22 model Adria Twin Supreme 640 SLB new owner review (1 Viewer)

[coroner]

Very nice van would be ideal for our annual safari to our place in Turkyie.maybe one day

 

[ontheroadagain]

Latest hiccup is the NDS sun controller does not appear to be working

What is the problem?
Is it completely dead?
At first I though ours wasn't charging the starter battery but it turns out it only sends a charge when the voltage falls below 12.5V.

 

[royandsharont]

What is the problem?
Is it completely dead?
At first I though ours wasn't charging the starter battery but it turns out it only sends a charge when the voltage falls below 12.5V.

Yes it appears to be dead, the dealer will check any output but in the short few days it has been in storage, twice, the vehicle battery dropped much more than I expected it to from comparison to my previous van.

Then I checked the controller and saw that there was no led lights illuminated ever. I read the instructions and made sure the criteria was met for the vehicle battery to get a charge and still nothing.

My 2 friends both have lights on all the time and I believe mine should too.

The dealer has had issues with some of these systems and I beilieve they will change it to a Truma one. I also believe Adria wire them in a particular way that perhaps U.K. dealers would wire them differently. I personally have no knowledge but read the instructions and observed the readings over a period of days and came to that view, and am probably right unfortunately

 

[Andy MacD]

Cheers Bob, from your description mine are different.

 

[Wireworld]

I would get them to check the fuses as my dealer told me Adria send them with the solar system disconnected and the dealer has to do the final connection. When we first saw our van it wasn’t charging and I queried it.

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[royandsharont]

I would get them to check the fuses as my dealer told me Adria send them with the solar system disconnected and the dealer has to do the final connection. When we first saw our van it wasn’t charging and I queried it.

Interesting, but on mine if the fuse has blown then the led’s are supposed to flash rapidly to tell you the fuse is gone, so if it was missing I guess the same would apply?

 

[ontheroadagain]

Interesting, but on mine if the fuse has blown then the led’s are supposed to flash rapidly to tell you the fuse is gone, so if it was missing I guess the same would apply?

There are fuses inside the controller. There is also a fuse on the Nordelettronicia Electrical box. I blew the latter fuse (my fault) and the controller appeared to be dead. All worked fine when the fuse was replaced. Note - if replacing the fuse, the solar needs to be disconnected and the battery connected first.

 

[royandsharont]

All sorted with the solar controller now. Replaced with a Truma one which appears to be a better system as you can select your own charge segments, not that I understand it.

Re the electric handbrake, I noticed it definitely held us up some of tge steeper roads in Huddersfield yesterday so perhaps it depends on the incline

For those interested in the mpg I have just turned the first 500’. The M62 motorway driving at a steady 56/60 on Sunday returned 38.2! And on Sunday with motorway delays etc & the climb up to Glasgow it still gave 35.5 which I am amazed at. I must admit I don’t tend to drive much faster than 60 and I’m not heavy on the accelerator.

Day 3 into a tour now and loving the van, just need to get a better grip of the heating controls. Got up this morning to 16C when I thought I had set the heating to come on at 0600 but I must have turned the time off

 

[royandsharont]

Have managed to get the heating timer to work but if I’m honest it’s more by luck as I’m not absolutely certain how I do it. I think it’s how to interpret the images on the screen as there is no instructions that are crystal clear on what I’m doing.

We’re finding the bed very comfortable and Adria’s description of the quality of the mattress seems to be right. We don’t catch our heads in the blinds either so will not be finding a method to protect them.

We’re slowly getting used to the smaller living space and the need to be very compact with the storage of things. Still early days but we’re getting there and no regrets so far about downsizing.

It drives very well, even for the 140 bhp on these hilly roads, and the Altera bike rack rides well on the tow bar. It’s outer limit is right at the back of the rear view camera guide lines so today it was hard to judge the distance between the rack and a lamppost, and I was about 30cm off it.

Less rattles in the van than our Bessacarr and travelling with 5.5 & 4.5 bar is not too hard

 

[royandsharont]

Oh I also forgot to add I’ve discovered the long black vented section behind the cab seats is actually vented to provide heat right across the width of the van. This plus the other 6 heating outlets keep you very warm if needed

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[Paul1867]

great review and post We have a Twin 600 on order for over a year now and getting itchy feet now How are you getting on with the Ceramic coating We live in Dronfield never knew they were there

 

[royandsharont]

Just back after 6 weeks touring Scotland so once I get a moment on the laptop I will write the review, I know some are waiting so will try to do it soon. Just bumping up the thread in my content so I can find it easily

 

[royandsharont]

Second update of van review 30/9/22

Well having now just completed a further 1900 miles touring up the east side of Scotland and following the NC500 back down the west coast to Fort William before continuing on south to Glasgow and eventually home we have covered many different types of road and enjoyed 6 weeks of continuous camping in the new van. I said I would do a further review and here goes. I know dash300 is waiting for this

Firstly the Fiat side of things, The van is beautiful to drive and the 9 speed automatic gearbox, new to me, is an absolute pleasure. I think I can honestly say I have never detected any gear changes, only a variation in revs as we climbed the hills etc. The average speed for that whole trip was 33 mph and 32.9 mpg according to the trip computer over 56 hours of driving. On the motorways I was getting 36 mpg at a stead 60 mph, which I thought was very good and can only improve as it wears in.

