Criteria for Selecting the Perfect Motorhome

Our first van so had nothing to go on re experience so in our minds… 🤔

Automatic
Drop down bed
Separate good size shower
Decent dining area
6m ish
Ski size locker for fishing rods
Not too much fake wood interior

Bought a 21 plate burstner 590 Lyseo and it’s perfect for us

Can’t see us changing anytime soon
🖤🤍🧡
 
Changed motorhomes several times , slinging money at them ,never found the perfect van ( As the title asks) but we like double bed and diesel heating, full Automatic never seen the point in changing gear manually when there's something to do it for you,
Also if you could find the perfect build quality would be excellent ( that's a joke) 🥴
 
When you decided it was time to change the van how long did it take to find the right used/new one and what was your criteria.
LHD or RHD?
Which bed arrangement?
Oven or not?
Separate shower to washroom or not?
What did you decide you really couldn’t live without in your next van?
We are in the process of buying a different motorhome. I'm puzzled by the different BHP of the engines. If the highest BHP is the most efficient/ best, why do they produce engines with lower BHP, surely it makes more sense for all engines to have the highest BHP.
 
We are in the process of buying a different motorhome. I'm puzzled by the different BHP of the engines. If the highest BHP is the most efficient/ best, why do they produce engines with lower BHP, surely it makes more sense for all engines to have the highest BHP.
The 140hp works fine on our 3500kg van. Why pay more for a heavier engine if you are not going to need the extra power? I watch people drift slowly onto motorways or away from junctions, they are clearly making no effort to use the power already available and more power would just be wasted. Torque is probably more important.

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When you decided it was time to change the van how long did it take to find the right used/new one and what was your criteria.
LHD or RHD?
Which bed arrangement?
Oven or not?
Separate shower to washroom or not?
What did you decide you really couldn’t live without in your next van?
Unfortunately, there is no such thing as the “perfect motorhome” same as no such thing as the “perfect man, house etc.”. Always a compromise.
Since 2010 had 12 motorhomes and 5 caravans😲. Mostly new or 1/2 years old. Have lost a fortune. German are far superior to British for build and reliability. Recently had a Hobby Optima V65 GE Entour Edition. Brilliant van but did not like restricted lounge area - sitting all evening in driver and passenger seats. Single elevated beds at back too high. Sadly only kept two months with another huge loss. Now have Autosleeper end lounge. Love it. Spacious, gorgeous upholstery but the compromise is - make up beds and no garage. We are prepared to make this compromise. Have to as “pot” neatly empty🤭
NB. We did like our Swift Rio 310 and kept for 3 years but, on a stupid whim, sold it. Also liked our AS Kingham, sold it and then regretted.
 
When you decided it was time to change the van how long did it take to find the right used/new one and what was your criteria.
LHD or RHD?
Which bed arrangement?
Oven or not?
Separate shower to washroom or not?
What did you decide you really couldn’t live without in your next van?
Havn't changed. Took 6 months of research and a trip from the US to the NEC to find the 'perfect' one in 2019. Initially spent three months in it house hunting and still have the same one and love it.
Only one comprimise and that is the knee room in the (seperate) loo when sat down. I have to have the door open. Have fitted the Thetford extractor fan so no problmes there!
RHD, Twin rear permanent beds, Oven (and Microwave), Seperate Shower & washrom, Hydraulic Levelers / Thetford Fan
 
German manufacturer,,
Plenty of space as we are in it most of the year,
Storage space/Garage for Ebikes
3.0l engine..No Adblue and No cam belts..
Manual or auto Box...no preference
RHD (find no problem abroad at all)
Winterised.. full Alde wet heating
Plenty of roof space for solar
Self sufficiency/Electric system
Full size shower
Double semi transverse bed or single beds
Ceramic toilet
Good water tankage
Definitely full oven.. tech towers are hideous
Comfort

Only thing we would change on our van if we had bought from new would to not have the front drop down bed.... we simply never use it and would rather have a few more cupboards instead.
 
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Campervan had to take a full sized motor bike inside......either our 850 Tiger of Suzuki GT550
Without that capability we would either go cruising with the "Saga louts" or buy a standard van and stay in hotels
we are weird like that :LOL:.....growing old disgracefully :p
Keep safe out there
Mark & Pauline
 
Unfortunately, there is no such thing as the “perfect motorhome” same as no such thing as the “perfect man, house etc.”. Always a compromise.
Since 2010 had 12 motorhomes and 5 caravans😲. Mostly new or 1/2 years old. Have lost a fortune. German are far superior to British for build and reliability. Recently had a Hobby Optima V65 GE Entour Edition. Brilliant van but did not like restricted lounge area - sitting all evening in driver and passenger seats. Single elevated beds at back too high. Sadly only kept two months with another huge loss. Now have Autosleeper end lounge. Love it. Spacious, gorgeous upholstery but the compromise is - make up beds and no garage. We are prepared to make this compromise. Have to as “pot” neatly empty🤭
NB. We did like our Swift Rio 310 and kept for 3 years but, on a stupid whim, sold it. Also liked our AS Kingham, sold it and then regretted.

