The Motorhome for fun forum has been a great source of help to us in recent months, so thought we would share our ‘journey’ from VW California to a Burstner 540C - it just might help others.
We have had two VW California over the last 10 years and for many of those years a California was our only vehicle. We travelled widely in the UK and had many memorable trips, especially in Ireland. A perfect vehicle for the Wild Atlantic Way, because so many beautifully sited car parks have 2 metre height barriers we could slip under!
So why did we decide to go for a slightly larger van? Well a combination of reasons really, mainly related to the weather. We had to cancel a couple of trips this Spring as it was just so wet and we are keen walkers - there’s not much room in a Cali for dripping wet kit! In the same vein we we were beginning to find it tiresome heading out to a campsite loo in the middle of a wet night or to have to drop the pop top in gale force winds. We also thought it might be nice to have a permanently made up bed. So the hunt was on….
Criteria was fairly simple: Had to have a loo/somewhere to hang wet gear, a permanently made up double bed and we didn’t want anything too much larger than our our existing van.
We started off looking at VW California Grand in main dealers and frankly we were disappointed. The Grand wasn’t right for us - just didn’t appeal, but undoubtably suits many. However it was the poor service and attitude which frankly appalled us. Van’s were poorly presented, dealers didn’t return calls, were totally inflexible and unless we would commit to buying that day couldn’t be bothered with us. We moved on….
Lots of online research followed, much of it on this forum and we realised that a PVC would suit us well. One morning we came across Motorhome Depot and as luck would have it they had just advertised a Burstner 540C which met all our criteria and was within an hours drive. We live in Cornwall and I have to say all of our dealings with Motorhome Depot Cornwall were first class - thank you Alex. A viewing was arranged and full credit to the vendor, it was beautifully presented and professionally valeted. It was ‘as new’, only 2 years old, 5,600 miles, Fiat Ducato base, very high spec, automatic gearbox and loads of extras with everything from large sat nav, tracker and solar to wi-fi and tv. I laughed when we saw the tv and said ‘we will never use that’… but guess what we often catchup on the news over a coffee first thing in the morning! It’s actually only half a metre longer than our old van, slightly wider and obviously taller, but very easy to drive with the 9 speed auto box.
We sold the Cali (through Motorway, as time was short ) and a deal was done. Motorhome Depot kindly drove us over to pick up the van and carried out an excellent handover, can't fault them.
We’ve had the Burstner for 4 months now and love it. I think the only disappointment to begin with were the rattles. Interestingly they weren’t coming from poorly packed kit, but the cab area. The forum was again really helpful here and we now have a rattle free van! Main issues were poorly installed Remis blinds on the cab doors, some loose reinforcing on the back of interior trim above the door, (it creaked when going over pot holes) incorrect tyre pressure and the velcro securing the headlining around the panoramic roof light needed re-bonding to it's mounts. I found ‘Black Tack’ invaluable for fixing the Remis blind trim, along with self adhesive felt pads in a few places and high temperature contact adhesive for re-bonding the velcro. Time consuming tracking down the cause, but worth it.
We purchased a wrap around insulated screen cover from classifieds on here and had a 230ah lithium domestic battery fitted by Offgrid Power Solutions together with a decent solar charger and a Battery Master to make sure the starter battery is kept topped up. We highly recommend Offgrid Power Solutions, very knowledgable, friendly and they offer a nice discount to forum members - thank you Roger and Nigel. They also advised on adapting the existing electrical charging system for lithium, actually easy in our case as it's a fairly new van.
A few other purchases…. a very neat small 3D printed ‘funnel’ for topping up the water tank when we can't use a hose, and a Cadac Safari 30 for Summer days. Everything else just transferred over from the old van, including dash cam. We also updated the Sat Nav maps - thank you MoHoSam for your excellent instructions on this forum - worked a treat, first time.
A few thoughts for anyone else considering switching from a VW van to a small motorhome:
We now cook in a different way… we always tried to cook/boil water outside the Cali as room was limited and we wanted to avoid moisture/smells. Also in the Cali the hob was on the opposite side to the side door. In the Burstner the hob is in front of the sliding side door, so we just have the door open and if necessary pull the fly screen across. If it’s raining we just open the side door window for ventilation.
It is easier to swivel the front seats round… the Burstner doesn’t have a floor mounted handbrake.
Surprisingly good fuel consumption. In a thousand miles of mixed driving we have averaged 33.7 miles per gallon.
One down side - the dining table is smaller than our last van …. but you can’t have everything when you are squeezing a quart into a pint pot!
…. the only other thing we miss is being able to get under those pesky 2 metre barriers!! Oh and to us the Burstner feels huge compared to the Cali, the recent post on here regarding Motorhome size made us smile!