I now understand the dashboard instrumentation much better and the electric parking brake has not proved a problem but it is not like my fully automatic one in the Skoda. I tend to follow the guide and manually apply it and disengage it unless I am on an incline. Sometimes on an incline it does auto hold. I have purposely engaged the downhill control and all the safety features work. I even managed to get it up onto the levelling blocks where needed without problem, I did think I would find it an issue having no manual handbrake and clutch to use to assist. What I did learn was that when you come down off them you really need to switch off the electric parking brake so there is no sudden jolt as it auto disengages with the increase in revs.

The oil and AdBlue gauges are only visible with the engine running and the latter appears to indicate I have a lot of AdBlue left after just over 2000 miles. The lower nearside mirror is absolutely useless, being obscured by the blind casement frame, but overall the mirrors are adequate.

I found the power from the standard 140bhp 2.2L engine just fine and much better than my previous 2.3L 130 bhp Ducato. It is less susceptible to wind than my previous coach built and I found that travelling at 70 mph was fine if I wished to.

No problems mechanically until leaving Glasgow heading down the motorway to Lancaster in very heavy rain. The EBS safety auto braking assist warnings came on with the function off warning also visible despite it not actually being activated or turned off via the Uconnect system. Also the lane departure safety feature played up at the same time showing white rather than green meaning it was on but could not detect the white lines. These faults came on and off as we drove in heavy rain all that day and whilst the book says this can happen and should rectify itself I don’t think the lane departure system at least is working properly and I have booked it into my local Fiat dealer to check under the warranty. Both systems work on cameras up where the interior mirror would have been.

The Adria conversion bit next. The conversion is fantastic and appears to be very well done with only some minor issues for us. The biggest problem we had was us both getting accustomed to the physical size inside the van. We found we could no longer move around at the same time so one had to be sat in the cab area whilst the other got everything done or if working in the central corridor we would have to step into the bathroom to allow the other to pass but then there would not be sufficient space in that central corridor for two people. Having had 10 years of a much large open spaced van with no dinette we really struggled to adjust to this.

Also the storage space was a struggle to come to terms with. Not the overall space but how compact it is and less weight capacity to adjust to. It is easier to give an example, previously we had a large garage that I could climb inside with external large door access and all cupboards inside were easier to access and it was mainly a just reach in and get what you wanted. Now we have about the same, or very similar, space but the garage is much lower so I banged my head lots & lots. There are tons of cupboards but the main food ones are at floor level so with the narrow corridor you spend most of your time knelt down, for those who can, and pulling things out to access the things you want inside. The head height lockers, of which there are loads, are curved at the back so making it difficult in getting baskets inside properly to make best use of the space. We managed and learned to fold/roll our clothes up too. We chose the smaller fridge to have the hanging wardrobe and now feel this was the right decision and I have even put a rail in the smaller odd shaped tall cupboard under the other bed so we had no problems at all clothes wise, a lot less shoes though for Sharon. I moved the jack into a canvas bag and placed it in the lower cupboard in the garage and this enabled the full use of the floor locker under the dinette for shoes and some gifts we brought back as it is time consuming to access it. The fridge was just fine and we just shopped a bit more often for fridge items and planned our meals better when shopping. We probably ate out more than we would but given we were in the UK and not our normal Continental warm/drier weather this may not be right. The oven was fine if a little small.

The Altera Strada 3 tow bar mounted bike rack took some getting used to. It does not generally engage the lock first time when you slide it back up with the risk of it sliding back whilst driving, as happened to a friend. I certainly mastered the art of sliding the rather heavy weight with 2 bikes on and doing so until it locked properly. Also if on levelling blocks at the front it meant the bottom of the open rack came to ground level. Had I been on top of the ramps I think there would have been a chance the rear van doors would not have opened. As it was I had to use the lower holes on the Brink tow bar and have a ½” spacer fitted to allow the rear doors to open and then only if I used the middle and rear rack positions. I think I am going to have a play with bigger spacers and see if I can get the doors to clear using the top holes. I think I can use up to a 2” spacer with this tow bar but will check up.

