Buy a Hymer, they said...
Discussion
Yes, good to get on top of the things that will get worse if left. I've still got a sticking caliper or two (or six) that need sorting at some point. Everything else on the list is on the hab side of things. A dead kitchen tap microswitch and a leaky bathroom tap being the top two jobs for the weekend.
We run the heating overnight, with CO detector and don't worry about it. The truma units are meant to be maintenance free so servicing shouldn't be a worry especially. If your gas system is shot then it'll leak regardless of whether the heating's on.
Ours was LED lit when we bought it, but I've added some rope light around the place. The crappy thin cable they come with on the joints makes life hard wiring it into a supply. Bear in mind the 12v is the reverse colour of the 240v wiring.
We don't have an inverter, I'm going to get a 12v car charger for the laptop instead.
Ours was LED lit when we bought it, but I've added some rope light around the place. The crappy thin cable they come with on the joints makes life hard wiring it into a supply. Bear in mind the 12v is the reverse colour of the 240v wiring.
We don't have an inverter, I'm going to get a 12v car charger for the laptop instead.
Moved in on Thursday, house completed on Friday. Then this happened last night:
Still lovely and warm inside. Really impressed with this Hymer, we've got more storage than we know what to do with and still half a tonne under weight (although the front axle is only 20kg off maximum). Heating seems to be hardly having to work at all.
Still lovely and warm inside. Really impressed with this Hymer, we've got more storage than we know what to do with and still half a tonne under weight (although the front axle is only 20kg off maximum). Heating seems to be hardly having to work at all.
craigthecoupe said:
looks like there was the potential for a chilly night! out of curiosity,the heating you did run, was it gas or electric?
We've got both. We're running the built in gas heating and topping up with an electric radiator running off the hookup. Was in full sun this afternoon so turned the whole lot off and it dropped 20c to 17.5 in just under four hours. None of the snow had melted off the roof or skylights until we got in the sun today.We're on refillable LPG so if we run out of gas we have to pack up and drive to a petrol station, so I'm trying to get the gas to last a week at a time. I filled up on Saturday and the first bottle is just under half used on Monday afternoon, so I think that should work fine.
Ironically as it gets warmer we can use the gas less and the electric more as we won't have to worry about keeping the tanks warm. When we're on the road properly we'll leave the radiator behind and just use the gas whenever we need heat (which hopefully won't be often).
We've got two 11kg LPG which I think should take between 40 and 50 litres based on the fillup at the weekend. I checked two days later and we'd used 40% of one bottle, while not really making much of an effort to save on gas.
I think when we're back in the UK after our trip, as we'll be staying for a few months before buying a house, I'll get an external fill adapter for the LPG and hook up a big calor tank outside to save having to drive to the petrol station every weekend.
Does your Concord have any sort of water filter setup? I'm looking for something for ours as teh tank water tastes funny but can't really find much info, and filling bottles from the site supply is getting old already.
I think when we're back in the UK after our trip, as we'll be staying for a few months before buying a house, I'll get an external fill adapter for the LPG and hook up a big calor tank outside to save having to drive to the petrol station every weekend.
Does your Concord have any sort of water filter setup? I'm looking for something for ours as teh tank water tastes funny but can't really find much info, and filling bottles from the site supply is getting old already.
custardkid said:
Rinse through, and depending on how well you do that your team may taste about funny for a couple of days
Yep, tried all that. Rinsed it out then sterilised twice and still tastes odd. Filling with food grade hose too. Just bought a Britta filter jug as it's just the taste I'm looking to get rid of.kurt535 said:
Do you find the blown air system noisy at night? I think the Alde radiator system sounds good but far more complicated, etc
No, once it's going it's pretty quiet. It makes a racket when it's heating the place up, but if you want a stable temperature it's just idling when it's near the thermostat set point. I've never used the Alde system but I've no complaints about the Truma blown air (except not being able to run the heating on hookup like the UK spec Truma systems).UPDATE!
Well, not much of an update to be honest. We've been living in it for 3 weeks now, and really it's fine. It helps that we don't have lots of stuff, so there's quite a lot of space for things. We've not quite perfected the filing system and things are never quite where we think we've left them a lot of the time.
