What have I got?

[oldlowie]

We call our camper our second home 8-) (lol) 8-)

 

T

[Derek Uzzell]

If I could turn back time, I’d opt for “Motor-camper” as the UK generic term. It describes the breed of vehicle reasonably well and its abbreviation to “MC” is unlikely to be ambiguous when used in context.

 

I’d discard “Motor Caravan” and “Motorcaravan”, as the “caravan” part dominates the term. If you are attempting to persuade local authorities to provide ‘stop-overs’, then using “motor caravan” won’t help as they will tend to expect all caravans, motorized or not, to overnight on camp sites. I’ve always felt that the use of completely different terms in France (“camping-car” and “caravane”) was pivotal to the growth of the ‘aires’ network.

 

I’d also dispense with “Motorhome”. Only a tiny percentage of people live in MCs on a full-time basis; the rest would rapidly go stir-crazy. “Home” is an emotive word with a flavour of permanence. It hardly describes a vehicle with the advertised purpose of far-distant travelling and it’s regularly confused with “mobile home”.

 

Once “Motorcaravan” and “Motorhome” are dumped, there will be no excuse for the use of “van” or the even more ambiguous “home”. (Though, of course, both of these contractions should actually be written with an apostrophe-prefix for correctness.)

 

Now that we’ve got “Motor-camper” as the primary term, we can move on to the sub-groups. The French cover their camping-car sub-groups pretty well: they’ve just got 4 categories – Capucine (large sleeping ‘bump’ over the cab), Profilé (no sleeping ‘bump’, streamlined front), Integral (fully integrated driving and living environments) and Fourgon (panel-van conversion). I’d follow that template for the UK using the terms:

 

Over-cab – large sleeping area above the cab.

 

Profile - no above-cab sleeping facility, streamlined profile of above-cab bodywork.

 

A-Class – ‘One piece’ body with integrated driving and living areas.

 

PVC (Panel-Van Conversion) – what it says on the tin!

 

RV – There are enough USA imports in the UK to justify this extra category.

 

I’d discard “Luton bodied”, “coachbuilt”, “cab-over” (what the hell does that mean?!) and “LOW profile” (presumably originally a journalist’s joke).

 

So Nuevoboy would own an Auto-Sleepers 2005 MC that’s either an ‘over-cab’ or ‘profile’ design depending on which Nuevo model he owns.

[Petra]

Maybe Motorcaravan really applies to those who drive 10 miles down road and sit on a site for two weeks. Camping car is a good name. We call ours the Truck. Maybe Motor tourer sums it up.

[Minstrel]

Escape pod or wagon does it for me!

[nuevoboy]

Thank you Derek.

I therefore declare that we are proud owners of a .....

 

...Profile Motor-camper. :-D

[silverback]

so i own a overcab motor camper 8-)

bit of a gob full :-S

so i will stick with "the van" :-D

jonathan

[colin]

Derek Uzzell - 2010-11-11 8:56 AM

 

I’d discard “Luton bodied”,

 

Why? thats what they are.

 

“cab-over” (what the hell does that mean?!)

 

Surely thats an american truck term, so does it apply to RV's? never heard of it used over here, "cab over cummins with a camper on" just doesn't have the same ring to it

:D

[duffers]

PVC - to me means poly vinyl chloride - cheap and nasty plasticky stuff

so no

I'll stick with camper-van

does what it sez on the tin - a van used by a camper

 

 

fourgon - is a luggage van - commercial van - ???????????????????????

[cleo]

we refer to ours as RV cos thats what she is and her name is DOT 4 and she is brilliant.

Wonder why most of our vans are referred to as 'shes'? :D :D

[bertieburstner]

no caravanettes then? :-)

[Guest pelmetman]

bertieburstner - 2010-11-12 1:23 PM

 

no caravanettes then? :-)

 

Showing your age with that one (lol) (lol)

 

How about Dormobile, its such a term old I could not even find it in the dictionary 8-)

[davoscar]

My wife always insists on calling it 'The Bus' which can at times cause a bit of confusion!  I mostly stick to Motorhome or prefarably Van!

Whatever it just a good place to be.......

[malc d]

cleo - 2010-11-11 11:28 PM

 

we refer to ours as RV cos thats what she is and her name is DOT 4 and she is brilliant.

Wonder why most of our vans are referred to as 'shes'? :D :D

 

 

Cost of 'maintenance' ???

 

;-)

[Mel B]

I was going to say because of the pleasure 'she' gives, but that could be misconstrued by some on here!!!!! 8-) :$ (lol)

[malc d]

Mel B - 2010-11-12 6:43 PM

 

I was going to say because of the pleasure 'she' gives, but that could be misconstrued by some on here!!!!! 8-) :$ (lol)

 

 

Careful now Mel, or someone will say it's because 'she' needs replacing every few years.

 

( I wouldn't dream of saying that myself).

 

;-)

[Mel B]

Our vans have always been male.

 

We've had Marmaduke (reg no MMD - yes I know it's not spelt that way but it 'sounds' right! :D ) - that was our Commer Autosleeper pop top.