So the sliding bike rack did give access to the rear doors but this was another thing that took me a lot of getting used to as it is such a faffing to use it. I’ll describe the motions so you get my drift. I would open drop the bike rack back, wearing gloves to protect the hands from cuts, then open the offside door. Then move around the rack and step into the gap but over the tow bar hitch. Then open the nearside door so now with both doors open I am trapped inside the space with the tow bar bracket in the middle of my foot space. Anything I took out of the garage had to be passed to someone, or placed close by the doors if I could reach or on the inclined bike frames. Compared to a rear mounted lifting rack I was used to this was a headache, BUT did give me access to the rear garage, gas compartment and enabling border control access etc.

This is what I did to make life easier for me. There is a smallish drop down door between the garage and the internal corridor. Luckinly I am agile and slim enough I could fit through this gap if needed but what I did was put everything I wanted easy access to in the large storage box second away from this door. Also things at the sides like walking boots, poles, unbrellas. I fitted a stick on LED battery light next to the upper garage cupboard door and would reach through the open door from inside and get what I needed without having to drop the bikes etc. A big bonus especially in the rain and I found it really easy to do once I managed what I needed. My second large storage box was up to that door and when it was opened would rest on top of the box and it’s contents. If I had got my planning wrong I could, with a lot of effort, actually get some smaller things out of that second box too. The downside is I banged my head once again, lots, and especially on the centre board of the middle mattress causing some nasty grazes. If anyone saw me doing all this they would think what on earth is he doing but believe me I found it the better option and saved lots of time.

The best bit of the new van we found was the quality of the mattresses, we have never had such good sleep before in a van. We use sheets and a duvet in the UK so making them up and getting the outer sides tucked in was a little hard but doable especially if we removed the central mattress made the beds then replaced it.

The dark side windows are very good giving lots of privacy whilst apparently not effecting our view outside and the blinds work better than I thought they would. We only used the external silver screen twice on out last 2 nights to stop condensation on the inside of the windscreen as the nights became colder. I am a sensitive to light sleeper and never once woke up with any light getting in once we had pegged a tea towel on suction hooks at the bathroom window to keep the morning light out as we slept with the bathroom door open.

The Truma Combi 4 heating system was excellent and the insulation from Adria must have been pretty good as we never felt cold anywhere in the van, the cross van heating vent behind the cab seats I think helped a lot. The new Trauma solar controller worked perfectly but unfortunately the Adria Combi Mach system did not work as it should. The App would work all the Adria van things, including fridge, perfectly but it was not talking to the heating and water of the Trauma control panel. The dealer is trying to rectify this for us and I am confident they will do so.

The only thing that went wrong on the trip was a cupboard catch broke and the waste tank valve stuck in the open position, thankfully. It appears to be a design fault with a relatively complex system of cables to a fitment then connection to the valve via a spindle. I understand the fitment is too flexible under pressure from the cables, which are turned from inside the toilet box compartment, which means the spindle disengages from the valve. It has happened to others and the dealer is getting it sorted under warranty. A simple tap on the end of the pipe would suffice but it would mean the tap end was a few inches lower, which is a negative thing if you want to stay on site for longer and not move to the waste point so use a bucket under it. We have once stayed put for 5½ weeks at Lake Garda so driving back and forth to the waste point would be a bind in such circumstances.

So overall we absolutely love the van. The conversion is beautiful, and everything just looks class. A nice touch is the electrically assisted side door closure so no wish bang for us or our neighbours. The big bonus, and one of the main reasons to downsize, is that we now are happy to take the van off site to sightsee for the day. We have never done this before as we had a long van with long overhang and taking it to the unknown could have caused problems. We now have the confidence this ambulance sized van should not cause a problem so we just do it.

Any question I will happily try to answer

 

[SpeedyDux]

I was left wondering if the Ducato screen wipers actually reach your camera to clear the rainwater.

Anyhow I find our car's Lane Departure Warning (and Lane Keep Assist, Road Departure Mitigation System) a PITA and too time-consuming to turn off before each journey.

 

[Stroppy Bird]

Hi royandsharont glad you're enjoying the van.

We have the 2019 model of your van (albeit manual) with the same bike rack.

I abandoned rigid baskets in the top lockers in favour of the fabric packing cubes that you get for suitcases. We use these both for our clothes in the back lockers and for a lot of the stuff we keep in the nearside top lockers.