Heating's doing well. Even on these couple of really cold weeks where it's hovering around freezing, it's lovely and warm inside. Two 11kg LPG bottles are lasting about 10 days with little effort to save gas, and having around 21-22c inside. About 25 pounds to refill.
Our first big problem is that we've just spotted a big crack in the shower tray today. Looking into getting it repaired, but it couldn't happen at a worse time as everything is shut until new year and we're planing to leave in the 2nd week of January.
It seems fixable, either properly or a self-bodge if needed. I really don't want to have to replace the whole thing as it'll be easily a grand from Hymer plus having to take out most of the bathroom to do it.
We're still having to stop 3 times in the first half mile every time we go somewhere as we've forgotten to do a load of obvious things. Drove for about 10 miles with the rear skylight open the other week, and came home from the outlaws yesterday with the outside light on and the outside shower cover open, and left the fridge on 240v all day while out and about.
Must do a checklist.
Well, not much of an update to be honest. We've been living in it for 3 weeks now, and really it's fine. It helps that we don't have lots of stuff, so there's quite a lot of space for things. We've not quite perfected the filing system and things are never quite where we think we've left them a lot of the time.
Heating's doing well. Even on these couple of really cold weeks where it's hovering around freezing, it's lovely and warm inside. Two 11kg LPG bottles are lasting about 10 days with little effort to save gas, and having around 21-22c inside. About 25 pounds to refill.
Our first big problem is that we've just spotted a big crack in the shower tray today. Looking into getting it repaired, but it couldn't happen at a worse time as everything is shut until new year and we're planing to leave in the 2nd week of January.
It seems fixable, either properly or a self-bodge if needed. I really don't want to have to replace the whole thing as it'll be easily a grand from Hymer plus having to take out most of the bathroom to do it.
We're still having to stop 3 times in the first half mile every time we go somewhere as we've forgotten to do a load of obvious things. Drove for about 10 miles with the rear skylight open the other week, and came home from the outlaws yesterday with the outside light on and the outside shower cover open, and left the fridge on 240v all day while out and about.
Must do a checklist.
Of course this happened in the week when 90% of small businesses are closed. Have done some research and have got a chap from Speedcoat coming out next week to fix it. They claim to fix the underlying problem, in this case an unsupported section of bathroom floor, bond the crack and then coat the whole thing in a resin spray. Dry within the day and fully usable in 36 hours. This is a fairly common thing with these hymers by all accounts. The two sections of floor are well supported but the centre join isn't.
I really didn't fancy replacing the whole thing, as I can see the floor alone being easily over a grand from Hymer based on other parts prices. This lot give a lifetime warranty, so I presume from that that the process is what they claim it is.
Only downside is that the shower (singular) facilities are a bit tired onsite here. Of course we booked in for a further two weeks the day before we discovered the cracked shower.
I really didn't fancy replacing the whole thing, as I can see the floor alone being easily over a grand from Hymer based on other parts prices. This lot give a lifetime warranty, so I presume from that that the process is what they claim it is.
Only downside is that the shower (singular) facilities are a bit tired onsite here. Of course we booked in for a further two weeks the day before we discovered the cracked shower.
As an aside, if anyone's thinking of getting a set of external silver screens. Just do it. They make a huge difference to both the temperature and condensation on cold days. Ours make the cab seats warm like the rest of the van without the cold breeze, and there's not a drop of condensation even when it's well below zero outside.
No idea what make ours are, they came with the van. Personally I'd go for Silverscreens over TaylorMade, if only down to how TM seems to be run. They had a huge backlog of orders (months) through Autumn that they seemed unable to catch up with. They've also managed to break their website entirely and "might have it back online in a few months".
craigthecoupe said:
also, whilst your at it, do you have a plan or route in mind for your travels? if your using any software/route planning or particular sites/aires, sharing here would be helpful to us too.
cheers
craig
The plan is that there is no plan. We know roughly where we're going but will only plan a few days ahead. We're planning for mostly aires/free with 1 or 2 nights a week on proper sites, but that'll all depend on where we end up and what's available. We'll use the standard apps etc (campercontact, ACSI, searchforsites). Can't really recommend anything as yet. Once we've been going a while I might have something useful to add over what's already out there on blogs etc.cheers
craig
Seeing as we're now we'll into Spain, I thought it about time for an update.
