble. For us it was mainly the effort involved in fetching and removing water each day and winding steadies etc that caused problems. The other
advantages of a MH such as ease of travelling came as a bonus.If winding steadies and collecting water are problematic, I would have thought that mobility 'on site' would also be problematic in the absence of a car.
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Michael, you run at 3.5t dont you with your Knaus island bedded model....
do you know your weights and can they give Kjell some first hand experience of a similar layout?
Write your comments here...BB we are plated at 3850 but in an earlier post I said that we are just under 3500 with a lot of extras. We have 2nd battery, Solar Panel etc. approx weights are below but it was 3450 (1950 rear and 1500 front) on a scrap merchant weighbridge hand written not printed!. I must say moving to the MH has been a great decision and I would really think what you actually need/use. We have only used the awning once just to test it so far but have not been abroad yet, Sat dish used a lot!
My post is below again.
"This is similar weight to ours which on a 3500 chassis would have 580 payload according to the manufaturere with driver, 20l water, gas etc. However having had ours weighed it was just under the 3500 with full tank of water, some clothing and no Mrs T! So just beware of what you add to the base, I just looked on line for a few of the extras we have and that you want which will all add up.
Awning 42kg
Electric step 13kg
Garage fixings 5kg
Fiat pack with Cab A/C, heated mirrors, passenger airbag, cruise etc. 26kg
TV 12kg
Auto Box 17kg
Door Screen 4 kg
Carpets 5kg
Oven 10kg
Battery 20kg
Sat TV 15kg
A/C 30kg
Solar Panel 20kg
so by just adding a few goodies it adds up to over 200kg without your kitchen equipment, garage essentials, clothing, towels etc."
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As for moving to a c*r*v*n in older age, I guess it depends which body parts give trouble. For us it was mainly the effort involved in fetching and removing water each day and winding steadies etc that caused problems. The other
advantages of a MH such as ease of travelling came as a bonus.If winding steadies and collecting water are problematic, I would have thought that mobility 'on site' would also be problematic in the absence of a car.
Not at all, CY. Mobility on site doesn't involve bending and lifting. The absence of a car makes no difference.
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