2015-Nuevo LP EK

Hi all,
   Just joined the forum (an official hello posted on the relevant forum :) ).
We have, after 9 years, just sold our first and only 'van, an Ace Capri. We are looking to replace and after various bits of looking about have settled back on the same layout and size, as it just suits us (hence, keeping our van for 9 years!).
  The obvious question is "why change?"....hmmm we sort of asked ourselves that but too late now .

In reality we just wanted to update, no other reason at all. So, we've looked around the similar layouts (Swift Bolero, Bessy 412, Nuevo), but the Swift vans now have incredibly shallow lockers. The Nuevo has decent lockers despite having no shelves.

And now to the advice questions please.....eventually!

1) A lot of these new vans have the Truma combi blown air system rather than the older "gas fire" type heating - how battery hungry is it when off the grid?

2) Relating to the above, is the solar panel sufficient to keep up with the heater use (obviously weather dependant but on average), or is a 2nd battery advisable?

3) The new super low line vans are great with the sunroof and we want this option, but we've lost the cab locker where we kept out bedding - anyone have any issues storage wise (the outer locker helps for block/cable storage etc)?

4) I guess the onboard gas tank is in general a massive advantage? How accurate is the level gauge on this, and again, how gas thirsty is the Truma (25l tank = about 2x6kg bottles).

5) Grade 3 insulation; is this as "warm" as it sounds, i.e less draughty/less cold floor etc?

6) Our van was a Fiat X2/44; this one's the new Peugeot 150hp (or 160 if a 2017 model); how is it power/drive/economy wise - again I guess far superior but the old one was comfy enough to be honest.

7) initial looks suggest the build quality is pretty good; are there any "issues" to look out for?

Apologies for the ramble, any help much appreciated

The only bit I can help with is what grade 3 insulation means...

[size=41]GRADE 3[/size]

[size=40]
Heating will achieve 20°C inside when it is -5°C outside and also requires that the fresh (but not waste) water supply must operate when it is -15°C outside.
The reason for the less stringent requirement compared to caravans is that motorhomes will almost invariably include a relatively poorly insulated cab area (without double glazed windows or particularly effective insulation in the doors, say) which is open to the habitation area.
This makes it virtually impossible to specify an overall insulation level for the vehicle at a meaningful level.
Note that vehicles such as panel van conversions are especially difficult to insulate effectively, due to factors such as their metal sides, and floors.

[/size]

Point 3,
our bedding lives in bags in the shower. This suit us as we tend to use sites with showers. All our storage space is used but I am sure we can leave some things at home if we knew we would need to use the shower more often.

I can't comment about the economy of the Pug as ours is a Fiat but I am very happy with it averaging better than 32mpg using cruise control on continental motorways. I'm now waiting to see what figures I get driving around the UK.

As for build quality....  Far better than the other vans we looked at but let down by far too many silly problems. Various bits of trim have fallen off, the curtains aren't level, a grub screw was found on the floor, the water pump is difficult to coax in to life and the water gauges don't work. Nothing earth shattering but not what I was expecting from a £60k brand new Van.

Point 1, definitely an advantage as blown air more rapidly warms the entire habitation area leading up to the cab.
Point 4, if the fridge is automatic, it will revert to run on gas when ignition (powering 12 volt) is switched off. No lugging about with empty cylinders, LPG currently about 53p per litre, much cheaper than cylinders, some complaints about accuracy of on board cylinder readings, personally not concerned as always top up when gauge reads about 50%. Appears economical as gauge does not drop too quickly after say eight hours of use on an day outing.. and not really thought about drain on battery. Assume 80 watt solar panel copes even on a cloudy day but always on EHU on camp sites. Finally underlying gas tank releases more storage space.

Thanks very much for that.

Insulation wise; I understand the "words" of it i.e. keeping the van warmer in colder conditions, but do they generally feel more comfortable around the floor area (cold striking through the floor etc)?

The bedding storage is the main one for us; I prefer the "airyness" of the large sunroof variant, so no cab lockers, but generally use the bathroom so  probably have to store that under a seat.

Economy wise, ours was the 2.3JTD and rarely saw over 30mpg despite the claims so not really an issue, just curious.

Interesting points re: build though; although we've looked at a few, a couple of them had things like inner locker door veneers coming away, and ill fitting catches. Didn't seem any worse than others but as mentioned...if you're paying £xxk you shouldn't really expect it.

Again, good information about the heating and gas tank, many thanks

One further point - getting insurance quotes a lot of folks are asking for Thatcham Cat1 alarms etc - is anything fitted as standard on the new (2015+) vans? There doesn't seem to be anything written in any documentation I can find!

Any more information much appreciated.

Cheers!

I specified a cat 1 alarm which was dealer fitted before delivery. I think cat 3 is the standard (base vehicle) as supplied.

Standard boxer/ducato is Cat L2, Immobiliser only. Cat L3 is a mechanical type like Disklok. There Are L2 to L1 upgrade kits, to add the features necessary for Cat L1.

This Thatcham list shows approved aftermarket upgrades. Scroll down to Light Com Vehicles.

http://www.thatcham.org/files/pdf/Consumer/VS-October-2016.pdf

Hi
We have owned a 2016 Nuevo for only four months now but hope that sharing some of our 'novice' experience may be of use to you.

