The Wrong Trousers

[Plado]

I soon expect the neighbours and friends to start getting very jealous as I've just bought a VW Topaz 2.5 Turbo Diesel top of the range brand spanking new. It took a long time and a load of reading in all the best magazines and online reviews to work out a short list of 3 Campervans or Motorcaravans but we boiled it down to just two in the end.

 

Murvi Morello

VW Topaz

but we did have the Ford Autosleepers Duetto on the list but the nearest one to our home in Devon that we could look at (new model) was up in Ipswich. So we whizzed down to 30 miles to Plymouth and looked over both those final two vans.

 

The point of this contribution here is to point out that we really did want it to be the Murvi as so many superb reports about it had appeared all over the place, but as usual in so many reviews nobody ever mentions the bed lenghts and widths, nor says very much about the ease or otherwise of putting up the beds (a total jigsaw puzzle in most vans) nor do they say what the real effect of designers use of space means to people who are 6 feet tall.

 

OK so we were given free reign to look over the Murvi at their factory and we could fiddle about and try things out. The first thing that shocked me was the passenger seat when turned round to face in the van was on a high platform (cab floor) and when you sat in it, your feet didn't reach the floor of the main van even with the seat pushed back as far as it would go. So either you get yourself a footstool or your legs go numb and pins and needles hit you in both legs.

 

Still looking at the high floor of the cab, it left the driving pedals very close to the floor so someone with size 12 shoes can't press the clutch and brake properly without doing a ballet dancer's "en pointe" effect with your feet. This for me, meant sliding my heel along the floor with the pedal in very poor control sliding on my shoe sole.

 

Back in the business area of the van, the kitchen there was only just room for my ordinary width of hips to walk between the work surface and the wall on the left of the gangway. Though there was seemingly miles of un-needed worksurfaces and the Fridge was stuffed down below the oven right on the floor involving kneeling on the floor to get into it, and the door wouldn't open more than at right angles to the fridge and to make matters worse it was very dark at floor level so unless the fridge had a light in it, you wouldn't be able to see what you had in it!

 

Finally the toilet and shower had a floor pan well to stand in and when doing a trial sitting on the loo, again my feet size 12 would not fit in the floor pan so clearly my feet are too big for a Murvi toilet I'd very likely get stuck if I didn't take off my shoes!

 

There was only one opening rear door so no chance of a canopy from an upward opening door. My wife and I decided this was not the vehicle/van for us so we went away quite disappointed. However all was not lost as we called in at the place that does Auto-homes and they had a VW Topaz that we originally thought would have too little length in the beds for me, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that I had shrunk about an inch since I last checked my exact height and I'm now about 5 ft 11 and a half instead of 6 ft and half an inch. There's bags of room in the shower and the rear door opens up to a huge canopy - the driving cab dimensions are just like a perfectly comfortable car with no problem over pedal-action and the seats turn round and operate for super comfort when facing in the van. Just a bit less room in the seating area than the Murvi. So we went ahead and bought it.

 

I'm not trying here to malign the Murvi far from it as it's a remarkably well built and luxurious van in many ways - it's just that the designers have rather messed up it's usability for people who are 6 feet tall and have shoe sizes on the large side of average. The Murvi does seem very well designed for disabled access and maybe too well at the expense of things that able-bodied folks need space in. I know that Murvi will site the fridge somewhere else and it does have loads of storage space but in fact having a lot of space encourages you to carry more than the limit.

So I like a van that makes you strip things down to just your essentials and not overload - so you get a better fuel consumption and trim your living according to the space provided rather like on a boat.

 

Has anyone else had to forego buying a Murvi on ergonomic grounds? ie (the wrong trousers - one size doesn't fit all)?

 

 

Plado

[Mel E]

I entirely agree with you about bed sizes: far too many reviews seem to accept the manufacturer quoted lengths when, in fact, the real lengths are shorter.

 

It's amazing how many vans for two people have a bed only 6 ft to 6ft 2ins in length and restricted width, often (especially in Low Profiles) with a huge corner chopped off.

 

But 'complicated' in assembling a bed can be overdone! Sure some can be messy when you're looking at a new 'van, but once it's your own, it rapidly becomes second nature. I designed my own van conversion (it was professionally built) and I admit the main bed is a tad complex to assemble the cushions. But the same structure can be:

 

- a single width dinette (leaves more space for circulation when there are just the 2 of us)

- a double width dinette (for when we have the g/children or other guests)

- a 6 foot wide settee (for lounging)

- a 6'6" x 2'5" single bed

- a 6'6" x 4'3" double bed

 

and part of the base has the water tank underneath.

 

It's now second nature and dinette with table into fully made-up double bed takes us about 4 minutes. And all the cushion positions were carefully designed (by clever old me!) so that no part of your body that makes heavy contact with the bed (shoulders, hips, etc) lies on a cushion join.

 

Unfortunately, professional motorhome designers often never use their own products, so are not aware of the need for such design touches!

 

Mel E

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