dethleffs vs knaus vs euramobil? Forums

ChrisNViv

Off to Frankfurt at the weekend to cruise the dealers and hopefully buy a 6 month old vehicle. We have ID'd best layout as overcab + bunks and so Dethleff's Advantage, Knaus Sport and Euramobil 675 all work for us. We also want a van that works for ski trips and so the EM gets +++ for their double floor. Does anyone have experience with any of these vans to share that helps our head scratching? I notice that EM also use a Ford platform rather than the ubiquitous Fiat. Should I be pleased about that?
thanks for listening
ChrisnViv

NorwegianBlue

Hi ChrisnViv,

We have an older EM 700KB Integra which is the same floorplan as the 695 and not far off what you are looking at in the 675. We are very happy esp. with the double floor. We have a ski trip planned for next Feb.

They are very solidly built and it is probably the closest we have ever come to the "perfect" layout.

If that's the rear wheel drive Ford, then yes for that reason but I've never been unhappy with the Sevel's

Pete

hannah29

we had the euramobil 695 vb sport up until a few weeks ago and took it skiing with us.....we had a hymer before that and the euramobil was certainly better as far as the storage goes and we feel they are more family orientated vans....the only thing we found was with 5 of us in it 2 adults a teenager and 2 little ones it was a little small at times when we were all in ski gear.....we have just moved onto a euramobil 810ebl and are off skiing in that....it has a lot more room inside and even more storage than before.....hymers are good for the winter without a doubt and my hubby used to swear by them until we changed to euramobil. they work better for us because of the family and as you say the double floor is a major selling point to us skiers.....we can't fault them for ski holidays at all

gaspode · Moderator

Having owned none of the makes you're looking at I'm not really qualified to comment.
I can comment on the Ford aspect though cos we have got one of them- and we've had a Fiat to compare it with.

My comment in a nutshell would be that once you've had a Transit based M/H you won't ever want to go back to Fiats.

DubPaul

I have a Knaus and I think it is well built. I felt they had a more modern finish inside and out compared to Euromobil, but perhaps their comporable products were on different lifecycles.

If the vans are all equal in your eyes then perhaps the swaying factor is support in the U.K.?

RichardnGill

ChrisNViv

Oddly enough I happened on these 3 vans via looking at the Lowdhams Eurostyle model. We shied away from that after a bit of digging unearthed that it was basically a D's Advantage with a lower insulation class to break through the GBP30K barrier. I'm sure that is fine fine for most UK winters but I'd prefer to buy a slighter older but higher spec model for the same sort of money.
Lots of great feedback from the original post which has more or less reinforced my leanings so thanks for that. Look forward to updating you after the weekend with hopefully an outcome!
best
ChrisNViv

Snelly · Eastern Rally Co-ordinator

I'd buy a Euramobil all day long, the build quality is fantastic...

ChrisNViv

So we did it at last and now own a Eura Mobil Profila 675 VB.
What swung the final selection? (a) the well thought out details for winter operation - valves all inboard etc (b) the cosy separate lounge area that gives a 2 room sense in a fairly small van.
We went through agonies over the money transfer and ended up wiring 90% of the purchase price via Currencies Direct (Boy did they need some chasing!)
We then displayed spectacularly bad timing by trying to flly out of heathrow in the fog. Really Bad Idea. There we were, looking at 3 days on the tarmac and our hard earned GBP sitting in Frankfurt. Uncomfortable sensation. We declined BA's hotel and unspecified rereouting and went to rescue our car from the long stay and deaded for Dover. A pitstop at Tesco for Eurotomtom and iron rations and we were in business.
We got a call en route not to hurry since the local registration oofice closed at 1300 so we had a slightly more relaxed perod to checkout the van and do the dealer paperwork. We stayed with friedns in frankfurt and did the offical stuff the next day. The dealer did the whole thing, pausing only to instruct me to either show passport or pay fees (total damage 133 euros). We were through in around 75 minutes. Perhaps a bit too hurried in retospect - we made it 40 minutes down the road to Wiesbaden before a call revealed that we had left the vehicle ownership documents. About turn. We abandoned, rashly the new MH in a theatre carpark and screamed back eat in the car. The remainder of the trip was uneventful. I had to trim the chestnut trees to get onto the drive....

Snelly · Eastern Rally Co-ordinator

Well done folks! Good choice too... I miss the build quality of my Euramobil.

Now lets meet you..! Sign up for a rally or meet and come join us all!