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Hi, anyone got any ideas on manufacturers of fixed bunk vans, preferably single axle and less than 1500kgs, although if there aint many i will have to look at upgrading my licence.

I have already seen the bailys, but want to see some more, i have an annoying habit of researching future purchaces to death, but its only helped before!

My daughter has just bought a Swift Conqueror and she is very pleased with it .She replied to that TV company that was asking for people buying caravans to contact them .Well they sorted out the deal and filmed the lot of it for the BBC so it should be on the box sometime .She had a nearly new Fleetwood Heritage at the time and it was completely unsuitable for a family , I used to say its all bed and bog because that is what it was and it had very little room for sitting.

The Swift

Hi Tim,

We were looking at fixed bunks with similar criteria to you, we looked at the Bailey's and I was rather disappointed with the finish of them (right up to the Bretagne) we eventually bought a Compass Corona 556 (same as the Eldiss Avante) and should have it in the next week or two. This has a MTPLM of 1450kg. The quality was far superior to the majority of vans in the same price range and we did a deal for a factory fresh one complete with lux pack for under 12k.

Hi

We had a look at a Geist at the weekend, looked like a very well built Caravan, 5 berth with 2 fixed bunks.

If only we had the money.............

Cheers

Paul

we looked at the fixed doubles, but they seemed to make the vans look smaller, plus, we have a 14 monh toddler and anther in the thought process so the fixed bunks would be the best for us

cheers for the info, still looking

Quote: Originally posted by Biosdoctor on 25/5/2006

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Hi

We had a look at a Geist at the weekend, looked like a very well built Caravan, 5 berth with 2 fixed bunks.

If only we had the money.............

Cheers

Paul

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We had a similar requirement for fixed bunks and found that most manufacturers could offer something similar to the Corona 556 - variations of a theme really. We took the opportunity of visiting the NEC in February to compare similar vans all under one roof - and glad we did. It was so much easier to make some good comparisons and to 'nit pick' each model to find the best one to suit our requirements. I understand that there's another exhibition that you might consider visiting in October http://www.caravanshows.com/expo/index.asp. Needless to say that we purchased a van at that show that we hadn't really considered prior to the exhibition but believe it meets our requirements better.

We have just collected our adria altea 542uk...its a 5 berth with fixed bunks down the side of the van at the back with a table and seats opposite. There is a pull out door to give our boys aged 11 and 13 their privacy (and us). They do a 6 berth van with bunks at the rear of the van but they were narrower than the bunks down the side...Our youngest son has cerebral palsy and is quite big for his age,but the van we chose will last us forever (until I see a better one!!) the table and seats also converts into a bed and this is wider than the bunks....

we only collected yesterday and next weekend we are going on first trip out, will let you know how we got on...towing it was alot easier than both myself and OH thought, we tow with a nissan x-trail 2 wheel drive 2.2 tdi....which found it easy.

Hope you find the van with layout you require..

keren...

Quote: Originally posted by sammy93 on 27/5/2006

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but the van we chose will last us forever (until I see a better one!!)

That old chestnut, my OH uses that every time we buy something new!

we tow with a nissan x-trail 2 wheel drive 2.2 tdi....which found it easy.

I like the x-trail, but I did not know they did a 2wd one!

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Yeah sshooie they do as ours only has one gear stick, apparently alot of older people like the x-trail but didn't require 4 wheel drive and so now they make a 2 x 4...

we by the way are both under 45, i'm not even 40 yet...but youngest son is disabled and we visited the motability roadshow last year at donnington park and OH was hooked on the nissan x-trail....they offered us a good deal (we would never have afforded a new one) and we bit their hands off.

keren.

We have just brought a swift charisma 570. 6 birth with fixed bunks across the back with rear door. excellent for us with 2 young kids, no more making the beds in the morning. we are going to sandyballs on tues for a few days,first time we are all going as my youngest usually stays with Nan,but with this layout we can all go,Inc the mother-in-law .

Mrcharisma