One of the mods that I've done is to fit two ceiling curtain tracks. One from the bed end of the shower unit to the bed end of the fridge/cupboard unit, and one from the dinette end of the shower unit to the kitchen side of the fridge/cupboard unit. This serves two purposes when the curtains are used; stops any light leaking from the front of the van (all those blooming leds on everything) and also creates a dressing area from the shower so you don't have to close any blinds for having a shower/getting changed.

I do the same as you for accessing the rear. I discovered this year, that those checking the gas at the tunnel, are quite happy for you to attempt to light the hob to show that the gas is off rather than accessing the back doors, which can be made awkward if the person behind you in the queue hasn't left much room. I just asked them on the way out and back if it was acceptable and both were happy. You do need to 'bleed' the system down a couple of times though, otherwise it's an embarrassing wait for the gas to burn off.

I actually measured the length of the van with the bike rack on to compare it to the van that ultimately we'll look at getting for when we retire and do a few longer tours (the adria compact DL, which is only slightly wider than a PVC). I think the overall length came in at around 7.2m, so actually longer than a coachbuilt with a garage big enough to take the bikes inside. However, the twin suits us fine at the moment, as we do lots of shorter trips and don't always have the bike rack attached.

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[royandsharont]

I was left wondering if the Ducato screen wipers actually reach your camera to clear the rainwater.

Anyhow I find our car's Lane Departure Warning (and Lane Keep Assist, Road Departure Mitigation System) a PITA and too time-consuming to turn off before each journey.

Hi. Yes I checked that too and they do

 

[royandsharont]

Thanks Stroppy Bird would you be so kind as to find some of those fabric packing cubes online and send me a link so I can see what you mean. I haven’t seen anything like that before. Good to know about the gas checks. Cheers

 

[rico]

Great review but wondering whether you are happy with the ceramic coating?

 

[WillysMB]

thanks like many for the review .... for me the fiat appraisal was interesting, we have a Carado V337 on order with this 2.2 9 speed GB.
Sounds like your enjoying you van

 

[Stroppy Bird]

Thanks Stroppy Bird would you be so kind as to find some of those fabric packing cubes online and send me a link so I can see what you mean. I haven’t seen anything like that before. Good to know about the gas checks. Cheers

These sort of things

Amazon product ASIN B07SZTXCW5
If you put 'packing cubes' into Amazon search it'll bring up various different ones. I think mine actually came from Wilkos but I couldn't find them on their website.

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[Coltnavy]

Thanks Stroppy Bird would you be so kind as to find some of those fabric packing cubes online and send me a link so I can see what you mean. I haven’t seen anything like that before. Good to know about the gas checks. Cheers

Wife reckons these work well in our Adria
Amazon product ASIN B0868RCRMS

 

[royandsharont]

Great review but wondering whether you are happy with the ceramic coating?

rico yes I forgot to add about the coating I had done. Well to be fair I think it’s fantastic really. The van hardly gets any marks on it when stored whlist the old one got lots of black marks very quickly. We live only about 4 miles from a refinery so do wonder if that had something to do with it.

When we got up to Thurso I gave it a wash down, carefully, with a power wash Lance and it came up remarkably well considering it was just water thrown at it. Later at Oban I gave it a wash down with a soap hose brush and jet wash and it cleaned up excellently given there was no hand finishing etc.

The water just beads on it and runs off very quickly, the black plastic trim still looks like new and the metal feels silky to touch.

 

[Aji]

Second update of van review 30/9/22

Well having now just completed a further 1900 miles touring up the east side of Scotland and following the NC500 back down the west coast to Fort William before continuing on south to Glasgow and eventually home we have covered many different types of road and enjoyed 6 weeks of continuous camping in the new van. I said I would do a further review and here goes. I know dash300 is waiting for this

Firstly the Fiat side of things, The van is beautiful to drive and the 9 speed automatic gearbox, new to me, is an absolute pleasure. I think I can honestly say I have never detected any gear changes, only a variation in revs as we climbed the hills etc. The average speed for that whole trip was 33 mph and 32.9 mpg according to the trip computer over 56 hours of driving. On the motorways I was getting 36 mpg at a stead 60 mph, which I thought was very good and can only improve as it wears in.

I now understand the dashboard instrumentation much better and the electric parking brake has not proved a problem but it is not like my fully automatic one in the Skoda. I tend to follow the guide and manually apply it and disengage it unless I am on an incline. Sometimes on an incline it does auto hold. I have purposely engaged the downhill control and all the safety features work. I even managed to get it up onto the levelling blocks where needed without problem, I did think I would find it an issue having no manual handbrake and clutch to use to assist. What I did learn was that when you come down off them you really need to switch off the electric parking brake so there is no sudden jolt as it auto disengages with the increase in revs.