The hymer is doing really well. The new shower lining is holding up nicely. Our only problems so far are a slightly binding caliper, and a really dimwitted solar regulator. Solar will be replaced in march when we're back in the UK, probably with either a proper schaudt regulator into the hymer charger or a victron unit direct to the batteries. It's a few months in UK and Scandinavia so we're going to need as much out of the solar as we can get, and slow grey days are the current sunworks unit's weak spot. It does ok with 10 hours of southern Spain full sunshine, but is really poor on cloudy days.
Pretty much got the hang of everything now, still not 100% success rate on filling the water tank tidily without it burping all over the floor though.
It likes to cruise at about 85kph. It'll gladly do 100kph but it's a bit noisy. Anything getting on for 110 or 70mph is a bit floaty and disconcerting.
It's crying out for a six speed box though. 3rd and 4th are miles apart and 5th is far to short for comfortable cruising. The drivetrain is the only thing that I'd change in this to make it perfect. 5cylinder or V6 with 6 speed box in an ideal world. But in the real world the layout sucks on all the mercedes based hymers I've seen, so it's a moot point.
It's been Aires all the way so far, about 60% of them free. We need to empty the loo every 2 days or so, which restricts us wilding a bit, much more than water or power. Will probably get a second casette when we're home.
Full time traveling takes a lot of getting used to. We've been away for almost 4 weeks so far and have found it really hard at times. I think in hindsight I would have started in September with a month or so in the UK first and then come down south for winter. That way you get used to travelling and living on the road without the culture shock and language barrier. We've felt really isolated at times, partly because everything is so different here and we've not really travelled that much outside the UK in the last decade or so.
Still, mostly having a great time and no regrets.
The hymer is doing really well. The new shower lining is holding up nicely. Our only problems so far are a slightly binding caliper, and a really dimwitted solar regulator. Solar will be replaced in march when we're back in the UK, probably with either a proper schaudt regulator into the hymer charger or a victron unit direct to the batteries. It's a few months in UK and Scandinavia so we're going to need as much out of the solar as we can get, and slow grey days are the current sunworks unit's weak spot. It does ok with 10 hours of southern Spain full sunshine, but is really poor on cloudy days.
Pretty much got the hang of everything now, still not 100% success rate on filling the water tank tidily without it burping all over the floor though.
It likes to cruise at about 85kph. It'll gladly do 100kph but it's a bit noisy. Anything getting on for 110 or 70mph is a bit floaty and disconcerting.
It's crying out for a six speed box though. 3rd and 4th are miles apart and 5th is far to short for comfortable cruising. The drivetrain is the only thing that I'd change in this to make it perfect. 5cylinder or V6 with 6 speed box in an ideal world. But in the real world the layout sucks on all the mercedes based hymers I've seen, so it's a moot point.
It's been Aires all the way so far, about 60% of them free. We need to empty the loo every 2 days or so, which restricts us wilding a bit, much more than water or power. Will probably get a second casette when we're home.
Full time traveling takes a lot of getting used to. We've been away for almost 4 weeks so far and have found it really hard at times. I think in hindsight I would have started in September with a month or so in the UK first and then come down south for winter. That way you get used to travelling and living on the road without the culture shock and language barrier. We've felt really isolated at times, partly because everything is so different here and we've not really travelled that much outside the UK in the last decade or so.
Still, mostly having a great time and no regrets.
SO! Update time, as we're back in the UK for a week or so.
Ended up doing a circuit of Spain, down the east & south coast to Tarifa and then north via Seville & Cordoba, through the snow in Picos De Europa, then a few days in Santander/Bilbao in awful weather as my parents had flown out to spend some time with us. Sod's law that's the only time we have bad weather and the only time we can't just run away from it.
Highlights from Spain are Tavertet, Montserrat and Seville. Spent 3 days in Seville and already is one of my favourite cities.
