Swift Challenger and Eccles Sport Range.

We are the proud owners of a new Swift Challenger Sport 584 Model (Island Bed).  The new layout island bed solved the problems of our previous van, a Compass Magnum 544 where one of you had to climb over the other to get out of the bed! 

The new van also has a roomy bathroom, something again our old van lacked.

However, there are some glaring mistakes in the design which we would like to tell members about (and hope that Swift take note too)!

Mainly silly things but important to some people!

The 'hi-fi.  Nice looking with a JVC Radio and cd player etc.  Stylish speakers set in the roof of the van.  However, really cheap and tinny sounds which any one with a modicum of knowledge would tell you with speakers set in that position.  They need to be set in the side lockers, the conventional position in most vans.  This creates a loudspeaker enclosure and therefore gives bass and much improved sound.

Now we come to the TV set up.  In the 584 there are arial points in the bedroom area, on the silly little shelf by the door and opposite the sink unit but no one in the cleverly designed 'pod' in the front window.  Yet there is one there in the 564 Twin Bed model! Why??????

If you want to view the other way and use the silly little shelf by the door, there is no room to put any set-top box, recorder, dvd player etc.

The toilet area door does not slide easily and the securing catch is on the extreme right on the top.  So you have to try and reach up for this at night when trying to access the toilet area.  You don't now wake your partner up with the island bed layout but you soon do so when opening the toilet area door!

Having said all this, the rest of the van is very comfortable and well designed and finished.  But why make the above simple mistakes that could so easikly have been avoided at no extra cost!

David Arnold