The oil and AdBlue gauges are only visible with the engine running and the latter appears to indicate I have a lot of AdBlue left afte

r just over 2000 miles. The lower nearside mirror is absolutely useless, being obscured by the blind casement frame, but overall the mirrors are adequate.

I found the power from the standard 140bhp 2.2L engine just fine and much better than my previous 2.3L 130 bhp Ducato. It is less susceptible to wind than my previous coach built and I found that travelling at 70 mph was fine if I wished to.

No problems mechanically until leaving Glasgow heading down the motorway to Lancaster in very heavy rain. The EBS safety auto braking assist warnings came on with the function off warning also visible despite it not actually being activated or turned off via the Uconnect system. Also the lane departure safety feature played up at the same time showing white rather than green meaning it was on but could not detect the white lines. These faults came on and off as we drove in heavy rain all that day and whilst the book says this can happen and should rectify itself I don’t think the lane departure system at least is working properly and I have booked it into my local Fiat dealer to check under the warranty. Both systems work on cameras up where the interior mirror would have been.

The Adria conversion bit next. The conversion is fantastic and appears to be very well done with only some minor issues for us. The biggest problem we had was us both getting accustomed to the physical size inside the van. We found we could no longer move around at the same time so one had to be sat in the cab area whilst the other got everything done or if working in the central corridor we would have to step into the bathroom to allow the other to pass but then there would not be sufficient space in that central corridor for two people. Having had 10 years of a much large open spaced van with no dinette we really struggled to adjust to this.

Also the storage space was a struggle to come to terms with. Not the overall space but how compact it is and less weight capacity to adjust to. It is easier to give an example, previously we had a large garage that I could climb inside with external large door access and all cupboards inside were easier to access and it was mainly a just reach in and get what you wanted. Now we have about the same, or very similar, space but the garage is much lower so I banged my head lots & lots. There are tons of cupboards but the main food ones are at floor level so with the narrow corridor you spend most of your time knelt down, for those who can, and pulling things out to access the things you want inside. The head height lockers, of which there are loads, are curved at the back so making it difficult in getting baskets inside properly to make best use of the space. We managed and learned to fold/roll our clothes up too. We chose the smaller fridge to have the hanging wardrobe and now feel this was the right decision and I have even put a rail in the smaller odd shaped tall cupboard under the other bed so we had no problems at all clothes wise, a lot less shoes though for Sharon. I moved the jack into a canvas bag and placed it in the lower cupboard in the garage and this enabled the full use of the floor locker under the dinette for shoes and some gifts we brought back as it is time consuming to access it. The fridge was just fine and we just shopped a bit more often for fridge items and planned our meals better when shopping. We probably ate out more than we would but given we were in the UK and not our normal Continental warm/drier weather this may not be right. The oven was fine if a little small.

The Altera Strada 3 tow bar mounted bike rack took some getting used to. It does not generally engage the lock first time when you slide it back up with the risk of it sliding back whilst driving, as happened to a friend. I certainly mastered the art of sliding the rather heavy weight with 2 bikes on and doing so until it locked properly. Also if on levelling blocks at the front it meant the bottom of the open rack came to ground level. Had I been on top of the ramps I think there would have been a chance the rear van doors would not have opened. As it was I had to use the lower holes on the Brink tow bar and have a ½” spacer fitted to allow the rear doors to open and then only if I used the middle and rear rack positions. I think I am going to have a play with bigger spacers and see if I can get the doors to clear using the top holes. I think I can use up to a 2” spacer with this tow bar but will check up.

So the sliding bike rack did give access to the rear doors but this was another thing that took me a lot of getting used to as it is such a faffing to use it. I’ll describe the motions so you get my drift. I would open drop the bike rack back, wearing gloves to protect the hands from cuts, then open the offside door. Then move around the rack and step into the gap but over the tow bar hitch. Then open the nearside door so now with both doors open I am trapped inside the space with the tow bar bracket in the middle of my foot space. Anything I took out of the garage had to be passed to someone, or placed close by the doors if I could reach or on the inclined bike frames. Compared to a rear mounted lifting rack I was used to this was a headache, BUT did give me access to the rear garage, gas compartment and enabling border control access etc.

This is what I did to make life easier for me. There is a smallish drop down door between the garage and the internal corridor. Luckinly I am agile and slim enough I could fit through this gap if needed but what I did was put everything I wanted easy access to in the large storage box second away from this door. Also things at the sides like walking boots, poles, unbrellas. I fitted a stick on LED battery light next to the upper garage cupboard door and would reach through the open door from inside and get what I needed without having to drop the bikes etc. A big bonus especially in the rain and I found it really easy to do once I managed what I needed. My second large storage box was up to that door and when it was opened would rest on top of the box and it’s contents. If I had got my planning wrong I could, with a lot of effort, actually get some smaller things out of that second box too. The downside is I banged my head once again, lots, and especially on the centre board of the middle mattress causing some nasty grazes. If anyone saw me doing all this they would think what on earth is he doing but believe me I found it the better option and saved lots of time.

