Hello Everyone

[Pema Lily]

I've been reading through this forum for a while now and have really learnt a lot - and had a few laughs too!

I'm about to take the plunge and buy a new Romahome. At the moment I am undecided between the R20 hi top or the R25. I'd welcome your input as to the differences between them, apart from the price of course. I'll be a solo camper and I'm not very tall.

Also, of the 'options', such as diesel heating, reversing camera, snazzy step, may I ask which you have and which you would go for again given the chance?

I think that will do to get things rolling.

I'm probably going to be dealing with Freeborn in Godalming.....

Thanks for reading.

[Graham]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Glad you have stopped "lurking", as you see we don't bite and glad you have found the forum informative and funny. Sorry your post took a while to appear we have had to moderate first posts so we don't get nasty spammers coming on and spoiling things, now we now you are the genuine article you will be able to post as normal.

A lot of the regular posters are away at our meet at the moment, in fact I am sending this from our van and its glorious sunshine here and we are all having a great time.

Hopefully someone will be along to answer your questions soon, we have a dimension so can't give you much input.

[Pema Lily]

Thanks for the welcome, Graham.

I realise now that I've bumped into the very weekend when a lot of people are away having fun together. I'll be grateful for responses whenever they trickle in though!

So glad that the sun is shining down on you there and who knows, maybe next year I'll be in amongst the throng in a shiny, new Romahome.

Fingers crossed.

[RRH]

Hi Pema Lily,

I never went to the camp meet cos I am paddling to Cardiff from Weston Super Mare in my sea kayak with a total stranger.

I have a c15 romahome that I made roof bars to carry 2 18ft long boats.

Anyway welcome to the forum and hope you buy what you need.

[Pema Lily]

Thanks for your welcome, ecobezhig.

How long does it take to paddle from Cardiff to Weston super Mare? Hope you had a smooth crossing. I've never even been to Wales or for that matter, Scotland, but am hoping to remedy this once I have my motorhome.

Lots of places out there to explore.

[anchorman]

Hi Pema Lily,

Welcome to the Forum. Posting this from the van at the meet, we are Romahome "Virgins" and picked up the R25 Thursday, apart from a problem with our ABS the van performs wonderfully, it's easy to forget you are not driving a car, with the height and length behind you. If you go for an R25 definately go for the rear camera which is a fish eye 180 degree view it fits onto the rear view mirror and is on whilst driving.
The diesel heater is standard on this model.
Would we do it again 100 per cent yes.

Tony Anchorman

[Annie van]

Hi Pema Lily,and welcome to the forum.

We bought a new R20 hi top last September and are thrilled with 'her' - our Annie van. We chose this because we want to use her as our only vehicle and we felt that the new R25 would have been too big for every day use. We had an older Auto sleeper and a car before, and we are finding that it's even more economical on fuel than our Ford Focus was - can't be bad. We've definitely made the right choice for us.

We have plenty of storage space for the two of us even though we chose the loo option. This means that we can park up on the cliff top or the downs without any 'inconvenience!'

We had the reversing sensors fitted for me! We also have the heater which is very good though we've not used it when actually camping yet, but no doubt we will on Monday when we camp up on a site near home.

I love it that you can have the table set up and still move around easily in the van (just one at a time!) I thought that I might find the kitchen area too small, but it's fine, and you soon get used to working in the space you have. We keep a couple of plates, cups, cutlery, tea and biscuits in the cupboards above the sink and cooker so they are handy for a quick tea stop. We do have a Movelite driveaway awning which is excellent and gives extra space to spread out when camping.

The one awkward thing is that you really have to get out the van to go from the front seats to the back which can be a nuisance if it's raining. However I'm still just about agile enough to climb through between the seats! Like you, we're not very tall and we find that the R20 is fine for us, but I guess a taller person would probable prefer more headroom.

So we're thrilled with the R20, it's absolutely right for us. You'll no doubt have different priorities than us. I'm not sure if you've been to see either of them yet, but good luck with your decision. Which ever you decide to buy, I'm sure you've many happy times ahead of you.

