# Hymer B644. The first year.



## davesport (Nov 12, 2006)

Hymer B644. First year (& a bit) of ownership.

We’d fancied having a van for the last ten years but never got round to having a serious attempt at purchasing one. We had a look at vans at a place in Perthshire but I was distinctly underwhelmed by the quality of the merchandise & the attitude of the salesperson who was showing us around. We forgot about the idea of owning a van for the best part of ten years until we saw a Hymer coachbuilt parked up in Peebles. I had a little look at it & could see that it was close to what I wanted in terms not only of layout but also quality. The seed was then planted & I began my quest to gather as much information about Hymer vans as I could. I sent away for literature from most the of main manufacturers. After going through all the options & checking out several vans that were parked up I kept returning to Hymer & Neismann. I hadn’t discovered Concorde motorhomes at this stage & would have given one of these serious consideration.

A kind gentleman at Glentress whom I engaged in conversation gave me a guided tour of his Neismann. It was a twenty odd feet long A class & it fitted my needs almost to the tee. It was slightly small for four of us but not by much. He had an intimate knowledge of his motorhome & this was his third. That day after talking to him for the best part of an hour I’d made up my mind & the quest began in earnest. 

The brochures for Hymer & Neismann were pored over at length as we decided what equipment was needed & what would simply be nice to have. The basic vehicle had to have a garage big enough for four full size bicycles & a large & comfy fixed bed for Mrs Davesport & myself. It also had to have seatbelts for five people just in case the whole family had to go somewhere together. The list of options was refined & I now had a fairly accurate idea of the vehicle we needed to suit our intended use. What I didn't know at the time was that UK importers usually specify as standard a lot of the things that are listed as options in the brochure.

Cut to January of 2007. I was in Birmingham at the NEC attending Autosport which is an annual motorsport show for racecar technology. On the way back up the road I thought I drop into Brownhills for a look at what was in stock & to firm up a few ideas, once I’d had a good look around the vehicles. There were several pre registered A class vans in the showroom. All of them around the size I needed. The salesman explained a few of the basics & answered my questions. After about half an hour I’d run out of things to ask & excused myself so I could look around the other vans. The one I focused on was the B644 which has six belted seats four of which are in a dinette formation, garage & rear fixed bed, & can sleep six but is more comfortable for four. 

I made it clear to the salesman I was “in the market” for a van but any purchase would be dependant entirely on the price. I didn’t have the time to go through the import process or to look around multiple dealerships but I did have the prices with me & knew what the potential savings were. I was always genuinely ready to walk out the door if I didn’t like the way things were going. The van was already discounted as it was pre registered. After he added up some of the ridiculous prices for the options I wanted I thought the salesman was taking the Pi$$. For example. There were two holes in the front bumper that the foglights had been in. No blanking plugs were fitted & I could see the multi-plugs hanging down behind the holes. Probably robbed out to put into another van. I asked what the holes were for & was told that the fogs were optional & that unless I specced them I’d be getting a van with two big holes in the front bumper. The price………£380.00 Yeah OK then, & he kept stacking on the money for the options I wanted, including £400.00 for a 2nd leisure battery. That’s not a typo BTW. After he was finished his masterpiece & showed me the bottom line I was gobsmacked & almost disgorged my complimentary coffee he’d given me over his desk. He looked bemused & there was a momentary pause when we both considered “who’s kidding who”. After an afternoons standoff & negotiation I ended up very close to my target price & the deal was closed. I saved several thousand pounds, basically for the asking & a bit of bartering. A bargain, probably not. He’s a salesman & knows how to deal with oiks like me & does so on a daily basis. I was happy though & the next chapter began.

The handover was arranged for two weeks later & a driver came to the railway station to pick up me & my switch card. Everything went smoothly until it came time to operate the Oyster TV system. The dish & Sky box were wired in to operate from the 12 V supply. The Avtex telly was plugged into the 240 V system which obviously only works whilst on hook-up. What use is that ? I wanted to witness everything working so the hook-up cable came out & the telly burst into life, abeit with a blank screen. It was clear to me that the telly wasn’t getting a signal from the Sky box. Why this was I didn’t have the foggiest. However the salesman knew the answer. Apparently there’s a radar station nearby & “this causes a lead curtain over the area preventing reception on satellite TV” I’d studied marine radio & radar at college so knew this to be a load of b*llocks. Anyway I was desparate to get up the road & took things as they were convinced it was a minor problem. It turned out the scart lead wasn’t fully home & once this was sorted I was watching telly. I later made up a lead to power the telly from the 12 V socket in the TV cabinet. There were a couple of things missing from the van but Brownhills had them delivered to my house within a week.

