We have had a fixed bed van now for two years as much as I love the lay out . We are thinking of going back to a 2 berth. I am towing more now my husband doesn't want to tow any more and he is driving less and less . I don't mind and have been doing most of the towing. But I do find our van is quite large and think it may be better to down size. After only upsizing a few years ago.
When we went to the Netherlands this year I found the van felt unstable at times and even though we adjusted our load it didn't make much difference. So another reason to down size. I have been looking at the coachman pastiche . Any thoughts or views on this van . Or has anyone down sized and find they are just as happy.
Quite a few small fixed bed 'vans around but of foreign make. If you are used to fixed bed you will probaly miss it. Small UK built 'vans tend to go for large washroom whereas small foreign fixed bed vans go for small toilet, 2 seat dinette so more practical imho.
There is a Coachman Pastiche for sale on here, in Ceredigion. It is our previous van which we px'd for a bigger van. It is a lovely van and has been well looked after. They are selling at a really good price, in fact £2,000 less than we paid for it 13 months ago!
Sorry to go off topic, was considering going from a fixed bed to 2 x singles. The ones I have looked at seem very narrow! How do you that have singles find them?
I have a fixed bed 3 berth caravan that I am wanting to sell. This could suit the people that want to downsize, without losing the luxury of a fixed bed. It's a 2009 model, manufactured by Dethleffs and badged as a Sunlight C44D. The external length is 6.3m long, but it only weighs 936kgs so can be easily towed by a smaller car. I tow it with a 1.6l Focus. It has all the usual fitments of blown air heating, shower, thetford cassette toilet, fridge etc. etc. Let me know if anyone wants more information and I will e-mail a full description and photographs.
Thank you for your replies.
If we down size it will be to a nearly new ie: 3 or 4 years old or new coachman pastiche 470 or a two berth pastiche .
I need to look very carefully we have only had our current van for two years so I won't rush . My car is a Mondeo 2.2 tdci .
coachman caravans are very heavy so we couldn't tow anything more than a 2 Beth
Quote: Originally posted by nora on 07/6/2014
When we went to the Netherlands this year I found the van felt unstable at times and even though we adjusted our load it didn't make much difference.
I'm going to assume you were not struggling up & down hills in Holland.
Is there a good match between the tow car and the van?
If you haven't already done so, it might be an idea to check using
http://www.towcar.info/basic_index.php
We owned a Coachman Genius in the past and really loved it, but two things put us off buying again when we bought new last year, the shorter warantee compaired to most manufacturers, and the weight that even our 4x4 would struggle with. The final straw though was being pitched at the side of a new Coachman owner at West Ayton, and he had a few horror stories to tell, he had bought it from a dealer with a very poor reputation on here, but it did rather put my OH off from buying another Coachman.
Our Avante is a two berth with front singles, its suprising how widths vary beween makes and models, when we were looking to buy last year, the front singles varied between 2ft wide right upto 2ft 6ins. Our Avante is 2ft 4ins. The trick to getting a wider bed is to obviously remove the backrests at night, and then we also pull the mattress a couple of inches away from the wall, and it works fine.
The widest single we came across was in the Elddis Explore/Affinaty 530 ranges, the side dinette base single was almost the width of a standard domestic single bed, and gavd the option of a three berth caravan.
Julia
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
My tow car is amazing its a 2.2 tdci . Brilliant car the ratio is fine . Our other van was a coachman pastiche 470 2 berth lovely van . Towed well . I know coachman are heavy vans this is why we had a two berth. Then due to many things we bought our present van . I have always found it slightly unstable towing I put very little in the van we carry most in the car ie awning bikes etc,
I don't know why I seem to have found it worse this year same car etc.
I did try putting more in the van over the axle the when at the ferry I readjusted the load it made it slightly worse. My brother who was following said he feels I should still try to change how I load it .i think maybe forward . We did go away just for a few day and it seemed slightly better but it was just a weekend we didn't take much with us.
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Topic: 4 berth fix bed back to a 2 berth
