Kingham autosleeper

[bobbyscott]

Hi.. going to look at a kingham autosleeper tomorrow.. would love some advise on questions to ask or any thing I should be looking out for.. thx..

 

[mike mcglynn]

Make sure you fit in the shower/ toilet as I didn’t

 

[bobbyscott]

Thx Mike.. just love the look of the kingham and like the fixed bed..

 

[Figaro]

Welcome to the forum.
There was a similar thread running earlier this month if you do a search

Edit : Here you are, not he Kingham but similar

Autosleeper Kemerton XL

Hi all We are considering one of these, 2016 model, but have two slight reservations about it. 1, the water tank is outside so does it freeze up? This is important to us as we like to go ‘up the alps’ in winter, and 2, there is not much storage for outside kit ie chairs, table, barbie etc. Any...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

 

[gus-lopez]

Kingham has one & might be along to help.& welcome

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[bobbyscott]

Thanks Figaro..

 

[solaris]

New or used? Dealer or private sale?

 

[Campervan_man]

Take pictures of the van to leisurely re-inspect at leisure when you go home.

 

[f6c]

Welcome aboard

 

[solaris]

Check everything works and has instruction documentation. The control panel has many functions so go through them carefully. I’ve had a Kingham for 18 months and am still learning. Some water pumps cause problems, check water tank is empty, put water in and run pump. Try bed.

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[Kingham]

bobbyscott I was a bit late in from a night out to respond last night, but I got your PM and have replied with a few minor things to look for.

Hope today’s visit goes well.

 

[Vic. Parsons.]

Some friends have a Kingham and found the seal on the fridge to be inadequate. The Autodleeper install allowed exhaust gases into the van when the wind was against the vent. He removed the fridge and found the sponge seal was set too far back to reach the rear of the fridge to create a seal. He also found the heat shield on the burner to be improperly installed allowing flames to escape up the side.
He's now corrected these items himself on his van and I would suggest a thorough check is made of this before you purchase one or even if you currently own one, as this could be potentially dangerous.
Other than this, it's a great van in his opinion and having had a good look myself, it's like a Tardis, surprisingly spacious inside because the build avoids putting bulkheads midway in the layout which gives a great sense of space.
Good luck with your purchase. ?

 

[Hollyberry]

Have you downloaded Jim’s buying guide ? It’s free to members https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/resources/the-motorhome-buyers-guide.181/

 

[sylvester1954]

We've had our Kingham for four years and and 64000 miles and yes there are some niggles but we've looked at various times and haven't seen anything else on the market that would persuade us to change apart from a newer Kingham.
Like many owners we've got rid of the microwave as it's not really necessary adding to the large volume of storage.
Happy to help in your search if you wish to contact me.

 

[jockaneezer]

I believe there's been a few cases of the mechanism that allows you to raise the head end of the bed up failing.

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[Kingham]

Hi.. going to look at a kingham autosleeper tomorrow.. would love some advise on questions to ask or any thing I should be looking out for.. thx..

Well ?....... Did they manage to get a deposit out of you ?

 

[bobbyscott]

Hi.. no.. was very disappointed to be honest.. the van had not been prepared and wasn't really appealing.. had bad stains on the setee and cushions.. a broken lens on the back light cluster and other various little things.. decided to look around for a better one.. they said they will valet it and we should go back to review after Wednesday.. erm we'll decide on that one later..

 

[Kingham]

What a waste of your time ! The valet should have been done yesterday ahead of your visit today.

Fingers crossed that you find something suitable.

 

[bobbyscott]

Yes we thought the same.. we'll keep looking.. hopefully something will come up..

 

[Lavender1]

We've had our Kingham for four years and and 64000 miles and yes there are some niggles but we've looked at various times and haven't seen anything else on the market that would persuade us to change apart from a newer Kingham.
Like many owners we've got rid of the microwave as it's not really necessary adding to the large volume of storage.
Happy to help in your search if you wish to contact me.

Hello. Just thinking about buying a new Kingham. Can you tell me how you watch the tv?
the person sitting on passenger seat ok but if you sit on driver’s seat or settee, you have to twist your body? Thanks for any info.

