Which Motorhome

[Connie5858]

I’m just trying to decide which motor home to get. Any suggestions. I have gone from a budget of £15k to looking at brand new bailey Adamo which cost more than my house. Can anyone recommend one .

For c.£15k I'd look at late '90s Hymer. Well built, reliable if looked after (annual servicing, fix things when they break sort of stuff), plenty of payload.

But that's getting ahead of things. What do you need?

• number of beds?
• number of travelling seats with seatbelts?
• any limitations on size?
• are you limited to 3,500kg on your driving licence?

I do like the auto trail with the bed above the cab. Don’t like making the bed at night. I do like a u shaped lounge. So most fixed beds have no lounge as such.
Would prefer small so can use as a motor when we get to our destination.
Husband can tow or drive anything size doesn’t matter. No restrictions.
Only two of us so minimum 2 berth .
Thank you . Also my son is a mechanic which is a bonus for the maintaining .

Also my friend said during lock down everyone purchased new and used motor homes so when Spain etc reopens the market will be flooded with second hand Motorhome bargains.

It pains me to say it but British built motorhomes aren’t great. There’s plenty about Baileys, Swifts and Autotrails on the internet. There’s an unhappy Autotrail FB page.

German built are far better.

I used to have a Dethleffs caravan
We absolutely adored it but theee whinging teenagers don’t like caravan holidays.
The kids are now grown up.
So it just the two of us.
Dethleffs motor homes are so expensive though .

With just the two of you I definitely recommend a Hymer, the B564 and B544 are the perfect layouts for a couple. Short and compact, but very spacious inside. The bed drops down over the cab and can be left made-up, but doesn't take up any of the living space during the day (like a fixed bed) or add extra height to the vehicle (like an over-cab). The post-1994 facelift models will be just within your budget.

For £15k you will get a better 'classic' German-built motorhome from the 1990s than you will a post-2010 UK built MH. Be wary of anything on a Ford Transit chassis unless it's got improved security, an alarm and a tracker - they're very desirable to thieves (who want to strip it for the engine, gearbox, etc.), and some versions have very poor security.

Don't expect many bargains, MHs are going to retain their Covid popularity for a while yet. Even if a vaccine came out tomorrow it'd take a year for UK/Europe to get back to normal and self-contained 'bubble' holidays will be desirable. Brexit is going to change people's travel plans, but don't expect a flood of vehicles so come back onto the market in the UK any time soon. A few might give up after the latest lockdown announcement, but judging by the MH FB groups many are going the SORN route instead.

Avoid anything that's too cheap, there are a lot of scams about at the moment and it's also a good time to shift anything that's a bit ropey.

Ah thank you so much for your recommendations.

I have had a look and it seems perfect.
I really like that model the layout etc.

The layout you suggested in a newer model without the fix bed. If we went to about £30k which van would that be in the Hymer range .

Same model numbers, just newer - 2000-2007, that sort of age.

If it was me, I'd look for something from 1995-2005 and try and save some of the budget back to make sure it was fully speced for travelling - refillable LPG gas, 200W or more of solar, two leisure batteries, possibly a SOG (no chemicals required loo upgrade); plus refurbishment of the soft furnishings is needed.

Read the Our Tour blog, they've had a couple of B544s of different ages and have documented their travels over several years. They're largely the reason why we have a 1991 B564 as our first motorhome.
ourtour.co.uk/home/updates/

Thank you so much for your advice.
Iv Bren looking at the our tour blogs on you tube. The b544 looks absolutely ideal. Live the drop down bed and the seating area. Thanks once again.

DogInATent
Hymer 634 just looking at these. What are your thought on these please ?

I think all the Hymers are well-built and long-lasting, but if you want an opinion on whether or not specific model is suitable or not for you it's impossible to give without knowing the answers to the same questions I asked earlier. So much comes own to how many berths, how many travelling seats, and what sort of driving licence you have.

It's a 600-series, so it's longer than a 500-series. That gives more interior space, but it's that big bigger on the road if you're going down narrow lanes or trying to find a parking space - more of a problem if you plan on going to Wales/Cornwall/Scotland every year rather than France or Spain where things tend to be better provided for motorhomes. The extra length can add to ferry costs in Scandinavia from what I have researched.

Despite that extra space, whilst it may be 4 berth (double drop-down, double rear lounge conversion) all the ones I can see online are only 2 travelling seats (driver and passenger) - no seatbelts for anyone in the back.

Thank you for your detailed response.
It is only this last week iv had starting being aware of the Hymer.
Sorry if I sound totally unknowledgeable
But I didn’t realise the difference within the Hymer 544 and the Hymer 6 amongst other things is the length. We do holiday every year in Cornwall so the ability to just park up on a car park is a bonus.
I have been looking online their doesn’t seem to be many Hymer 544’s.
Thanks once again for your detailed knowledge.
By the way I been watching the my tour on YouTube. Think I’m convinced.

Hymer model numbers can be confusing.

B544

B = The B-series are Hymer's A-class models using Fiat, Peugeot, or Citroen chassis. An S-series would be a Mercedes chassis (which then have slightly different numbers after them).

5 = pre-1994-ish this meant a 5-point-something meter chassis (i.e.

Thank you so much.
Really appreciate .

Auto sleeper vans are good they are fibreglass backs and dont appear to have many damp issues.
You’ll pay more for anything with a VW badge on it.
Transit based ones are easy to work on. People say they are easy to nick but I’ve had transits for the last 20 years and never had one taken.

Best tip

Don’t hand over any money unit you have the campervan in front of you and the keys.

Lots of scammer out there.

We’ve had a few different makes & models over the years.
I’d suggest going to a dealership & having a good look inside the different models on display. Layout is a very personal thing & sometimes you don’t know which really suits till you’ve lived in one for a week or so. Your first van is a steep learning curve.
Just a word of warning about drop down beds over the cab. We’ve four times been on sites where people with that feature have been unable to leave when they wanted to because the bed has refused to go back up involving getting someone out to fix it, not always a quick solution on remote sites.

Another point to consider when choosing a layout. We’ve had several different vans including a Hymer but not any more.
Especially if you have dogs or children, need to note that foreign vans have a “suicide door” as it’s generally referred to. The habitation door is on the road side, not the pavement side, being made for driving on the right hand side of the road. So if you need to stop at the roadside during a journey & no convenient lay-by, often the case on many roads, you get out of the van into the traffic, not onto the verge of pavement side.