Which Van to Buy?

Had a look over the Chalet today.

Would I buy one in preference to an A'van; no

Why?

My own opinion, the first and major reason is leaf springs and a solid or tube axle, this arrangement was on the model T ford back when, then over the years cars became independent on the front set of wheels, the rear wheels gradually went independent over the last twenty odd years, does it matter on a van well yes, perhaps one could argue that the safety factor on a small campervan type trailer is not as apparent as a large caravan.

Over the years large caravans with solid type axles, no doubt poorly loaded, on being towed along the road, and one wheel hitting a bump or a pot hole, even a side wind gust, or large truck coming the other, way induced a body sway on the caravan which puts a sway on the rear of the car, with or without correction the caravan sways back on the other wheel and the sway goes the other way, poor loading, steering, wet road, speed too high for the condition of the van, it then begins to oscillate, suddenly you're going sideways down the road with a crash or a rollover now a distinct possibility. Independent suspension; same conditions as above, well what do you know, wheels go up and down, yep you guessed it, independently, but what is more important, no sway on the van, or the car, the combination stays straight and no accident or rollover.

To me, for the rest; Between the two vans basically the same, size, construction, weight, looks, options, something's better on one van, some other things better on the other van. For example; inside the Chalet to get at under seat storage lift up a cushion and the lid is a thin masonite and the wrong sizes on the A'van it is a more substantial ply, but the Chalet has glass side windows but the A'van has a plastic or Perspex type the wall construction is 3 sandwich type one is aluminium/polystyrene/laminate the other is fibreglass/polystyrene/laminate, with a lot of the differences one could mount a substantial argument as to why one was better than the other, but you could do it for the other side as well, and it would basically come down to personal preferences.

I feel if the Chalet had come along first then the people who had bought them would be saying that the Chalet was much better than the A'van and you would have a large Chalet club trying to stop these A'van people trying to join their club.

Specifically

The Chalet

The gas bottles and water tank are too big for most peoples camping, they have now fixed that, you can get the smaller sizes if you want, no pole carrier now fixed, pole carrier fitted.

The basic Chalet, no or very little options, tare 640 kg's ATM probably with your load 850 kg's, tow ball weight range 77 to 93 kg's their specs say 85 kg's, lovely beautifully balanced light excellent.

Add the options, extended frame, front boot, put your load in the van, now, people being people, give them a big storage volume like a front boot, and they will fill it whether needed or not, but, with the options plus a big boot filled plus the rest of their load 300 kg max load total, (I am sure many people would be over their 300kg limit) and over the stated ATM of 1155 kg's. At 1155kgs a front boot and extended frame the towball range would have to be 115 to 137 kg's, at 125 kg's ideal but no where near their stated towball weight of 85 kg's.

The point is no small cars and a lot of family type cars could not take that towball weight.

The Chalet is basically off road you say, and you would need a 4WD to tow it, no problems, no worries, she'll be right mate, well most 4wd's could tow that with that towball weight, but you have just removed a large section of potential customers from buying your product out of the market. Any van and 4WD going off road would only be a fraction of its life the rest of the time would be on tar or certainly where a car could go. The Chalet should have LT tyres as standard not as an option.

The reading lights are good, but in the wrong position because, if you went to bed to read, and put a pillow under your head, the pillow would cover the lights, if the person who designed the van took it out on a holiday for a month there would be quite a few changes, small ones but irritating or just plain silly, how they are. The fantastic exhaust fan sounds and looks good, I cannot think of when or why you would use it, and at $450 even less reason.

The A'van

What I have just said about the Chalet, applies also to the A'van, with the extended frame and front boot and the weights. Perhaps the ideal independent suspension would be coil and shock absorber type, but in using the Alko I would like to see standard on the A'van off road Alko suspension, as I believe it is stiffer and thicker rubber inserts, generally a beefed up road version. Also with the A'van alloy wheels should be standard, not an option, and for goodness sake, a better name branded tyre than present, and certainly LT tyres for the higher weight vans.

Both manufacturers would say we supply a legal safe product, we are not our brothers keeper, and we have no control if the customers overload their vans or exceed limits that we have stated quite plainly, we cannot stop people from being people, the majority of people would get it right and be careful and thinking about the use of our product. Most people want the best product for the cheapest price, everything is a compromise.

Cheers

Neil Louer