Auto Trail Chieftan or Swift Kontiki 679 ?? (1 Viewer)

[Encantador]

Following on from my thread here......

Broken Link Removed

...which is abut whether I should purchase a Chieftan or a German A-Class I have just come across another tag axle the Swift Kontiki which appears to be the same lay out and around the same price.

I would welcome peoples thoughts about the merits (or otherwise) of these two vehicles please.

I will be looking at the A-Class vehicles as well.

Thanks

Steve

 

[Encantador]

What about thoughts on Auto Trail v Swift in general.

Steve

 

[aba]

to be perfectly honest i think you need to get to one of the shows and have a really good look around.
we initially set off with the intention of an autotrail cheyenne which changed to an auto trail scout.
whilst looking around one of the shows we happened to see a scout at 2 years old upon entering the van the floor felt strange kind of soft and spongy so we left that one and looked at another one of similar age and again spongy floor at this point i looked under the van to see there were no supports in that section of floor nor were there any in between the chassis members to the floor in the rear u shaped lounge bit the most used areas of floor.oh:

then we decided to look at other vans other than the autotrails and i looked under the floors of more vans than probably most mot stations do in a year.

we couldn't find anything that suited layout wise so had sort of given up.
we walked around the corner and there it was the dethleffs advantage tag.
double floor u shaped lounge front diner with 4 seatbelts loads of storage in between the 2 floors.

we have been very happy with this one and not had any problems more little niggles.

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[Encantador]

Am I right in thinking that `in general` it is only the German A-Class`s that are usually fully winterised and their C-Class vehicles are not? (so a hymer C-Class is not winterised).

Steve

 

[aba]

both types can be fully winterised its down to the manufacturers as to the level of winterisation as i dont think there is a standard to stick to and as such there are different levels.

some may class it as winterised just because it has tank heaters to stop them from freezing up

where as others class it as winterised when they have double floors thicker walls thermal blinds and fully heated storage areas.

but that all depends on how and when you wish to use the motorhome.

 

[JeanLuc]

Generally, Hymers and other German vans are pretty well winterised, whichever style you choose. As aba says, the level of winterisation varies. A double floor can help, but this is not essential as my Hymer, which is single-floored is capable of operating very comfortably at temperatures well below zero.

For good winterisation, the main issues are the degree to which essential services are insulated and heated where required. In our case, the fresh tank is inboard, the waste tank is insulated and has a double skin through which warm air is blown by the Truma. This warm air is fed via the dump valve housing so that cannot freeze either. All pipe work is routed inside the van or the garage which is also heated. This arrangement is typical of single-floored Hymers. Double floored versions have all the tanks and pipe work in the heated void between the floors. Other than that, it's all down to the quality of the insulation material in the walls and the care with which draughts are excluded. For instance, it is not unknown for the fridge to be incorrectly installed, allowing a fierce draught to gain access via the fridge vents.

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