1. The battery does not seem massively effected by the use of the Truma when off grid. It runs on gas mode and in fairness seems quite efficient on gas. We are careful about what else we run on 12v and wouldn't for example bother using the TV when camping in the wild.

2. Our solar panel has kept up with our usage. I was concerned about the ability to wild camp prior to purchasing the van and had a chat with someone from the AS Service Centre about the need for a second battery. His advice was to try it with one battery and see and that has worked out for us. What he did say was that when wild camping in the same place for a couple of nights or more, try to switch off the fridge for 30 minutes or so during the journey to wherever you are camping. He advised this would reserve battery. We tried this and it works well with no perceived increase in the fridge temperature. When we have the van on our drive, we never leave it on EHU (we don't have the ability to) and the batteries are constantly showing at 14 plus.

3 You do have to be canny on storage. We have the large window too and we love it. We personally are careful to look after the settee comfort and appearance and so use the thinnest duvalay toppers. Two single toppers fit exactly as a double when the bed is made up and when folded in quarter sit under the driver side locker without touching either the battery or the heating tubes. A couple of pillows and a sheet sit on top and the lots stores away there. When not camping, I lay the mattress toppers out on the seats so that they are not damaged from storage folds. A feather duvet fits perfectly into an upper cupboard.  All our 'doings' fit in the passenger side locker such as EHU cable, levelling blocks, tools, chemicals, walking boots etc but we always make sure that they are bone dry at the end of each camp. We only store a water pipe for filling the tank and the grips for getting off wet and muddy ground in the skirt locker. I worry about the weight as it seems quite fragile! We don't bother taking the Whale kit anywhere with us. We asked the dealer to remove the crockery rack from the top cupboard and fill up the holes. This gives us extra space and we use the 'cocktail' cabinet as a tea and coffee sore and station. The silver travels in the shower but of course is on the van when camped.

4. The gas tank is a massive advantage but isn't accurate. We filled up when it showed we were 75% empty to find that it was actually over 50% full. It doesn't bother us and our plan is just to fill up when it shows about 25% full. It is really efficient and so this isn't something we anticipate doing all the time. The filling is easy too, even in France!

5. Yes, it is as warm as it sounds although you do have to use a silver screen to maximise the benefit. The van warms up to 18 degrees quite quickly and then a little slower up beyond this. The floor is much less cold than our old PVC which was freezing even though it was Grade 3. We do have the carpet down between the seats but not in the kitchen area and we don't feel the cold at all. To be honest this has been a surprise and something we have been really pleased about.

6. Sorry can't comment.

7. Overall really good build quality but as with most vans, certain bits drop off in early use. They just need fitting back on! The main issue we found was that the water tanks are shallow (as described by our dealer) and so the pump needs resetting every time we set up camp. This was annoying until we just established it as part of the routine. We needed a new pressure switch after our first use but the dealer sorted this out. We are also having a new cistern tank pump fitted as this intermittently does not work and Thetford have advised the dealer that a new pump is needed. To be fair, I wish AS had designed this toilet out of the Nuevo as we hate the external fill, particularly as we always empty it prior to moving off and have not yet learned to gauge how much we will need. As a tip, the cistern  holds about 400ml of fluid after the final flush (when fluid no longer moves from cistern to toilet and you think it is empty) and so something to remember when taking all fluids out between camping trips in winter. We also had our bike rack fitted by AS as we saw some real horror stories on this forum about racks retro fitted by dealers. We also got the dealer to fit the alarm as they don't come as standard.

Hope that you enjoy your van. Early days but we like ours a great deal.

to follow on from Lemon2's post.

The first thing I did (after ordering mirror protectors) was to remove the plate rack and wine glasses. Masses more usable storage then.

We make our bed up as a double and flip the cushions so that we are sleeping on the back of them and have a thin IKEA mattress protector then a fitted double sheet. Quick to make up and a good night's sleep.

I like the outside flush tank as it doesn't take away from the fresh water supply but is a pain to empty for winter. On our last trip having drained the tank we decided to flush the toilet from above using a water jug (old 4 pint milk bottle) to save having to drain the tank again.

We have just got it back from the dealer today (water gauges supposedly fixed and the bed slat I broke has been replaced) and are now eagerly look forward to using it again!

Thanks very much indeed for those points, much appreciated

The battery position sounds quite good with the panel and the blown air;
I also quite like the idea of an additional loo cistern, cos it just gives more "useable" fresh tank water.

I think we're now happy that we can cope with the storage....in fact so much so that we're now going to be the owners of one!

It's a new one but 2016 model, so more than happy with everything...just need to pick it up and go now!

Thanks again everyone for your help!!

alfa_scud wrote:I think we're now happy that we can cope with the storage....in fact so much so that we're now going to be the owners of one!

It's a new one but 2016 model, so more than happy with everything...just need to pick it up and go now!

Thanks again everyone for your help!!

I hope you are as happy with yours as we are with ours but just remember if you're not, it wasn't me who said anything.

When do you get it?

No I won't hold anyone responsible....unless it goes wrong   


Picking it up on the 19th, so plenty of time to sort stuff out...hopefully!

Cheers