Started heading up through france a couple of weeks ago, did Biarritz and Bayonne in lovely weather then realised that our plans took us through an enormous pine forest just as all the processionary caterpillars were hatching. Not nice for humans if you touch one, and even worse for the dog so best avoided. A short detour to the north side of the Pyrenees for a few days, and then decided to head north to Bordeaux. Few days around there then hopped to a couple of other villages before coming to the realisation that we're not that bothered about northern France, and would far rather just head home early and get a couple of extra weeks on our Ireland/Scotland trip instead.
So that's why I'm sat in -4 and pissing snow back home now!
It's given us a chance to catch up with some maintenance though. Mentioned before that we had a binding brake, so did a bit of work on the right rear in France. I had assumed it was stuck slide pins on the calipers but they turned out to be fine. Problem actually was that the pads were rusted into the carriers, I assume through lack of use. The pads were pretty much brand new, so sanded the edges, and the carrier faces back down to size and a bit of copper grease on carrier and pads has made a big difference. Two down, four to go...
With the wheels off for that, I got a proper eyeful of just how bad our tyres were. They're pretty old, but looked in good enough condition, no crazing on the sidewalls etc. However there were some pretty big cracks between the tread blocks that I'd not seen while they were still fitted. I replaced the worst one with the spare there and then, and have just had 4 new tyres put on yesterday. The fronts were newer than the rear 4, so I've had those moved to the tag axle and the new four put on the front and middle.
Lots of advice is to go for the proper camper tyres, but nobody can really offer me a convincing argument as to why. Some say they ride better, some say they resist UV light more so last longer for low mileage. I've even read that they're built to take their maximum weight all the time, which rather makes a mockery of load ratings.
Went for a set of Nexens on advice of my regular tyre place when I asked for "something decent" and at half the price of the Continental VancoCamper, and they seem OK. Ride is quite harsh compared to the Toyos that were on there but I think that's just a case of finding their right pressures.
I'm also getting our disaster area of habitation power sorted out. We got to the point where our fully charged 3x 100AH batteries wouldn't even last the night, and the heating would cut out in the morning. We also have a slipping belt on the alternator at startup despite the belt being new. Oh and a dead starter battery that can't handle the regular "start, drive to service point, stop, 10minutes, restart" process.
The upshot of this is that we've just had three new Varta LFD90s fitted to replace our existing mishmash of leisure batteries, and having a new alternator fitted on Monday as the existing one is shot. Seized clutch and bearings hence squealing at startup and a fried engine battery.
I think the dead hab batteries should also explain why our solar controller was being a bit odd at times, so that has a stay of execution for the moment; but the Votronic catalogue is ready just in case.
In terms of travel, the plan from here is to head over to Ireland once the weather has calmed down. Then a roughly clockwise loop of Ireland/NI and then the ferry to Cairnryan in early April. We need to be back home in early May for reasons I shan't bore you with, so that makes a nice month in each.
We have somewhat blown our £1k per month budget so far. Almost 50% of our expense has been on fuel, as we did over five thousand miles in six weeks. Hopefully we should be able to reign that in now even only as we're in a physically much smaller place. At this rate we won't be able to make the full 12 months, as we're pretty tight on house deposit afterwards. We're fine with living cheaply, and so long as we get our fuel use in check then we'll be absolutely fine.
Ended up doing a circuit of Spain, down the east & south coast to Tarifa and then north via Seville & Cordoba, through the snow in Picos De Europa, then a few days in Santander/Bilbao in awful weather as my parents had flown out to spend some time with us. Sod's law that's the only time we have bad weather and the only time we can't just run away from it.
Highlights from Spain are Tavertet, Montserrat and Seville. Spent 3 days in Seville and already is one of my favourite cities.
Started heading up through france a couple of weeks ago, did Biarritz and Bayonne in lovely weather then realised that our plans took us through an enormous pine forest just as all the processionary caterpillars were hatching. Not nice for humans if you touch one, and even worse for the dog so best avoided. A short detour to the north side of the Pyrenees for a few days, and then decided to head north to Bordeaux. Few days around there then hopped to a couple of other villages before coming to the realisation that we're not that bothered about northern France, and would far rather just head home early and get a couple of extra weeks on our Ireland/Scotland trip instead.
So that's why I'm sat in -4 and pissing snow back home now!
