# Autocruise Starburst



## Drew

Hi All,

Having owned my Autosleeper 2008 Nuevo for two years we have thought of changing to an 2011 Autocruise Starburst

Before committing ourselves I would appreciate your comments on this model.

Regards

Drew


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## grumpyman

Do not know if I can be of help as you do not say how old the vehicle is you are considering. I have the Autocruise Renoir which is exactly the same mine is a 2006 model.


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## Drew

Having owned my Autosleeper 2008 Nuevo for two years we have thought of changing to an 2011 Autocruise Starburst "

A 2011 Autocruise Starburst.


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## TR5

Should have gone to Specsavers!


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## grumpyman

Sorry was having a bad day, think you will find the layouts exactly the same. I have done a review of my Van on this Forum. The main reason we went for ours is the two fixed long seats/ Beds so we can either relax in the afternoon without having to either go or make beds.The Kitchen area won awards some time back and is very functional. My own personal moan is storage space but we manage. If you need anything else please ask.


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## spykal

Hi Drew

Our Starburst is the exact model you are looking at.

We had Autosleepers until 2010 when we changed to a brand new 2010 Autocruise Starburst. As we live just a couple of miles or so from the Autosleeper factory it was a big decision to change brands and I still like Autosleepers but they did not have any model that matched the layout of the Starburst.

The Autosleeper we swapped from was a 1998 Executive which had done us proud. 

So are we still happy with the change to the Starburst ....simple answer to that, it is a big YES. 

The interior fittings and furnishing are not as well constructed as on the old Executive but they are practical, sound and do look a lot better!... the 1998 Executive had real wood cupboards and sprung mattresses . 

Where the Starburst scores is in the layout, the use of the available space in a van that is not a lot longer than the Executive is, for us, it's best feature. Added to that the body and chassis are low line. The Alko chassis gives a great ride and it is powered by a smooth and very willing Peugeot ..that also has no problem in reverse gear ...driving it is akin to driving a large well balanced car rather than a top heavy motorhome ..I love it and Mal is always saying " you are going too fast" :lol: 

Back to the layout ...the all across the rear bathroom is perfect, no swinging walls to manipulate and plenty of room to shower and change without having to pull the blinds in the main van area. 

The kitchen is clever as it has a swing out section that increases the worktop when preparing meals...this does restrict access past the kitchen biut we soon got used to it. A proper sink and drainer. A 3 gas burner + 1 electric hob, an oven that cooks well and even a microwave ( but we rarely get to use it  )

There is plenty of storage ( for us, as ATM we do not do extended trips ..3 days to a week is our norm :wink: ) ...the bedding goes into the tiny "luton". Under the bed storage can be accessed easily as there are drop down internal hatches and the beds themselves have gas struts to lift them. There are outside access locker doors to both under bed storage compartments with a wet container ( for the hook up cable, water filer pipes etc) in the drivers side one. 

The fresh water tank can be easily accessed and this has a large inspection cover that makes keeping the tank clean very easy. ( the executive had a "sealed" fresh tank ..impossible to get at).

We sleep using the two beds as singles but this will not suit everyone as one bed is barely 6ft and the other shorter than that but we fit them just fine. We have of course tried out the king sized double .... that is easily made up :wink: 

The electrics on the van are from Sargent and these work well keeping the batteries maintained via a multi stage charger while on a hook up at home. 

The lighting is nearly all LEDs which give a nice light and must save on the batteries when off hook up.

The TV cupboard is well positioned for sitting comfortably in the swung around driver and passenger seats ...( with you feet up on the side benches )

The heating and hot water is via a Truma Combi which we like even though I still have to sometimes refer back to the instruction diagram that I have stuck up near the control :roll:. Because we do lots of no hook up long weekends we had an extra hab battery fitted to cope with what we thought would be the demands of the Truma when heating the van but as it has turned out I am pretty sure we would have been OK with just the one. You may miss the gas only option of having a "fire" ...we worried about this but in fact it has not been a problem and the Truma blown air is really good compared to the old Executive's fanmaster fire.

