rear passengers?

[denimmaterial]

Hello everybody

I've just joined and would like some information. I am thinking about buying a second hand romahome as our only car. We are an elderly couple and I don't think we would be using it for camping, but rather for day trips. We love the idea of two long settees for afternoon naps, and the space for carrying a wheelchair and holiday luggage. However, for a couple of weeks in the summer we go away to cottages with our daughter and son-in-law, and they would need to travel around with us once they got to where the cottages are using the train.

My question is, are there seatbelts in the back of the romahomes with the long settees. If not, can they legally be fitted and used?

I've been fascinated by campervans all my adult life, and we did have a Diahatsu Hi Jet until recently, but the problem was the same - no rear passenger accommodation, so we kept our VW estate and just used the little campervan for day trips. Now, ideally we want to run only one vehicle that does everything. Is this realistic?

Thank you in anticipation of your help.

[Graham]

Hi there and welcome to the forum.

In answer to your question I suppose it depends on your budget, if you are looking at older Romahomes e.g. C15 then the answer is no there are no seat belts and it is frankly not safe to carry passengers in the rear.

However the newer Romahomes with the Pulman layout e.g. the R20 do have seats in the rear with belts and you can legally carry passengers, the rear seats can then be set out to make two long lounger settees.

Hopefully someone with a Pulman layout R20 will be able to tell you more.

[andsally]

Hi there

We have been in a similar position - we wanted a Romahome with the option of being able to carry the occasional two passengers in the rear legally and safely. We are part exchanging our estate and intend to use our Romahome as a sole vehicle for both a run around and for camping

I am new to the whole Romahome scene and stand to be corrected but this is based on my research before purchasing a new R20. In a nutshell, as Graham suggests, forget about any of the older C15 based models; also much will depend on your budget. You will need to look at the newer Berlingo based models. Importantly, not all of these were built with the option of forward or rear facing seats with seatbelts. There appear to be two types to look for: one has a Pullman seating arrangement in the back, where two passengers can be carried; one facing forward and one facing the rear, both on the near side. The other has two removeable front-facing seats. The latter is no longer in production and appears to be a more cumbersome arrangement - I think they each weigh about 25KG.

Bare in mind that the smaller Romahomes have been subjected to name changes, which makes researching them a bit confusing!

Here are a couple of photos showing the different seating arrangements. Remember, that not all were made with this option and you may have to wait before you find one for sale:

http://www.smallmotorhome.co.uk/Resources/pullman2.jpg
http://www.tcmotorhomes.com/romahome/duo_plus.html

Hope my twopenneth helps!

Andrew

[denimmaterial]

rear passenger seats

Thank you very much for that information and especially for the photos. This is very helpful. I think the R20 with the Pullman layout would be perfect. Now all I have to do is find one! We are not in too much of a hurry, though at our ages (71 and 80) we can't afford to hang about!

If any one can suggest another small campervan with this Pullman layout, I would appreciate it.

Once again thank you.

[Graham]

Avon Motor Caravans in Bristol have got a couple of vans with Pulman layout, one is a hylo

http://www.avonmotorcaravans.co.uk/used-romahomes.php

Also worth keeping an eye on Freeborn Romahome Centre in Southampton.

http://www.freeborn-group.co.uk/used...ts.php?start=0

Both these dealers have good reputations for after sales care.

[peterholden]

The R20 used to be called the Outlook. The pullman seating is available in both hytop and Hilo varieties. We have an Outlook with the pullman option so that we can carry passengers. We changed from an older C15 because we were thinking of getting rid of our car.

There are plenty around with the pullman option but not everyone selling secondhand understands what they are selling and non romahome dealers probably would not recognise the term pullman.

By the way another deciding factor with us that we could have the toilet option.

Good luck with your searching

Peter

Forgot to ask, where are you based? There are members of the forum all over the country. There may be someone near you who has one that you could look at.

[denimmaterial]

rear passenger seats

Thank you for that useful information. I am based near Durham and there do not seem to be many romahomes of any description for sale in the North East. We can, of course travel up to 40 miles or so to look at any suitable campervan.

[Tentpeg]

You could do worse then register your interests with Ant at Avon motorhomes. I know it is a fair instance for you but never heard anybody say a bad word about dealing with him and that is very unusual.

[Megan]

Thank you very much for that information and especially for the photos. This is very helpful. I think the R20 with the Pullman layout would be perfect. Now all I have to do is find one! We are not in too much of a hurry, though at our ages (71 and 80) we can't afford to hang about!

If any one can suggest another small campervan with this Pullman layout, I would appreciate it.

Once again thank you.

Hello I am just waiting for my new R20, and I paid extra for the 2 pullman seats which will be in the back, my previous Berlingo hylo only had the 2 seats with belts in the front, I see from Ants web page he does have one in stock, I have brought both my romahomes from him and he is very helpfull and knows everything to know about romahomes, if you get in touch with him I am quite sure he can help you. Kind Regards