Wannabe caravanner

[WendyT]

Hi everyone. Just introducing myself.
British expat fully settled in the Netherlands. Dutch hubby, Dutch Daschund, looking to buy a German caravan, Eriba Touring Troll 550, in about a years time.
We currently have a tiny trailer tent, Raclet Solena, and have over the last few years of fantastic weekends and weeks camping, decide to upgrade to a less tiny but equally compact caravan.
I’ve been reading up on the tips and tricks of caravan ownership, watching a lot of YouTube videos, and trying to get a clue before we bite the bullet.
We fell in love with the look of the Eriba. Thought at first of going for the mini 310, as we didn’t need a bathroom, but a fixed bed is a must. But after going to the dealers, my Dutch hubby - at 6’4 - can’t sit down under the bench seats with cupboards above. So the 550 with carriage style seating it is! Also, the longer bed length is better for the extra long Dutchie.
Looking forward to picking your experienced brains!

 

[Anseo]

Welcome WendyT

Good to have you here.

Anseo

 

[Craigyoung]

Hello WendyT , as Anseo says on the last post welcome to the forum lots of knowledgeable people on here so any questions ask away , you'll not be disappointed with the caravan as you can just pitch and you are sorted rather than having to pitch and build up the trailer if that makes sense ?!
Buying our caravan was the best thing we ever done for weekends away , as it happens we were in Holland last year at the Delft .
Enjoy

 

[WendyT]

Delft is a lovely city. I hope you liked it there.
The setup with our little raclet is super easy, but we always have to add an awning for some daytime relaxing space. We’re looking forward to having a caravan with a pullout sunshade on the side, maybe a wind break, much quicker setup overall, and will hopefully keep our attention seeking 4 legged beast from barking so much during setup. He’s such a calm dog until he sees another dog, running child, or we’re doing something that he can’t join in on, lol

 

[Raywood]

Welcome to the forum. Never had an Eriba but they are very well made, easy tow and over here at least hold their value very well. The choice of the model is a very personal thing so you have to decide for yourselves what model suits you best, although if you have queries someone on here will normally here the answer.

 

[CustardAvenger]

We were quite taken with the Eriba Ocean Drive special edition... had a poke around them at the NEC show. Only downside for me is the height of the habitation door and size of the washroom. I'm 6'3" and although I can stand with the top popped I don't really fit:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QOCNPZgQ6y3kjtqzJGvSUcduEXSEBQFh/view?usp=drivesdk

 

[Craigyoung]

We were quite taken with the Eriba Ocean Drive special edition... had a poke around them at the NEC show. Only downside for me is the height of the habitation door and size of the washroom. I'm 6'3" and although I can stand with the top popped I don't really fit:

]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QOCNPZgQ6y3kjtqzJGvSUcduEXSEBQFh/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QOCNPZgQ6y3kjtqzJGvSUcduEXSEBQFh/view?usp=drivesdk[/quote
Ha ha ! Now you see him now you don't

 

[CustardAvenger]

We were quite taken with the Eriba Ocean Drive special edition... had a poke around them at the NEC show. Only downside for me is the height of the habitation door and size of the washroom. I'm 6'3" and although I can stand with the top popped I don't really fit:

]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QOCNPZgQ6y3kjtqzJGvSUcduEXSEBQFh/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QOCNPZgQ6y3kjtqzJGvSUcduEXSEBQFh/view?usp=drivesdk[/quote
Ha ha ! Now you see him now you don't

The washroom is a similar experience! It's more suitable for smaller persons.

My wife would love a fixed twin bed layout. But no one makes a bed long enough. I only fit in a transverse island bed!

 

[otherclive]

We were quite taken with the Eriba Ocean Drive special edition... had a poke around them at the NEC show. Only downside for me is the height of the habitation door and size of the washroom. I'm 6'3" and although I can stand with the top popped I don't really fit:

]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QOCNPZgQ6y3kjtqzJGvSUcduEXSEBQFh/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QOCNPZgQ6y3kjtqzJGvSUcduEXSEBQFh/view?usp=drivesdk[/quote
We had a Trigano Silver 420DD pop top which was a nicely made caravan and towed beautifully. But after four months the “romantic dream” had faded and we went back to a conventional caravan. I’m 6ft 4 in and echo your comments. We had to make appointments to move around the caravan. Guess two spaniels didn’t help

