Motorhome purchase advice welcome

Tony

If your budget is £40000 I think you will have plenty choice. We are now on our second Peugeot based motorhome with 130hp engines and I have never found them lacking in power. Where slightly more power might be needed is if you wanted to go for an automatic but these usually already have an engine upgrade. Perhaps get hold of a copy of MMM (Motorhome Monthly Magazine) as they have a good section on buying secondhand.

David

We went for a 2.3 Fiat based Euro 6 150hp, rather than the 130hp. It certainly has plenty of power on hills, even close to our maximum loading. In France last year there were a few really steep bits and it tackled them with ease. 

We have a Fiat 130bhp with Comfortmatic. It's slow. There is an 'Up Button" for going uphill and it did change gear very well on 1:3 hills in Scotland. You can also use it in manual. It suits us as we travel with the snails. Overall, I like the Comfortmatic.

Without knowing your vans weight, I would say a 150bhp is the minimum for the extra oomph. 150bhp will let you run with the lorries rather than us snails.

This may give you an idea:

https://www.fiatcamper.com/en/product

Have you thought about having your engine performance tuned for better performance? 

150bhp will let you run with the lorries rather than us snails.

As our MH's unladen weight is less than 3.05 tonnes the same limits apply as if we were a car. It's one of the things I enjoy about the MH, no more traveling with the HGV's. On Motorways we normally travel at about 65 mph. It returns a slightly better MPG than 70 mph. It's still a relatively new engine at only 5000 miles, but so far we have averaged 29.3 overall.

So much depends on the weight of the van and the generation of the engine. We have a Euro6 2litre Peugeot 160 engine in ours and it flies but we're only 3500kg fully loaded. It goes far better than the 2007 3litre in a 4250kg unit we had back along.

Really, you can only test drive and see what you think.

I have just realised I was telling fibs about my new motorhome which actually has the 160hp engine. However I still stand by my point that the Bailey Approach 740 with the smaller 130hp engine was no slouch and we toured all over Europe with it. Difficult to compare it with the newer engine as we have only done about 2500 miles and the new motorhome is smaller and lighter. I do appreciate the extra 5 mpg I get with the new one!!!

David

150BHP in my Peugeot lowline van. I tend to cruise about 5mph slower than SteveL and get around 32-33mpg

Most modern engines should be more than capable to do what you need.

I am wondering how old your 'old' Motorhome is and whether the engine could be upgraded which would work out cheaper, unless of course you really want a change.

My 'old' MH only has 85bhp! its good enough for me (2800kg loaded), and trundles along quite happily, but there again, I would probably never take it across Europe! if I did I would look for an engine upgrade as it is old with no electronics to confuse matters 

Wow 

thank-you all so much, given me plenty of thought..just have to find my MH now.

really excited 

tony

Good hunting!