starvin marvin Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 Started looking for a "new" van. Ford and Renault, when these vehicles are fitted with a coachbilt body do they have a floor mounted, centrally postioned handbrake? ie restricting the drivers seat turning. Any help would be very useful. Many thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 Our '08 Renault based Chausson coach-built(which we've recently sold), had a centrally positioned, "drop down" handbrake lever, so even when "on", it would return to it's lowest position, allowing the seat to swivel. (...and it was still a helluva lot easier to reach and felt a lot more "intuitive" to use, than the R/H handbrake that our previous X250 Peugeot did... :-S ). I've no idea if this would've been a "standard" fitment though(..presumably it'd be something that'd need specifying by the converter, at the time of ordering the chassis ?). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Bulgaria Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 My Hobby is based on the previous generation Transit Mk 7. The handbrake is on the right hand side of the driver's seat, but the seat can swivel without having to release the handbrake. Don't know whether this will be the same with the new generation of Transit if and when it underpins any coachbuilts in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 Regarding Ford-based motorhomes, the position of the handbrake will depend on how old the vehicle is. From about 2004-onwards - on 'mass-produced' Transit-based coachbuilt models - I'd expect to find the handbrake-lever in the driver's footwell. For example, the 5th photo in this advert for a 2006 Auto-Sleeper Rienza http://ads.motorhomesforsale.co.uk/motorhomes/auto-sleeper/auto-sleeper-rienza-cs708937.aspx shows no sign of a central handbrake. It does need saying that, with the already too high Transit seat raised even higher by the addition of a seat-swivel, it can be a helluva long reach down to a footwell-mounted handbrake-lever. Transit Mk 8 panel vans are now being marketed in Continental Europe http://www.ford.fr/Vehicules_Utilitaires/Transit and photos of the cab interior indicate that the handbrake is (in LHD form) to the right of the driver's seat. The in-the-footwell handbrake location was an option offered by Ford to motorhome constructers and one would expect this option to be carried over when coachbuilt motorhomes are built on the Mk 8. French motorhome magazines have photos of a Transit Mk 8 "Skeletal chassis" supposedly designed for motorhome production. It's apparently equivalent to Fiat's 'camping-car' chassis with a light ladder-frame, wide rear track and special suspension. There will be FWD, RWD or 4WD versions of the Transit Mk 8 and it's likely that - if anyone chooses to build coachbuilt designs on the Mk 8 - it will initially be Chausson. With the Ducato/Boxer/Relay being revised for the 2015 model-year - Euro 6 motors, changes to the front and rear 'look' - it will be hard for Ford to regain lost ground in the motorhome marketplace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BKen1 Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 starvin marvin - 2014-04-15 2:08 PM Started looking for a "new" van. Ford and Renault, when these vehicles are fitted with a coachbilt body do they have a floor mounted, centrally postioned handbrake? ie restricting the drivers seat turning. Any help would be very useful. Many thanks On my Renault Master the handbrake is centrally situated ...but the action is such that when its on the lever is in the down position...to disengage you pull it up as normal and releases it ..took a bit of getting use to but works fine and is out of the way in the park position allowing the seat to swivel all the way round . Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starvin marvin Posted April 15, 2014 Author Share Posted April 15, 2014 Thanks for the replies, I've previously had a floor mounted , centrally positioned handbrake and it was a pain forever having to step over it to avoid bashing my ankles on the damn thing, so its important to me for this to be right. I think I prefer the brake as per my last two Fiats, which is one of the few good things with Fiats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 As Derek say the later transits have the hand brake beside the drivers door in both LHD & RHD versions. Also as mentioned with swivels the seats are very high we hired one a few years ago and found it very uncomfortable to drive as the steering colour does not adjust. It going for a Transit do take it for a long test drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suda Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 No problems with the handbrake position in our Burstner on a Renault Master. