Advice on TC for 12 month trip to Europe
Hi. I'd appreciate some advice on which TC to buy for my trip. I'm a full timer in a fifth wheel and F350. I'm planning a year long European trip. This post is only about the vehicle. I'm not wil...
Forum Discussion
Hi,
I don't have enough experience using European RVs to tell you which brand to buy, but I have a suspicion that any German brands are likely to be a good bet. Note that the brands you mention are the brands of the converter / coach-builder rather than that of the underlying chassis-cab and I guess both need to be considered, although I suspect a high quality converter won't build on a chassis of suspect reliability.
Try joining a UK motorhome forum, e.g. motorhomefacts.com or motorhomefun.co.uk. (you will get further searching for "motorhome" rather than "class-C" or "RV" in British sites at least) The members are likely to know which brands are best.
To give some ideas of the RVs available here is a useful British site:
UK Autotrader site
It will probably ask you to enter a post code (zip) to search. Here is one near me you can enter: HP12 4ND
This is the type of vehicle to consider:
2012 motorhome
This type of mini-class-C configuration are probably the easiest to find here in Europe compared to a mini-class-A, and are more manoeuvrable because they are a bit narrower.
The various manufacturers often supply these on Peugeot / Citroen (French made) chassis-cabs, or FIAT (Italian). Some may be Mercedes or Ford Transit, but I see fewer of those these days. They all tend to be around 130 BHP turbo diesels (you won't find gasoline RVs), but that is plenty of power since they are light and their modern variable-geometry turbos develop sufficient torque from low revs.
Remember to check the vehicles you are looking at are at least Euro-4 to cope with modern low-emission-zones in Europe. I imagine that RVs that are pre-Euro-4 are now worth less because they are more restricted on where they can travel. I don't know when governments will change their low-emission-zones to require Euro-5, but if buying an RV now I guess I would consider Euro-5 to avoid a loss on resale value.
I suspect you would want to buy in Europe so you get a left hand drive vehicle though, so you will want to find an equivalent RV site in Europe to compare prices (try Mobile.de).
There may be different rules for purchasing, licensing and insuring vehicles in different countries, so you might want to do some research to find out where the easiest country to buy will be.
The configuration you mention with a fixed rear bed over a garage is now quite common - many are designed for older couples so don't have an overcab bed making them slightly lower profile.
European RVs come with cassette toilets - this is a good thing because there are fewer dump stations where you can easily drive a vehicle up and dump a black tank, Certainly in Britain, so being able to carry the cassette to a bathroom to empty it is a big bonus.
Steve.
I don't have enough experience using European RVs to tell you which brand to buy, but I have a suspicion that any German brands are likely to be a good bet. Note that the brands you mention are the brands of the converter / coach-builder rather than that of the underlying chassis-cab and I guess both need to be considered, although I suspect a high quality converter won't build on a chassis of suspect reliability.
Try joining a UK motorhome forum, e.g. motorhomefacts.com or motorhomefun.co.uk. (you will get further searching for "motorhome" rather than "class-C" or "RV" in British sites at least) The members are likely to know which brands are best.
To give some ideas of the RVs available here is a useful British site:
UK Autotrader site
It will probably ask you to enter a post code (zip) to search. Here is one near me you can enter: HP12 4ND
This is the type of vehicle to consider:
2012 motorhome
This type of mini-class-C configuration are probably the easiest to find here in Europe compared to a mini-class-A, and are more manoeuvrable because they are a bit narrower.
The various manufacturers often supply these on Peugeot / Citroen (French made) chassis-cabs, or FIAT (Italian). Some may be Mercedes or Ford Transit, but I see fewer of those these days. They all tend to be around 130 BHP turbo diesels (you won't find gasoline RVs), but that is plenty of power since they are light and their modern variable-geometry turbos develop sufficient torque from low revs.
Remember to check the vehicles you are looking at are at least Euro-4 to cope with modern low-emission-zones in Europe. I imagine that RVs that are pre-Euro-4 are now worth less because they are more restricted on where they can travel. I don't know when governments will change their low-emission-zones to require Euro-5, but if buying an RV now I guess I would consider Euro-5 to avoid a loss on resale value.
I suspect you would want to buy in Europe so you get a left hand drive vehicle though, so you will want to find an equivalent RV site in Europe to compare prices (try Mobile.de).
There may be different rules for purchasing, licensing and insuring vehicles in different countries, so you might want to do some research to find out where the easiest country to buy will be.
The configuration you mention with a fixed rear bed over a garage is now quite common - many are designed for older couples so don't have an overcab bed making them slightly lower profile.
European RVs come with cassette toilets - this is a good thing because there are fewer dump stations where you can easily drive a vehicle up and dump a black tank, Certainly in Britain, so being able to carry the cassette to a bathroom to empty it is a big bonus.
Steve.