The best bit of the new van we found was the quality of the mattresses, we have never had such good sleep before in a van. We use sheets and a duvet in the UK so making them up and getting the outer sides tucked in was a little hard but doable especially if we removed the central mattress made the beds then replaced it.

The dark side windows are very good giving lots of privacy whilst apparently not effecting our view outside and the blinds work better than I thought they would. We only used the external silver screen twice on out last 2 nights to stop condensation on the inside of the windscreen as the nights became colder. I am a sensitive to light sleeper and never once woke up with any light getting in once we had pegged a tea towel on suction hooks at the bathroom window to keep the morning light out as we slept with the bathroom door open.

The Truma Combi 4 heating system was excellent and the insulation from Adria must have been pretty good as we never felt cold anywhere in the van, the cross van heating vent behind the cab seats I think helped a lot. The new Trauma solar controller worked perfectly but unfortunately the Adria Combi Mach system did not work as it should. The App would work all the Adria van things, including fridge, perfectly but it was not talking to the heating and water of the Trauma control panel. The dealer is trying to rectify this for us and I am confident they will do so.

The only thing that went wrong on the trip was a cupboard catch broke and the waste tank valve stuck in the open position, thankfully. It appears to be a design fault with a relatively complex system of cables to a fitment then connection to the valve via a spindle. I understand the fitment is too flexible under pressure from the cables, which are turned from inside the toilet box compartment, which means the spindle disengages from the valve. It has happened to others and the dealer is getting it sorted under warranty. A simple tap on the end of the pipe would suffice but it would mean the tap end was a few inches lower, which is a negative thing if you want to stay on site for longer and not move to the waste point so use a bucket under it. We have once stayed put for 5½ weeks at Lake Garda so driving back and forth to the waste point would be a bind in such circumstances.

So overall we absolutely love the van. The conversion is beautiful, and everything just looks class. A nice touch is the electrically assisted side door closure so no wish bang for us or our neighbours. The big bonus, and one of the main reasons to downsize, is that we now are happy to take the van off site to sightsee for the day. We have never done this before as we had a long van with long overhang and taking it to the unknown could have caused problems. We now have the confidence this ambulance sized van should not cause a problem so we just do it.

Any question I will happily try to answer

Great review.

We have the 9 speed auto with the180 engine, great combination.
Just returned from France, covered 3100 miles, 31.9 mpg with an average speed of 44 mph.
Van has now done 13000 miles since delivery August 21.
Everything on both sides , ie Fiat and Adria working.
Had a couple of plastic door catches fail, I replaced those with aluminium ones I made myself.

Ally

 

[carolyn]

We have the Atera strada DL3 on the back of our PVC with a witter tow bar. Even with a 2 inch spacer we needed it on the lower 2 holes.

We know what you mean about clicking it back into place securely, they make it look so easy on the Video! Nick finally got the knack last year after 3 years of cursing, you have to hold it as low down as possible when you push it up. He still doesn’t think it feels as stable as the Thule but of course you couldn’t open both doors with that one.

We dream of the Memo Vanstar 3.

 

[royandsharont]

Thanks for that info carolyn, I won’t bother messing around trying then.

Do you use a marker board as well as the lights?

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[carolyn]

Thanks for that info carolyn, I won’t bother messing around trying then.

Do you use a marker board as well as the lights?

Do you mean the red and white striped board? If so yes, which reminds me, ours fell apart in France and we travelled home with it held together with a lot of tape. We didn’t take our bikes to Italy, apparently you need a different board for there just to confuse matters.

 

[royandsharont]

carolyn yes that’s the one. I’m just trying to find out whether it is a legal requirement if you have the lights at the rear of the rack and no protrusions, which we don’t, and from someone knowledgeable who lives in Spain I don’t think we do. Yes it should be aluminium for spain & Italy really but most have the plastic ones.

 

[Otter Spotter]

rico yes I forgot to add about the coating I had done. Well to be fair I think it’s fantastic really. The van hardly gets any marks on it when stored whlist the old one got lots of black marks very quickly. We live only about 4 miles from a refinery so do wonder if that had something to do with it.

When we got up to Thurso I gave it a wash down, carefully, with a power wash Lance and it came up remarkably well considering it was just water thrown at it. Later at Oban I gave it a wash down with a soap hose brush and jet wash and it cleaned up excellently given there was no hand finishing etc.