The dealers must be so disappointed now! :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:

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When you decided it was time to change the van how long did it take to find the right used/new one and what was your criteria.
LHD or RHD?
Which bed arrangement?
Oven or not?
Separate shower to washroom or not?
What did you decide you really couldn’t live without in your next van?
Hi.
Sadly/Surprisingly............. IF .... there were to be another PVC about to enter our yard there are ONLY TWO things i COULD live without. Number one ( sorry Ducato ) The FIAT badge,and Two....... THE COMFOR --B ***dy MATIC .
Tea Bag..
PS. Which side to sit ? .. This problem could be resolved if they fitted a " Slidy steering wheel and footwells. WITH switches on the steering column...COMMON to ALL models and makes ( Time bloomin' Fiat and Dacia got their act together on that one (( LIGHT SWITCHES AND WIPERS etc :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: ;) !!!!!!!))
PPS. Like everybdy else on here,i approach the vehicle, look at it,kick the tyres ( Knowing i have done the oil/fuel/wheel nuts night before) " Fire up the Qua n ttro ..." (old joke that dates you) and set off. Although we have been lucky with the Comfy whatsit,it still weighs heavy on my mind,i mean,at the side of the road,its not something that can be fixed by a 2lb lump hammer.
 
Havn't changed. Took 6 months of research and a trip from the US to the NEC to find the 'perfect' one in 2019. Initially spent three months in it house hunting and still have the same one and love it.
Only one comprimise and that is the knee room in the (seperate) loo when sat down. I have to have the door open. Have fitted the Thetford extractor fan so no problmes there!
RHD, Twin rear permanent beds, Oven (and Microwave), Seperate Shower & washrom, Hydraulic Levelers / Thetford Fan
Sounds like we have the same vehicle.
 
The 140hp works fine on our 3500kg van. Why pay more for a heavier engine if you are not going to need the extra power? I watch people drift slowly onto motorways or away from junctions, they are clearly making no effort to use the power already available and more power would just be wasted. Torque is probably more important.
Fair point. How do you find out the torque of a particular engine?

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The 140hp works fine on our 3500kg van. Why pay more for a heavier engine if you are not going to need the extra power? I watch people drift slowly onto motorways or away from junctions, they are clearly making no effort to use the power already available and more power would just be wasted. Torque is probably more important.
Hi Also what makes a higher BHP engine heavier please ?
 
Fair point. How do you find out the torque of a particular engine?
A few minutes on google will find that info. Example
Citroen Relay
120 hp 228 lb ft torque
140 hp. 250 lb ft torque
165 hp. 272 lb ft torque

Ford Transit
105 hp. 258 lb ft torque
130 hp. 283 lb ft torque
170 hp. 298 lb ft torque
 
Our first van so had nothing to go on re experience so in our minds… 🤔

Automatic
Drop down bed
Separate good size shower
Decent dining area
6m ish
Ski size locker for fishing rods
Not too much fake wood interior

Bought a 21 plate burstner 590 Lyseo and it’s perfect for us

Can’t see us changing anytime soon
🖤🤍🧡
We bought a (new to us) much newer Motorhome last April. We have owned first a touring caravan, then 2nd hand Motorhome and now this newer one. We wanted comfort but also for it to not be too long, ours is 6.3. Our main criteria was separate shower cubicle and decent bathroom. We have a full sized oven and 3 x gas, 1x electric ringed hob. We wanted a microwave which our old one didn’t have and air con which our old one didn’t have. Wanting a smaller van means we don’t have fixed beds and are not fussed by this at all. It takes 5minutes to set up our beds. We have a long sofa and a lovely dinette which seats four, we play a lot of games, rummikub, etc. we wanted four seatbelts because we go down to the coast (about 35mins) from us, for the day and park right on the sea front for the day and take two of our grandchildren with us if needed. (We meet up with the rest of our kids and grandkids there). We both still work, so don’t have the luxury yet of long breaks abroad and find we go away a lot of weekends and then for several, one or two week holidays in the UK. When we retire, we would then consider going abroad, but it’s just not worth trying to squeeze it into 2 weeks!
 
