Why length matters (1 Viewer)

[coopermoto]

Simple question really...what are the main disadvantages of having a longer Motorhome?

Also what do you consider to be an ideal length?

Answers on a postcard please...

 

[Janine]

Mine's about the same size as a Tesco delivery van. If they can get down that lane in Cornwall, then so can I

 

[Chocy boy]

Mine's about the same size as a Tesco delivery van. If they can get down that lane in Cornwall, then so can I

Yes but drivers of work vans don't worry about tree scratches.

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[Chocy boy]

Yes,because you stated the actual Brand and Model so she can check on Google ( another Jodsworth ) you need to list the Brand but the Midel should be one that’s actually smaller. She challenged you on 6mm how bloody ridiculous is that.

She was quite polite about it.

 

[Just smiffy]

I don’t get any complaints........

 

[Mr porky]

We bought a 9m motorhome that’s got a big enough rear garage to fit a moped in the back.
This gives us the separated shower and toilet with a lovely big king size bed in the back and a large lounge area in the front.

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[coopermoto]

We bought a 9m motorhome

Any disadvantages of having such a bigun?

 

[Mr porky]

Just that you won’t get into city car parks but that’s what the scooter is for.
We also have 2 folding bikes for smaller journeys.

 

[scotjimland]

Length indeed does matter.. I've owned big guns and little uns.. finding anywhere to park my 36ft RV was very difficult.. even in supermarket carparks you could be blocked in when someone parked next to you. .. It also limited the number of sites we could use, and every trip had to be planned .. aires could be used but not all.. some are just too small for a large outfit.. I owned it for 5 years and travelled abroad for 3 years living full time, so plenty of experience and practice.. great on site, not so great in towns and villages..

Public parking spaces are generally 5.5mt in length.. which is the size of a short wheel base camper.. as the van length increases the number of parking places diminishes.

My last van a Hymer B644 was a tad under 7mts.. it was possible to park in car parks if you could find a place to hang the back end over.. or take up two bays end-to-end.. but not on a street parking bay.. It was also able to go just about anywhere and never a problem on sites or aires.

My view is the smaller the van you can live with the easier it will be to use .. but it will always be a compromise .. size does matter..

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[Robin McHood]

Yes it is being pessimistic, and I do not agree with your long term motorhomer. Not sure where you want to park but we have no problem with our 7.5m Hymer. If we want to park in car parks we take up to 2 bays lengthways. If that means buying 2 tickets we do that. Or we try to find bays with a lowish kerb and grass at the rear and we find we can reverse our rear wheels up to the kerb and overhang the grass. As for sites and Aires we have always been able to get in the ones we have used. On some continental pitches, especially in Spain, it may take a bit of toing and froing but we always get there OK.

The greater problem we find is the width, not the length. Means we have to squeeze past things in towns and narrow country lanes sometimes, but we have very rarely had to reverse out, and if we do the reserving camera helps. And also it means we do not want to park on the side of some of the narrower the roads in case the wing mirror gets bashed by some idiotic truck or bus driver (too high for cars to hit it).

Agree completely with @peterc10, same for us at 7.5 metres. Width is more of a concern. But it is horses for courses depending on what you want inside. Ours is designed for two occupants only and gives us all the facilities we need plus a large garage and a 6T sprinter chassis so no problem with weight. Couldnt have fitted what we wanted into a shorter van.

 

[DBK]

Any disadvantages of having such a bigun?

You wouldn't be able to use an aire like this in Spain.

It all depends, as has been said, on what you plan to do with it. With our 6m PVC I can look at a map and choose almost any road and know we should be fine - only height restrictions stop us. This suits us because we like exploring mountain areas and seeing the sort of villages you find in such places. Of course the local buses also drive these roads but their drivers know them and the vehicles will have high ground clearance. Some, though not all, long MHs have long overhangs with very low ground clearance at the back. If you get one like this you need to be careful about grounding it.