The water just beads on it and runs off very quickly, the black plastic trim still looks like new and the metal feels silky to touch.

Be very wary of using commercial jet washers, their cleaning materials can be very harsh and not recommended for ceramic coating, best use something like Autoglym shampoo for your van.

 

[carolyn]

I didn’t realise until looking at buying a new one that you don’t even need one for France, all that wasted sticky tape. It’s just Spain and Italy and the Italian one has to be metal with 5 red and 4 white stripes and the Spanish one can be plastic or metal and has 3 red and 3 white stripes.

 

[dash300]

Second update of van review 30/9/22

Well having now just completed a further 1900 miles touring up the east side of Scotland and following the NC500 back down the west coast to Fort William before continuing on south to Glasgow and eventually home we have covered many different types of road and enjoyed 6 weeks of continuous camping in the new van. I said I would do a further review and here goes. I know dash300 is waiting for this

Firstly the Fiat side of things, The van is beautiful to drive and the 9 speed automatic gearbox, new to me, is an absolute pleasure. I think I can honestly say I have never detected any gear changes, only a variation in revs as we climbed the hills etc. The average speed for that whole trip was 33 mph and 32.9 mpg according to the trip computer over 56 hours of driving. On the motorways I was getting 36 mpg at a stead 60 mph, which I thought was very good and can only improve as it wears in.

I now understand the dashboard instrumentation much better and the electric parking brake has not proved a problem but it is not like my fully automatic one in the Skoda. I tend to follow the guide and manually apply it and disengage it unless I am on an incline. Sometimes on an incline it does auto hold. I have purposely engaged the downhill control and all the safety features work. I even managed to get it up onto the levelling blocks where needed without problem, I did think I would find it an issue having no manual handbrake and clutch to use to assist. What I did learn was that when you come down off them you really need to switch off the electric parking brake so there is no sudden jolt as it auto disengages with the increase in revs.

The oil and AdBlue gauges are only visible with the engine running and the latter appears to indicate I have a lot of AdBlue left after just over 2000 miles. The lower nearside mirror is absolutely useless, being obscured by the blind casement frame, but overall the mirrors are adequate.

I found the power from the standard 140bhp 2.2L engine just fine and much better than my previous 2.3L 130 bhp Ducato. It is less susceptible to wind than my previous coach built and I found that travelling at 70 mph was fine if I wished to.

No problems mechanically until leaving Glasgow heading down the motorway to Lancaster in very heavy rain. The EBS safety auto braking assist warnings came on with the function off warning also visible despite it not actually being activated or turned off via the Uconnect system. Also the lane departure safety feature played up at the same time showing white rather than green meaning it was on but could not detect the white lines. These faults came on and off as we drove in heavy rain all that day and whilst the book says this can happen and should rectify itself I don’t think the lane departure system at least is working properly and I have booked it into my local Fiat dealer to check under the warranty. Both systems work on cameras up where the interior mirror would have been.

The Adria conversion bit next. The conversion is fantastic and appears to be very well done with only some minor issues for us. The biggest problem we had was us both getting accustomed to the physical size inside the van. We found we could no longer move around at the same time so one had to be sat in the cab area whilst the other got everything done or if working in the central corridor we would have to step into the bathroom to allow the other to pass but then there would not be sufficient space in that central corridor for two people. Having had 10 years of a much large open spaced van with no dinette we really struggled to adjust to this.

Also the storage space was a struggle to come to terms with. Not the overall space but how compact it is and less weight capacity to adjust to. It is easier to give an example, previously we had a large garage that I could climb inside with external large door access and all cupboards inside were easier to access and it was mainly a just reach in and get what you wanted. Now we have about the same, or very similar, space but the garage is much lower so I banged my head lots & lots. There are tons of cupboards but the main food ones are at floor level so with the narrow corridor you spend most of your time knelt down, for those who can, and pulling things out to access the things you want inside. The head height lockers, of which there are loads, are curved at the back so making it difficult in getting baskets inside properly to make best use of the space. We managed and learned to fold/roll our clothes up too. We chose the smaller fridge to have the hanging wardrobe and now feel this was the right decision and I have even put a rail in the smaller odd shaped tall cupboard under the other bed so we had no problems at all clothes wise, a lot less shoes though for Sharon. I moved the jack into a canvas bag and placed it in the lower cupboard in the garage and this enabled the full use of the floor locker under the dinette for shoes and some gifts we brought back as it is time consuming to access it. The fridge was just fine and we just shopped a bit more often for fridge items and planned our meals better when shopping. We probably ate out more than we would but given we were in the UK and not our normal Continental warm/drier weather this may not be right. The oven was fine if a little small.

