# Hymer



## aikidoamigo (Aug 11, 2011)

Hi Everyone...

Just signed into the website today and wanted to start the ball rolling...

My wife and I are reaching those middle years now and have decided that we want to get involved with a motorhome... I say get involved as due to the expense I guess it must be like adding another family member! 

We have looked around and would like a van with modern styling, Hymer right now is the favourite and the 678 twin bed version is coming up tops.

Now for the questions... to be honest we do not have a clue what spec we need or options we should go for, those knowing Hymer will understand the range and options seem endless... what kind of water heating, what kind of blown air heating, winter packs, summer packs etc. etc. etc.

So any advice or preferences learned from experience would be a great help. Typically there will be the two of us travelling but regularly accompanied by the only two of our five children that remain in their teenage years.... so this size van is what we are after.

Any feedback / advice / starting points would be useful.

Thanks a lot in advance

Paul


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## Westkirby01 (Jan 25, 2009)

Konichiwa

Welcome to the MHF fold. 

Mine is an older vehicle so I will leave the information blurb to others. I'm sure you will get quite a few replies regarding the Hymer you have decided on.

Regards


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## Hymerintacto (Aug 2, 2011)

*Welcome!*

Welcome to MHF!

I'm in a similar position to yourselves....well :? ....apart from being on my own and without a family to consider  However, I AM looking and learning. I've only recently joined MHF and have already gleaned a lot information from the site. I found an interesting article on 'A Beginners Guide To Motorhoming' under the 'Articles' heading which you might enjoy.

Happy MHF'ing


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## leltel (Jul 27, 2010)

We have the Hymer Exsis-i 522 with fixed bed. We love ours, it is compact enough to fit on our drive, but big enough and comfortable enough for the two of us and the dog. In our previous motorhome, we never had blown heating, we have in this one and the van warms up nicely even in the shower, so no more carrying electric heaters!
The only advice I can give is go and look round some, but ask questions, especialy ones that might sound daft, we wish that we had asked questions relating to the costs of replacement parts!


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## javea (Jun 8, 2007)

Hi Paul and welcome to the forum.

First of all, you will not go wrong in choosing a Hymer, I am on my second one and have not had any problems at all.

As far as heating is concerned they will all be fitted with a Truma blown air system, just turn the dial to get the temperature you want and it will keep it there. They are so well insulated that you don't need a lot of heat to keep it warm, particularly at night. The fresh and waste tanks are heated in the ones with the Alko low profile chassis so no problems in the cold, they are designed to be used in the ski-ing season and Germans know how to deal with those conditions.

If you are going to use the vehicle abroad a lot you might like to consider a Gaslow system which will allow you to fill your bottles from fuel stations across most of Europe, less in spain but gradually getting more.

Well, that's a very brief response - you will doubtless have lots more questions so fire away, there are a lot of Hymer owners on here who can help.

Mike


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## ardgour (Mar 22, 2008)

Hello and welcome.
You don't say what sort of age of van you are looking at. Hymers are built to last but it is rare to get the choice right first time - you have to live with one of these vans to find out what you really want/need so getting a second hand one for starters is usually wise.
Are you looking to stay on well equipped campsites or smaller basic CL/CS types - this will also inform your decision. Get out there and poke around as many as you can - even the looking at them can be fun

Chris


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## aikidoamigo (Aug 11, 2011)

*Ongoing thanks*

Thanks Everyone for starting me off so well... I have not paid my £12.50 yet so seem to be struggling around the site and certainly cannot get to reply to messages... I am sure it is a small investment to make, maybe will find time to get it done tomorrow!

Therefore ALShymer.... is there a way to get in touch with you, I would certainly appreciate your help and to share your recent experiences.

Any comments posted will be gratefully received; we did go up to preston Hymer last week and settled (for now) on this model... our intention is to go to Lincolnshire next first weekend of Sept for the show and then onto the NEC before we part with any money.

How keen are these dealers to negotiate on price? never too sure how much the price can be driven down... likewise I have seen the sub dealers offering to bring German vehicles in to the country... anyone know the implications of that ref. tax /insurance etc? As we hope to spend more time in Europe than the UK perhaps a left hand unit would suit us... what do you think??


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## musicbus (May 1, 2005)

hi welcome
pay the sub - it will be one of the very best things you do in motorhoming!

I am on my third hymer and in the most part its about getting the layout right. Personally speaking I would avoid the Preston mob like the plague.

