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 Topic: 1.6 TDCi and lightweight four berth
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04/5/2018 at 10:17am
Location: Derbyshire
Outfit: ElddisAvante462 Honda CRV SE2.2 i-Dtec
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Www.whattowcar.com or the Caravan Clubs own outfit match services may give you a more realistic view of what you can expect from your specific intended outfit, plus if you are lucky, a full review from someone who has actually tried and tested the same combination as the one you are considering.
I have towed various 'lightweight' combinations over the years, from a tiny 3.60 5berth Monza with a Honda Civic 89bhp in the early 1980s, through to a couple of Avondales, and my last Caravan was a 4 berth Lunar Zenith 4 1100kg towed by a 1.8 Honda Civic petrol, which was fine, until you hit a Headwind or came across a long motorway gradient like the crawl uphill on the M1 southbound just after the Junction with the M18. Pulling off at traffic lights on a steep hillstart could also sometimes result in stalling the engine, or a strong smell of burning clutch, and we ended up sometimes making a detour to find a more suitable route to avoid such problems occuring. During this time, our car was never heavily laden as theres just the two of us, and mostly awning and contents free, apart from a couple of lightweight folding chairs onboard the caravan.
The other thing to consider with a lightweight caravan is exactly where the cutbacks have been made to reduce weight. Sometimes these are at the cost of comfort, reduced bed widths and lengths and thinner mattresses to sleep on often make what othewise looks like a lovely little caravan a nightmare every morning you wake up with back ache, knee ache from sitting with reduced leg room in a narrower caravan, or not being able to shut the toilet door properly with space to manouver if you are a larger person or need to toilet a small child and be in there with them.
The bedding senario was a reality for one couple with a brand new Explore caravan out on Dannys Paddock CL last August, the beds and thin seating were so uncomfortable that this couple were already considering exchanging their caravan Asap as the wife was having to take daytime naps after sleeping badly during the night, not something you really expect from your holiday.
Before buying our Avante, we looked at the lightweight Venus range from Lunar, but again, Narrow width, lack of propper shower cubilcle lining other than a all round curtain and usual vinyl wallbaord, and thin mattresses soon made us walk away.
The whole trend is to make caravan with more onboard equipment than their older models from the 80s and 90s, where you could get some models designed to be towed by a Mini Or a fairly small family car and some were as light as 600kg fully laden and much more compact with a 12ft body length the average, and a 16ft considered huge!
The small Freedom Microlight caravans are still available today for those who want to tow with a low powered towcar, but again at the cost of greatly reduced internal space and for some people, comfort.
We are now lucky enough to have a 2.2 CRV that tows our 1240 Avante like a dream in all conditions, so much so that its easy sometimes to forget that the caravan is on the back, and the stress and worry over suitable route planning, delayed journeys due to strong headwinds, and frayed nerves at pulling off at steep gradients is all a thing of the past, and well worth the upgrade, and for once we have put 'the horse infront of the cart' so to speak, and we are so glad that we did.
Julia
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Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
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