Sale of my Bourton

I wish to inform you that I no longer own an Auto-Sleeper, and so will be signing off from this website. I have sold my Bourton and reverted back to a Rapido with an island bed. Although I loved driving the Bourton I must admit I did not find that it had any other attributes. I found that the lack of storage space even stopped me taking my Lafuma chairs with us, That is now some thing of the past. So it is Good Bye from me and Good Bye from her.
Best regards to you all
Jim Collis Alias Watermark

Best wishes with your Rapido, as a Bourton owner I agree with your findings and but for the fact I do not like Fiats I would probably buy a Rapido 9048 as it appears to have an ideal specification and good storage.
Don

Yes, good luck with the Rapido and enjoy . I too find where to put chairs a dilemma. Dont want to fill the shower up with stuff as we bought a MH with one in to be able to use it.

Good Luck with your new van I hope you get many years of pleasure from her.

For your info I did do some mods to the Bourton, two of which are on the ASOC web site  and included in the newsletter I received this morning. I did two other mods which were not acccepted by the Tech Group. One was to install two additional electric points, one at the front  end of the off side bench seat and the other in the bottom of the wardrobe. The electrics were done by a qualified electrician. The second one was to install a Milenco inside outside locking device. On the inside between the  inner fitting and the wall I installed a metal plate and fitted a handle to this just above the inside fitting. The first idea was turned down on the basis that it may tempt non qualified people to do this and the second idea may affect the warranty regarding water ingress. Both my wife and I found the extra handle to be a real asset. I have some photos of the ideas should anyone wish to see them. Just email jmcx20@gmail.com  and I can email them to you. I am about 60% thro getting it as to how we wish it to be, and then it off we go.  Best wishes to you all
Jim Collis.

Best wishes with your Rapido. We have issues with storage as we downsized dramatically from a Mercedes based EuraMobil. After much messing around with keeping things in the shower and bringing the items in and then out again I found a solution which for me is a good one but most probably not suitable for all. I bought myself an Erde 234 trailer. 750kgs so no problems at all with towing and as it's a double axle model is very very stable.

We're just looking around at the moment with the idea of changing our Sandhurst but whatever it is it has to be on a Mercedes chassis.

Regards,

David.

Our major problem was with the sleeping arrangements. Making the beds every night and then putting it all away in the morning was not for us. I shall be 80 later this year and my wife is not too far behind me. We want the easy life, hence the island bed. Having spent many years sailing we have both spent enough time making and putting away beds etc before we left port. We have forgotten about the wind and tides so life has to be as easy as we can make it. Our previous Rapido had the transverse bed and that became an effort when nature called in the middle of the night, so we thought we would try the Bourton. That was a big mistake as far as we were concerned. The lack of storage space, the difficultly for old folks to get in and out of the main door as the hand holds were not in the right place. Although I did fit an extra hand hold all the other things made us look for another layout. Hopefully this Rapido will give us what we want for the rest of our Motor Homing days. Storage is great but we have to watch the final gross weight, so not every thing is perfect. I did love the Mercedes with the auto box, but I see the Fiat as a challenge as all our vehicles for the past 20 odd years have been Automatics. So far one stall in the car park and another trying to pull away in third gear. They say life is full of challenges.  Once again best regards to all the readers.
Jim

Watermark.I know full well what you are saying Jim. Making beds up every night is a chore and after being used to fixed bed set up for such a long time it came as a shock. I guess our next one will have a fixed bed or even two! I liked the Sprintshift, never had a problem with it but even better I liked the automatic on the Mercedes. I'm only a spring chicken compared to you and your lady at a mere seventy but being a tad disabled doesn't make life any easier......but the challenge has to be met....full on.

Regards,

David.

I had Sprint shift in my A class. Had some trouble with it in Spain and Portugal. Go over 55mph and it would just go into manual. Pull over to the side of the road and switch the engine off. Restart it and all would be normal and stay that way as long as I did not exceed 55 mph. When I got back after many checks and replacing relays etc I then fitted a new Hydraulic pump and low and behold all was fixed. Up to 70 + on the Motor Way with no problems other that the cost of the pump etc at  £400 . 
Jim

I've heard folks have had problems with the sprintshift, I had two fitted with it and suffered no problems at all and we pulled a trailer with an Audi on the back. The automatic though was a different thing altogether, much better in my opinion. But, as some would say, nothings perfect.

Regards,

David.

I agree with what David says and I too pull a trailer, an Anssems GT750, which at 750k gross and a 2 metre long box body it is ideal and the contents are kept dry by the lockable lid which if required can be fitted with a top box.
Don

Morning padraigpost, your trailer must be similar to mine. I have the deep lid on mine. That is also lockable and I have it fitted with a couple of bike carriers or should the need arise I can also put a rather large top box onto the frames. The lid, although large, is fitted with gas struts and so the opening and closing operation is simple. It has made storing of such things as chairs, the waste water container......yes I still choose to use one rather than the onboard waste tank unless we're say at a port where there's no emptying point, the silver screens, outside flooring, and bags of those things that we might have used once but think we might use again, BBQ, Maxview dish, set of folding ladders, bucket, tools and wellies. Keeps the van tidy which I must say pleases she who must be obeyed.

Regards,

David.