Thinking of buying a new Kemerton XL

Hi all, I'm sure it's been done before but I need reassurance I'm doing the right thing. I have an A class at the moment but feel I need something smaller, that I can fit on my driveway and use at a moment's notice. My a class is in storage and has 2 double beds but to my surprise the kemerton has a bigger wash area, a pretty reasonable lounge that can utilize the sliding door bench as a second sofa. There is more storage and a kitchen that has it all. Can anyone tell me what the pros and cons of owning a kemerton and downsizing from an A class please, thank you.

I can’t specifically help on the Kemerton, but we downsized from a Hymer A class to a Kingham last year.

The pros are pretty much as you’ve mentioned - for us it is size for storage at home, and we tend to take it off site to visit attractions much more than we did the A class.

We both think the PVC drives a lot better, much less crashy and rattly as well as being easier to manoeuvre.

We have found the daytime space works better for us, there is certainly more kitchen prep area than we had before. 

A couple of downsides mainly are around lack of a storage garage which we had on the Hymer. The equivalent storage on our van is under the double bed but I don’t want to (for example) keep my smelly BBQ there and “enjoy” it overnight…

Also we had our folding bikes with us always but taking them is now more problematic as there isn’t enough under bed storage to keep the bikes as well as everything else, and if they travel in the van then they need “managing” when we are on site.

Final thing we miss is the previous van had huge bed, and the Kingham double bed is a bit snug but not a real problem as neither of us are particularly big.

Overall the upsides of the smaller van outweigh the downsides and we are very happy to have done the change.

Hope you enjoy the new van!

Thank you for your info, we don't have bikes and although we will probably miss our garage, the pros outweigh the cons, we are quite happy with single beds so we don't wake each other in the middle of the night!!! so really looking forward to the Kemerton

Whatever motorhome you choose will be a compromise, I think it's about you deciding which features are the most important to you. We had a 2003 Duetto before and if A-S had produced a similar RWD van with the same quality of internal fitments we would have bought another rather than our Kemerton XL which has roughly a similar layout. Our new van has a good sized rear bathroom and much more storage space. At over 6 foot I like the larger bed. We now have space for a Cadac 2cook2 BBQ which in my opinion is brill. We didn't buy a Symbol because from a Duetto it seemed like a downgrade. At least with our Kemerton XL we have more of what we like than in any current Symbol variant.

What's not to like? Bed making involves several components which is a bit of a faff as we choose to sleep on what is effectively a rather large double bed with a mattress topper. I suspect a rear lounge/ bed would be easier to make up. We like the sliding door but unlike in our RWD Duetto we can't eat opposite each other by the sliding door, that's with single seat and passenger seat rotated backwards, because the Boxer is FWD so there is too much of a height difference. We eat side by side on the bench seat. Other Kemerton XL owners probably use the rotated front seats more than we do. My wife sometimes can't sleep so goes off into the bathroom to read. She uses a foam cushion on the toilet lid. Some vans have front and back seating, front dinette and rear lounge which might have been useful. As yesterday our adult son sometimes joins us to go walking and meals out at the weekends, this was a consideration when we chose to buy a Kemerton XL, as was there only being two berths.

I'll have to add that many vans we looked at were excluded because the bed was too high or had a narrow entry cause by the adjacent toilet compartment.

As for customisations, I fitted a second 80W solar panel, so 2 x 80W solar panels separated from the Sargent EC700 system. This was to improve our off-grid camping. I fitted a second TV socket by the sliding door. Check out ASOF for this, I think A-S should have made better provision for where the TV sits. I made a separate free stating table as the one supplied by A-S I found irritating, stuck at the back door and with unpleasant fold down legs. There are other solutions like a Lagon table. I liked what we had in our Duetto, sockets built into the floor and using a single metal pole.

Hi We have had a few pvc's in the past but moved up in size about 20 years ago to a nuevo (plus other similar size and makes) and for us its about right.
We found ( and we quite big people) I alone are six foot four and more stones than I care to admit too. lol

we found it difficult at time's to pass each other in the van and often had a comment to move my feet (now being a size 12 in the foot department and my heels already against the furniture I wasn't sure where I could move them to.
Answers on a post card please)

We have had to manage the storage space but this 21 registered van as at least got storage for the wet stuff in this one.

having mobility problems bikes don't factor into it. and we use disposable barbeques, I prefer charcoal to gas (for the taste) and are big enough for the Two of us, single or double beds both are easy to make up and the van fits into a normal parking space, we did look at PVC'S before replacing the last van but most of them are over 6 meters these days and as we have to park on the road at home with very little spare space, very often I have to park in a space with just about two inches front and rear.
Pete

Reading the problems on here from people having all manner of hassle with a brand new van I wouldn't even consider it.

One 2 yrs old will have virtually no miles on it, the previous owner is probably selling because of his endless trips to the dealer to, perhaps, get it fixed again.

It won't be all that much cheaper, but a load less bother IMHO.

The van itself will be superb.

Thank you all for your replies.

Hi Ian H,
I must admit when I read of all the things that were going on at the time when I placed my order I had serious doubts, I think the worst was the merc problems also loose Microwaves faulty EC 700's etc.

the last van we bought was new in 2015 an Elddis 115 (sunseeker) and apart from water ingress in year five (fixed under warranty) nothing much went wrong with it (and if you bought it second hand at year two, you would still have to sort that out.

we only changed vans as due to my mobility problems I had a need for an auto and I waited until the nine speed box came out as I didn't fancy the comfotmatic. 

I had autoclutch, sometimes known as click and go and although it helped it wasn't great, if Elddis would have built a 115 on a fiat I may have been tempted to buy another as the price difference is massive on the Nuevo, unfortunatly there isn't much about size wise to choose from, didn't want a continental van as we haven't seen anything available that we liked design wise.

So far on this Nuevo May 2021 we have had two cupboard catches needed attention, the presstuds on both tie backs on the offside fell apart strangely the nearside ones have been fine and that's about it, I was disappointed with the rear view camera in so much I had it changed for a twin lens camera with a black body as the original isn't really up to the job.

touching wood but so far the things I worried about, water pump (especially after draining  down and refilling have been fine, the EC700 panel has also been fine.

To be honest, you can see where the extra cost comes in in comparison just the overall build quality, I have bought five new vans over forty + years and I guess I have been lucky as non of them have had much wrong with them the worst being the one we bought from Marquis and all the extras that they fitted had to go back for everything they fitted sometime up to three times .

Mind you, if nobody buys new, your used vans will just get older and older. lol.
Pete