marksrv6 Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 Does anyone have any experience of the new Swift Bessacarr 597 or 599 Engine performance is what I am interested in, is the 130bhp standard engine good enough to pull it up hill fully loaded at about 3800kg and what are the advantages and disadvantages of the 150bhp upgrade. thanks in advance Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 In a word no, you need at least the 150 preferably the 180, we have a 7.5m with the 150 it's OK but the 180 would have been better. I can't see it being possible to run an 8m van at 3800kg., Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mgnbuk Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 No experience of a van as long as the Bessacar, but I ran a 130hp 6.7m Roller Team low profile towing two full size motorcycles on a trailer running at around 4 tonnes all up. No problems at all going over the Brenner motorway & other Asutrian / Italian / German main road passes. Even went over the Arlberg Pass when the tunnel was closed for repairs, though did get down to 2nd gear at one point due to a slow truck. The Roller Team had 15" wheels & was noticably lower geared than my current 150Hp Ducato on 16" wheels. I have yet to tow the bikes behind the 150 Chausson & had a year between the 130 & 150 Ducatos on a supposed 170hp Ford, so I cant't make a direct comparison "back to back" between them. The 150 does feel more relaxed, though, being higher geared. Not done enough miles to compare consumption, but averaged between 28-32 mpg on the Roller Team with trailer. Main disadvantage of the 150 engine over the 130 is the cost - about £1500 on the Chausson IIRC. I had no choice on the Roller Team, as it was a showroom van & was what it was. The Chausson was built to order & I chose to pay the extra to upgrade as I intend to keep it for a while & just fancied a bit more in reserve. I would be more concerned about the rear axle loading on an 8m van than the power. Nigel B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 Mark The only real disadvantage of opting for the 150 motor would be the extra cost. If you could keep the fully-loaded weight of the motorhome to 3800kg the 130 motor should be OK, but the 150 would be better and fuel consumption should be no worse with the more powerful unit. Frankly, I’d be much more concerned over other aspects of the 597/599 models and you might want to read through this November 2017 forum discussion. http://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Bessacarr-Air-assist-suspension/48150/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weldted Posted April 29, 2018 Share Posted April 29, 2018 Whilst the 150 may give you a more relaxed derived with the extra torque, we have a 2012 Elddis Aspire 255, I have upgraded it to 3850 kgs gross train of 6000kgs and make regular 400 mile trips to France towing the trailer at or very near the max weight. I have the Peugeot 130 hp find it copes very well. Recently did a 5000 plus mile tour down around Portugal without the trailer but van fully loaded to 3830 when leaving home no problems around 27/28 mpg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted April 29, 2018 Share Posted April 29, 2018 weldted - 2018-04-29 6:33 AM Whilst the 150 may give you a more relaxed derived with the extra torque.... It’s not just that the 150 has more torque than the 130 (380Nm versus 320Nm) but where the torque and power are within the rev-range. The difference should be apparent from the graphs here https://www.fiatcamper.com/en/product/engines As far as I’m concerned Bessacarr 59 models are significantly ‘over-bodied’ but, given their size and an asking price above £60K, I’d certainly want to choose the 150 motor if I bought one. I’d also be wary of the raised overall gearing if the particular Bessacarr model were built on a ‘light’ Ducato chassis with 16”-diameter wheels and had the 130 motor. 20 years ago Ducato-based motorhomes approaching the length of Bessacarr 59s and weighing a good deal heavier were being dragged along by motors having no more power than the 130 unit (and with just a 5-speed gearbox) and their owners seemed happy enough. Depends really on the level of driving performance Mark is prepared to tolerate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted April 29, 2018 Share Posted April 29, 2018 Derek Uzzell - 2018-04-28 5:54 PM Mark The only real disadvantage of opting for the 150 motor would be the extra cost. If you could keep the fully-loaded weight of the motorhome to 3800kg the 130 motor should be OK, but the 150 would be better and fuel consumption should be no worse with the more powerful unit. Frankly, I’d be much more concerned over other aspects of the 597/599 models and you might want to read through this November 2017 forum discussion. http://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Bessacarr-Air-assist-suspension/48150/ This pretty much sums it up for me, 130 will work just a bit more sluggish, but if it's on the light chassis it would be a no go for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksrv6 Posted April 29, 2018 Author Share Posted April 29, 2018 Thank you to everyone who replied its been very helpful, I will make my decision after a test drive this morning. It will be interesting to see how it compares to my Rapido Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksrv6 Posted April 29, 2018 Author Share Posted April 29, 2018 If anyone is interested, the test drive was very comparable with my Rapido so I opted for the 130bhp which will more than adequate for my needs, but if you have a different requirement to me then the 150bhp might be more suitable. Thanks again Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolero boy Posted April 30, 2018 Share Posted April 30, 2018 lennyhb - 2018-04-28 11:42 AM In a word no, you need at least the 150 preferably the 180, we have a 7.5m with the 150 it's OK but the 180 would have been better. I can't see it being possible to run an 8m van at 3800kg., Lenny is bang on here, this van is produced on the light 3500 chassis and amazingly is available on a 3500 plated vehicle with the lounge version.....absolutely no payload... not only that, if you upgrade to 3650 or 3850 AFAIK the axle limits don't change and the rear one at 2000kg will be close to the limit with an empty van. a vital part of this test drive shoudl be straight to a weighbridge where you can see the numbers for yourself... IMHO this van should not have been produced on the light chassis....a paper upgrade won't do any good at all....this is probably unfit for purpose in this form.... now, on the 4250kg chassis it would have been viable, but swift have tried to make it appeal to younger (or older) drivers who don't have the required groups for over 3500... even though you have, it's the limits of the chassis thatbare the issue, not your license. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.