 

[CustardAvenger]

We were quite taken with the Eriba Ocean Drive special edition... had a poke around them at the NEC show. Only downside for me is the height of the habitation door and size of the washroom. I'm 6'3" and although I can stand with the top popped I don't really fit:

]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QOCNPZgQ6y3kjtqzJGvSUcduEXSEBQFh/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QOCNPZgQ6y3kjtqzJGvSUcduEXSEBQFh/view?usp=drivesdk[/quote
We had a Trigano Silver 420DD pop top which was a nicely made caravan and towed beautifully. But after four months the “romantic dream” had faded and we went back to a conventional caravan. I’m 6ft 4 in and echo your comments. We had to make appointments to move around the caravan. Guess two spaniels didn’t help

Ha! In our first caravan I could only stand fully upright under the pop-up sky light. We has to take turns moving about too!

 

[Raywood]

We were quite taken with the Eriba Ocean Drive special edition... had a poke around them at the NEC show. Only downside for me is the height of the habitation door and size of the washroom. I'm 6'3" and although I can stand with the top popped I don't really fit:

]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QOCNPZgQ6y3kjtqzJGvSUcduEXSEBQFh/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QOCNPZgQ6y3kjtqzJGvSUcduEXSEBQFh/view?usp=drivesdk[/quote
The praise for this one baffles me. To me it is all bed and not a lot else, and for us a lounging area is needed and this does not have anywhere comfortable to do this. If you go for Eriba there are far better layouts with the bed converting into a reasonable lounge. The head height could be an issue fo some people.

 

[CustardAvenger]

We were quite taken with the Eriba Ocean Drive special edition... had a poke around them at the NEC show. Only downside for me is the height of the habitation door and size of the washroom. I'm 6'3" and although I can stand with the top popped I don't really fit:

]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QOCNPZgQ6y3kjtqzJGvSUcduEXSEBQFh/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QOCNPZgQ6y3kjtqzJGvSUcduEXSEBQFh/view?usp=drivesdk[/quote
The praise for this one baffles me. To me it is all bed and not a lot else, and for us a lounging area is needed and this does not have anywhere comfortable to do this. If you go for Eriba there are far better layouts with the bed converting into a reasonable lounge. The head height could be an issue fo some people.

Let me put that comment in perspective: We already owned the Sprite with its full sized lounge and fixed bed on that visit to the NEC. As OtherClive put it best, the "Romance"; the small Eriba with its classic looks makes it a charming little van. The Ocean Drive exterior colours and interior upholstery are another charming quirk. I will admit that the lounge wasn't suitable for lounging and when you spent a second looking at actually living in the thing, it starts to fall apart!

 

[WendyT]

We like the 550 because it has the carriage style seating, a bit better for the taller folk. Hubby sleeps well on the bed of our trailer tent, which is 190x130. The bed in the Eriba Troll 550 is 198x140, so will be a bit roomier for both of us.
To be honest, we mostly do our lounging outside, so the fact that the caravan is mostly bed with a bit of indoor space for bad weather isn’t an issue. Being based in the Netherlands, we pick our weeks for holiday - out of high season because we don’t have kids - and then follow the good weather. Forecast is usuallly reliable for the upcoming 10 days. The handy thing with the caravan, which we haven’t had with the trailer tent so much, is that if the weather sucks, we can just drive on to Italy or wherever to find the sun.

 

[CustardAvenger]

We like the 550 because it has the carriage style seating, a bit better for the taller folk. Hubby sleeps well on the bed of our trailer tent, which is 190x130. The bed in the Eriba Troll 550 is 198x140, so will be a bit roomier for both of us.
To be honest, we mostly do our lounging outside, so the fact that the caravan is mostly bed with a bit of indoor space for bad weather isn’t an issue. Being based in the Netherlands, we pick our weeks for holiday - out of high season because we don’t have kids - and then follow the good weather. Forecast is usuallly reliable for the upcoming 10 days. The handy thing with the caravan, which we haven’t had with the trailer tent so much, is that if the weather sucks, we can just drive on to Italy or wherever to find the sun.

We stayed at one of the Camping and Caravanning Club sites in Northumberland. One of the wardens there was full-timing in an Eriba for their first year working for the club. At the time we had a 1979/1980 Ci Cadet 10 (as in 10feet/305cm long). much smaller and less practical than a modern Troll 550!