Having owned three motorhomes from new over the past 15 years, each one to suit the family's needs and toured over 30,000 summer holiday miles around Europe in that time as well as uk trips, I sat and thought whilst enjoying this year's trip to the Languedoc coast of what would be my choice of essential fittings and equipment on a motorhome.
No oven - they only rattle, use up storage space and who wants to bake a cake on holiday? Perhaps a mini microwave?
No shower for more space - most sites have excellent showers. I'm sure 'independent wild camping' doesn't require a hot shower and perfumed shower gel every day - a brusk rub down with a flannel is surely more suitable for that style - all depends who with, I suppose!
A smaller water tank - our Adria has a 110 litre (25 gal) tank that fills up the entire under space of the dinette seat. Filled to the brim that's over 17 stone of water hauled around. Half that would be enough (no shower, see!)which would leave space for bringing loads of wine from France and beer from Belgium!
A ducted air heating system that can blow unheated cool air like our previous Challenger did for hot summer nights - our Adria system can't do this.
As a result of the savings made installing these, plus the cost of not having the convenient but not essential 'driver pack' accessories, the main thing I would like instead would be a lockable differential - my main worry is always getting stuck on a site with a spinning drive wheel; let's face it, with a standard differential you only really have one wheel drive once one of the tyres looses grip and spins. At least with a lockable diff. you have both wheels driving forward instead of just one whizzing around and getting nowhere
Any other ideas?
Our oven is the best thing in the van, we never do cake but when in the Aires we do Baked potato, pizza, scotch pies, toast, that bread that you finish baking and croissants. Also good for keeping the takeaway warm while you have a beer 😋
Quote: Originally posted by Whatamess on 25/9/2015And for storing things on the journey.
I was told that the British market demand ovens more than the Continental buyers
This is the only one from your list that I really go for
Locking diffs? is a good one though or even 4x4 for that matter; by this, I don't mean the out and out dedicated 4x4 but a normal looking vehicle with this facility.
Showers? I take that you don't use Aires when away? We have 2x 110L for water and that has been useful on occasion. We don't always travel with both full unless it has been in Morocco.
I rarely use my oven- apart from using as storage space, and use electric appliances for most cooking etc - well, we pay for it,so why not.
We dont go away for weeks at a time, so I cook n freeze lots of meals, and do them in the halogen oven, very useful.
We never fill the water tank, as pointed out, usually showers on site, and other facilities. We don,t wild camp,and to be honest, I wouldn't use it anyway, as I couldnt face the hassle of drying the whole place out! ( a small toilet with shower over head) - again, whilst travelling, this is also used as storage.
We've got a shower head that plugs into the outside of the van, it only gets cold water but that's great in Spain for washing the sweat and sand out of your hair. Our water tank is 90L and I keep it topped up whenever I get chance.. Our van is like a pig.. nothing is wasted lol.
We have had our camper conversion for 5 years now, and we made choices for the interior that we have never regretted.
We had a microwave/combo instead of an oven, as someone said, we don't want to bake a cake. The microwave is useful for reheating, cooking veg, or heating the odd ready meal. We can also make toast etc if we wish, but prefer to cook outside.
We refused the porta potti and use the space for a washing up bowl which holds other things too.
When we travel in France we don't use the sink except for storage, so only carry a 5l bottle of water, which we refill on the sites. And use the space for other things.
We don't use the sliding table provided, in favour of a small camping table we can use inside or out.
We found plastic boxes to completely fill the spaces available, so no space is wasted.
We could have done with more than one mesh window in the roof, especially when it's hot, but we manage.
We have no leisure battery, or levelling chocks, so gain space there. However we lose space by carrying large folding padded loungers, our luxury items. But OH made some slatted shelves to fit across the void when the roof is up, and we can store the chairs there overnight.
When I had a motorhome , I intended to do mostly wildcamps as I don't enjoy site life , so the shower toilet , heating and small kitchen were an absolute necessity as was a comfortable bed , I don't use an oven much so didn't miss that , the one thing it didn't have , was a grill for toasting , which I did miss , I tried those other things that they sell to use on a gas ring , they are useless , I could get a reasonable job on a dry frying pan , but it took a fair bit of time and juggling about on the two rings . The other things were a small suitcase generator , which is very quiet and economical in use , and a long hose with lots of tap fitments , one of the hardest things to get was fresh water for the tank
I tend to disagree with most of the OP. - Staying on aires I definitely like a hot shower in the morning and even on site I like to have a few days worth of water on board. Again, when on aires we use the oven although when we have EHU the halogen oven is preferred as it doesn't heat the van.
Our motorhome has twin axle rear wheel drive so lack of traction has never been an issue although I can see the advantage for front wheel drive.
I would like the blown air system to have outlets in the over cab for winter use. and as our is a family van with 1.1/2 dinettes our next van will definitely have better lounging space for rainy days.
I would also like a window in the habitation door for safety and security.
oh. and fitted internal cab blinds would be nice too.
As the main driver i wouldn't be without the deriver comfort pack of aircon, passenger air bag and electric mirrors. I don't use cruise control as it drinks fuel working against momentum - speeding up going up hill and braking going down hill.
------------- It's only an expensive hobby when it's parked on your Drive....use it, love it , live it.
I`ve just worked out that in the last 4 years we have spent 25 weeks away in our MH, as well as odd weekend trips, and the shower has been used twice. We don`t have an oven, and have never missed it.
Wow, like thanks for the comments! Looks like a 50 /50 agree / disagree about the stuff I said!
I can see the point about using aires but we don't as my wife is cagey about them - no point in holidaying if someone's not happy!
For a low cost stopover in France we use municipal sites - we find they are usually near the village / town centre (bike or walk) and have good restaurants without Paris prices - see, no need for oven! Only joking.
This year with the low cost of diesel and favourable exchange rate, I used branded (Shell, BP etc)'Supergazole' or whatever it was called. Didn't seem that different on the flat, but seemed to have more oomph on motorway drags - any comment?
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Ideal motorhome equipment
