Big bathrooms! Where are they?

Hi,

We have an Auto Trail Cheyenne and one of the things that swung it for us was it's roomy full width rear bathroom and its spacious lounge area. I don't know how the Cheyenne compares with the Mohican but I know when we were looking for a new motorhome the Auto Trails were the only motorhomes we had come across that offered what we were looking for. It does have a fixed bedroom though so maybe the Cheyenne wouldn't be for you but by the sounds of it, it sounds like Auto Trail are still the best choice for larger bathroomsl.

We absolutely love our motorhome, it's our little palace on wheels and we don't regret our decision at all. We have had a few little irritating niggles go wrong with it (nothing major) but it seems from listening to a lot of other people who have bought brand new vehicles (not just Auto Trails) that this is par for the course and something we all just have to accept as normal. If you are looking for a slightly older motorhome I would assume that all the little teething problems that arise will have been sorted out by then and you will avoid any of this! However, despite these little hiccups I cannot recommend the Auto Trail fleet enough and we think they are great motorhomes.

Good luck with your search and keep us informed of how you get on.

Sue

I'm not keen on the circular shower cubicles.

They all seem to be built to the same diameter which is suitable for a 12 year old kid, but not a 60 year old Grumpy (who buy more motorhomes than 12 year olds). Let's face it in the majority of cases when you get to buy a motorhome you've, on average, gained a few pounds.

Ours is not so bad as it's a sort of semi-circle with a square area on the side over the wheelarch which gives you somewhere to shove ya bum when you bend to wash lower regions.

The virtually totally circular ones like in the Autosleeper Sandhurst and quite a few Swift Group vans are just unusable for those with the odd extra pound and taller than 5ft 6ins.

It's meant that they've soon been scrubbed off our 'possibles' list.

The other problem is trying to shower with your head in the Heki. Often the floor of the shower is higher than the rest of the van. Anyone over 6ft or so (and the population is gradually getting taller on average) either have to bend all the time they're showering or rub their head on the downlighter/ceiling/vent. Not very comfortable and a few more knocked off the 'possibles' list.

A decent size washroom with a shower to fit a 6ft 2ins, 17 stone racing snake is all we want.

SDA

peedee said:

Sue,

I've looked at the Cheyenne range, your model is a little too big for my driveway and I am not very keen on fixed beds. They take up too much living space when you consider you are only going to use them on average a third of a day and most you have to CLIMB into. Ok in warmer climates but when in this country you spend a far greater proportion of time in your van they are a no no for me. I prefer a more open environment with lots of daytime space.

peedee

Click to expand...

HI Peedee,

As you say the layout is not suitable for everyone but in response to your points against the Cheyenne, I would just like to point out what is is about the Cheyenne that we personally like about it:

With there only being the 2 of us we find there is ample living/lounging space not to mention the benefits of the spacious and seperate kitchen area. I agree the Cheyenne is a 'big un' though 8O and I know that being on the larger side is very often a great big NO NO for a lot of motorhomers. For some driving around in such a big vehicle would be their idea of a complete nightmare! 8O Fortunatley, my husband (I daren't drive it) is not phased by the Chyenne's size and happily drives ours all over. Another plus point is that thankfully our driveway at home can comfortably accomodate ours, which I must say is a major factor for us. We like having our MH all set up and ready to go whenever the fancy takes us and if we couldn't keep our MH at home we would have definitely looked for a smaller vehicle for sure.

Our last motorhome was a Swift Kontiki, which again was a lovely motorhome and we enjoyed our travels in her immensley and even now, whenever we see a Kontiki on the road, some wonderful memories come flooding back of our happy times in her! The Kontiki had the option of a fixed bed or a rear end lounge and when we bought her, we opted for the rear end lounge model instead. We decided that the extra living space would be far more useful to us and thought making the double bed up every night was a small price to pay for the extra daytime space. It had a pull down over the cab double bed, but with my knee problem I found the step ledder access too dodgy, so sadly the overcab bed rarely got used. To be honest, after a while we did get a bit fed up of making the bed up at the end of each day and so when we decided to change the Kontiki, a fixed bed became top of our wish list and I must say that now that we have sampled the luxury of fixed beds, we personally would never go back to making beds up ever again. If hubby or I fancy a little nap ever or feel unwell, its great being able to go and lie down in a seperately sectioned off bedroom and climb into a comfortable and ready made up bed and for us it's a definite advantage. We like the fact that if we have been out for the night or had an evening in reading, watching TV or enjoying a drink or a meal with motorhoming friends, that when it comes time for bed we can just turn off the lights and fall into bed with none of the clat of making up beds etc ........ let's face it this is not always easy after a couple of bottles of wine hic hic! :lol: :lol: :lol: Another thing we like is not having to pack away all our bedding every morning before we can sit down with our morning cuppa or the inconvenience of having to store quilts, sleeping bags, memory foam mattress toppers and pillows etc somewhere during the day, which of course inevitably takes up valuable locker space.

The beauty of having choice is that there is a layout out there in the motorhoming world to suit everyone and we all have our preferences for one reason or another - however, sometimes it just takes a little while to find the right one to tick all our boxes! I'm glad you and I have found ours and I just hope that posts like ours will help people such as Sara to find the right one for them too!

Sue

And that's another thing :?

At home we have a 5ft wide bed.

In our under 20ft long van we have a 4ft 7ins wide at top/4ft 3ins wide at leg end bed which we manage in OK.

But why do UK converters put 4ft wide 'doubles' and if you're lucky maybe 4ft 5ins, into vans that are 25ft long?

If Adria designers can get 4ft 7ins out of 19ft 8ins surely someone can get 5ft out of 25ft?

Sigh

SDA