Here's a couple more spots I think you would struggle to use with some MHs. In the first there are a couple of MHs of about 7.5m which from my limited experience (we've only had the MH five years) is about the maximum size you should be able to get into more or less any aire. The problem with this aire was the steep, tight turn to get in, the photo doesn't show it but the road drops rapidly at the entrance to the aire plus, if you followed your satnav, as we did initially you would make an interesting exploration of narrow and steep cobbled streets. Of course if you hadn't a bigger van you would have looked at the map first.

The second place is a campsite and a UK Morello did get in but had to park in a very awkward spot by the loo block and struggled to turn around to get out. He only stayed one night. So it can be done but for us it was a breeze and we had a much better pitch.

So decide how you plan to use it and of course take account of personal needs such as a carrying a scooter or whatever.

 

[Flatlander]

Irrespective of what a motorhome is used for, it should give freedom. Larger motorhomes do tend to take away some freedom. Not only as @DBK wrote above, but also in things such as ferry and bridge costs, even running costs.

No point in owning one if it restricts where someone can go, and how much it can be used. Even so, to each his or her own.

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[DBK]

But, big MHs do have big tanks so can last longer away from facilities. Our PVC can't keep its legs crossed for long.

 

[Speve]

Length? Will it fit on my drive when at home

 

[Flatlander]

But, big MHs do have big tanks so can last longer away from facilities. Our PVC can't keep its legs crossed for long.

Neither can I at my age, so both myself and the motorhome need facilities!

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[tacr2man]

To a certain degree its a bit of a gamble as oft spoken of in this forum , you only find out if you like the choice you made by living with it . I am very happy with the choice I made, as the pluses out weigh the negatives from my pov . The next person wouldn't agree at all, so YOU have to weigh up what you want and make your best guess that you get it right first time . There is no ideal length

 

[eddie]

The reason that there are so many different motorhome manufacturers, all offering huge range of layouts, chassis and sizes is that we are all different

Everytime I have tried to downsize, I am pleased that I can drive anywhere, only to be bored the next day as I have none or the stuff I want to play with, with me, and I am tripping over my wife and our dog

Our new camper is what is optimistically called a 27B and we already refer to it as the "small one" trading in out current 33' motorhomes

Admittedly slide outs now play a huge part in deciding length which wasn't the case a few years ago

 

[coopermoto]

Neither can I at my age, so both myself and the motorhome need facilities!

Surely the motorhome has your facilities on board

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[coopermoto]

To a certain degree its a bit of a gamble as oft spoken of in this forum , you only find out if you like the choice you made by living with it . I am very happy with the choice I made, as the pluses out weigh the negatives from my pov . The next person wouldn't agree at all, so YOU have to weigh up what you want and make your best guess that you get it right first time . There is no ideal length

I'm conscious that it's going to be a gamble at first and that it will be a learning experience once we actually start using a motorhome.

The things I think I need are all pointing to something around 7.5 metres which, from the replies here, doesn't seem like it will cause too many issues.

I can't wait!

 

[Basildog]

You wouldn't be able to use an aire like this in Spain.

View attachment 237561
It all depends, as has been said, on what you plan to do with it. With our 6m PVC I can look at a map and choose almost any road and know we should be fine - only height restrictions stop us. This suits us because we like exploring mountain areas and seeing the sort of villages you find in such places. Of course the local buses also drive these roads but their drivers know them and the vehicles will have high ground clearance. Some, though not all, long MHs have long overhangs with very low ground clearance at the back. If you get one like this you need to be careful about grounding it.

Here's a couple more spots I think you would struggle to use with some MHs. In the first there are a couple of MHs of about 7.5m which from my limited experience (we've only had the MH five years) is about the maximum size you should be able to get into more or less any aire. The problem with this aire was the steep, tight turn to get in, the photo doesn't show it but the road drops rapidly at the entrance to the aire plus, if you followed your satnav, as we did initially you would make an interesting exploration of narrow and steep cobbled streets. Of course if you hadn't a bigger van you would have looked at the map first.

The second place is a campsite and a UK Morello did get in but had to park in a very awkward spot by the loo block and struggled to turn around to get out. He only stayed one night. So it can be done but for us it was a breeze and we had a much better pitch.