Let us know what you decide. Mary

[Pema Lily]

Thanks for the info

Thanks for your welcome, Anchorman and Annie Van.

It's really helpful for me to read your first hand knowledge of the two differing Romahomes. Always good to have feedback from the 'doorstep' as it were!

Glad that Anchorman finally got the R25, there seem to have been a few delays for you. Looking forward to reading some more reviews of that van as you spend more time in it.

Annie Van - thanks for your detailed reply. Just the sort of info I need to have and helpful in making my decision. No, I haven't seen the vehicles yet. I was due to last week but the Volcanic Ash intervened, scuppering my plans and making all sorts of rescheduling necessary. I'm now hoping to go to look (and buy?) in two weeks time.

How do the reversing sensors on the R20 work?

Enjoy your camp on Monday,

Thanks again for the welcome to this friendly forum

Pema Lily

[Ian.C.S]

Hi Pema lily

I have just got back from the meet, there were several ladies going solo in R20 h-tops, I have one myself and I am solo, its got bags of room for one, you can fit a movelite drive away awning, I have now seen it done, perfect!you can have a small porta potti onboard and pop it in the awning at night, or in the well by the door.If you go to sites with loo`s you may not need anything. Diesel heating is a must, but if you have an electric hook up on-site you can use a little oilfilled radiator or fan heater. The vans are well insulated, you wont freeze, I have camped in 8 degrees of frost, no problem,
I recommend you go to southampton they hold a much bigger stock than Godalmin, or go visit Avon motor Caravans, Ant is a fantastic guy and has a big stock, he also can sell you the special awning for R20 Hi-top, very smart piece of kit.
Go for it girl.
Goodluck
Ian

[Annie van]

Hi Pema Lily, glad the info I gave was of help to you.

The reversing sensors are very good, and as the rear door/window view is restricted, I wouldn't be very confident to reverse without it - though it wouldn't bother my husband. There is a digital readout thing in the right corner of the dash and when you reverse it starts to bleep as you are approaching any object, even if it is off centre at the back. As you get closer the beeps get closer together and on the readout it counts down from 10 till when it reads 1 you are quite close to the object. Then when it reads 0 the bleep has become a continuous sound to tell you to stop. I must add though that at this point there is still a little distance to go between you and the object so you don't bump into anything! In our parking place at Paul's work we know to go back just slightly more to be in our correct position. I found it a real help last night when I had to reverse in at our bungalow in the dark. We are off the road so there are no lights at all and I have to turn round 180 degrees and manouver between neighbours cars and our garage and get alongside our fence which you could hardly see. It makes the manouver so much easier.

Hope this helps, Mary

[Pauline]

Hi Perma Lily, just wanted to say hello

[Pema Lily]

Thanks once again for all your helpful replies and warm welcomes.

Ian, I would like to go and buy from Ant, as I can see from this board he is a Prince of Motorhomes, but Bristol is a REALLY long way from me and poss a little too far to drive there and back in one day. Of course once I have the Romahome, I'll be happy to drive all over the country, for hours at a time but in my current car which doesn't have the facility of bed and breakfast it's not a very pleasant prospect.

But thanks for your encouragement and info.

Mary, thanks for that very clear explanation of the reversing sensors. It sounds like they would give an extra confidence when reversing in unfamiliar surroundings, and that is something I worry about a little.

And Pauline, Hello to you too!

Pema Lily

[jessiem]

my apologies for the late welcome,

[Pema Lily]

Hi, Jessiem.

I've really enjoyed reading back through your posts on this forum as you've asked so many of the questions I would have asked too.

So thanks to you, and those who answered you too!

Pema Lily

[jessiem]

If I have asked what seems to me some daft questions I have always had a helpful answer, not only that but, even had glenw help me on the phone when we were trying to put up our awning. yes it is laughable but at the time it looked like one of those flatpacked items that seemed so complicated until you put it together! So simple but to a novice a bit of an Xfactor So, if any new person that comes on here, ask away, if you don't ask you won't know, no matter how simple.