The Altera Strada 3 tow bar mounted bike rack took some getting used to. It does not generally engage the lock first time when you slide it back up with the risk of it sliding back whilst driving, as happened to a friend. I certainly mastered the art of sliding the rather heavy weight with 2 bikes on and doing so until it locked properly. Also if on levelling blocks at the front it meant the bottom of the open rack came to ground level. Had I been on top of the ramps I think there would have been a chance the rear van doors would not have opened. As it was I had to use the lower holes on the Brink tow bar and have a ½” spacer fitted to allow the rear doors to open and then only if I used the middle and rear rack positions. I think I am going to have a play with bigger spacers and see if I can get the doors to clear using the top holes. I think I can use up to a 2” spacer with this tow bar but will check up.

So the sliding bike rack did give access to the rear doors but this was another thing that took me a lot of getting used to as it is such a faffing to use it. I’ll describe the motions so you get my drift. I would open drop the bike rack back, wearing gloves to protect the hands from cuts, then open the offside door. Then move around the rack and step into the gap but over the tow bar hitch. Then open the nearside door so now with both doors open I am trapped inside the space with the tow bar bracket in the middle of my foot space. Anything I took out of the garage had to be passed to someone, or placed close by the doors if I could reach or on the inclined bike frames. Compared to a rear mounted lifting rack I was used to this was a headache, BUT did give me access to the rear garage, gas compartment and enabling border control access etc.

This is what I did to make life easier for me. There is a smallish drop down door between the garage and the internal corridor. Luckinly I am agile and slim enough I could fit through this gap if needed but what I did was put everything I wanted easy access to in the large storage box second away from this door. Also things at the sides like walking boots, poles, unbrellas. I fitted a stick on LED battery light next to the upper garage cupboard door and would reach through the open door from inside and get what I needed without having to drop the bikes etc. A big bonus especially in the rain and I found it really easy to do once I managed what I needed. My second large storage box was up to that door and when it was opened would rest on top of the box and it’s contents. If I had got my planning wrong I could, with a lot of effort, actually get some smaller things out of that second box too. The downside is I banged my head once again, lots, and especially on the centre board of the middle mattress causing some nasty grazes. If anyone saw me doing all this they would think what on earth is he doing but believe me I found it the better option and saved lots of time.

The best bit of the new van we found was the quality of the mattresses, we have never had such good sleep before in a van. We use sheets and a duvet in the UK so making them up and getting the outer sides tucked in was a little hard but doable especially if we removed the central mattress made the beds then replaced it.

The dark side windows are very good giving lots of privacy whilst apparently not effecting our view outside and the blinds work better than I thought they would. We only used the external silver screen twice on out last 2 nights to stop condensation on the inside of the windscreen as the nights became colder. I am a sensitive to light sleeper and never once woke up with any light getting in once we had pegged a tea towel on suction hooks at the bathroom window to keep the morning light out as we slept with the bathroom door open.

The Truma Combi 4 heating system was excellent and the insulation from Adria must have been pretty good as we never felt cold anywhere in the van, the cross van heating vent behind the cab seats I think helped a lot. The new Trauma solar controller worked perfectly but unfortunately the Adria Combi Mach system did not work as it should. The App would work all the Adria van things, including fridge, perfectly but it was not talking to the heating and water of the Trauma control panel. The dealer is trying to rectify this for us and I am confident they will do so.

The only thing that went wrong on the trip was a cupboard catch broke and the waste tank valve stuck in the open position, thankfully. It appears to be a design fault with a relatively complex system of cables to a fitment then connection to the valve via a spindle. I understand the fitment is too flexible under pressure from the cables, which are turned from inside the toilet box compartment, which means the spindle disengages from the valve. It has happened to others and the dealer is getting it sorted under warranty. A simple tap on the end of the pipe would suffice but it would mean the tap end was a few inches lower, which is a negative thing if you want to stay on site for longer and not move to the waste point so use a bucket under it. We have once stayed put for 5½ weeks at Lake Garda so driving back and forth to the waste point would be a bind in such circumstances.

So overall we absolutely love the van. The conversion is beautiful, and everything just looks class. A nice touch is the electrically assisted side door closure so no wish bang for us or our neighbours. The big bonus, and one of the main reasons to downsize, is that we now are happy to take the van off site to sightsee for the day. We have never done this before as we had a long van with long overhang and taking it to the unknown could have caused problems. We now have the confidence this ambulance sized van should not cause a problem so we just do it.

Any question I will happily try to answer

Now I have a date, I am gratefully re reading your excellent reviews Roy particularly with reference to the Fiat side of things.

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