New Member needs advice on Motorhome
Hi all,
I have recently joined the forum and would truly appreciate some help/ advice on best compact motorhomes less than 2.3meter wide. I want either 2 or 3 berth with quality features. I can only pay up to £55K . This would be my first purchase of a motorhome so any genuine advice would be helpful.
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I use Youtube when I browse Motorhomes, ‘The Motorhome Man’ see below has many which you can check sizes & styles he also gives a view of the inside & tips for buying. Not just Moho’s but VDubs, Vanbuilds the lot. It may give you inspiration👍🏻
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It would seem that you looking for a PVC (panel van conversion) which come in at around that width. On a Fiat base they range in length from about 5.4 metres to 6.4. It depends on what sort of layout you would prefer. Many of the UK designs tend to have larger rear seating/sleeping areas where as Continental designs seem to like a dinette at the front with sleeping at the back. You should certainly be able to find one in your price range and depending on the level of equipment you might come in lower than your max.
It might be an idea to edit your profile where you can change to a name of your choice and if you add an approx. location people might be able to point you towards dealers in that area.
David
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I think unless you’ve owned or rented a MH it’s quite difficult to establish what your priorities are. As David says layout is probably the most important, but don’t ignore things like engine power as some are very sluggish up hills and I hear lots of complaints from owners about that. Also, think carefully about storage. It you haven’t got enough to fit in with your lifestyle it can be very frustrating. Falling over stuff that’s temporarily stored becomes annoying after a while. One of the benefits of the dinette at the front arrangement is that usually they have a fixed transverse bed which will accommodate a lot of stuff underneath. The other advantage of the fixed bed is that you or your partner can get up and move around at different times not requiring the bed to be stowed beforehand. Your width options will likely be 2.05 or 2.3m, doesn’t sound like a big difference but in reality it is when tackling car parks and narrow lanes. The former will take you most places a car can go, the latter could be more challenging. If I was buying again ‘must haves’ would include a cassette awning, eye level fridge, solar panels (150w or more), decent size wardrobe, fitted fly screens, reversing sensors or camera and 150bhp engine.
These are just a few random thoughts based on living with a continental 5.9m PVC. Good luck.
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Alongside PVCs are the slimmer coach builts, often referred to as 'vans' by continental makers...hymer, Knaus etc
Adria have a great range of slimmer vans called 'compact' at 2.12m wide.
even A-class vans, like my own, are available in a slimmed down (2.12m) format making them easier to drive and park but retaining the design/construction techniques/integrity of their bigger brothers.
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The Accordo range by Elddis are also slimline at 2.14m and in the shorter lengths are quite manoeuvrable.
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After all the complaints in the caravan section about delivery problems with Elddis, is it likely that the same can happen with their M/Hs? If so why would anyone contemplate purchasing one?
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Many thanks for all of your helpful replies so far. Much appreciated.
If anyone else can recommend any other MH rather than Vans, the former being my preference, that come within the 2.1 to 2.3m type of width....that would be most welcome.
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The trouble with recommending a MH is that there are good and bad in all brands. Also, what suits one person may well not be your choice.
There's a wealth of info on line including dimensions, but you can't beat seeing the vans 'in the flesh' by visiting dealerships.
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There have been several 'MH' recomendations....
continental slim MH are known as 'Vans'....but you will know them as MH. They are not PVCs.
knaus, Hymer, Burstner, Carthago, all make slim MH at about 2.12
Also, as mentioned Eldiss do.
with a £55k budget you could do worse than look at a year old German van, where someone else has taken the financial 'hit' and youd be getting the build quality you mention.
of course, you might not be familiar with some of the layouts....
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I agree with previous posters that what you're after is a panel van conversion. Plenty of them around, it's more about what else you want in it. You say 2-3 berths: there's a big difference, since most are built as 2 berth, very few are 3 or more. And do you want 2-3 travelling seats as well?
