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 for a conventional caravan look at a Compass rallye 360/2 loveley little van 1000kg

 max weight.

  ADRAD, what sort of spec are you looking at ? what sort of age ? what sort of budget have you in mind ?

  we have a 2003 coachman pastiche. its a lovely van but a little on the heavy side at almost 1300kgs.

   the ones mentioned here already are great vans and a little lighter to tow as well. if you got to any of the larger dealer web sites, you can put in to the search engine on there site your spec request and see whats about.

   you can always goto your local dealer/trader. thats what we did and still do from time to time. its the very best way to see the vans and there layouts close up. its also a good way to spend a few hours on a sunday...

                          Richard :)

Quote: Originally posted by country boy on 21/9/2008

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  ADRAD, what sort of spec are you looking at ? what sort of age ? what sort of budget have you in mind ?

  we have a 2003 coachman pastiche. its a lovely van but a little on the heavy side at almost 1300kgs.

   the ones mentioned here already are great vans and a little lighter to tow as well. if you got to any of the larger dealer web sites, you can put in to the search engine on there site your spec request and see whats about.

   you can always goto your local dealer/trader. thats what we did and still do from time to time. its the very best way to see the vans and there layouts close up. its also a good way to spend a few hours on a sunday...

                          Richard :)

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A Trigano is actually half that weight.

Have a look at my gallery, we have a Fleurette Tamaris 31T, is a 2 berth with toilet & washbasin, full size fridge, 2 ring hob & running hot water. Weighs in at around 750kg fully laden.

The Trigano Silver has taken over from the Fleurettes, our van is a 2001 so therefore not as expensive as the Trigano -  this is on our wish-list when we can afford a new van!

Dismissed the Eribas as the smaller ones felt a bit cramped.

HERE and in our gallery is the Sprintaway Lux, probably the best British Made 2 berth van you can buy.

If you want to know more about Eriba caravans, you’ll find all you need to know at http://www.eriba-amiga.co.uk/index.html  If you have any questions you might want to go to http://www.eribaforum.co.uk/ where you’ll meet lots of enthusiastic owners.

Carr

Hi

We have a Freedom Jetstream 1st Class 2 berth, weight unladen 650kg.  You have to be quite organised and work out a way of living in the small space but we manage fine. It is imported from Poland by Freedom Caravans as a basic shell and you can add whatever appliances etc you want but they do second hand ones as well.  The previous owners had it fitted out with fridge, water heater, hob and oven and gas fire.  It also has a toilet/washbasin & shower room, and wardrobe.  It is made of fibre glass.  We tow with a Nissan Almera 1.5 and have had no problems as yet although we have not been up any mountains just a few hills!

Friends of ours have an Eriba, not the smallest the Puck, but the next one up and that too is a nice van.  Slightly bigger and 100kg heavier.

Hope you get something you like soon.

Carolbay has hit the nail on the head with the comment about " You have to be quite organised and work out a way of living in the small space  ".

We have the Sprintaway Lux with its internal space of 9' by 5' yet this year were had 2 trips in it, one of 10 days and one of 27 days.

Although we have now had this van for two seasons, we are still finding ways of using it that give us even more space, more comfort and easier living.

It is one thing to look at the plans of a van and think you could use it this way or that, but it is only when you actually push the bounderies of long term camping or wild camping, that you are forced to think outside the box and come up with better ways of doing things.

The Sprintaway Lux that we take away next year although on the outside will look the same to most folks, internally and our expectations of it will be totally different to the one we had this year.

We will be doing much less one night stands on long term tours and more week long camps and seeing areas by solo car trips.
Next year the beds will be left made up 24/7 and the awning will be erected and used much more often.

Smaller vans really do have to be used in as many different situations as possible before you go out and spend a lot of money on the one that will suit you best.
So do yourself a favour and do not buy new until you know you will be happy with one particular type.