Scotland beckons in the Spring.
View attachment 970178
We have had two VW California over the last 10 years and for many of those years a California was our only vehicle. We travelled widely in the UK and had many memorable trips, especially in Ireland. A perfect vehicle for the Wild Atlantic Way, because so many beautifully sited car parks have 2 metre height barriers we could slip under!
So why did we decide to go for a slightly larger van? Well a combination of reasons really, mainly related to the weather. We had to cancel a couple of trips this Spring as it was just so wet and we are keen walkers - there’s not much room in a Cali for dripping wet kit! In the same vein we we were beginning to find it tiresome heading out to a campsite loo in the middle of a wet night or to have to drop the pop top in gale force winds. We also thought it might be nice to have a permanently made up bed. So the hunt was on….
Criteria was fairly simple: Had to have a loo/somewhere to hang wet gear, a permanently made up double bed and we didn’t want anything too much larger than our our existing van.
We started off looking at VW California Grand in main dealers and frankly we were disappointed. The Grand wasn’t right for us - just didn’t appeal, but undoubtably suits many. However it was the poor service and attitude which frankly appalled us. Van’s were poorly presented, dealers didn’t return calls, were totally inflexible and unless we would commit to buying that day couldn’t be bothered with us. We moved on….
Lots of online research followed, much of it on this forum and we realised that a PVC would suit us well. One morning we came across Motorhome Depot and as luck would have it they had just advertised a Burstner 540C which met all our criteria and was within an hours drive. We live in Cornwall and I have to say all of our dealings with Motorhome Depot Cornwall were first class - thank you Alex. A viewing was arranged and full credit to the vendor, it was beautifully presented and professionally valeted. It was ‘as new’, only 2 years old, 5,600 miles, Fiat Ducato base, very high spec, automatic gearbox and loads of extras with everything from large sat nav, tracker and solar to wi-fi and tv. I laughed when we saw the tv and said ‘we will never use that’… but guess what we often catchup on the news over a coffee first thing in the morning! It’s actually only half a metre longer than our old van, slightly wider and obviously taller, but very easy to drive with the 9 speed auto box.
We sold the Cali (through Motorway, as time was short ) and a deal was done. Motorhome Depot kindly drove us over to pick up the van and carried out an excellent handover, can't fault them.
We’ve had the Burstner for 4 months now and love it. I think the only disappointment to begin with were the rattles. Interestingly they weren’t coming from poorly packed kit, but the cab area. The forum was again really helpful here and we now have a rattle free van! Main issues were poorly installed Remis blinds on the cab doors, some loose reinforcing on the back of interior trim above the door, (it creaked when going over pot holes) incorrect tyre pressure and the velcro securing the headlining around the panoramic roof light needed re-bonding to it's mounts. I found ‘Black Tack’ invaluable for fixing the Remis blind trim, along with self adhesive felt pads in a few places and high temperature contact adhesive for re-bonding the velcro. Time consuming tracking down the cause, but worth it.
We purchased a wrap around insulated screen cover from classifieds on here and had a 230ah lithium domestic battery fitted by Offgrid Power Solutions together with a decent solar charger and a Battery Master to make sure the starter battery is kept topped up. We highly recommend Offgrid Power Solutions, very knowledgable, friendly and they offer a nice discount to forum members - thank you Roger and Nigel. They also advised on adapting the existing electrical charging system for lithium, actually easy in our case as it's a fairly new van.
A few other purchases…. a very neat small 3D printed ‘funnel’ for topping up the water tank when we can't use a hose, and a Cadac Safari 30 for Summer days. Everything else just transferred over from the old van, including dash cam. We also updated the Sat Nav maps - thank you MoHoSam for your excellent instructions on this forum - worked a treat, first time.
A few thoughts for anyone else considering switching from a VW van to a small motorhome:
We now cook in a different way… we always tried to cook/boil water outside the Cali as room was limited and we wanted to avoid moisture/smells. Also in the Cali the hob was on the opposite side to the side door. In the Burstner the hob is in front of the sliding side door, so we just have the door open and if necessary pull the fly screen across. If it’s raining we just open the side door window for ventilation.
It is easier to swivel the front seats round… the Burstner doesn’t have a floor mounted handbrake.
Surprisingly good fuel consumption. In a thousand miles of mixed driving we have averaged 33.7 miles per gallon.
One down side - the dining table is smaller than our last van …. but you can’t have everything when you are squeezing a quart into a pint pot!
…. the only other thing we miss is being able to get under those pesky 2 metre barriers!! Oh and to us the Burstner feels huge compared to the Cali, the recent post on here regarding Motorhome size made us smile!
Scotland beckons in the Spring.
View attachment 970178
