"Just Looking......"

BB we are not keen on the dropdown beds, lot of weight that we wouldn't use, can see how useful they are as an occasional 4 berth but don't need it. Friends who fulltime have a Frankia 2 berth that has a big dropdown bed with a large lounge underneath it, rear bathroom and kitchen is kind of in front of that, really roomy van they like the drop down bed as its easy to push it up out of the way during the day giving them lots of space. We prefer the rear lounge with 2 single couches that can be used as twin beds or king bed, this gives us loads of space during the day.

We looked at some Hobby M/H's recently but can't say I was impressed, not as good as Hymer/Bursner IMO. Shame as their caravans are good.

yes, the Frankia you describe is very much like the Hymer in my post....we saw this very Frankia a couple of years ago at the NEC, thought it was great.

yes, the front lounge with bed over, is a similar concept (i guess) to the rear lounge that can be converted to beds...in that it is a single space being used for two functions...

we used our drop down recently for the first time (gave our rear beds to daughter and SIL when at Sandy Balls) and it was great....1.6m wide and room to sit up for a cuppa...slept like logs.

i dont 'rear lounge' as i prefer a cab seat to support my (worn out, apparently...) lower back, and low backed sofa-type seats dont give me enough support...most rear lounge designs seem to leave the cab out of the 'whole' design and this, to me, is a waste of a metre or so of space...

i dont want to be sitting in a cab seat that has the bathroom wall immediately in front of my face....i like to put my feet up on the adjacent side seat...

a one box design (especially an A-class) with a drop down bed over the cab seats does give a great use of space (as your friends have discovered)....they even do one now that allows lengthways sleeping, effectively as singles, but on one bed.....clever these germans....

We wanted a seperate bed area as Mrs T retires early and gets up early wheras I go to bed a bit alter and get up a bit later so only havig an overcab dropdown bed that makes the lounge area unusable was out of the question.

We like the continental lounge area and like you BB love to swivel teh cab seats and put feet up, if you do not use the cab area as you say its 1m wasted.

We wanted a seperate bed area as Mrs T retires early and gets up early wheras I go to bed a bit alter and get up a bit later so only havig an overcab dropdown bed that makes the lounge area unusable was out of the question.

We like the continental lounge area and like you BB love to swivel teh cab seats and put feet up, if you do not use the cab area as you say its 1m wasted.

the drop down bed in an A-class cab does not actually make the lounge unusable...

the bed eases forward towards the windscreen as it decends, meaning only the two cab seats cannot be used....these have to be folded anyway....the remaining lounge seats are free should they be required...

obviously, this is different for a transverse dropdown in a non-Aclass coachbuilt as it sits further to the centre of the van, covering the whole lounge...

but there is still not a seperate bed area (bedroom) so the person in bed still gets the noise/disturbance from TV, lights, kettle etc.

but there is still not a seperate bed area (bedroom) so the person in bed still gets the noise/disturbance from TV, lights, kettle etc.

ah, i see what you mean....yes, ok for someone to be reading quietly, i guess.

i reckon, even in our van, if i had the tv on in the lounge, it could be heard in our bedroom....obviously depends on how loud the tv is and how good OH's hearing is

another advantage of the drop down bed is that bedding stays in place on the bed, no extra storage space required..

but there is still not a seperate bed area (bedroom) so the person in bed still gets the noise/disturbance from TV, lights, kettle etc.

Not bothered about a separate bedroom, just to be in comfort and in bed does me, we use headphones so that we don't disturb each other, and subdued lighting isn't really an issue.

We never personally saw the benefits of towing a huge fixed bed van around, and would want to keep to a small MH so that parking isn't an issue. This is more important for us than having a separate bedroom area. Just our preferences at the moment. 

 

another advantage of the drop down bed is that bedding stays in place on the bed, no extra storage space required..

Write your comments here...so does ours on the island bed

but there is still not a seperate bed area (bedroom) so the person in bed still gets the noise/disturbance from TV, lights, kettle etc.

Not bothered about a separate bedroom, just to be in comfort and in bed does me, we use headphones so that we don't disturb each other, and subdued lighting isn't really an issue.

We never personally saw the benefits of towing a huge fixed bed van around, and would want to keep to a small MH so that parking isn't an issue. This is more important for us than having a separate bedroom area. Just our preferences at the moment. 

Write your comments here...and that's why they make a plethora of sizes, layouts, equipment levels, furnishings etc. it's not a one size fits all we are all different and want different things. We have looked at some very expensive vans but some we would not want even if given one (well maybe) as the colour of the wood in our opinion is awful all orange but a lot of people seem to like them.

It can be costly! We started "Just looking..." earlier this summer, and ended up a couple of weeks ago with a brand new motorhome, despite our now previous 10 year old one having nothing intrinsically wrong with it, other perhaps than being the age it was.

Our preference is for a two berth layout with full length single bed/settees and as close to 6 metres LOA as possible.   We found that there are surprisingly few out there which meet this simple spec, and they are mostly found in entry level ranges rather than the more up-market ranges.

We looked at continental vans with fixed singles, but to meet our length requirement (to fit on our drive) would have had to accept a cramped lounge area.  So the only viable options were UK built, but amongst these we found some strange design decisions, for example an end kitchen layout where the sink position was right above the low step just inside the habitation door.

Inevitably what we bought involved compromises, the ideal motorhome for us does not appear to exist.  The new one is slightly longer than our old van, but is still a proper low-line, with Alko chassis, so both our (ageing) dog and our (ageing) selves can get in and out easily.  With the extra kit thrown in and the fairly heavy discount we got (dealers clearing their forecourts for next year's models?) it has most things that we had on our tick list.

Still, it would have been a lot cheaper not to have gone "Just looking..."