I am planning to buy a new motorhome next year. I will be travelling alone and as it is going to be my home, I am looking at a 7.6m to 7.9m long. I live in Perth so limited to what I can look at. At this stage considering Avida Esperance which is an Iveco truck considering the one with the slide out. Also see Sunliner Switch can be an Iveco and is similar. I do not like the bed over the lounge. To me that is a waste of storage space and do not need all that lounge space. I would like any feedback positive and negative - on any of the previous comments and also on any other motorhomes of this size. Would also appreciate any feedback on slide outs.
Assume you have MR licence ? Under 8m is fine with most camping ground spaces etc . Go as big as you can ., They tend to get small over time . Or we get used to their room, size ??
I also have a double bed 'Downstairs" which converts to a dinette.
Plus a single seat & table which does me for eating and computer/office work.
I generally use the dinette/bed as a permanent day bed for lounging or reading- no need to make it up and it can handle other objects stored on it/under it.
Deal with visitors outside usually.
If you're travelling solo, seriously think about what you'll be doing a lot of the time when not driving- especially in bad weather. This might affect what you prefer in a standard layout. That make affect the choices you make in purchasing.
There are a number of things to consider / be careful of with your choice of vehicle. For example ...
a) vehicles over 8m long cannot be parked overnight in a built up area ... and there are times when we RVers need to park outside a CP but inside the town limits [eg: near a dealer awaiting service next day]
b) vehicles over 4,5tonne gross GVM need an up-sized licence called the LR or MR - another $1000 to the costs of things
c) certainly go for a vehicle with a permanent madeup bed - many floor plans around that allow the bed to be there and not clash with the lounge / kitchen area > keep looking
d) most CPs still have sites that are too small for today's vehicles - our MH is 7,25m long and on far too many occasions we find ourselves with about 1 metre between our back bumper and the rear of the van behind us ... and we are tired of their ciggy stink &/or loud mobile fone calls
e) you need to also give thought to the brand of chassis the MH sits on - how does one get it serviced? what does it cost per service? where can you get it serviced? [anywhere? or only at a specialised dealer?]
f) what sort of storage is provided? - can your outside chairs and picnic table be put away easily? where are the house batteries? - are they easily accessible from outside the vehicle when needed?
g) install a decent amount of solar panels on the roof to keep your house batteries charged up. We have 320watts on the roof charging 2x 120Amp batteries ... today in Rockhampton [cloudy & light rain] we still get 11Amps of solar power into the batteries while sitting around twiddling our thumbs so to speak
In our case, our Sunliner is 15yrs old, we're on the wallaby for about 280 - 300 days each year. We had a choice [15 yrs sgo] of Ford or Merc or Fiat. At that time, Fiat was new to the Aussie marketplace, but going on Fiat cars [lack of] reliability, we chose not to get a Fiat, the Merc had longer service intervals but service costs were twice Fiat & Ford, and when we talked to other travellers, the 100% consensus was "Toyota of Ford can be fixed / serviced by almost anyone & anywhere". So we got the Ford Transit, we've now done about 450,000km and it's still ticking along very nicely. Servicing & mechanical repairs have been done by many small garages, so the Ford dealers have long been passed by
I am a solo traveller and in march this year I picked up a new Winnebago Coogee on an Iveco truck. Can drive this one on a car licence. I am very happy with it I have a proper bed with a slide out plus a double bed up in the peak which is standard with Winnebago cost $3500 for the same thing with sunliner which I also looked at but at that stage sunliner was only using fiat and Renault trucks and I wanted an Iveco. Mine is my home and I find it sufficient for my needs.
Have a look at the Auto-trail range they have several models that would fit your needs. We chose a Tracker FB with a fixed rear bed. Plenty of storeage and most of the items you need that are extras on the locally made motorhomes are standard on AT. Items such as solar, full stove, central heating, aircon, big frig etc. Ours has done almost 50k with very few issues. It has Euro style insulation that helps to Stabilise the temp inside n both summer & winter. The front is Fiat Ducato that has not missed a beat& now covered by a 5 year warranty. Certainly worth a look. Cheers,