So decide how you plan to use it and of course take account of personal needs such as a carrying a scooter or whatever.

View attachment 237562
View attachment 237563

I am pleased I wouldn't be able to use that aire in Spain, in fact I would even pay money not to stay there !

 

[stewartwebr]

I don't get too concerned around "fitting" I adopt the European approach of if you can get on and overhang or stick out, provided your not blocking its fine. With this approach we have never had an issue and can count on one hand the places we have wanted to stop but have been unable to due to size, I have had vans around 9.4m for the last 9 years

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[DBK]

I am pleased I wouldn't be able to use that aire in Spain, in fact I would even pay money not to stay there !

We were only there so we could walk to places like this. For one night it was fine.

 

[sallylillian]

We have a 9.2 metre at the moment, get to places we want to go more or less People do say that's big do you have trouble,
In the words of Mick Dundee, nah that's not a knife, this is a knife.

Our first motorhome!

 

[1881TB]

Ours is 8.73m. We only see a few people with vans bigger than ours, but we are glad of the interior space when it rains. You also need to bear in mind that you're not supposed to sit outside the van on aires so you might spend more time sitting in the van than you anticipate. I don't find the length of the van a problem when parking or driving. Most places I can't go would also be inaccessible to a 6.5m van.

On a personal note, I always feel very uncool for having a big van and imagine that those in little vans look down their noses at me!

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[Steve N Tracy]

For every mtr over 6 you loose roughly 150kgs off your payload something to think about if your trying to stay below 3,500 kgs if you do not want to retain your C1.

 

[stewartwebr]

For every mtr over 6 you loose roughly 150kgs off your payload something to think about if your trying to stay below 3,500 kgs if you do not want to retain your C1.

How do you work that out? It depends entirely on the chassis suspension etc. I’m 9.4m and have a1700kg payload. Some vans at 11m long based on the MAN chassis has 2800kg payload
Sorry read your post again and now understand it’s in reference to 3500kg sorry for my confusion

 

[LesW]

Ours is 8.73m. We only see a few people with vans bigger than ours, but we are glad of the interior space when it rains. You also need to bear in mind that you're not supposed to sit outside the van on aires so you might spend more time sitting in the van than you anticipate. I don't find the length of the van a problem when parking or driving. Most places I can't go would also be inaccessible to a 6.5m van.

On a personal note, I always feel very uncool for having a big van and imagine that those in little vans look down their noses at me!

We are at 6 metres and would never look down on someone in 8-9m or even more, but have sometimes felt sorry for some when unable to get into smaller sites/aires, and we once followed a huuge moho along the Loire and the poor driver was struggling going through some of the villages.

But I imagine that when they do find somewhere they can chill out in luxury..

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[DL42846]

The longer the van the longer the over hang at the rear which makes more difficult driving when pulling out of tight spots. The back end swings out and can get damaged. Also longer vans are heavier which means less pay load unless your going for something over 3.5 tonnes. We have a 7.43 meter van, 3.5 t which has just about enough payload for two people and all our gear. We like the room and comfort.

 

[Lenny HB]

The longer the van the longer the over hang at the rear which makes more difficult driving when pulling out of tight spots. The back end swings out and can get damaged. Also longer vans are heavier which means less pay load unless your going for something over 3.5 tonnes. We have a 7.43 meter van, 3.5 t which has just about enough payload for two people and all our gear. We like the room and comfort.

I don't see that our current van is longer that the last one and the overhang is shorter. I all depends on the wheelbase. And we have a payload of over 1300kg.

 

[DL42846]

I don't see that our current van is longer that the last one and the overhang is shorter. I all depends on the wheelbase. And we have a payload of over 1300kg.

Our pay load is about 400 kilos and that is without a spare wheel and a single habitation battery.

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[SpeedyDux]

Ours is 5.4m. That probably is the shortest X290 into which converters can squeeze full living facilities and a fixed bed. Both of us are also quite compact too. It's a compromise that might not suit everyone, but we tend to spend most of our time out and about and not so much sitting inside.