Have we had any problems? yes one or two but nothing serious... The swing out kitchen fell off ...it was a solid construction held on by 4 x 2" long screws which passed through the frame of the cupboard ...trouble was only the tip of the screws , about 1/4 of an inch, actually held it on.... I fixed this myself.

The water tank drain off taps were a problem. The fresh water tank drain tap is situated half way between the axles and quite low down which meant that on our first outing it got wiped off by a sleeping policeman type of hump in the campsite road ( it was actually the drain down point at Cornish Farm.. cheers Eddie :roll: ) ...the grey water one was ok until 3 weeks ago when it also got "lost" ...I think it hit a tall kerb as I negotiated a busy car park ...anyway it was missing when we got home, just a stub left sticking out of the tank!. I have modified both of these now ... the fresh drain down was refitted about 3" higher back when we had the first problem with it and since we lost the grey waste pipe I have fitted a long flexible hose waste pipe which will be much better than the original fixed one which was always a pain to get exactly over the drain point.

So there you have it ...my advice, based on our ownership of our Starburst would be go for it* and if you have any more specific Starburst questions do please ask away.


Mike


* but do all the normal pre purchase checks that need to be made on a year old vehicle. Don't forget the HPI check especially if it is a private sale


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## Drew

Hi all,

Just to say - Thank You - for your replies. 

Mike! you certainly deserve an extra thank you for your review, it was a wonderful read and gratefully appreciated.

I just hope that we can complete the deal this weekend.

Thank you,

Drew


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## shirleydeputy

Hi
What a fantastic review from Spykal! I am not sure we can add much but here goes...anyway.
We have had a Starburst since Jan 2009 from new and have been delighted with it. We have spent some long breaks (well up to 9 weeks anyway) in it and it has been a pleasure. 
It's relatively small size has meant that we were often able to squeeze into spaces which would have been unachievable in something bigger. It looks good, drives well enough and is comfortable enough for longer stays. 

The rear shower room is its biggest asset and we have made good use of it. Even when we choose to use camp site showers I prefer to use the inboard facilities for a morning wash and brush up! It is also a fantastic facility for storing the chairs etc in transit (held in place by an assortment of net curtain tensioned poles!) and with the heater blower on becomes our drying room for wet clothes when the weather is at its worst! In winter hubby installs a small floor heater of the sort for green houses for when we are on leccy and we then have a toasty bathroom for those midnight wanders without an over heated bedroom. There is a fantastic amount of storage space in the bathroom too.
The kitchen is well fitted with large cupboards but having only one small drawer is very difficult to work with. The older Starbursts had an extra set of small drawers. 
There are good overhead lockers but I would have preferred some of them to have been shelved. 
Like Spykal we also sleep lengthways on the beds as making up the double is a bit of a ***. Again this would only be practical if you are of average or less height. Even then for the shorter of the beds my hubby has had to make a filler to extend it. He found that by putting our table under the mattress he was raised up enough to use the cab seat for extra length. Our table is not the original. There was nothing wrong with it but we found it rather too large for our purposes. 

The front lounge layout feels spacious, and is great for feet up lazing during the day. Using raskelf memory foam rolls with fitted sheets and a duvet makes bed prep a work of only a few minutes. The drawback with front lounge layouts for me is that you have no separated seating. (If someone feels ill they cant curl up in a corner, and if someone wants for example to sit up to read they would probably find it easier if they could move to the other end of the van.)
Spykal has covered everything so well I wont go on but even though we have had several minor problems which needed work we have been happy with our choice and would recommend it. 
If you want to know more about our issues that have now all been resolved under guarantee feel free to come back, but overall its a goodie!
Best of luck
Shirley


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## Drew

Hi all,

Well! this morning we took the bull by the horns and exchanged our much loved Nuevo for a 2011 registered Autocruise Starburst.

