Fendt Caravans

[its_a_twiglethotmail.com]

Does anyone have one of these?? We are thinking of "upgrading" our van, and would like to know more about this kind of van.

Are they good? I have heard that they are a good make, but thought I would throw the idea out to the masses!

 

[Joyce_5063910]

Hi Kate

We have a Fendt caravan at the moment, a 590 diamont twin axel.

We have had three in the last few years a 560 and a 510 and before that a German Hobby.

They are fantastic vans with many features and we do not seem to have had the problems that I read about on the forum.

It has a fixed bed and large sitting area for 7/8 persons good for entertaining which would make into another full double if required. As standard it came with air conditioning, under floor heating, gas fire with imitation log effect (nice with candle light!) Full fridge and small freezer, 3 gas burners small oven (but then I do not need a full sized oven) special housing for TV and many other features.

We do not have a full bathroom at the back but just a seperate toilet with shower and a vanity basin outside the toilet but in the bedroom area.

We use camp sites mostly and go abroad quite a bit and we use the facilities on the site. I prefer to have more sitting room and kitchen space but I do know they do the Fendts now with rear bathroom for those who would like that. Everyone to their own style and needs.

This van was bought in Germany at the Dusseldorf show but the others have been purchased, one in Luxemburg and in the others in UK at a dealer up near Scotland (Gretna Green)

When you buy abroad you get a cheaper price and we have had no problems. Not even with the door been on the opposite side or having to have plug adapters.

If you are interested in knowing more reply to this and maybe we can speak off the forum if that would help you in any way.

Joyce

 

[its_a_twiglethotmail.com]

Hi there Joyce,

Thanks for that! They do seem a good quality build. We are looking at the Platin 540 TKM single axle.

How do you find having euro electrics? Also the 12 or 13 pin socket for electrics off the car. Is it really as simple as getting converter plugs?

The other question is about insurance. Do you find you can get that OK as well?

Thanks for your help, Kate

 

[Joyce_5063910]

Hi Kate

We find no problem with the electric inside the van you just need adapters for your electical equipment like the ones you take abroad.(three pin to two pin)

As far as the car goes we have a left hand drive so we had a thirteen pin plug already fitted. But yes it is easy to buy a thirteen to a seven pin adapter. The plugs are being talked about at this present time and may be come standard throughout Europe,

We have our caravan insured with saga and have no problem.

Where are you buying your van from as the dealer should beable to fit a 12 volt pack to the caravan and also adapt the plugs for you?

joyce

 

[Lutz]

I had the opposite situation - the caravan was 7-pin and the car came with a 13-pin connector. Because I felt the 13-pin would be more reliable, I converted the caravan to 13-pin and use an adapter on the odd occasion when I need to tow another trailer.

 

[its_a_twiglethotmail.com]

It is in Callendar caravans, but after talking to them today, there are a few issues.

There are a few cracked windows, 2 on the inner skin (front and one of the back bunk ones) and also the other bunk window has a corner missing. Makes me think it may not be a good buy now.

I do like the look of them. It has a 12 pin plug onalready, so we shall see.

Do you have the onboard water tank. Silly question, but how does that work? Do you fill from an aqua roll?

 

[Joyce_5063910]

Hi again Kate

I would stay away from the caravan you are talking about it is not worth trying to get replacement windows. If you are still keen on Fendt there are other dealers in the UK with second hand ones and they will be in good condition.

J G Trading in Annan near Gretna Green can be found on the net and they advertise in the caravan mag now. I can give you more details if you wish.

As far as the tank goes we have an on board tank I believe most do and we fill with a watering can which is just used for that purpose. You could use a hose if you have one long enough !!

We have a gauge in the caravan which you press and it tells you exactly how much water you have...very easy and so you know when the tank is 1/4 1/2 or full. This means you can press and find out at any time how much is left. Then I send hubby off with the watering can!

Joyce

 

[its_a_twiglethotmail.com]

Hi Joyce, Thanks for the information!!

We have decided to "walk away"as windows will be difficult to replace. If they weren't the dealer would have done it wouldn't they lol. They did say to but it and then we could claim on the insurance for them as "That is what everyone does". Well, not us thank you.

It did leave us wondering what else is wrong with it as one window may have been an accident, but 2 and a crack on the outside seems to be careless.

The van does look really nice however, so we may well go with Fendt in the future as the layout we are after will have to be a European one, so we may have more questions!!

