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We own a cabanon galaxy trailer tent and are thinking of selling it and buying a caravan.  We have been offered a lunar chateaux, but being new to this game, are not sure if this is the caravan for us.  Can anyone give any advice on this make of caravan.

Thanks Kev.

Hi We have got a chateau 450 and love it and have had no problems with it at all.What sort of advice are you after?

Cheers Andy.

ps.Welcome to ukcs.

Can you tell me about the build quality - Are there any weakspots - anything that we should look out for, when we go to view?

We have had ours since last may and used it about fifteen times and had no problems at all with the van.

The only thing I have had to change is the water pump which packed up and I also lengthend  the water pipe so I could use an aqua roll and not the on board tank as it is too small and awkward to get in when full.

Hope this helps

Andy.

Thanks for that Andy.

We're thinking of going to look at a Lunar tomorrow so it's great to receive your feedback.  The one thing that threw us was the fact that the price of a new Lunar is quite a few pounds less than some of the other caravans and we basically wondered if the quality wasn't up to the same standard etc.

Cheers. Kev.

They are very basic inside if you look at a lunar then another make you will see that but thats what we wanted because we have a two year old boy so its going to get knocked/broke/dirty etc so thts why we decided on the cheaper van and not spend too much.

At the end of the day I look at it as somewhere to sleep and try and spend most of our time away outside etc

The Chateau is the Belgian built entry level caravan by Lunar, comparable I would say to the Bailey Discovery.  They are a basic 'van, depending on the age of the caravan depends whether the shower is 'usable', the trays in the earlier models wern't water tight.  This is as they were  built for the European market where showers aren't a requirement. The seat cushions, the curtains are thin and there is no carpet, just lino.  Has it got dimpled sides?  This finish isn't very popular here in the UK. The newer ones havea smooth finish.

We had a 470 fixed bed model, and changed it to our current 'van after damage was done to the side of the caravan.  The caravan repairer was happy to repair it until he knew it was a Chateau as he had had so many problems paying for parts up front from Belgium and not getting them/getting the wrong ones.  It put us off.  That said ours didn't even make the dealer's forecourt and was snapped up straight away.

How did you get on Kev?

Cheers Andy

Hi Andy,

We haven't made any decisions yet....still thinking about our options.  Our 'kids' are 18 and 16 so I don't think they'll be wanting to come with us on our jaunts.  We don't want to buy the first one that comes along and regret our decision so we've been to a few showrooms to see what is on offer.  We've looked at different layouts and think that a 5 berth caravan with seating/dining area at the back of the van which can convert into a double with single berth above and door to partition it off would best suit our needs.  If you can offer any advice with regards to what to look for, what to consider when choosing certain styles or makes, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks for your interest.

Regards, Kev.

The layout was the main reason for going for the lunar so we could shut off our little man at the end and also he would have his own space when he gets a little older also we tend to leave his bed made up so one less job to do.

Just ask for advice on here there are loads of helpfull people with more experiance than me as this is only our second van so have limited knowledge of other vans.

Good luck in your search

Andy.

We finally committed ourselves to a Sterling Europa 520. It has a totally different layout to what we were looking for but as soon as we saw it we thought this is the one.  Collecting it 14th October.....can't wait.

Thanks guys for all your replies.

Kev.

Quote: Originally posted by chippy28 on 01/9/2006

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Hi We have got a chateau 450 and love it and have had no problems with it at all.What sort of advice are you after?

Cheers Andy.

ps.Welcome to ukcs.

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Hi Andy Can you help?! We have just bought a 450 but cant work out how to use the battery! The instruction book says that there is a battery switch on the distribution panel but there doesnt appear to be a panel anywhere in the van!

Thanks

Phil