It's given us a chance to catch up with some maintenance though. Mentioned before that we had a binding brake, so did a bit of work on the right rear in France. I had assumed it was stuck slide pins on the calipers but they turned out to be fine. Problem actually was that the pads were rusted into the carriers, I assume through lack of use. The pads were pretty much brand new, so sanded the edges, and the carrier faces back down to size and a bit of copper grease on carrier and pads has made a big difference. Two down, four to go...
With the wheels off for that, I got a proper eyeful of just how bad our tyres were. They're pretty old, but looked in good enough condition, no crazing on the sidewalls etc. However there were some pretty big cracks between the tread blocks that I'd not seen while they were still fitted. I replaced the worst one with the spare there and then, and have just had 4 new tyres put on yesterday. The fronts were newer than the rear 4, so I've had those moved to the tag axle and the new four put on the front and middle.
Lots of advice is to go for the proper camper tyres, but nobody can really offer me a convincing argument as to why. Some say they ride better, some say they resist UV light more so last longer for low mileage. I've even read that they're built to take their maximum weight all the time, which rather makes a mockery of load ratings.
Went for a set of Nexens on advice of my regular tyre place when I asked for "something decent" and at half the price of the Continental VancoCamper, and they seem OK. Ride is quite harsh compared to the Toyos that were on there but I think that's just a case of finding their right pressures.
I'm also getting our disaster area of habitation power sorted out. We got to the point where our fully charged 3x 100AH batteries wouldn't even last the night, and the heating would cut out in the morning. We also have a slipping belt on the alternator at startup despite the belt being new. Oh and a dead starter battery that can't handle the regular "start, drive to service point, stop, 10minutes, restart" process.
The upshot of this is that we've just had three new Varta LFD90s fitted to replace our existing mishmash of leisure batteries, and having a new alternator fitted on Monday as the existing one is shot. Seized clutch and bearings hence squealing at startup and a fried engine battery.
I think the dead hab batteries should also explain why our solar controller was being a bit odd at times, so that has a stay of execution for the moment; but the Votronic catalogue is ready just in case.
In terms of travel, the plan from here is to head over to Ireland once the weather has calmed down. Then a roughly clockwise loop of Ireland/NI and then the ferry to Cairnryan in early April. We need to be back home in early May for reasons I shan't bore you with, so that makes a nice month in each.
We have somewhat blown our £1k per month budget so far. Almost 50% of our expense has been on fuel, as we did over five thousand miles in six weeks. Hopefully we should be able to reign that in now even only as we're in a physically much smaller place. At this rate we won't be able to make the full 12 months, as we're pretty tight on house deposit afterwards. We're fine with living cheaply, and so long as we get our fuel use in check then we'll be absolutely fine.
My biggest tip would be to start off in the UK for a few weeks or a month. That way you can get used to living on the road, without having to also get used to being in a different country. You can iron out all the bits of life while you know you can just walk into any shop or garage and get what you need.
Actually living in the van itself is fine, we do miss our house but only because it had a dishwasher and a flushing loo etc; we don't really miss having a house. It helps that our van is huge, with loads of storage. I'd say we could easily take another 30% as much stuff than we have. We haven't taken a lot of things though, people can get carried away with having all the things on sale in the camping shop.
My pet subject of water, you will need:
A hosepipe (ideally food grade). A huge bag of all sorts of tap adapters, and more than one of each sort as you'll leave them behind on taps (Alcaidesa aire can thank me for that one). Also a watering can, for when you can't be bothered to move to the service point just to get enough to wash up. A bucket that will fit under your waste tap, for the same reason.
For navigation, we use CoPilot on an android tablet. I have the truck one, and I'm going to switch over to the motorhome one soon. Only because the truck one is £10 a month and the caravan is £40 outright. Works well enough, has only made a couple of duff choices. Tried Sygic and Navigon and found it better than both.
We've used aires the whole time in france and spain. Free ones where possible. We've spent £210 in 7 weeks, including 5 nights in the UK on campsites. Aires can be a bit restrictive, no tables and chairs, no awnings; just a carpark you can sleep in basically.
