Thinking of buying a Stratford.

Hi All, Hope you have been enjoying the warmer weather / Sunshine of the last 10 days. 
  We are thinking of changing to a newer (last 5 years), rear bedroom layout (later in year), such as the AS Stratford.
Definitely sticking to the MWB 5.4m chassis as we have limited parking space. 
 Any reason why Stratford are no longer made ? Did AS offer a replacement rear bed layout on the MWB.
 Would welcome current or previous owners experiences. 

Best regards

Just noticed your post............

We had a Stratford for a couple of years and then changed to a Warwick.
 
It was a great van in most aspects but rather limited in others because of its layout and quite high specification that wasn’t 100% attuned to actual usage.
 
The problems with the Stratford as far as we were concerned were as follows: -
 
1.    The bed when made up was inconvenient to get out of in the middle of the night to go to the loo. This I appreciate was worse for us because of my age and inevitable prostrate problems. The Warwick allows us to have single beds and an isle to get out of bed so not disturbing one’s partner. In the Stratford the need to lift one’s legs and escape between the sink and the wardrobe into the isle was difficult for someone slightly less agile than a 10-year-old.
 
2.    The bed was also only 4’6” wide so my wife sleeping on the door side often found her back pressed against the doors and with metalwork showing regularly complained of being cold.
 
3.    The toilet behind the driver was rather close and did not allow sufficient rear movement on the driver’s seat for me when driving. On a long journey I like to move the seat backwards and forwards a click or two to help give me a different driving position but that was not possible as I was always at the limit.
 
4.    There was a separate shower which was nice if that is what you want but it was still too small to pick up the soap if you dropped it without getting out first. It was also wasteful of space in a small van. The sink was pretty useless and difficult to use to have a wash in. We used the kitchen sink.
 
5.    TV – if you want one then the van was difficult because it had a built in facility for a 10” screen Avtex. There was a flap that allowed a slide out mechanism from behind the wardrobe. Fine except every time you went over a bump it slid out ! Also when out you could not adjust the vertical angle so when watching and to get a full picture you needed to sit bolt upright or sit on a cushion to get you head in line. A small problem yes but annoying especially as I could see no way of altering it.
 
6.    We found storage a little limited due to the fact that the driver’s side rear locker under the bench was almost totally full of the heater and leisure battery. Redesigned they could have taken up ½ the room.
 
7.    The curtains in the cab area are inconvenient and although not specific to the Stratford is something I think needs altering by fixing concertina blinds which as Sooooo.. much better.  
 
8.    Otherwise the problems were personal and easily rectified – things like additional sockets ( 240v & 12v) esp. at the rear of the van. Or the rear door table which we removed and replaced with a much larger piece of table top board and for support used a string with a hook on the end caught on the top door catch. This gave us a normal sized table without any floor support that always gets in the way of one’s legs. It also dropped away just as the makers did.
 
9.    We did lots of small modifications throughout the van to make our use more convenient but we always tried to do them in a way that we could reverse them when we wished to sell. The exceptions were additional sockets – but they would also be a boon for the new owners.
 

Hope this helps but pm me for other specific questions.

I agree about the fridge and I really should have mentioned it but we never had any particular problem. We did replace the thermostat after 18 months because it was always too cold and was staying on for extended periods. My wife now says the hum could be heard at night when all was quiet but I never found it noticeable at all.
 
Our five main holidays in the van, each 4-6 weeks long Spring & Autumn, over 3 years were mostly in France as well as a trip to Germany and another to Romania. On all holidays we tended to stay on sites which almost always had a hook up simply because they were usually nearly empty and very inexpensive.
 

We therefore had no particular problems especially as day by day we were travelling and charging up the batteries.

Thank you mry 716 for your very in depth reply. We have had a look at a 2012 Stratford at our local dealers in Taunton.  Managed to get a "lay" on the bed, even though the van was sold. (cheeked them into unlocking it)  I am 5' 11" it was tight but possible.  
We didn,t use the shower in our Symbol , as really was tight for space and always worried i would flood the van.  Mostly happy to use site facilities so not to worried. 
I am the one who gets up in the night (there's an admission .....Oops), therefore i always bag the outer (nearest loo) sleeping position. 
Storage is pretty poor on our Symbol (but then i always take to much clobber) also. 
We bought a "silver screen" which meant we didn't need to close cab curtains and gave us more storage at night by filling the cab area with clutter. So would probably get a new screen for our replacement van. 

We have a slight change of plan size wize after trying several permutations of parking in front of our house , we think we can just fit a 6 metre van by parking diagonally   .  
Does this give us other A-sleeper rear/ fixed bed options in a van conversion. 
Incidentally we took a deposit in our van last night   .

Is it right that you can turn a compressor fridge down at night to quieten the hum , Peter ?

Hello again Peter,
To start at the end of your reply - you can adjust the temperature of the fridge so that it is not so cold and therefore ‘works’ less hard to maintain its set temperature but would suggest you set the temperature to the required level and leave it there night and day. As I said I never heard the fridge s perhaps ours was less noisy that others. My wife neve r complained about it whilst we had the Stratford which was for 3 years and 17000 miles but did say whilst I was writing my initial post that at night she could hear it. (she is a very light sleeper anyway !)
 
Re alternatives. We changed from the Stratford for one reason – rear lounge/bed area. We wanted both more space to sit and store (underneath) and more convenient sleeping. I also wanted a full length settee so I could lay down after a long drive to relax whilst the wife made the meal.
 
The Warwick was purchased after looking at virtually all vehicles at 6m long and despite cost we chose the Warwick. It has one big fault as far as we are concerned and that is the layout. We both wish that it was reversed so that the toilet was on the driver’s side and the cooker/fridge/sink on the passenger side so that when the sliding door is open you have nice views whilst ‘working’.
 
There are other problem areas that show up in use and we have amended the design slightly to get over them. For instance, the cushions at the rear are not made like the Stratford with a fixed cushion rail and a backrest cushion pushed in underneath but in one 6foot long larger/taller backrest cushion. The seat bases are also in one piece 6foot long. These are impossible in a small space and we now have the same design as the Stratford and the cushions and back pieces in two 3 foot lengths. It makes such a difference – you can easily carry 4 the backrest pieces and drop them on the driver’s seat for night storage if you use the two benches as two single beds as we do.
 
Like any camper NOTHING is going to be perfect for your needs and you have to try and find the best compromise.
 

If you PM me with a telephone number, we can have a chat or I can send some pics to you by email. Do not rush into a purchase esp at this time of the year as winter will inevitably bring new vehicles onto the market and prices will dip for a while.