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robinhood Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 lennyhb - 2014-04-15 11:04 PM As Derek say the later transits have the hand brake beside the drivers door in both LHD & RHD versions. Also as mentioned with swivels the seats are very high we hired one a few years ago and found it very uncomfortable to drive as the steering colour does not adjust. It going for a Transit do take it for a long test drive. ....if you read the various reviews, it is apparent that in the later Mk7 Transit conversions, on some marques reduced height seat-boxes and/or low-profile swivels were used. (Flagged by testers who had used vehicles with the original height ones). I can only think that mine is so equipped, as I find the driving position very comfortable, and, despite being somewhat over 6ft, don't suffer from the top of the windscreen inhibiting my view out. (My handbrake is on the drivers door side, and is neither difficult to use (unlike my previous Ducato, where I fitted an extender, nor does it interfere with the swivel.) Edit: typo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 starvin marvin - 2014-04-15 8:29 PM Thanks for the replies, I've previously had a floor mounted , centrally positioned handbrake and it was a pain forever having to step over it to avoid bashing my ankles on the damn thing, so its important to me for this to be right. Hi again Just to add to my initial post..We found that the centrally mounted handbrake that we had on our '03 Transit was a pain(..and probably not helped by the floor mounted gear stick) but in comparison, the centrally mounted(drop-down)handbrake on our Renault, is/was quite slim and seemed tucked well in, so therefore was hardly noticeable... (..there was probably more chance of snagging your legs/trousers on any seat adjustment levers/runners etc). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 Robinhood - 2014-04-16 8:09 AM lennyhb - 2014-04-15 11:04 PM As Derek say the later transits have the hand brake beside the drivers door in both LHD & RHD versions. Also as mentioned with swivels the seats are very high we hired one a few years ago and found it very uncomfortable to drive as the steering colour does not adjust. It going for a Transit do take it for a long test drive. ....if you read the various reviews, it is apparent that in the later Mk7 Transit conversions, on some marques reduced height seat-boxes and/or low-profile swivels were used. (Flagged by testers who had used vehicles with the original height ones). I can only think that mine is so equipped, as I find the driving position very comfortable, and, despite being somewhat over 6ft, don't suffer from the top of the windscreen inhibiting my view out. (My handbrake is on the drivers door side, and is neither difficult to use (unlike my previous Ducato, where I fitted an extender, nor does it interfere with the swivel.) Edit: typo I'm pretty sure that all Mk 6 and Mk 7 Transits have the same seat-box, but it's certainly the case that the overall height of the seat depends on the design of seat-swivel mechanism fitted. I'm 5' 5" tall and, although I managed to drive my self-imported 2005 Hobby back from Germany with the driver's seat seat-swivel in place, it was a challenging task. As soon as I got the vehicle home I removed the seat-swivel (and the arm-rests), but I still need to have the driver's seat at its absolutely lowest position to allow me to operate the foot-pedals effectively and to obtain a comfortable driving position. I sat in a Transit-based Roller Team motorhome at the 2014 NEC Show and, although it was evident that the (swivelling) driver's seat could be brought down to a lower height than my Hobby's, I would still have wanted to remove the swivel. The problem really lies with the Transit Mk 6/Mk 7 seat-box being too tall (and replacement lower boxes are not available) and, although there is plenty of height/squab-angle/seat-back rake adjustment on the seat itself, this is no help for shorter drivers. I'm very picky about vehicle driving ergonomics. It's immediately obvous that the current Ducato's driver's seat positioning is slightly 'squinty', though I don't recall this ever being mentioned in motorhome tests. I can (just) get comfortable in the Ducato's driver's seat (with the factory-fitted seat-swivel mechanism in place) if I place the seat as low as it will go, when the foot-pedals are then about right for me. At this point I'd like the steering wheel to be a bit closer to me but, as only the steering-column's length can be adjusted, if I move the wheel closer to me it goes higher and starts to obscure the instrument-panel. (Apparently Transit Mk 8 has steering-column length and angle adjustment.) I couldn't drive the Hobby safely with the seat-swivel in place: I could probably drive the Transit-based Roller Team motorhome safely without removing the seat-swivel (though I would still take it off) and I could live with the Ducato motorhome driving environment though I wish it suited me just a bit better. (Incidentally, when I mentioned in my previous posting about the Transit handbrake being in the "footwell", I should have said "doorwell".) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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