Thanks again, Kate

 

[Joyce_5063910]

Hi Kate

Not sure of you live in the Lancashire area and that is why you were looking at the particular dealer you said, but a short run up th M6 would take you to the dealer I said J G Trading at Eastrigg. If you are somewhere else in the country then there is a secondhand fendt platin at Donington caravans on the A52 we saw when we visited the other day. In good clean condition price was just over

 

[its_a_twiglethotmail.com]

Thanks for that.

We are actually down in Suffolk and it is only the joys of the internet that make Britain all that much smaller when looking for a certain van!

We are going to sit tight for now, and wait and see. I am sure that there will be other ones coming through.

 

[Markwant_5113193]

Dear Kate,

We had a new Fendt for one year (Saphir 490TF). There are some aspects we particularly didn't like:

- very soft (permanent) beds; when i turend over, my partner was also moving like in a boat

- very noisy inside when raining; that's a big difference you never hear about. But f.e. our Elddis now is a lot more quiet due to the loose-laying roof. The roof in the Fendt is a sandwich roof. Tests from the german brand Tabbert in the past have proven a sandwich roof can be 4 times louder (perceptual levels) than a loose-laying. Practical caravan likes the sandwich roof of the new Bailey's; I don't know why........

- a last but very personal aspect; we found the interior very boring and cold after a while

Therefor, after 1 Fendt, we returned to our first love: the English caravan. After a Beyerland Quartz (= ABI) and an Award Morningstar we now are in love with our Elddis Odyssey 524.

Greetings from Holland,

Fam. Marsant

 

[Joyce_5063910]

I have back trouble and in fact find that the bed in the caravan.. Fendt is firmer than my bed at home and much better for me. We have never had trouble with the movement of the bed when one turns over and with regards to the rain, I did not notice that it was particularly noisey these past few weeks and we have spent most weekends with the rain pouring down on us as the weather has been quite bad.

As far as the interior goes I think it is great and the log effect fire and heat that comes from it makes the whole caravan feel rather cosy and with candle light it is even better.

But then as we say everyone to their own choice and it would not be good for us all to have the same vans!!!

 

[Markwant_5113193]

I have back trouble and in fact find that the bed in the caravan.. Fendt is firmer than my bed at home and much better for me. We have never had trouble with the movement of the bed when one turns over and with regards to the rain, I did not notice that it was particularly noisey these past few weeks and we have spent most weekends with the rain pouring down on us as the weather has been quite bad.

As far as the interior goes I think it is great and the log effect fire and heat that comes from it makes the whole caravan feel rather cosy and with candle light it is even better.

But then as we say everyone to their own choice and it would not be good for us all to have the same vans!!!

Thankyou for your reply Joyce. Indeed, everyone has his own taste and that is of course very good. Let me explain some of my remarks a little bit more:

- we also do have back troubles but the beds in the Fendt for me made it so worse that we had to break up and return home because i was afraid that it would be impossible for me to drive home again

- we never woke up during the night in our former caravans and we are very very deep sleepers .... But in the Fendt we woke up with heavy rain several times because of the enormous amount of noise and we didn't like that.

- see for the noise-research i mentioned at: www.tabbert.de and choose: modelle, patentdach. Here you can read about the noise-difference of 9 db/A between a sandwich and a loose-laying roof (only in german i'm afraid).

Greetings,

Mr. Marsant

 

[AlanD_5039797]

We picked our new Fendt up last Tuesday (30th. May), a Topas 550. We, (my wife and I),had 3 nights away this weekend to try it out. This 'van is oh so near perfect, we love it. Every last detail is just so, all the cupboard doors line up properly, the door closes properly without having to slam it, nearly everything is just how it ought to be. We even found the beds to be to our liking, no backache from this 'van, even though our previous 2 'vans, both British, have given me an aching back, one of which had a fixed bed. It also tows like a dream behind our Toyota Land Cruiser Colorado. At the moment I'm unable to offer an opinion as to how noisy rain sounds on the roof because we actually had a dry weekend, doubtless time will tell on this issue. So, I said it was almost perfect, the only thing I'm not perfectly happy about is the toilet roll holder, that, ideally, could do with been 6 inches higher, and that's all. Will I be going back to a British 'van? Unless something really drastic happens to the Fendt, no way!

 

[Joyce_5063910]

Hi Alan

So glad you like your new caravan and you certainly picked the best weekend recently to go away in it.

This was the first weekend for some time we did not have a show or a Rally.

In fact hubby has just gone to pick the caravan up as we are away this weekend....hope the suns stays out.

I agree with you that the Fendt caravans are built well with doors fitting exactly and attention to detail upamost.

Hope you have many happy days in your new caravan...I always look out specially when I see another Fendt so maybe we will pass or meet sometime.

Happy caravanning...Joyce