Is A Bigger Camper Van Better? Our First 10 Nights!

hi guys hi everybody so today we're going to talk about what our first 10 nights in our new West Far Fen headen have been like and we're going to try and compare it back to when we had our California do we have any [Music] regrets so it's midweek it's been a heavy work week already so we thought time to get a nice beer and time to have a chat because very nice very nice B because we've had 10 nights in our new West valy as Fen heading now and it's time for us to kind of reflect a little bit and I know you guys are really interested in what having a bigger Van's like quite a few of you probably still got a California or looking to buy a California and you're wondering actually should we buy a bigger van instead or should we stick with having a California and things so uh although this isn't a side by-side comparison of a California versus a Sven head in it's not that kind of head to head video would that be amazing if we still had our Cali as well we definitely can't afford that we thought it'd be good just to talk through the different aspects of having a bigger van and actually what those 10 nights have been like yeah I think we need to talk a bit about likes and dislikes do we have any dislikes we'll do that we shall see y yeah and just a general kind of feel of the van and you can see already that it has various decorations and things so we are transforming it into home it's been hard at work with that that's for sure yeah so um where do we start so why don't we list off the knights that we've had then so we've had 10 y they're a bit mixture first three nights uh first night at Wonder home their campsite on their own site that was Fab actually yeah really good night there uh second night was a campsite up on the East Coast just north of there wasn't it yes is it near p no no that was the FY one south of FY south of FY um yeah you seen the video probably of that anyway so we had a hook up there didn't we yeah that was good that was a csite with a bar and stuff wasn't there third night was on a campsite near Thornton leale yeah and I don't think we plugged it in that night because had a electric charge thing yeah so they did a a system where you could buy a card and top it up essentially but you got the money back if you didn't use it so we bought one on the off chance that we might need it just to see we didn't we used the heating and all the lighting and everything but we didn't eat that so that was the first three nights then then we had our fourth night was at the Harriet Show I think not actually at the Harriet Show had a pub stop over pub stop over no hookup no hookup that was a Fab Pub that one was then we went down and stayed near just south of Oxford didn't we cuz we got the new Wheels put oning and po stop over again five yeah then we went down to the New Forest for Easter three nights uh with uh Chris alley Carana Club site was it yeah so that was 678 Posh lovely site yeah then we had a with hooker pub stop over on the river Trend one that we've been to before near LOM yeah and then this weekend just gone we went and had a pub stop over again at South near Rutland water yeah there's our 10 so quite a mix there of Pub stopovers obviously no hookup uh obviously sights uh one which yeah one which we had hook up one which we didn't um and I have to say so the van itself has performed perfectly yeah I well there was one one night where the heating mysteriously went off in the middle of the night we did we found that actually it wasn't the heating going mysteriously off in the middle of the night Willard managed to switch it off just before he got into bed so it got progressively colder as the night went on was that kind of night number two it was yeah it was about number two blooming freezing when we wake up was really cold but that wasn't the van's fault that was definitely my fault user operator user operator um but everything on the Vans worked you know all the lighting works all of the heating works the Gas Works all the water the shower everything although we did have to do a bit of a top up of the coolant in the heating so obviously it had got some air in it or something somewhere and it just got a little bit low could hear a kind of uh dripping noise overnight it's like a PL so this video isn't about about kind of whether the van's okay or not it's more about that comparison of the California and things so um I think one of the biggest differences between having this van and having the California it's going to sound really obvious but it's the it's the living space that you get now um if you've got a tradition I'll say traditional campan so side kitchen sliding bench seat style uh you've probably found that if it's raining windy you haven't got the popped up but you need to be in the van because you're just taking shelter effectively or you've got a night in in the van you kind of live in a square meter um if you if if we're being generous it's kind of in a short wheeel base in a short wheel base yeah so you've got this kind of small space that you have to do everything and you get dressed in it you sit you kind of relax in it you then have the dog in it you