Help finding motorhome (1 Viewer)

[arty_68]

Help! We're looking for a compact motorhome to use for days out and short breaks as a family and struggling to find a model that suits our needs that's less than 10 years old. What we want is 6 travelling seats, beds for 4, a tiny washroom and kitchen. Ideally quite compact ie less that 7 meters. What would be ideal is an overcab double with bunk beds either at the rear or side. Everything we find has a fixed rear double or fixed rear lounge, garage etc and is bigger than we need. Does anyone know of any recent models that fit the bill?

 

[Cal54]

Can't help I'm afraid as I suspect that 6 travel seats with seatbelts will prove to be a problem.

Welcome to Fun, hope you eventually find something suitable.

 

[jonandshell]

Look at the Chausson Flash range.

I am sure they do a sub 7 metre 6 berth with belted seats for all and rear bunks.
I would advise you look at a 3500kg plus van though. You will have no spare payload otherwise.
You will need a C1 license for that though.

Edit- look for a Chausson Flash 03.

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[arty_68]

Thanks C1 not a problem one of the advantages of being old I suppose. The strange thing is there seems to be old vans EG Hymer B564 but no new ones with that config ? Maybe I weird wanting a motorhome we can use for daytrips with friends ?

Cheers again for taking the time to reply.

 

[jonandshell]

I think that you are unusual for a UK buyer in wanting a family van.

The main market for motorhomes within the UK is retirees. In Europe there is a healthy market for younger families. We witness this on our ski trips. The resort Aires are full of adventurous families in their vans during the winter holidays. As a result, Continental manufacturers often produce better family vans with useable overcab beds. You will find winterisation levels and water tank sizes are usually more generous too. This reflects the more varied use to which the vans are put. Not simply staying on fully serviced sites in the summer brings with it a whole host of differing design requirements.
That is why the seasoned travellers on here will often blow the trumpet for Continental built vans over Brit ones.

 

[arty_68]

Thanks - that explains a lot, though i can't really understand why more families don't think this way - maybe we can start a trend!
So the next question is I'm assuming the continental ones are LHD? Can you get any in RHD? Is LHD a big problem in a RHD country or do you get used to it. Need to do some more googling. We are planning on going to the motorhome show at the NEC in October too so hopefully we may be able to find some options there.

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[Judge Mental]

because most working families don't have the time and probably the funds what with mortgages etc... to justify such a large investment? Its a lot of money for people who are time poor, hence why many older and self employed get into it

hence the popularity of far cheaper caravans....

 

[Violet1]

Lhd or rhd doesn't really matter ,if you only intend to use in UK get a righty . Unless you've money to burn through the fuel tank overtaking not an issue

 

[Big bus man]

Sounds to me like you need a passenger van and a caravan, Motorhomes are good for touring but are not easy in towns, some older vans may accommodate more people but to be honest I don't think they have the build quality for family living, kids like to jump and climb.

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[Fenman]

I've always thought there is a distinct advantage to driving a RHD over in Europe and a LHD over here.
That advantage is that the driver is nearest the gutter and if you have plonkers coming towards you and hogging the white line in the middle of the road then you can make sure you are over to the nearside as close as possible without going in the ditch or kerbing the tyres. And maybe save losing an expensive wing mirror or worse.

 

[petensal]

The Sunlight A69 has 6 belted travel seats, sleeps 7 with over cab double, double and single dinette and 2 bunk beds. It's 7 mts. Regularly see them for sale at shows

 

[Peter Ashcroft]

Hi, We are a family of 3 and now own an Autoroller 600 on a transit. Its a big Van but I find it easy to move around and drive and its also about 3800KG.

We had a long look at layouts and although we made a costly mistake with our first van, we are happy with the Autoroller now, even though its a budget Van.

We initially went for the Autoquest 180, which is 6 travel seats, front dinette , rear lounge and overcab bed.

We almost bought fixed bunks, however we realised that with touring in the UK with a little one the fixed beds during the day would be wasted space and would leave us nowhere to lounge around on a cold rainy day as we did intend using the van all year round.

The lounge bed was easy to put up and put away, and in fact some days we just left it made up. We found the dinette seating area not very comfortable for lounging about.

The mistake with the autoquest 180 was the overcab bed was very tight (not very high), hard to roll over and it felt very claustrophobic up there, the wife who slept up there kept banging her head. Also no external lockers which meant storing things was difficult.

I also found it a little unstable on motorways and used to dread trucks overtaking me, or me overtaking them, in fact I was on the point of getting air suspension fitted but then we spotted the autoroller 600 on a transit chassis and we swapped (lost a lot of money) but we ended up with a van we love. The bed above the cab is huge, and high! you can sit up in it! and the layout is the same with the rear lounge. We recently did a weekend in scotland and it poured down, we were thankful of the lounge and space we had as we just chilled out in the van in comfort. Its also a pleasure to drive!!

I suppose what I am saying is, dont under estimate the amount of space you might need, we are comfortable with 3 of us in this 6 berth, I would hate to go any smaller. Might be different if we did more touring in warmer climates but we do enjoy being away in Winter aswell as summer.