In our case we wanted a 4 berth/4 travel panel van suitable for children, which cut the range down considerably. It was then a case of researching, mainly on Autotrader, what was available, and investigating likely ones more closely - including inspections when the came up nearby. We ruled out anything with double bed bunks, a pop-top, or a "wrong side" hab door, and were finally left with only two choices - a Swift Select 184 or an Auto-Sleeper Fairford. The latter lost out with its weird sliding bathroom sink and tambour bathroom door, both of which we felt might not like children...
However, your own requirements may be very different!
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finding a four berth in a PVC would have been tricky until the latest craze for pop top Ducatos...makes sense for occasional or summer use for kids..bigger than a VW and can fit a rear bed transversely...so a four seater, four berth requires nothing more than adding a pop top to a 6m transverse bedded classic euro design.
i can (sort of) see what AS were trying to do with the Fairford lounge, fitting in a double where most PVCs fit in a single across the van, but the penalty is a van that forgoes the cab, wasting at least half a metre, the best seats in the van and doing on a 6.4m van what everyone else does on a 6m van.
still, to compensate you get a ' not very nice' lounge to sit in....
the 6m adria twin (transverse rear bed) with pop top or 3rd bed covers the 2-3 berth requirement without the extra length of van.
the wrong sided door would be an issue in any van where travels extend to the continent...always wrong in one place or another.
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We've had our small Autosleeper coach built for several years now. Previously we had an Autosleeper pvc, both have been well built and reliable. There are plenty of makes and designs out there but probably less on the forecourts than there used to be due to extra demand this year.
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Good morning All
I agree with the posts that say you should definitely go an see the difference between a PCV (Panel Van Conversion) or also commonly known as (Camper Vans) and Motorhomes. If I can advise even further you should definitely hire and try before handing over that huge amount of precious cash. I know people who have purchased Camper Vans and sold them after 1 trip or six months, very expensive compared to hiring.
I will explain my reasons, we have been fortunate enough to be able to have access to camper vans and go on a few different trips around the UK, as much as they are great fun there is definitely an art to using and managing tight spaces. So after visiting the the NEC camping show, in the good old days....
, we were really impressed with the motorhomes. Even though we have decided the motorhome is the way forward we have still decided that we will hire one before committing. Happy Camping
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We have a Rollerteam and it is 2.35m wide. Driving it is fine. I would have preferred something a little narrower as we have a shared drive and ours encroaches when we bring it home from storage to load up. Fortunately, we have good neighbours and they are fine with it. They appreciate us having it in storage the rest of the time. We keep looking at whether something smaller would be better though. I haven't seen many proper MHs that are narrower than that though.
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"I haven't seen many proper MHs that are narrower than that though."
I refer the honourable member to my and BB's posts dated 2/9/21.
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Whilst there are M'homes that would fit your width criteria I'm not sure they will have seatbelts and bed for a third person so I guess maybe email manufacturers/dealers to see if one does exist or as others have said go and look at LV's. Unfortunately I have heard that there is far less choice on forecourts just now. You may have to think outside the box and have a drive away awning as sleeping space for the 3rd person providing you manage to find a LV with 3 seatbelts. Don't forget to bear payload in mind. Good Luck with your search
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We have an Adria Compact SP motorhome, which is 2.12m wide , is coach built with transverse rear double bed, 4 belted seats and the front dinette can be made up to a single bed. It is 5.99m long, so is the same size as a LWB panel van.
We are very pleased with it after 5 years of use, highly recommended.
Adria make a few compact models all 2.12m wide and getting slightly longer as the layouts change.
I also noticed that Wingamm do a very similar size and spec van called the City Suite.
Generally compact motorhomes are narrower than standard ones.
I
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As mentioned upthread, and by Luke above, the Adria compact is a slim coachbuilt...other have been mentioned...more than once
an advantage of this style is that the sides are vertical and give far more internal space (in the same footprint) than a tapering sided PVC and also a larger roof giving room for (more) solar panels and sat dish or air con etc.
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