sorry mark ive been away in our vip to france for a week so ive only just seen this thread.
youve possibly allready noticed that i am an avid coachman purchaser and will no longer consider any other make as experiance has shown me that no other manufacturer can get close to the quality and reliability of a coachman.
to date ive had a pastiche 520/4 a vip 520/4 a laser 590/4 and my van at the moment is a 2007 vip 530/4, not one of the vans has at any time given me any problems and that is the absolute truth, sorry the hartle door lock on this van has been a problem as it has with all manufacturers but it has been replaced and is fine now.
the van we currently have has travelled around 10.000 miles now and we use it every 3 weeks throughout the year, weve been away in temperatures ranging from nearly 30 degrees in france down to -11 degrees once in the lakes and the van coped very well. the heating is just about right for the size of van and it was our choice not to have ac fitted as we only used it once on the laser so its a lot of weight for little benefit.
in our van we do miss the end bathroom but we had to compromise as we did not want another twin axle but we did want the fixed bed, the bathroom functions well but having had so many end bathroom vans we do miss the space, other than space the toilet and shower have been faultless.
the kitchen area is very good, plenty of workspace a decent sized sink and proper cooker which we do use on occasions, the thetford fridge has allso been faultless allthough one annoying thing was during last weeks trip to france we stayed on a friends farm and every time they put on theire clothes dryer our fridge showed fault code 8 which is apparently low voltage ? it wasnt really a peoblem but seemed strange as our tv and satelight system had no problems with voltage drop.
round to the living area, all the upholsery and wood work is still like new despite its heavy use allthough we do take very good care of our vans, all the lighting is still working and all the sockets etc are fine and logically placed.
out side the van i polish the exterior 2 times per year so as you would expect the paint work is as good as the day we purchased the van no decals have fallen off or even faded and we have no signs of cracks on either the front or rear panels, all the grab handles are still firm and the running gear and hitch have been faultless. we did have the hydraulic front locker stay come off once due to me pulling it a bit hard but this was easily fixed and hasnt failled since.
i really am struggling to find any faults at all with this van and if i had to name anything it would only be the location of the hot water heater and drain taps, they are under the rear bed in the offside corner and not very easy to get to so the tank can be drained, double joints would be a bonus but just placing the drain taps nearer to the locker door would be easier.
we intend keeping this van at least another year, and this year we intend to do around 5 to 8 thousand miles with it on tow so it has its work cut out but we have no worries what so ever that this van is capable of such heavy use.
if you require any further info then please dont hesitate to contact me at all though you will have to use the forum as my email address that is registered with you is no longer in use and im not sure how to change it.
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