Taller Motorhomes

AS BB says, his is a whisker under 2.9 and everything else seems to be 3M or plus. Even the Carthago is about 25cm taller than most caravans. I realse that some have underslung kit but I am somewhat puzzled by UK MHs as they would apperar to 'waste the space' . Why not reduce the height?

I wonder if the extra height is due to using the cab and chassis as supplied by the manufacturer where as some makes use an AlKo low profile chassis? What I did notice looking at one range with the greater height was that it had a level floor throughout which is a plus to me. 

David

The height of my motorhome could have definitely been reduce by a lower ceiling height. As is, it does make for plenty of cupboard space and nice lines to accommodate the overcab bed. I think pictures of the latest version indicate they are lower in height but by how much I don't know. Adding a sat dome can easily push the height above 3 meters on many vans..

peedee

@CY...yes, we are about 25cm taller than a std caravan, but we have a double floor which accounts for 15cm plus the thickness of the second floor itself, and we run on 16" wheels rather than the 15" on a caravan.

with the water tanks, storage and other services between the floors, i wouldnt say our MH wasted space....quite the contrary, in fact, and as DK says the extra benefit is a fully level floor.

we run on a low line AL-KO chassis.

our underbed storage is deep enough to accommodate a hanging wardrobe (one of three) and at the rear theres enough space under to store bikes over a metre high.

so, the height (including the extra thermal benefits of the second floor) is really put to good use, definitely not wasted

We have an Autotrail Apache 700SE which at its tallest point is 3m we drove up through Spain and in to France a couple of years ago and never had any issues at the tolls etc. On that trip though I did chat to a couple who also had an autotrail and said that on a couple of occasions they had been charged HGV prices at the tolls

BB, your extra height is obviously utilised. What I find puzzling is that the majority of UK designs don't appear to utlilise the extra height efficiently. Having looked round quite a few MH, the thing that strikes me is the height I climb to get into the accomodation. What are they doing with all that space underneath. It's not all running gear and suspension. The extreme example for height is fifth wheelers. A different beast, I know, but they seem to have what is practically a cellar sized storage below the accommodation floor level. Why do UK MH builders not use the space or reduce the height?

the current version of our old Bolero is exactly the same height (2.89m) as our Carthago, but doesnt have a double floor and the interior standing room is similar...

however, in all MH, they have to carry the fresh and waste water tanks somewhere. while many continentals (with no double floor) will site the fresh tank inside the van under a seat (for netter winterisation) they will still probably have the waste tank underslung.

the Bolero, and many other UK vans will have both tanks outside and slung underneath the floor.

with these tanks being (say) 15-20cm deep, and the internal floor being built above them, this will raise the height of the MH compared to a caravan which has no tanks to carry.

so, the bolero would be similar to our van, except we have a second (lower) floor enclosing the area where the tanks are.

the internal floor will be roughly the same height as ours, but could be nearly 20cm higher than a caravan which has no tanks to accommdate.

possibly.....

Ah, perhaps I've got to the bottom, or is that the top, of it. 

One of the reasons we disliked the AT was the height, most were well over 3m so lots more € on the tolls....

Having just swapped an Elddis MH for an Autotrail and being 6'2" tall I am enjoying the extra height inside of our "low profile", which BB correctly states is the same height as the "overcab".  We find the massive cupboards in the "bulge" to be very useful giving us virtually unlimited storage compared to the previous van....

The height relative to toll booth charges is not an issue to us as we have few plans to take it abroad........the O/H prefers a "proper" holiday if we are going abroad !! (read- posh hotel, flying there etc etc....!)

So I guess it all depends what use you intend to make of your van....