MH selection advice, headroom for tall owner.

[Spacetourer]

Hi,

New member checking in! Glad to be here.

Looking for a little advice/recommendations. (Standard first post I guess!)

We are tall, partner is 6” and I’m 6’6” (199cm)

Looking to upgrade from a trusty T5 pop top I built 14 years ago to something a bit bigger and more suitable for family use. We have a 2yr old and occasionally might take a guest.

Had a look round some showrooms and have been reading on here for a while.

This is where we are, priorities include standing height and bed size of course, a shower I can actually fit in and use would be great too! ability to use van year round and possibly into the alps so somewhat winterised. 4-6 berth ideally.

Layouts we liked are large garage with transverse (if big enough) fixed bed or possibly the singles that can make up to a bigger double.

We viewed a
Carado A464 (2019)
and an
Autotrail Imala 736G (new)
both had great layout, Autotrail seemed basic, Carado tbh felt a little dated but layouts suited us well.

I saw a Adria Coral XL 670 Plus
which had same layout and looked a lot nicer outside and inside.

Checked out online the 600/670 (both look really good). Model no longer available in the UK though so might struggle finding many used ones.

I have also heeded advice to look at slightly older A-Class units, seen a few Hymer Exsis which seem great but head height is 199cm and beds are too small at only 190cm

The Carado I-Series look good, 210cm headroom and beds that are bigger than the Hymers.

Of course the coachbuilt vans all seem to have bigger beds and clearly have great headroom.

I am keen on A-Class but would need to be a bit older as budget won’t stretch tooooo far.

Ideally I’m trying to keep the purchase at £60k

I’m looking for any pointers or recommendations on other vans that may suit, hoping my 2nd van will be the right one so I don’t need to get the standard 3rd van before I get it right

C1 is a current work in progress so open to over 3500kg too.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

Hi,and welcome. Had you thought about narrowing your search down to as few a models as possible then seeing if you can either hire that style of vehicle, or as similar as possible? A weekend away should give you a good idea as whether it's a goer, or not. The money won't have been wasted if it saves on running through the whole process again in a short while as a quick viewing in a showroom is just not the same thing as long term living with a van.
Mike.

 

[Spacetourer]

Hi,and welcome. Had you thought about narrowing your search down to as few a models as possible then seeing if you can either hire that style of vehicle, or as similar as possible? A weekend away should give you a good idea as whether it's a goer, or not. The money won't have been wasted if it saves on running through the whole process again in a short while as a quick viewing in a showroom is just not the same thing as long term living with a van.
Mike.

Absolutely, thats kind of what I'm doing, trying to get a shortlist of vans I can stand up in which seems to be not too many currently!

 

[MichaelT]

Absolutely, thats kind of what I'm doing, trying to get a shortlist of vans I can stand up in which seems to be not too many currently!

Have you been in many, our new van says 1.98 inside I'm 6'5" and can easily stand with plenty of headroom so I think published heights are not what the actual height is.

 

[Spacetourer]

Have you been in many, our new van says 1.98 inside I'm 6'5" and can easily stand with plenty of headroom so I think published heights are not what the actual height is.

That's very encouraging! I presume that's in the Carthago?

I haven't been in many A-Class yet actually, but good point that we should not trust the manufacturers figures, I'll try some before I rule them off my list of potentials.

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[MichaelT]

That's very encouraging! I presume that's in the Carthago?

I haven't been in many A-Class yet actually, but good point that we should not trust the manufacturers figures, I'll try some before I rule them off my list of potentials.

Yes compactline

 

[Carpmart]

RS motorhomes have huge headroom. You can just about get an early RS Endeavour for your budget.

 

[Topher]

I am 6' 4" and was struggling to find anything suitable so In 2016 we went to the Caravan Salon in Dusseldorf. We set foot in anything under £125k (which was a lot of vehicles in those days). After 6 days at the show, we came away with only 12 vehicles that I could stand up in with no risk of hitting my head anywhere, lie down properly on the bed (there are loads of long island beds but they curve at the bottom and your feet hang over the end), and where I could stand up in the bathroom and have a shower without stooping.

We ended up buying a Hymer B668 and it is perfect for the two of us.

Edit: just measured the ceiling height in our Hymer at 1980mm.

 

[IGMH]

Hi,

New member checking in! Glad to be here.

Looking for a little advice/recommendations. (Standard first post I guess!)

We are tall, partner is 6” and I’m 6’6” (199cm)

Looking to upgrade from a trusty T5 pop top I built 14 years ago to something a bit bigger and more suitable for family use. We have a 2yr old and occasionally might take a guest.

Had a look round some showrooms and have been reading on here for a while.

This is where we are, priorities include standing height and bed size of course, a shower I can actually fit in and use would be great too! ability to use van year round and possibly into the alps so somewhat winterised. 4-6 berth ideally.

Layouts we liked are large garage with transverse (if big enough) fixed bed or possibly the singles that can make up to a bigger double.

We viewed a
Carado A464 (2019)
and an
Autotrail Imala 736G (new)
both had great layout, Autotrail seemed basic, Carado tbh felt a little dated but layouts suited us well.

I saw a Adria Coral XL 670 Plus
which had same layout and looked a lot nicer outside and inside.

Checked out online the 600/670 (both look really good). Model no longer available in the UK though so might struggle finding many used ones.

I have also heeded advice to look at slightly older A-Class units, seen a few Hymer Exsis which seem great but head height is 199cm and beds are too small at only 190cm

The Carado I-Series look good, 210cm headroom and beds that are bigger than the Hymers.

Of course the coachbuilt vans all seem to have bigger beds and clearly have great headroom.

I am keen on A-Class but would need to be a bit older as budget won’t stretch tooooo far.

Ideally I’m trying to keep the purchase at £60k

I’m looking for any pointers or recommendations on other vans that may suit, hoping my 2nd van will be the right one so I don’t need to get the standard 3rd van before I get it right

C1 is a current work in progress so open to over 3500kg too.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Hi,

Also just starting out and I am 6ft 4in.
We did not realise initially that the dropdown beds are actually optional on some Autotrails (e.g. F series) giving significantly more headroom.
It is a balance, we decided that making up the bed across the van (at something like 6ft 8 long), light from the "hidden" skylight) and extra payload was a acceptable compromise. (Also went for parallel lounge (rather than 1/2 dinette) as only require 2 travelling seats).

 

[Molly A]

One thing you might want to consider is driving position. My partner is 6ft2in with quite a long back and when we were looking at coach built vans he found he had to stoop down to see through the windscreen. As we drive down to Greece each year the prospect of doing 1500km crouching down so he can see the road ahead was not an attractive one. You normally can't drop the height of the seats because of the turning mechanism , so we had to exclude all coach built vans. We bought a very tidy five year old Hymer Exsis 414I, which gave him perfect visibility with its huge windscreen. We have transverse beds front and back and have no issues with him fitting. The standing room is also fine, but it is a tiny van, at 6 metres, so we don't do a lot of walking about in it, but it suits us perfectly.

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[Jo-jo]

light from the "hidden" skylight

IGMH we have the F60 too, the skylight has a blind on it, we didnt realise at first either. It's a plastic one, not the concertina Remis type.

HTH