I've used searchforsites to find things as I like how their map works. I'll use campercontact to double check, if there aren't any reviews for a site on searchforsites. Once you've left a few reviews and photos, you can download searchforsites POIs for satnav too, which is useful.
Couple more tips, but have to go out now. Will add a bit more later.
Actually living in the van itself is fine, we do miss our house but only because it had a dishwasher and a flushing loo etc; we don't really miss having a house. It helps that our van is huge, with loads of storage. I'd say we could easily take another 30% as much stuff than we have. We haven't taken a lot of things though, people can get carried away with having all the things on sale in the camping shop.
My pet subject of water, you will need:
A hosepipe (ideally food grade). A huge bag of all sorts of tap adapters, and more than one of each sort as you'll leave them behind on taps (Alcaidesa aire can thank me for that one). Also a watering can, for when you can't be bothered to move to the service point just to get enough to wash up. A bucket that will fit under your waste tap, for the same reason.
For navigation, we use CoPilot on an android tablet. I have the truck one, and I'm going to switch over to the motorhome one soon. Only because the truck one is £10 a month and the caravan is £40 outright. Works well enough, has only made a couple of duff choices. Tried Sygic and Navigon and found it better than both.
We've used aires the whole time in france and spain. Free ones where possible. We've spent £210 in 7 weeks, including 5 nights in the UK on campsites. Aires can be a bit restrictive, no tables and chairs, no awnings; just a carpark you can sleep in basically.
I've used searchforsites to find things as I like how their map works. I'll use campercontact to double check, if there aren't any reviews for a site on searchforsites. Once you've left a few reviews and photos, you can download searchforsites POIs for satnav too, which is useful.
Couple more tips, but have to go out now. Will add a bit more later.
Needless to say, dinner has wiped my memory of all but one of the things I was going to write.
Money! We mainly used a Revolut card abroad. It's a prepaid visa, but the app is brilliant. You add your UK card to it, and top up with however much you want in £, then either convert to euros right away, or when the rate is better, or just spend it and convert at the time of transaction. All at really good exchange rates. The only thing it isn't good for is automatic petrol pumps, as they need to pre-authorise and it can't do that. We also use a Starling Bank card for fuel and tolls, and times when it 100% needs to Just Work.
One last thing, get some euro coins from the bank as well as notes. We got 100eur in 1eur coins and it's been a lifesaver. Parking meters and campsite laundry have eaten 30eur of it already.
Money! We mainly used a Revolut card abroad. It's a prepaid visa, but the app is brilliant. You add your UK card to it, and top up with however much you want in £, then either convert to euros right away, or when the rate is better, or just spend it and convert at the time of transaction. All at really good exchange rates. The only thing it isn't good for is automatic petrol pumps, as they need to pre-authorise and it can't do that. We also use a Starling Bank card for fuel and tolls, and times when it 100% needs to Just Work.
One last thing, get some euro coins from the bank as well as notes. We got 100eur in 1eur coins and it's been a lifesaver. Parking meters and campsite laundry have eaten 30eur of it already.
custardkid said:
're camper tyres
You'll find you have a 2 ton front axel, which is supposed to have a 80 psi
Only camper tyres are rated at that pressure
Other tyres don't have the right structure
On the rear of a tag it'll be 55psi so a wider choice.
A 2 axle motorhome will have 80 psi on the back
Hymer spec is 4.5bar front, 3.5 rear for non camper tyres and a lower load rating (113/111). You'll find you have a 2 ton front axel, which is supposed to have a 80 psi
Only camper tyres are rated at that pressure
Other tyres don't have the right structure
On the rear of a tag it'll be 55psi so a wider choice.
A 2 axle motorhome will have 80 psi on the back
5.5bar front for camper rated tyres, which must make the ride unbearable.
Yes, ours is the 4.5t, so that pdf matches our tyre spec of 215/75/16C. The rear pressure is different, hymer is 3.5 and the alko says 3.8, but it is naturally quite light on the rear. We're within a good pre-race s
t of being overweight on the front (1850 max and weighed at 1830 full), but have loads free on the rear.
t of being overweight on the front (1850 max and weighed at 1830 full), but have loads free on the rear.Gassing Station | Tents, Caravans & Motorhomes | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff