Bourton Advice

Kemerton-bath wrote:Oh jeez, not another hose vs barrel discussion!

Does it really matter who does what and why?

Enough already.


Tim

Watering cans best

bolero boy wrote:Caraman posted....


"I agree using a water hose is a messy business and it concerns me that they are permanently wet inside.  I only carry them now as a back-up for the water barrel."


we all do things differently but surely the inside of the barrel must also remain damp/wet, depending on how long there was between trips? otherwise youd have the same issue as (perceived) with a hose.


i guess you having to get your hand in and wipe it out thoroughly..with a nice clean cloth i hope....


a sufficiently long hose (in two parts, where the shortest piece serves for by far the greater useage) can fill a 150 ltr tank in one go, not three or four trips with an Aq.....(i cant even type the name....lol) 


i dont find using the hose a messy business, quite the contrary. when the hose is finished with, just lift the centre area and any excess water runs out from the two ends...i then fold it up empty....it takes up far, far les space than a barrel and doesn't need to be stored inside the van...verbotten in our van anyway.

I am sure you will agree, the only right way of filling the fresh water tank is the way the owner chooses.  My choice is barrel, hosepipe and hand held container in that order.  The barrel is very easy to dry out by shaking all the water out of it and leaving it in the sun for an hour or so with the cap off.  If there is no sun it dries out at home in the conservatory with the cap off.  I returned from my last trip at the end of last month and both the barrel and the whale pump are stored in a bag in the Nuevo's shower bone dry and ready for the next trip.  I have used my 30 litre barrel since 1993 less an 8 year period when I had a German caravan with an internal water tank.  The only way of filling it was with a watering can so been there and done that which is why it's only my 3rd choice now, especially as we use more water in the Nuevo than we did in the German caravan.  Filling with a hosepipe was a new experience for me when we bought the Nuevo 2 years ago.  The 7 metre hosepipe supplied with the Nuevo is fiddly to roll up and sometimes too short so I bought a 15 meter hose on a cassette.  Rolling it in and out was quicker but I found I had to pull it out and roll it back in again to expel more of the water and even then it continued to discharge water from each end.  But I also got fed up of using motorhome service points, if they existed.  Rather than stand there with a hose for what feels like an age, our preference is to go straight to the pitch, get the chairs out and have a brew/lunch.  If the fresh water tank is empty which it usually is we fill the kettle from the nearest outside tap or a small container that we carry in the van.  In slower time and when I'm ready, I make 4 trips to the nearest tap with my barrel to fill the freshwater tank (105 litres) and the hot water tank (10 litres) which leaves a bit left over for pipe flushing.  I resupply with about 1 barrel a day running the tank down towards the end of the trip and then travel with little or no water in the tank.  This suits us as we don't overnight anywhere that does not have a supply of fresh & free water.

Ray, I haven't been on here for a while but just seen your questions which I see have been answered.  We have a 2015 Bourton on an automatic Mercedes.  We love it.  We would never go back to a manual gearbox.  The Mercedes is a joy for the two of us to drive.   We have owned three motorhomes in 40 years, AS Legend, followed by a Hymer for 27 years, both manual.  Can't be doing with messing about with gears now.  The Bourton, in our view for us, is the perfect motorhome.  The spaciousness inside is amazing.  Someone said, and I agree, that you shouldn't compare a caravan to a motorhome.  Things work differently.  You might like to see my earlier postings when we had a hole cut out in the washroom to have a window inserted, a clear one at that.  It's marvelous, the best thing we have had done.  It gives plenty of light and we got rid of the huge brown cupboard which took up too much space anyway.  No troubles with privacy at all.  The dressing area is never a problem.  People can't see in anyway, unless they are bogging with their face to the window.  I hope you get sorted.  Auto-Sleepers is in our view the best, so easy to get parts, the same for Mercedes,  Mrs Jimmee.

Hi all

Thanks to all for the advice given/offered.

Have been on the verge of comitting for days but have just not been able to do it! So we have stepped back to re-evaluate the situation.

Comes down now, to as one poster said "are we really ready to give up the caravan for the motorhome", accepting the necessary compromises to do so.

Million dollar/£80k question.

Thanks again

S&R

I would say that if you're unsure then it's not for you at the present time. You seem to have too many reservations and don’t appear committed, to my mind. What's that old saying - if in doubt, don’t.

If you think I'm wrong and want to prove it, go for it but if you think I might be right……..

If it assists we recently bought a 2018 Bourton. We had caravanned for many years and moved from a large caravan with fixed single beds and an end bathroom.

Privacy - Intially a concern as we could screen off the bedroom in the caravan easily. It hasn’t been an issue so far in the Bourton. We change in the bathroom or in the area by the habitation door with some blinds closed depending on how and where we are pitched.

Bathroom- it works well for us and we haven’t had a problem 

Under seat storage - yes the seats are large and we find it easier to remove the arm rest cushions to lift the seats. We tend to keep the most frequently used items under the near side seat where it can be accessed from outside. 

Water tank - Not a problem so far. On looking around there are lots of places where you can fill up with water, although it would be good if the capacity was larger 

The Mercedes is great to drive with a  superb auto box. We are very happy we went with the Mercedes. You wouldn’t be disappointed.

On the subject of giving up your caravan......We found the motorhome required a  different mindset. We now tour around staying less time in one place than we did with the caravan. If you still want to go and stay on one site for a fortnight then keep your caravan. It’s so much easier to set up on site. We can’t believe how quickly we can pitch now. We wanted a motorhome that wasn’t too big and we could use every day when we are away. We travel much lighter than we did with the caravan. We couldn’t believe how much we carried in the caravan and never used. The Bourton is great for us. It’s a great combination of a relatively compact size and a spacious interior. We looked at countless motorhomes before we found the Bourton. It’s all about compromise, but don’t try and replicate your caravan in a motorhome. They are different beasts

Trev, you took the words right out of my mouth.

As an owner of a 2019 EK. Bourton  based on a Mercedes automatic ( known as the Haunted Snail  due the many problems with the wiggly amps and computers in the early days - nowadays we have become accustomed to its weirdness  so we can live with it - just)
We use a 40 ltr Aquaroll barrel to supplement the freshwater - it easily fits into the toilet area for travelling, this water is for washing etc, a 5 litre bottle is used for drinking. Having spent many years on pax aircraft, including the water systems never ever drink from the storage tanks- no matter how clean you think it is internally , it isn’t.
Ours hasn’t the internal windscreen blinds fitted it 
was which is a serious disappointment as is the top near side drawer in the kitchen fouling the habitation door handle when the door is closed.
A singularly poor design.
As most of the problems have been sorted out we are fairly happy with it even after various failures along the way.
Being a keyless  Mercedes  and trying to understand the vehicle handbook there are some very odd behavioural problems if you are not aware of them. On unlocking with the key fob you must open one of the cabs doors or it will self lock in about 30 seconds. 
On ours I have disconnected the habitation door locking system so we use a key to lock unlock the door. If using the key fob, we found the door would unlock itself when it felt like it  with the added feature of switching ALL the external lights on as well.
 Great joy in the middle of the night for all camped near us. Sometimes with the alarm going off as well!
I also removed the auto step extension/ retraction power input so the step is controlled by the switch on the left hand bulkhead ( fridge / microwave unit).
For some reason we can’t rotate the cab seats a full 180, but we found that we now prefer sitting on the seats facing forward the TV mounted on a bracket behind the passenger seat.
The suspension seems rather soft and we find that we have lower the rear steadys.
The secret is to adapt to the vehicle, or else find a TARDIS  motor home

You can rotate the seats 180 degrees if you open the doors whilst doing so

Trev,
not without a lot of shoving and moving seats back and forward , plus the steering wheel adjustment as well as the doors open. In the end we leave the seats alone  then we use the cab  area to store various bits and pieces , cool box, rucksacks  and walking boots  if damp outside .etc . We also have found we couldn’t get the seats to be level or higher than the bench seats. We didn’t have the same problem with the Broadway ( on Peugeot  running gear )  with a similar layout to the Bourton  (End Kitchen ) which senior manager wanted. As the motorhome  didn’t come with internal screens  it means we have to put a silver external screen on which works very well, which can limit the door opening as well.
It would interesting to see what the differences are between a Mercedes and the Peugeot cab are. The 2019 onwards was a redesign from the earlier Mercedes models plus all the electronic new gizmos. By all accounts even Mercedes weren’t too happy about the vehicle when speaking to them in 2019 at the NEC show.

I know you have to move the seats backwards and forwards etc. You have to do that even if you don’t rotate the seats fully 180 degrees. 
We rarely turn the seats anyway as we find the bench seats plenty large enough for two of us. We also put things in the cab when stopped overnight so it’s not really an issue for us. Ours is one of the last models with the old style cab and after reading the issues done have had with the new one, we are more than happy it is!
Surprised you have no internal blinds in the cab though

We do as you do with the seating arrangements.
Promises of a retro fit of the screens came to nothing after much discussion and promises by the dealer. By that time we had so much trouble with the EC700 unit  ( until it eventually failed whilst away on a site -no 12 volt supply, heating lighting water pump  etc ) ,  and also the Mercedes computers, not having blinds seemed of little importance.
I just say “Haunted Snail “ to the  dealer   THEY know who it is calling !
Still it’s kept us amused not so sure the dealer has the same thoughts though.

I believe the absence of cab blinds as standard was due to Hymer having sole rights for a period. Some Bourton users ordering it on the new can insisted that cab blinds were retrofitted as part of the sale contract. We too were considering getting a new Bourton two years ago but were fortunate to park opposite LAPD (forum member) who led the charge on trying to rectify the many problems the facelift model seemed to have with the electrics. That made our mind up and we managed to find a very good 2017 model.

David

Very wise, but having just returned from NZ and driving an automatic over there, and to save more grief from my kaput knees  we search for an Automatic  and the Mercedes Bourton fitted the bill all be it at a cost in monetary and without some frustration on more than one occassion.

We looked at a 2020 Bourton and the seats swivelled quite easily. Also, I believe cab blinds are standard with the winter pack.