might have a porter potty in it it's kind of it's your entire space in the van even with the chairs turned around tends to be about a meter Square I think um yeah so going from that we had a lot of time in the Cali where I'd cook something or will cook something yeah you get the table out but you realize one of the cupboard and the amount of time I've spent scrambling around on my knees underneath a table trying to get something out of a cupboard or gently precariously trying to shift the table with a load of drinks and Crockery and all kinds of stuff on it out of the way so the other one can get into a cupboard cuz you forgot to get something out and actually having a a van with this different configuration and I'm sure those of you who have got something like um a nugget or a club Joker or a Kelsey so that kind of different configuration will probably relate to this you can actually have somebody sitting in one area and somebody cooking in another area yeah so you've just got that little bit of I thought two separate living areas going on I think it's almost like having different zones in your camper van in a bigger van so obviously this the the layout of this Fen heading is a rear transverse bed um fixed bed then you've got your kitchen opposite your washroom so kind of Galley kitchen and washroom then at the front here you've got this seating area with the table that's removable and all of that stuff so you've almost got three sl4 different places you can be in the van really because you've got obviously seating area at the frontier you've got the kitchen area you've got somebody in the toilet and obviously you've got the bed as well so quite often in the mornings what what we've been finding over those 10 nights is Sarah always gets up after me in the morning just always always has done a no doubt always will I'm just an early riser so Sarah will be wrapped up in bed snoring her head off and uh I have so much more room once he's finally got up and then I I obviously get up first I come and sit down here I'll check my emails or you know YouTube comments or any of that kind of stuff and then when it gets to about 7:00 I think right that's enough I've I've waited long enough for me tea now and I'll boil a kettle and slowly rattle around in the kitchen area next to her head there's tea it's going cold so come on get your backside out of bed and come and drink it um so um it works really well for that and if we think how we would have done that before in the California if you got someone sleeping in the pop top that was okay because you could go out of the pop top downstairs and you got the hole of the downstairs to yourself although I usually did get kicked in the face whilst you tried to get out of the pop top whilst I was still in bed yeah and then you kind of almost laid there chuckling knowing that he was trying to sort of make a cup of tea while bent over yeah CU anyone who's had a pop top camper knows the kicking in the face the feet in the face armpits in the face all of that stuff the the twisting and contorting to get upstairs and then come back down again um and then the Hunchback uh kind of feeling while you're making dinner or uh doing any kind of anything in the kitchen downstairs anyway um so none of the kind of bent over stuff we don't need to do that in the van now still feels a little more civilized which does feel really civilized like in the zones thing yes um should we talk about hot water yes let's fa with hot water decadant we water treats I don't know why but we are still really really um just Blown Away about camping with hot water I think we've had fans for so long which have had cold water only were campers as well to start with so we we had tents for years we had tents and obviously you've got no running water in that whatsoever you go and fill up one of those bladder things and you sort of balance it anywhere around your tent so you haven't even got any running water we didn't even have a porta potty we had a bucket yeah so I this is like yeah many levels on many many levels on it the hot water thing oh washing your hands in warm water washing your hands doing the pots after you've had dinner and all that kind of stuff you know we now we've got this we don't tend to use the campsite wash up area uh if we're on a campsite cuz the sink in this is actually you know it's probably about that size you can easily fit a dinner plate in it um we just run a bowl of warm water obviously do the washing up and one of us washes one of us dries and that's it job done you don't have to Trek down to the campsite wash up area thing which some people might say is a shame because you get to meet other campers and stuff down there do I suspect we will do for us in the nicer months anyway when you are ke outside using your barbecue and things like that there's no way that's the key I well I'm not letting him and I'm certainly not putting a barbecue grill anywhere near that sink at all no that's down to the campsite kitchen so but most of our camping so far has been in quite cool temperatures hasn't it a bit of rain that we've had in another bits and Bobs but it's been quite cool so actually traing down to the campsite