When we first saw it last Monday it seemed to tick all the boxes, and from the excellent written reviews by Mike and Shirley we decided to "go for it".

Once again thank you for all your help, it was totally appreciated.

Regards

Drew


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## spykal

Hi Drew


Best of luck with the swap, we hope that goes well and we also hope you enjoy your Starburst as much as we do. 


Mike


P.S. there are a lot of them about!!
Just yesterday while in the supermarket we bumped into an old motorhome owning friend who we had not seen for ages and after telling her that we had bought a new van she said "so have we" ...it turned out that they had swapped to a Starlet 11... which is a Starburst that was made just for Marquis .


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## ericonabike

For the record, we have a 2006 Starburst [one of the last built before the takeover by Swift]. We love it, our first and so far only van, bought in January this year. Agree with all the positives previously mentioned. Despite it being our first van, we have no desire to change it! At six years old it's as good as new, and to be honest I can't think of anything negative to report. Enjoy.


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## Drew

Hi all,

Now that we have been out and about our new motorhome and have settled into it there are a few questions that I would like to ask.

Although not as compact as our Nuevo we have found the extra space suits our lifestyle much better, the most important being the end bath/shower room. It is a dream come true, the extra space was well worth paying for in itself.

I have refitted my GasLow system, having had to swap my 11Kg for a 6Kg, I never thought of removing the handle on the 11KG., if I had it would have fitted.

Our main concern is the pull out kitchen section, a great idea BUT, is the piano hinge strong enough to take the weight? I personally don’t think so. With the shelves loaded with light items, we were a little afraid to put anything heavy in them. When closed with the shelves packed it was a little difficult to lock the section in place, the extra weight had caused it to drop a fraction, and when it was open I took the precaution of propping it up with 2 door wedges. Your views would be appreciated.

I would be grateful for information on how to disconnect the flexible tails from the kitchen water tap. They are connected to the main pipes with ? connectors and I don’t want to butcher them. I am installing a Nature Pure Water Filter and rather than cut the main blue pipe I would rather use the original connector if possible.

Other additions in the pipeline would be fitting a second leisure battery and a small inverter, (Sterling Pro Power S 350W) your thoughts on positioning these would be appreciated.

Drew


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## ingram

Drew said:


> Our main concern is the pull out kitchen section, a great idea BUT, is the piano hinge strong enough to take the weight? I personally don't think so. With the shelves loaded with light items, we were a little afraid to put anything heavy in them. When closed with the shelves packed it was a little difficult to lock the section in place, the extra weight had caused it to drop a fraction, and when it was open I took the precaution of propping it up with 2 door wedges. Your views would be appreciated.
> 
> Drew


I have a Starblazer with similar swing upboard. My 'van is six years old and I have owned it for four years.

I think that you may be overconcerned about the hinge. Our cupboard is only lightly loaded though: plates and dishes in the bottom and cutlery and other stuff in the two drawers.

Behind our swing out is shelving where the heavy stuff goes: I think that you may have the gas bottle or heater in that bit.

I did have a problem with sliding the bolt early on but I made a very slight enlargement to the bolt hole and that is ok now.

My 'van is 'pre-Swft' though but I doubt that Swift used a thinner piano hinge ............

Harvey


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## ob1

Drew - One modification we made when we owned your model was to extend the bathroom cupboard, the one above the toilet seat, forward. It gives you another five inches of space as I recall and makes a lot of difference. Quite easy to do if you look at it, and yes, you can still sit on the throne unhindered!

Ron


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## Drew

"I would be grateful for information on how to disconnect the flexible tails from the kitchen water tap. They are connected to the main pipes with ? connectors and I don’t want to butcher them. I am installing a Nature Pure Water Filter and rather than cut the main blue pipe I would rather use the original connector if possible."


Hi all,

Any suggestions please?

Drew


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