brand new apache 634

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Baden87

Joined
Feb 18, 2010
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Bought from Brownhills for a very very good price, hand over was very thorough and not rushed , few small niggles fixed after a night on the overnight facility
so far so good kept me well informed until collection day and beyond, even took me into Newark and back on the shuttle bus
I'm impressed so far
 
Popular layout the 634 But payload is very poor.
Hope you have gone for the free upgrade to 3650 if you have the license..

Cant comment on Brownhills.. Enjoy..
 
One thing I noticed on the new 634 Apache was the very odd and dare I say impracticable position of the kitchen sink tap.

Have to say though despite the dreadful reports of the current build quality of Auto-trail our 2014 Apache now we have made a few mods suits us just fine.
Hope you have as much fun from your new Apache as we have enjoyed.
 
My personal opinion is that the Apache 634 is an excellent layout for 2 people touring - which is exactly what we do. If I was looking to buy another motorhome I would probably be replacing mine with another 634!
However, as tonka has pointed out the payload is terrible and if you have a max weight of 3500 then you are probably overweight! I uprated mine to 3850 to give me comfort that we would not be overweight when coming back from France with a few bottles of wine!

Enjoy your new motorhome!
 
Slight aside from the moho, I bought one from Brownhills nr Preston years ago and, despite the bad reports some gave, I had no issues. They were brilliant with me.

If you get the chance to go to one of their invitations.. Musical weekend, the one I and a couple of other Funsters went to, was BRILLIANT.

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what makes you think its overloaded busby? does every one weigh there motorhomes before going out ?
 
Baden87 said:
what makes you think its overloaded busby? does every one weigh there motorhomes before going out ?
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We weighed ours as soon as we picked it up so we knew what we could load. We then weighed it again when we were in full touring mode, i.e. loaded with what we usually carry. How else can you be sure that you are not overloaded? And we had a theoretical payload of 800kg.

Looking at Autotrail's own figures the model has a payload of only 205kg if it is plated at 3500kg or 355kg if plated at 3650kg. And those figures make no allowance for the initial MIRO being correct (it is allowed to be out by a margin of 5% I understand) or any accessories added by Autotrail or the dealer. Many people would consider that too tight for comfort.
 
Baden87 said:
what makes you think its overloaded busby? does every one weigh there motorhomes before going out ?
Click to expand...


We did - Both the motorhomes we have bought new and owned so far have been weighed within days of us bringing them home.

I can't remember the figures for our Autotrail Tracker but the IH was bang on the makers stated weight. (y)
 
Previous vans I weighed before most trips. Current van after weighing I had over 300kg spare on each axle and on gross nearly 400 kg spare, so I don't bother much now. Also now with the air suspension that has weight sensors I can do it myself.

So the answer to your question is yes. :D

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Yep we do even though we are plated at 4250Kg. The results can be quite surprising re axle loadings
 
We weigh ours when setting off for a long journey as we’re always nudging being full when setting off for four months or so.
 
Axel weights are what can catch you out. You might be ok over all in weight but overweight say on the rear axel. The police do prosecute on axel weight as well as total.
 
You really do need to get the van weighed to stay safe as well as legal.
 
Where would I get it weighed folks
I’m in NG17 Area

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Is there a charge for these places to weigh the Motorhome?
 
Most are free if you dont want a print out.
Weighed my Vans when new and when fully loaded.
My current van has 1450kg payload so I cant overload it even if I try.
BTW make sure you check axle weights also.
 
My local weighbridge charges £10, you get a ticket with full details including your registration and weights on it, I never knew about this until a few weeks ago when I realised I was an illegal, I am now paranoid and have spent £75k to become legal, not only that I have gone way beyond getting a payload of 1,422kg by upgrading tyres and fitting air suspension, 400kg more than I need but at least I can now sleep at night and don’t need to weigh toilet rolls ?

You will find the industry as a whole don’t really care about payload, if they did it would be a major point highlighted in their advertised spec, and on collection of a new and used vehicle you would be presented with a weighbridge ticket so you know where you stand. What concerns me is the oblivious people driving around in overweight vehicles that are unsafe, for me it was a technical issue as unknown to me the previous owner had done plated it, so just a paper excercise and my load was within the manufacturers and 2nd plate on the vehicle limit, it could also be upgraded on paper to even higher but as I am in an LEZ it would have meant as it was a Euro 3 engine the fitting of expensive emission filters, so bit the bullet and bought a new one.

Good luck and well done for planning on checking your weight, it’s only when something awful happens like a fatal accident you could end up in prison if found To have been over weight and that was a cause of the accident.

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