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  • Lots of space and storage,
  • Big double bed,
  • Large/tall fridge/freezer,
  • Separate toilet/shower
  • 4 belted seats (minimum),
  • Large garage (for decent 125cc plus folding E-bikes)
  • Under 3m tall (French Toll roads)
  • 8.5m long (ish)
  • 1 tonne payload minimum
  • Re-fillable LPG bottles (minimum x2, 11kg's)
  • 3.0 engine without timing belt, DPF or Ad-Blue
  • Winterised double floor with no external water pipes (apart from drains)

It was a lot to ask on our budget, but we finally decided on our 2009 Swift Kon-Tiki 679, Low-Line Tag axle in September last year. It was priced lower as it needed a few mechanical elements sorting and basically needed a bit of updating, but everything worked (roughly speaking), it was dry as a bone and it ticked all the boxes above.

4 months and probably 100+ hours of my blood, sweat and tears later (I'm fussy), we have our perfect M/H which has just passed it's first MOT with us with only one advisory (someone forgot to change an amber indicator bulb that had lost some of its paint, so wasn't as orange as the others GRRRR).

When we look at newer (or brand new) vans with similar layouts that cost 2-5 times more than ours, they don't seem to have anything that ours doesn't (now) and in some cases, with newer technology that essentially does the same thing ours does (e.g new has a touchscreen where previously a few basic/simple switches did the same thing), they seem to have more issues than ours. Plus some of the newer Swift Tag models no longer seem to have double floors or aren't winterised.

Overall, we're very happy - The only thing we would have liked, but was impossible to find for obvious reasons, was an island bed while retaining a large garage (unless we went big American and I wasn't prepared to pay the petrol price on a big V8 lol).

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Ours were beds that didn't need making up every night (we ended up with two singles which we had never considered but now would def buy again.
Large fridge freezer
Min of four seat belts
Decent sized shower

Things we have/wanted but are not so important now

Oven
Drop down electric bed (for grandkids)

We've added
Lithium
B2B
Solar
Sat dish
Rear air assist and front coils for uprating
Lots of sockets
Microwave
Inverter
Chassis mounted cycle carrier for e bikes

Of those we wouldn't be too bothered about the sat dish
 
When you decided it was time to change the van how long did it take to find the right used/new one and what was your criteria.
LHD or RHD?
Which bed arrangement?
Oven or not?
Separate shower to washroom or not?
What did you decide you really couldn’t live without in your next van?
As Lavender1 said, there isn't a perfect MH. We had caravanned for years so we knew what we liked, separate loo and shower, nice big bed (we're happy to make each night), comfortable seats for relaxing on, oven, electric ring, etc We also have an 8 meter long space to park in, without cutting down a tree. Apart from that, driving position and getting in and out were the only requirements apart from price.

TBH, if we change van we'd have pretty much the same list.
 
From reading this thread it seems that there are two sets of divisons to be made -

1. Between those that want 230v as at home, either from herding on campsites or from expensive electrical set-ups - big battery capacity and big inverters.

2. Division between single and double bed requirement - a social problem best left to individuals, which cannot be advised upon with safety.
 
From reading this thread it seems that there are two sets of divisons to be made -

1. Between those that want 230v as at home, either from herding on campsites or from expensive electrical set-ups - big battery capacity and big inverters.
We make use of mains, if available, we don't carry a TV so have minimal requirements but will use to heat the water and run our electric ring. Only have a small solar panel but can do five days off grid comfortably so we don't need a generator or inverter. Don't like big campsites, CLs in the UK are fine, a camping car park or small site every few days suits us.
2. Division between single and double bed requirement - a social problem best left to individuals, which cannot be advised upon with safety.
My wife assures me that single beds could lead to a divorce, I'm assured that other couples state the opposite :ROFLMAO:
 
We are leaning toward single beds.
I am not sure about having an oven or not.
We are still debating LHD or RHD.
But if the right van turns up non of the above will be a deal breaker.

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.PS. Which side to sit ? .. This problem could be resolved if they fitted a " Slidy steering wheel and footwells. WITH switches on the steering column...COMMON to ALL models and makes
Methinks you need a Unimog based camper. Think of the freedom to wild camp you'd have, as well as the ground clearance what with the portal axles!
 
We are still debating LHD or RHD.
But if the right van turns up non of the above will be a deal breaker.
We have a LHD MH, and if the drivers seat is high enough, the side it's on matters little.

We have a good view through two offside windows, to be fair.
 
On some engines it involves larger and heavier components, such as a bigger turbo.
Hi It would seem Torque is more important for uphill pulling power and BHP for speed/acceleration. Do you know how to work out what the torque of a particular engine is. ? Please is it directly related to BHP ie more BHP = more torque .
 
The 140hp works fine on our 3500kg van. Why pay more for a heavier engine if you are not going to need the extra power? I watch people drift slowly onto motorways or away from junctions, they are clearly making no effort to use the power already available and more power would just be wasted. Torque is probably more important.
I'm more interested in a higher torque. How can i find the torque rating on an engine/ motorhome? Is it directly related to BHP, i.e., more BHP, more torque?

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