The best hymer man in the land is Peter Hambildon also just outside Preston. Whether its repairs accessories or sales, http://www.friendlyhippo.co.uk/hymerdirect/aboutus.html

If Europe is where you want to be go LHD. Makes life easy and not hard to drive in the UK either. Dont be afraid to import. Its not difficult and even though the pound is weaker there are some good buys to be had.

Good luck

barry


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## JeanLuc (Jan 13, 2007)

You refer to "sub-dealers" in your last post. In case you have not discovered this, there is only one authorised importer/dealer for Hymer in the UK and that is Brownhills (AKA Hymer UK in Preston). They have branches in Newark and the Northeast as well (I think their depots in Cannock and Swindon have closed).

Having said that, many people buy Hymers from independent dealers with great success, but they will not be brand new. Here is a list of some better known independent specialists (we bought ours from Edgehill).

http://www.friendlyhippo.co.uk/hymerdirect/ (Peter Hambilton)
http://www.edgehillmotorhomes.co.uk/
http://www.dmiuk.com/ (Deepcar)
http://www.bundesvan.co.uk/

Spare parts are available from Hymer UK in Preston, or whilst travelling, any dealer on the continent or from Hymer AG in Bad Waldsee.
Independent dealers, or specialist engineers can carry out habitation work and base vehicle servicing needs to be done by a standard service agent / lorry garage in any case.


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## MEES (Apr 20, 2006)

Check out Palmowski in Germany (on the internet)we have self imported 2 vans from them but Hymers are out of our price league but they are Hymer dealers.  
ps and pay the sub it will give you hours of fun and information


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## aikidoamigo (Aug 11, 2011)

Paid the subs today.... I am sure I will get over the shock! 

8O


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## THEPOET (May 1, 2007)

Hi,

welcome to MHF.

If you are buying new (B678 is a new layout) dont bother with Brownhills/Hymer UK. You only have to search on here to find out why!

I had a Van from Palmovski before and after a misunderstanding found them excelent. They are however quite a distance away in Bielefeld, Germany. Closer try Durrwang & Mohlen (?) located in Dortmund, Germany. This is only a 3 hour drive fron Dover. Or you could try Campiramma in Belgium, who can provide a RHD vehicle (euch) and deliver to the port for you.

Hope you enjoy your new life! ( we have just come back after a months trip around France)

PS. as I am now assistant secretary of the Hymer Club International, once you have you van, come and join us. we are a really friendly lot, rallies in UK and Abroad. Check out the website www.hymerclub.co.uk

Cheers Pete


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## GEMMY (Jun 19, 2006)

Have you considered the 674, the 675, versions, the van I p/exd to Hymer uk is on their website it's a Merc 675, one careful owner, 8) 2008 reg.

tony


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## geraldandannie (Jun 4, 2006)

One thing to consider is what sort of motorhoming do you intend to do? Are you still working? Will it be weekends and 2 weeks a year? Will you be using 'proper' campsites, or do you like out-of-the-way places?

Do you have pets? Children? Grandchildren? Will they be travelling with you? Sleeping in the van with you?

All important questions :wink: 

Oh, and welcome, by the way. Congrats on paying the subs - it's the best bit of money you'll ever spend. Probably.

Gerald


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## aikidoamigo (Aug 11, 2011)

I seem to recall those models had a slightly different layout for the separation between living areas / washing / bedroom.

Thanks I'll take a look


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## aikidoamigo (Aug 11, 2011)

We still work although I work from home and my wife has good holidays / flexi time. To be honest this was a life plan for some years from now but we got to thinking that maybe we should start earlier even if we dont get maximum use short term.... we always intended to travel full time once we could afford to.

So right now we think we can maybe buy now / use / experience and then when the time is right finish working and travel full time with the van we have... rather than losing out on these next years.

Hope you follow my meaning and please tell me if I sound a little crazy.

:roll:


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## hymees (Aug 7, 2011)

Hello

We've just bought a second hand S700 Starline. I'm afraid we haven't even collected it yet so don't have any advice or tips for you - but we bought it second hand. We visited a MH fair (Shrewsbury) and went in every single van at the fair, joined this forum and bought magazines to narrow down to what we wanted and then just searched e-bay, pre-loved and friendlyhippo site every few days for a match. We eventually found 'the one' through e-bay and then conducted the transaction privately - it's a LHD (which we were looking for).

We found people at shows and on forums were really helpful and gave us lots of tips and advice - notably not to buy from a dealer! We did, though, spend a whole morning with Edgehills - the salesman wasn't very user friendly, but he really knew his stuff so we took our time with him to get info on chassis, payloads etc. We had a bit of a look at european dealers but didn't find much difference in price.

Hope this is helpful. And I'm sure you'll find this forum a godsend - we have!

Sophie


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