OldAgeTravellers
LIFE MEMBER
Hi,
We are getting concerned that we are constantly overweight with a French Van plated at 3.5tonne.
So we looked at almost every van at Peterborough and found none that even came close to our LeVoyageur then while telling a friend that we couldn't find a van with a rear bed but without a drop-down bed a nearby salesman said have you seen this one.
It was a special edition B614L with factory fitted cupboards up front rather than a drop down bed so was very close to ticking all our boxes except the base vehicle.
It is LHD which we want on a fiat 4.5 tonne Chasis manual gearbox 2.8ltr, 150bhp Euro 5 whatever that means.
Now this is my problem, we have a 2.8 Mercedes Sprintshift, but it has a magnetic arrester which I absolutely love and use all the time rather than the brakes. Steep hill decent so are a breeze.
Now I think I can live with going back to a manual as it does have cruise control which again I use all the time.
What is the Fiat engine like? Would it have enough power for 4.5 tonne? Will it drive as well as the Merc? Will it last as long, we have done 150k km without a hiccough in the Merc. Does it have enough engine braking for steep descents? The last fiat we had, pre common rail, did not have much power and had zero engine braking so had a few very worrying down hiall experiences with red hot brakes and zero braking.
Has anybody moved from Merc to Fiat and liked the experience. Is the Hymer as good as we are led to believe. Wil it stand up to the 20,000 or so we do each year living in it for about half the year and Moroccan roads.
Is there anything else I should know.
I will value serious comments to help us with our decision.
Thanks,
Steve
We are getting concerned that we are constantly overweight with a French Van plated at 3.5tonne.
So we looked at almost every van at Peterborough and found none that even came close to our LeVoyageur then while telling a friend that we couldn't find a van with a rear bed but without a drop-down bed a nearby salesman said have you seen this one.
It was a special edition B614L with factory fitted cupboards up front rather than a drop down bed so was very close to ticking all our boxes except the base vehicle.
It is LHD which we want on a fiat 4.5 tonne Chasis manual gearbox 2.8ltr, 150bhp Euro 5 whatever that means.
Now this is my problem, we have a 2.8 Mercedes Sprintshift, but it has a magnetic arrester which I absolutely love and use all the time rather than the brakes. Steep hill decent so are a breeze.
Now I think I can live with going back to a manual as it does have cruise control which again I use all the time.
What is the Fiat engine like? Would it have enough power for 4.5 tonne? Will it drive as well as the Merc? Will it last as long, we have done 150k km without a hiccough in the Merc. Does it have enough engine braking for steep descents? The last fiat we had, pre common rail, did not have much power and had zero engine braking so had a few very worrying down hiall experiences with red hot brakes and zero braking.
Has anybody moved from Merc to Fiat and liked the experience. Is the Hymer as good as we are led to believe. Wil it stand up to the 20,000 or so we do each year living in it for about half the year and Moroccan roads.
Is there anything else I should know.
I will value serious comments to help us with our decision.
Thanks,
Steve