Trooper

I've just been looking at Troopers on Autotrader. I thought A/S stopped making them in the early 2000's, but there's one that's a 2014 and another a 2016. 

The interiors are pure A/S, but outside there is no vinyl decal branding and the usual chrome A/S badge on the rear hatch is missing. In addition they both have rear hinged poptops when the Troopers had square poptops that weren't hinged at all.

So are these really Troopers or are they some sort of clone?

The Trooper was quite unusual in that A/S abandoned their classic solid-sided roof  in the last few years and used an externally-sourced one (by Reimo, I think). This was sometimes referred to as the Trooper Low-Line or similar, and was available as both a manual and an electric roof. I've seen one with full A/S decals - including the Low-line name - down the side, but I've seen photos of some with no decals or minimal ones.

The reason for the odd ending to the range was that - as I understand it - some were made elsewhere than at the A/S factory, with A/S permission, by one or more of the dealers. These were all, as far as I know, based on the facelifted T5 (known as the T5.1). I'm not aware of the exact details of how much of the conversion work was done in-house by A/S and how much externally.

I've looked at two of them in the past, and the one thing a can recall above all else was how frighteningly expensive they were! I can't recall with any precision but I think the 2 year old example that I looked at in the Marquis dealership at Golden Cross was over £50k. I also looked at one which had an electric roof, and this had several cuts in the roof fabric where it had been caught in the hinge mechanism while the roof was being retracted. Both looked to be classic A/S installs inside.

I wonder if they had A/S factory numbers in the glovebox? The other odd thing is if they were so rare; how come two are up for sale now and supposedly on 2014 and 2016 base vehicle's.

2008 no decals, solid side roof, no rear Autosleeper chrome badge [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

2009 no decals, Reimo type roof [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

2010 with decals and solid side roof, no chrome badge
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2011 with decals and solid side roof [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

2014 no decals, Reimo type roof, no chrome badge [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

2016 no decals, Reimo type roof, no chrome badge [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Interesting that the last of these is based on a 2016  T6 - and quite a high spec one too. It seems very unlikely that this would have been supplied pre-owned, unless it had been pre-owned for only a very short time.

I would be interested to hear when the last Trooper was made, and how.

The thing that struck me is that the fabrics look right for a 2016ish A/S, so unlikely to be a transplant of an earlier interior into a newer van.

I was looking at Troopers, wondering if it would be better to get out of my current Ford. I have the MWB version of the SWB van in my avatar. I've also run two Eriba Touring caravans over the years, so I'm used to poptops and reduced height might be good, in places. An automatic would be good too as our cars have all been auto's since 1989.

My current van is 5.2m long (the one in the avatar was just under 5m). They both have four single seats that turn into 6ft 10ins long single beds, or make a 5ft 10ins double across the van. There are six roof lockers, one being over the cab and holds pillows and Duvalays. Compressor fridge, three burner hob and sink, electric hot water boiler, diesel fired warm air heater, pull-out drawer with cutlery tray and enormous kitchen worktop, mostly 3ft deep. Double width, half height wardrobe with interior shelf and a proper swivel Thetford toilet in its own 'room'. Under the worktop and wardrobe is a full width, 3ft deep 'boot' or 'garage' or whatever, accessible from the centre aisle in the van and from the rear barn doors. The dogs travel in a crate in that space, but there's room for lots more gear like chairs, tables, awning, cables, ramps, hoses etc.

When I look at a Trooper (at 5m long) it seems to have lots of floorspace between rows of seats, but when the bed is down there's not a lot left for dogs to sleep in etc. Worktop looks OK but not nearly as much as we have and overall storage looks a lot less. Then, of course there's just a porta potty, not a proper loo. 

The same issues apply to the Trident, apart from the fact that it has more roof storage.

The Topaz seems to be the first one with a proper toilet and it's kitchen area is miniscule compared to what we have now, though it does have a shower, which we don't have. I'm also concerned that the Topaz doesn't have a single bed that will take my 6ft 2ins frame.

I'm coming to the conclusion that we have an ideal layout van and that nobody actually makes it on any other base vehicle.

Just found a Practical Motorhome review of a Trooper Lowline from 2007, showing the price as £38,000.

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I can't be the only person that gets annoyed when they don't mention the length of beds in reviews. Are all leisure vehicle journalist on the pigmy side?

You have not said why you want to change vans, although one of your posts read more likes a sales ad!

If you are looking at a Trooper/ Trident size then this A/S Wave might interest you. It's also auto and Mercs base vehicle

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Trooper was one of my first campers and was great as a daily drive for work etc and getaway. Boyfriend at the time was 6ft 3" and slept no problem. Two labs at night- one in footwell and other liked it under the bed when pulled out.

Here's another one, from Preloved....

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Why do I want to change vans? That's quite difficult to say, I've spent a small fortune getting Gloria back up to first class order, but she is a Transit and I don't want the worry of potential rust in future. Added to that I prefer automatics, which isn't an option on this van and I quite fancy something not so tall.
I do use the Transit as a second car when Mrs SDA has the Yeti and any replacement would have to suit that role.
I'll remind myself of the Wave, thanks for the suggestion.

There's a company on the south coast down Bournemouth way turning out psuedo AS's apparently with AS's blessing ?????

steamdrivenandy wrote:........ I've spent a small fortune getting Gloria back up to first class order, but she is a Transit and I don't want the worry of potential rust in future. Added to that I prefer automatics, which isn't an option on this van and I quite fancy something not so tall.

The Ford rust....they can look pristine on the eye in their early years! I think "potential" is more like "extremely likely "  For that reason alone I would get shot. How old is it and how long have you owned it? I expect a good few years now you are concerned about rust as it gets older. Also sounds like you fancy a change to auto and low line while you are at it, and why not indeed!

I recall you were seriously looking at the Talisman and Nuevo mainly because of living and sleeping space with your 2 dogs. Have you discounted those now and going more for a less cumbersome, no height issues daily drive? 
My Trooper was a great daily and actually preferred it to the car. Best of both worlds - for weekends I had a canopy and loo tent for chairs etc and pottie [that came in at night but the entrance was under the canopy anyway ] and for longer trips had a drive away awning. Quite often I miss the back to basics type camping and having only essentials with me.

I must admit the Wave impresses in terms of interior fit and finish, but it all seems very tight and no proper toilet. The high top version provides additional storage, but looks a bit weird.

It never ceases to amaze me how our 5.2m van, only 8 ins or so longer than the Wave, manages to get a 3ft deep 'boot' space plus a proper Thetford toilet, compressor fridge, gas locker and pull-out drawer with cutlery tray and a double width wardrobe in the space behind the rear seats. I would think that there's under 6ft behind our back seats and the 'boot' uses 3ft of it. Compared to what other designs fit in that space ours must be a Tardis.

The just under 5m SWB version of our van had a 2ft deep 'boot' and a single width wardrobe but the rest is the same.

Lancy,
I was considering Talisman and Nuevo's but I suspect we'll be down to just one beardie soon as our old boy is on his last legs. That will reduce the need for as much floorspace and we do really need a van that's useable as a second car, at times.
I think the issue is that we've become so used to so much storage in Gloria that it's difficult to see how we'd manage in more 'ordinary' campers, if you see what I mean. 
Mrs SDA rarely stays in the van, so it's usually just me and the dogs, but when she does she likes that it has a proper toilet, so that tends to be a priority. If you start researching Van's with toilets then invariably they're high tops and I want something with a poptop to enable a lower roofline.

Gloria is a 58 plate, so knocking on for 12 years old and we've had her for two years now.