SWIFE KON-TIKI PARKING A 21FT 9 IN 610

[Guest DON WILLIAMS]

I am considering giving up caravanning and purchasing a new Swift Kon-Tiki 610 I am concerned particularly at the width 7ft 8in (mirrors folded in) and length 21ft 9in and the parking of this vehicle in public and supermerket car parks - I am aware of the Height Fight in 3M's (particularly the August issue). Any stories advice etc would be appreciated. Regards Don

[Guest PeteC]

Hi Don 1) always park at the BACK of the car park, there is usually more space there 2) In a pay for 2 places and put 2 tickets in the window 3) We have a side door for loading so we try to park against a wall or trolley park, walkway .... so that I can leave room to open the door and get the trolley down to load 4) try to be near the end of a line so that you have room to turn out 5) And possibly the most important always have a look up above for obstructioins _ we were blasted by a caravanner in Holland for going round an overhead branch that would ave swipped the roof rack off To help with reversing I have those little 'blind spot mirors' adjusted to show me the rear bumper & rear wheel. when parking next to the awning we have a windmill by the guy peg and use this to line up We made the change 5 years back and glad we did Enjoy

[Guest Steve O'Reilly]

Having a motorhome is a good excuse not to accompany your 'significant other' while shopping. Sit in the van, watch the world go by and have a cold beer from the fridge while acting as security. Pity this ploy only works away from home as the multi-story carpark at my local Asda will only admit cars.

[Guest Chris Manning]

Phone your local supermarket of choice and tell them you've a large motorhome and need to use it to do your regular weekly shop with them. Ask if they could let you park in their goods yard - our local ASDA at Weymouth was always very helpful when we had a larger van than we now have and allowed this. The goods yard manager came out to advise us where to park ie out of his way and safe for the van. Give it a go they can only say "no".

[Guest Don Madge]

Don, If I were buying a Kon-tiki 610 I would be more concerned about the payload (308 kgs)as published in MMM rather than the width. Before you decide to part with your cash make sure it has sufficient payload for your needs. Regards Don

[Guest Derek Uzzell]

I echo Don's warning. Filling up the 610's fuel and water tanks to 100% capacity and having two full gas cylinders (which is what most motorcaravanners will start out with at the beginning of a long trip) will reduce the 308kg by around 20kg. Then there's the weight of the probable passenger to consider. And that's before any heavy options (eg awning, seat-swivels) are added and before any clobber is stored in the Kon-Tiki's many voluminous lockers. If you buy this model in 3400kg chassis-form I think it's virtually inevitable that you'll end up with the vehicle overweight.

[Guest John Lough]

Beware - all is not equal ! Swift use a different base for their loading figures to other manufacturers. The true unladen weight of a 610 is 2800Kg which gives a respectable 600Kg of payload on a 3400Kg chassis. The Swift "Mass in running order" includes water and gas as well as other items.

[Guest Derek Uzzell]

According to Swift's brochure the "Maximum User Payload" of a standard Kon-Tiki 610 is 308kg. The brochure states that this figure is obtained by subtracting the vehicle's "Mass in Running Order" (MRO) of 3092kg from its Maximum Technical Permissible Laden Mass (MTPLM) of 3400kg. As is often the case with brochures for UK-built motorhomes a definition of the MRO is not provided, but I've no reason to doubt that the MRO's 'formula' is as given in the "Unladen Mass" section of MMM's May 2005 report. This says that the 3092kg MRO includes allowances for essential fluids (eg. oil & coolant), a 90% full fuel tank, a driver (75kg), 90% full fresh-water tank, and 90% full gas-bottles. Nowadays, within the Eurozone, this definition of a motorhome's MRO is (to the best of my knowledge) pretty much universal, though there tend to be minor tweaks. For example Hobby's definition states that the MRO of their 'vans includes the weight of the vehicle's tool-kit, spare-wheel and the leisure-battery, while the allowance for fuel is for a 100% full fuel-tank rather than Swift's 90%. Hobby also allows for a 230v hook-up cable, a full water-boiler and a full toilet 'cistern'. (Does Swift's "fresh water tank 90% full" include the last two factors? If not, that's an unavoidable 19kg that must be subtracted from the Kon-Toki's 308kg payload.) John: If you know of motorhome constructors currently quoting payload figures obtained by subtracting the weight of the 'straight off the production line' vehicle from its MTPLM, then I'd be interested to know who these companies are. As far as I'm aware, Swift's policy of calculating MRO inclusive of allowances for water, gas, fuel, etc. is no different to the rest of the industry. I stand by my earlier comment - a basic 3400kg K-T 610's payload is marginal to begin with; start adding accessories and filling up the lockers and overloading is bound to result.