Motorhome layout

If you aim to recreate your caravan as a MH, I fear it will be huge and probably unwieldy . The cab/bonnet will add over a metre to the length of the habitation unit. How long is the body of your caravan? I’d guess it’s over 7m so, with a cab on the front, it would put the overall length at close on 9m.

I suggest you have a look around some dealers' forecourts and see what's out there that might suit you. Bear in mind any weight restrictions you might have on your driving licence such as the 3500kg limit normally applying to the over 70 age group.

Good luck with your search.

Not necessarily quite that huge. We have a Lunar with that layout. Front benches 6'4" long. Internal length 5.4 metres. 

agree with the comments that you should be wary of length (and therefore, weight) of any new van...

...but would add that finding a MH with a small two seater side dinette will be very tricky....this is definitely a caravan 'thing' and I've not seen a van with this in it (apart from a family based one which had a small dinette in the rear for the kids next to a pair of stacked bunks....)

MHs tend to have multi use areas to save that precious space that gets lost with the cab/dash area, as TW says, so a dedicated separate dinette isn't likely...

instead, cab seat rotate to help form lounges (on front lounge vans) and lounges (at either end) become dining areas when a table (fixed or freestanding) is deployed.

that being said, there are oodles of smallish, mainly UK, vans that have a front lounge/bed and rear kitchen and washroom....think AS, Swift, Bailey etc....

however, if you like the idea of a fixed table for dining, then look at continental brands....it's also likely that you'll be able to have a drop down bed in the cab or over the lounge that will negate the need to make up the bed and to find a place to store the bedding (it lives on the bed when retracted)....you might also find it to be more comfortable with its one piece mattress than a bed made from lounge seating..

good hunting.

We also wanted a caravan lookalike and ended up with an Autosleeper’s Broadway. It has two parallel bench seats which we use as single beds which saves an enormous amount of space. No dinette though but AS provide a small round pedestal table which fits behind the driving seats which swivel. We never use it and prefer to erect the main table between the bench seats on the rare occasions that we eat inside. The Broadway has a number of variants: we have end kitchen but you can have end bathroom.

Once you start adding dinettes the layout changes drastically and generally the Motorhome gets bigger and heavier. You need to decide whether you want or need a “garage” because if you do it will steer you more to continental vans.

Best to go to one of the shows and look around BUT based on my extensive experience of caravans then Motorhome one of the most important things is to find a dealer who is local and you can trust. In two years I have been back five times to get my reversing camera fixed - twice to the factory and three times to the dealer. I now need to go back once more for what will hopefully be the final visit. If the dealer had been 100 miles away that would be 1200 miles.

As said above depends on how long you are willing to go to. 

Our last caravan was twin singles at the rear with Galley and shower in the middle and front lounge @ 7.4 mtrs  we didn't find it easy for touring.

Nowadays we have a MH @ 6.6m with rear twin couches that make up into beds, not everyone likes this layout as the beds have to be made up each night, we don't mind it. However if we were to change our MH we would be looking at either Pilote or Bursner as both these makes have rear single beds or island bed over a garage, with bathroom and kitchen forward of that and then the lounge/dinette area with turn around cab seats and fixed table. As BB says they also come with the option of a drop down bed as well. All this can be had in a MH under 7 mtrs, either A class or coachbuilt.

...in fact, Pilote (and, I think, Rapido) have managed to squeeze fixed island bed layouts into 6.5m....but there has to be more of a compromise in other areas (smaller lounge/kitchens) as, just a few years ago, the 'default' length for a twin singles (like our first Carthago) or island bedded van was pushing 7.5m...

roomy lounges, at either end, combined with one piece beds are now quite common...some rear lounge vans now don't need to made into beds, you can have a drop down over the rear lounge or one over the cab.....or even both for four 'fixed' berths...

many, many new and innovative layouts but not yet seen the side dinnete (in addition to a lounge) in a modern MH that the OP desires..

We are making the switch to a motorhome after 40 years of caravans.  We are yet to choose between the Auto-Sleepers Broadway or the Bourton.  They are identical but the latter is built on a Mercedes rather than a Peugeot.  I am veering towards the Mercedes option as it has a proper auto rather than the Fiat electronic system fitted to the Peugeot.

Auto-Sleepers seem to be the only manufacturer offering the layout we want, i.e. similar to our caravans of past years.

The alternative is to look out for the side dinette/extra passenger seating with a bench seat area opposite, this will mean a bit of re-jigging at night time but both sides will convert to singles or a double. We would have liked this version as we could have taken our grandson along too or his parents could have borrowed the van. We didn't hunt around for long as our secondhand Mercedes came on the market at a good price, ours is smaller than most but is fine for us, but it's worth looking at the various configurations.

stacks of manufacturers produce a front lounge, pull together bed, rear kitchen/washroom design....its been a staple in uk brochures for years....our first Bolero was one such instance.

AFAIR, what was a difficult 'ask' was to get this layout on a Merc...., hence the 'only choice' was the AS Bourton...

....which seems to have won out over the Stanton. I vaguely remember suggesting the Bourton when Q first started his quest and now it’s gone full circle