We’ve had a house talk.

[PaddyM]

We have decided to trade in our Bailey ( brilliant van , loved every moment of ownership and will be sad to see it go .) We have decided to buy an iH N 680 ( new ) , our budget is £95K .
Am i right in thinking that iH are the epitome of PVC conversions or should i be looking elsewhere to compare and contrast . Many thanks.

 

[cliffanger]

I think carolyn has an iH, so could probably help.

 

[glenn2926]

We have decided to trade in our Bailey ( brilliant van , loved every moment of ownership and will be sad to see it go .) We have decided to buy an iH N 680 ( new ) , our budget is £95K .
Am i right in thinking that iH are the epitome of PVC conversions or should i be looking elsewhere to compare and contrast . Many thanks.

I think Wildax are also up there. Might be worth a look.

 

[CazPaul]

With that budget I would research further and look around. IH are decent vans but I find them very “Blingy” with IH motifs all over.
Also they are not that well winterised with exposed water pipes and both the fresh and waste tanks underslung.

No rush.

 

[carolyn]

We have decided to trade in our Bailey ( brilliant van , loved every moment of ownership and will be sad to see it go .) We have decided to buy an iH N 680 ( new ) , our budget is £95K .
Am i right in thinking that iH are the epitome of PVC conversions or should i be looking elsewhere to compare and contrast . Many thanks.

We are on our second IH630RD and we love ours, both were brand new. We bought our second one in October 2019 and drove straight to Spain for nearly two months. We did uncover some teething problems as you do and despite it taking a long time getting things sorted due to Covid we’d buy from them again. Their aftersales is very good indeed. It used to be a lovely lady called Carole who would get back to you without fail. She has been replaced by a chap called John who has been great as well.

I know some people go on about all the IH logos but there are very few inside now. We live in Dorset so it’s a long way for us but worth it. Riverbankannie has the same van.

Every year or so we very nearly buy something else but then we don’t as we can’t find anything better! Cheaper yes, better no.

I’ve got to keep Nick away from the stand at Malvern so that we don’t find ourselves getting talked into the full automatic. I like a manual but Nick’s knees don’t and I’m not a great fan of the Comformatic!

Good luck, you’ll definitely need to increase the payload.

I think you can have the tanks heated as an extra. We’ve travelled in subzero temps and have been warm enough but I don’t think it would be a problem in the N series as you don’t have the sliding door which is where you lose all the heat getting in and out.

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[PaddyM]

WildAx we have looked around their vans and they felt cramped for space .

 

[PaddyM]

Carolyn have u any comments re the winterisation question?

 

[Lenny HB]

Have a look at Carthago's Malibu, one of the best built PVC's & winterised.

 

[csd4t]

Vantage!!!! It's the future

 

[MandP]

We have ordered an Ih Motorhome.We have had both fresh and waste tank insulated and the exposed water pipes as well. Both tanks have a
12v heater.The van has been double insulated as standard and will have not one Ih motif inside and only one small one on the back panel. The company have met our every requirement including hot air vented into the boot, and, amongst other things , have completely relocated all of power sockets as requested. Just for interest, it weighed in at 3034 kgs. This included the following, 25 kgs of gas, an awning, an extra table , 75% fuel, a TV and sound bar and a couple of other small things.We pick it up on the 16th April. It has the 9 gear automatic gearbox.

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[carolyn]

Carolyn have u any comments re the winterisation question?

Sorry I added to my long thread. I don’t think you’d have a problem at all as it’s an N series so you don’t have the problem of losing heat with the sliding door. We’ve never done serious camping in the snow but have been on hookup when it’s gone down to freezing overnight and there were no problems. If I was going to do a lot of subzero stuff I would pay to have the tanks heated which is an extra with IH. The van itself is perfectly well insulated.

We travelled back through Spain when the beast from the east struck and we did empty the waste and leave it open . We also emptied the water. We used the loo and that didn’t freeze! The only funny thing was that a tiny amount of water must have frozen on the sensor in the waste tank which nearly drove us mad beeping in the night until Nick managed to work out how to turn it off!

 

[carolyn]

We have ordered an Ih Motorhome.We have had both fresh and waste tank insulated and the exposed water pipes as well. Both tanks have a
12v heater.The van has been double insulated as standard and will have not one Ih motif inside and only one small one on the back panel. The company have met our every requirement including hot air vented into the boot, and, amongst other things , have completely relocated all of power sockets as requested. Just for interest, it weighed in at 3034 kgs. This included the following, 25 kgs of gas, an awning, an extra table , 75% fuel, a TV and sound bar and a couple of other small things.We pick it up on the 16th April.