 

There was then Eeyore our converted Ambulance - named from the noise he used to make in his former life ... now how many of you have just said Eeyore in a silly way ... :$ .

 

Followed on by Hector, again taken from his registration number (can't remember exactly what it was but HCT or HTR comes to mind) - he was an Elddis Autoquest 320.

 

Then we had the 'only' female - Peony, a Swift Suntor 590RS, with the registration FE51 PEO .. hence Peony!

 

Closely follwed by our Rapido 709F, FN03 CUX, occasionally referred to as Cutie ... 'cause he was soooooooooooo cute! :-D

 

Then came FJ56 YPM, our Rimor Sailer 645TC - he never got a 'special' name as such, we just called him Rimor.

 

Now we have our Chausson Flash 04 which I sometimes refer to as chubby chops as he's a bit wider than our other vans were, although I did toy with the idea of calling him Antony as my Mum calls Antony La Paglia chubby chops (from the TV series 'Without a Trace'). *-)

[Derek Uzzell]

Mel B - 2010-11-12 8:25 PM

 

Our vans have always been male.

 

We've had Marmaduke (reg no MMD - yes I know it's not spelt that way but it 'sounds' right! :D ) - that was our Commer Autosleeper pop top.

 

There was then Eeyore our converted Ambulance - named from the noise he used to make in his former life ... now how many of you have just said Eeyore in a silly way ... :$ .

 

Followed on by Hector, again taken from his registration number (can't remember exactly what it was but HCT or HTR comes to mind) - he was an Elddis Autoquest 320.

 

Then we had the 'only' female - Peony, a Swift Suntor 590RS, with the registration FE51 PEO .. hence Peony!

 

Closely follwed by our Rapido 709F, FN03 CUX, occasionally referred to as Cutie ... 'cause he was soooooooooooo cute! :-D

 

Then came FJ56 YPM, our Rimor Sailer 645TC - he never got a 'special' name as such, we just called him Rimor.

 

Now we have our Chausson Flash 04 which I sometimes refer to as chubby chops as he's a bit wider than our other vans were, although I did toy with the idea of calling him Antony as my Mum calls Antony La Paglia chubby chops (from the TV series 'Without a Trace'). *-)

 

Yes, but that's owner-naming of individual motorhomes, which was not what the original posting was about.

 

I was trying to reduce the number of descriptive names to a bare minimum, removing terms like "Luton bodied" and "cab-over" where they are non-intuitive or weird.

 

"Luton bodied", though accurately describing a motorhome with a big sleeping 'pod' over the cab, is likely to be meaningless to many motorcaravanners.

 

I know how the term "cab-over" is normally used (GOOGLE for a description), but it's definitely not the same as "over-cab" or "Luton bodied" when applied to a motorhome. "Cab-over" used to appear regularly in "Motorhome Monthly" (that says it all really!) and I once saw it in Hymer's UK motorhome catalogue.

 

As "A-Class", "RV" and "PVC" are already in common parlance in motorhome circles, I chose not to change them.

 

Where there's a foreign term (eg. "fourgon") that doesn't improve clarity, then I've ignored it. Why say "MC fourgon" when you can use "PVC"?

 

If a reference to a PVC in MMM magazine would immediately trigger "Polyvinyl chloride" mentally, then I'm clearly wasting my breath.

[Keithl]

Derek Uzzell - 2010-11-13 10:12 AM

If a reference to a PVC in MMM magazine would immediately trigger "Polyvinyl chloride" mentally, then I'm clearly wasting my breath.

 

Derek,

 

Plastic double glazed windows were originally called PVC windows but people obviously couldn't comprehend the terminology as PVC had been applied to plastic sheeting (like polythene) before so then PVCu was tried (the 'u' for un-modified) but again it didn't seem to work so eventually uPVC has become the universal terminology for these windows.

If PVC when applied to MH's conjures up the wrong image (try Google Images :$ ) then perhaps it's time to think of a better name.

Maybe something like CVC (Camping Van Conversion)?

 

Food for thought?

 

Keith.

[Mel B]

Derek Uzzell - 2010-11-13 10:12 AM

 

Yes, but that's owner-naming of individual motorhomes, which was not what the original posting was about.

 

Derek, don't get your Uzzell undies is a twizzle!!! I was only responding to those who mentioned the 'sex' of motorhomes .... *-)

 

PVC to me means Pro-Vice-Chancellor ... mind you, you'd think some of them were made out of plastic as they can be very 'flexible' when it something they want approving, and made out of metal when they won't approve something we want!!! (lol)

[Derek Uzzell]

Truth is that, when I see "PVC", I immediately think of my favourite orange Mary Quant plastic mini-skirt. Now you know why my motorhomes have always been based on Trannies.

[fred grant]

thats it then my biddies.

 

its small camper or large camper if british

 

or

 

small camping-car or large camping-car if french

 

or

 

small rv or large rv if american

 

and buy the way my ansums, freds is bi-sexual, so can be male or female at any given time. if her leaks then hers female, but if she burns oil shes male.

 

there u have it my luvvlies.

 

f