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[solaris]

To watch tv either turn driving seat right round and put feet on settee or lean against back of driver seat again with feet up. Try to find a tv program exciting enough to prevent falling asleep

 

[Lavender1]

To watch tv either turn driving seat right round and put feet on settee or lean against back of driver seat again with feet up. Try to find a tv program exciting enough to prevent falling asleep

That’s the problem, the driver’s seat does not turn tight round, the handle on the seat catches the settee and stops it. It only goes so far and you would have to twist your body to watch tv. Very uncomfortable!

 

[sylvester1954]

Hello. Just thinking about buying a new Kingham. Can you tell me how you watch the tv?
the person sitting on passenger seat ok but if you sit on driver’s seat or settee, you have to twist your body? Thanks for any info.

Tbh we don't watch any 'live' TV, partly because l've never managed to get a signal either in UK or Europe.
However, we do watch DVD's and just rest the TV on the glass top to the kitchen sink. One of us sits in the drivers seat (turned around of course) and the other sits/sprawls across the settee.
Hope that you enjoy the Kingham, we've travelled 80,000+ miles now around Europe and Morocco..a great van.

 

[MillieMoocher]

Lavender1 - I’ve just posted you a reply to the query you raised on YouTube. Basically turn drivers seat 90 degrees, put the arm rest down and use the settee as a couchette with your feet up, with your back using the armrest as a backrest if you see what I mean.

The other occupant has the choice of facing the passenger seat directly towards the drivers seat and putting feet up, needing a slight body twist towards the tv, with feet up on drivers seat. Or not turn the passenger seat round so far and face the TV more head on - but this leaves your feet dangling.

Hopefully this all helps!

 

[Lavender1]

Lavender1 - I’ve just posted you a reply to the query you raised on YouTube. Basically turn drivers seat 90 degrees, put the arm rest down and use the settee as a couchette with your feet up, with your back using the armrest as a backrest if you see what I mean.

The other occupant has the choice of facing the passenger seat directly towards the drivers seat and putting feet up, needing a slight body twist towards the tv, with feet up on drivers seat. Or not turn the passenger seat round so far and face the TV more head on - but this leaves your feet dangling.

Hopefully this all helps!

Thanks for that. I assume you have a Kingham And like it? Have you got the van sliding door and what do you do for a fly screen? Do you carry bikes on back door? We have a Elddis 105=at moment and fancied going back to a fixed bed. It is a toss up between an Autosleeper Broadway french bed but it is over 7metres long or the other extreme, the Kingham. Neither have very good pay loads. Thanks for your help.

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[MillieMoocher]

We absolutely love the Kingham. Before the Kingham we had two Hymer A classes. The overall quality of the Kingham is nowhere near as good as the Hymer, but then again it was considerably cheaper. But if you are intending to use the van all year round, in particular going skiing etc, then I would steer clear of the Kingham (or any other non- double floored van come to that).

For our needs however the Kingham is perfect or as near to perfect as anything ever can be. We have as much cupboard space as we did in the previous vans and there seems to be more floor space, especially when cooking. The absence of a garage does impact the ability to take stuff like bikes, bbqs etc so we have slightly changed what we take with us.

We don’t have a fly screen on the sliding door, but to keep the dogs in we secure some expandable garden trellis across the door. (Again see the film I mentioned to you in response to your YT comment).

We don’t take bikes with us as generally we are camping with the hounds so can’t go cycling anyway. But we have folding bikes if we needed to, which would of course be carried inside the van.

As regards payloads, not sure why you think the Kingham has a small payload. In standard guise it has the thick end of 500kg, pretty well at the top end of 3500 plated vans. But importantly it comes on the heavy chassis, which means if you have a suitable licence you can - as we did- up plate to 4500kg simply as a paper exercise. This gives us almost 1.5 tonnes of payload, which you’d be hard pushed to beat in any conventional motorhome sub 8 metres. I can’t comment on the Broadway though.

good luck with your purchase - whichever you go for - and if you’ve not already seen it there is a 30 minute review (in which payloads etc are discussed amongst other things) on the YouTube channel where you mentioned the TV query.