I couldn’t remember your forum name! I knew you’d have up to date info. Good luck.

 

[The Wino]

I suspect that the depreciation would be a sizeable difference from the bailey but you're only here once!

 

[PaddyM]

My neighbour has just sold his three year old McLaren supercar , he paid £200K for it and has got £120K for it , he has worked out that every mile of driving has cost him £20 , now THATS depreciation . I dont expect the iH to bite my arse that badly.

 

[MandP]

Thank you Carolyn.

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[CazPaul]

Remember if not on EHU the 12v tank heaters use a lot of power in winter.

 

[Minxy]

How much!

Whilst I love PVCs there's no way I'd pay that for one ... have a look at the Carthago C-Compactline A-class range for similar money and IMV far superior.

The length alone of that PVC would put me off it ... 6.8m is big and the wheel base will be long too which will make it more difficult to manoeuvre than a coachbuilt (turning circle etc).

 

[CazPaul]

The advantage of a pvc is small size so getting one nearly 7 metres negates the advantage.

 

[MandP]

Yes CazPaul, they do use a lot of power in winter .In “ normal times” we would be in Mainland Europe for our time away, mostly picking aires and the occasional campsite. Sadly, this year probably not.It will have a fair amount of solar power and we will use a campsite should we really need to. Just have to wait and see how it works out.

 

[carolyn]

The IH 680 series is on the VW crafter and is narrower again than the Fiat which is the appeal for some. Some of us just like PVCs of course and buy what tickles our fancy. The bathroom is really nice .

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[GROMIT69]

Much like you we went from a Bailey Autograph Approach 765 to a ih Nclass 630RL , the difference between Bailey dealers and the ih factory was like night and day , nothing has ever been to much trouble, after saying that the only problem we had was a screw coming undone on the hab door , [. Which is a Hartel part ]when you phone the factory you always get to speak to the same person and are not handed around or put on hold , as for the van you can have what you want where you want , just ask , we would have no hesitation in buying another ih, ours is on a fiat van , we looked at changing to a VW Crafter ih but Crafters are a bit narrower van which we didn’t like as it made it to narrow in the middle to pass each other , go and have a chat with them .

 

[Langtoftlad]

WildAx we have looked around their vans and they felt cramped for space .

Did you look at the Elara on a Merc base - I've not yet seen one other than photos.

I know what you mean though, my WildAx doesn't feel spacious although it has very similar kit in it to every other PVC.
Perhaps it's having the wardrobe directly opposite the washroom... sort of cut's the van in two... but the positive to that is you almost have two separate spaces, living & sleeping.

 

[Nirvanauk]

I have an IH 630RL and it is brilliant. Build quality is superb.

 

[pampam]

Crikey i wish i could buy a new ih on a crafter

 

[pampam]

S&L are lovely converters too

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[carolyn]

Nick and I had a look at the Elara as we liked the idea of the fixed bed but once you’ve had an IH there is no comparison on the build quality . Also you ended up with a tiny lounge area just so that you’d save a couple of minutes night and morning making the bed.
The payload is terrible and not a lot you can do to up rate it without doing costly things to the suspension. Even then it wasn’t as much as the Fiat, we got the details which I’ve forgotten.

At that time there were no Remis cab blinds, there are now but they’re an extra !

 

[MannClan]

we had the IH630RL, lasted about 5months - less time than we actually waited for it. great looking van, well appointed BUT you needed to be as thin as a marathon runner to make best use of the bathroom. Moving the cushions to the front of the van at night meant that the front seats were used as storage space so nowhere to sit in the morning unless you were both up and about. also storage is not the best with the flip up rear half door. Brokered it back to the dealer and took the hit on the VAT. Now have an Adria 670SL and love it. Just saying.

 

[Garfields]

If you like the layout and the build quality go for it
I have a different make which meets our needs better but that is down to our preferences

 

[olley]

Don't forget that all PVC's at heart are simply delivery vans, if manufacturer "A" can produce a decent conversion for £60,000 why are you paying manufacturer "B" £20,000 to £30,000 more for a different fitout inside?

 

[DBK]

We have decided to trade in our Bailey ( brilliant van , loved every moment of ownership and will be sad to see it go .) We have decided to buy an iH N 680 ( new ) , our budget is £95K .
Am i right in thinking that iH are the epitome of PVC conversions or should i be looking elsewhere to compare and contrast . Many thanks.

I'm probably sounding like a broken record but have a look at Murvi. They are not a volume manufacturer like IH but for a spacious light interior in a PVC I have seen anything better. We've had our 8 years now and the quality of construction is still holding up.

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