The first year of ownership has been a joy. As a family we’ve travelled throughout Scotland extensively & used to camp in tent. The Hymer has enhanced this & generally made things more comfortable. If our van never leaves Scotland I’d still be happy. I’ve just spent a week in Ft William cycling & hill walking. The smile that this has brought to my face will take a long time to subside.

During the last year I’ve made a variety of additions & alterations to make things more suitable for our type of camping. These include, shelving out the wardrobe, fitting a SOG, fitting solar panels & a host of other small changes to make things easier & more comfortable.

We’ve only suffered one small breakdown. The kitchen tap stopped working when we were wild camping on Mull. The wires to the micro switch in the tap had been very effectively sawn through by the tap’s internals. I carry a small gas powered soldering iron & luckily managed to effect a repair with the tap in situ. I removed the tap once we got home & modified the internals so hopefully this wont happen again. I also fitted a momentary switch under the sink connected to the pump circuit, so if the micro switches in any of the taps become faulty I can still operate the pump by means of the switch.

The solar panels have been a boon for us. We’re not heavy users of electrical power & usually only watch a bit of telly at night. However off hook-up the batteries are going to have a finite life. I bought a Kipor 2000 invertor genny last year & only used it on a couple of occasions when we couldn’t hook-up & the batteries were getting low. However, I hate the noise of the thing running. Irrespective of how “quiet” these things are meant to be I find it destroys the ambience of the remote & beautiful places we like to camp. The 180 Watts of panels keep all of the batteries charged, including the vehicle battery. The Schaudt electroblock’s a great system & very effectively integrates all the habitation electrics with the vehicles & the solar panels. It also saves on site fees to the tune of about £3.00 per night, which isn’t a whole lot but helps to offset the cost of the solar install.

I’ve now got things the way I want them & can’t see anything else that I’ll need to do in the near future. A reversing camera’s on the cards as is a towbar/motorbike rack. 

All in all having the van’s been a very positive experience & I’ve camped in some stunningly tranquil places. This forum is a great help & I would consider a must for anyone owning or contemplating owning a van. If I ever buy another van I’ll be having a critical look at Concorde. Formidable quality & engineering…………..

Any questions ?

Dave.


----------



## RichardnGill (Aug 31, 2006)

What a good read that post was, we have had our Hymer just over a year and love it still but we do fancy something a bit bigger.

Is your van on the 2.8 Fiat?

Do you do proper mountain biking in the 7 stains? I ve been there and it is exelent.

Richard...


----------



## tony5677 (Jul 9, 2007)

*hymer*

Congrats on your van You are obviously pleased with it.I brought a Hymer( secondhand starline 640) last year. Over the moon with it.

Best thing we ever got. Don't tell to many people about it , they will all want one.


----------



## 92859 (May 1, 2005)

*Hymer B644*

Greetings,

Nice one Dave! pleased you are enjoying your Hymer, a most interesting story.

Hymer are a good choice and we certainly enjoyed ours until we had problems with it (not manufacturers but dealer incompetence) after having it repaired we decided to change it, but we still miss the old girl as it had everything on it you would have wanted.

We are now locking forward to our next motorhome, which sadly is not a Hymer but if the French can come up with the goods, we should be happy, hopefully we can keep our next one a little longer.

Just looking forward to some serious cruising this year!


----------



## davesport (Nov 12, 2006)

Thanks for the positive replies.

RichardnGill.

Yes, the base vehicle is a Fiat 2.8JTD. So far no complaints 8O 

I've cycled at a few of the Seven Stanes. Glentress, Innerleithen & the Kona darkside at Mabie. (I didn't cycle much of this)

Other venues include Wolftrax at Laggan & The Witches Trails at Anoch mor Ft William. Both of which I can recommend.

Enjoyed your photo album  

Dave.


----------



## GOVER (May 1, 2005)

I enjoyed your post and am happy for you that I has worked out so well. We looked at this model and very very close to buying it. In the end we bought an S720 and it was a disaster. There is no doubt in my mind that the mid range Hymers offers the best value and reliability.
Hope you mange to stray out of Scotland at some point.

All the best,

Gover


----------



## davesport (Nov 12, 2006)

Gover.



> In the end we bought an S720 and it was a disaster


What happened 

Dave.


----------



## adbe (May 1, 2005)

good post. 
We downsized to a Hymer 510. It is VERY nice, but after a year I am still missing our Pilote Galaxy 910 in evey respect except the length - it just had the edge in quality somehow. A big plus is that it is so much shorter and so much easier for me to drive- when he lets me that is :?


----------