kitchen I think you'd rather stay inable um but yeah the hot water thing amazing and I know I know you can get that on smaller Vans obviously the Kelsey's got it uh the uh Club Jokers Club Jokers uh and things like the Nugget uh has got it um so it's not something that's exclusive to having a bigger van but it's a big thing for us actually it feels just just fantastic um I want to talk about cuz let's face it we've had the wetest 18 months ever yeah and it just will not stop raining it will not stop r in well we say that we have had a good a good couple of nights in the van where it hasn't rained but equally we have had a couple of horrific ones just in the 10 nights that we've been away it's also not raining now but it's not raining now but that fact of being able to turn up to a campsite or a pub stop over or whatever you're doing literally stand up in your seat turn the seats around and come and sitting here and that's it done that's it that's it my bedding is not getting wet I'm not having to put up a pop top and kind of try and make up a bed and maybe think about an external cover for the for the roof Bellows and all of that kind of stuff and actually I know I'm going to be warm I know I'm not worried about a storm ripping the roof off um yeah just all that kind of mental psychological stuff that sometimes is lovely about a Cali or a pop top van of staying under canvas cuz let's face it it is a tent magical it's a tent in a van and it can be really magical and really lovely but for an awful lot of time in this country it's really not magical and we've had some really rough nights in the Cali now you see I I I completely agree about the ease of all of that it's really nice when it's throwing it down with rain I've got a slight niggle that we might make less memories in this van because yeah yes let's think about some of the memories from the outer hdes for example but are they good memories any memories of me doesn't matter it's good or it's a memory cuz reminiscing can be about stuff which was just crazy bad as well as crazy good can't so we obviously we're laughing about it now it's quite terrifying at the time um but I do it's so capable the van is so capable in all weathers you almost take away a bit of that surprise factor of are we going to how rough is it going to be and actually one of the pub stopovers it was horrendous it was a really stormy night that night and it was the stormiest night we've had in this van no question I think we looked on the phone thing didn't we on the weather app and it was 45 mph gusts or something like that which actually in the whole scheme of things is not awful but it's the kind of speed that you're worried slightly about a brunch coming off a tree or things flying around outside and actually we felt quite cocooned in here we weren't worried about the roof or you know anything like that I was fine in terms of you know is the van going to get turned over or something ripped off or you know anything like that but it was still noisy it was really noisy and the van was really moving around as well um it's not it can still Rock it's not like being in a uh a hotel bedroom by any stretch of the imagination you're definitely still inside of a van yeah um but no it was fine actually it was fine I think um in terms of the size of the bed and everything else obviously that's really specific depending on what biger van you're comparing to a pop top what I would say is the mattress is about twice as thick as we've ever had in a van before least I'm looking at it now it's probably more like three times it's it's a beautiful mattress it's got the frolly Springs underneath for all the ventilation and comfort and everything which is good and I defin there's no question I sleep better in here than I've ever slept in a California I think the best regardless of the topper or the airbed thing or any of that stuff slept better in this I think the best night sleep I've had in the Cali has basically been after a good few nights away when I've been so knackered cuz so that might have been really rubbish that there's nothing else that you can do other than sleep really well no no dead arms or funny back or anything like that in the morning you just go to sleep get up in the morning and it's just another day yeah yeah yeah and the pop pop out going to say pop top but it a pop out out um seems to work really well actually she doesn't doesn't leak doesn't make any noise I think the I think the only thing I would say about that is if it works okay for us because one tour one and one short one I sleep next to the doors at the back and you don't get the full length of bed from the pop out because the pop outs set back from the back of the van by about that much obviously cuz you're going to have to have some strengthening pillars in the back of the van so for me half of my bed essentially doesn't have access to the pop out and that's fine it doesn't really bother me in any way shape or form but if I was the same height as well I think we we' be arguing a little bit about who was sleeping which side as to yeah who got the extra space basically but it's not bad in any shape or form no I think there's probably a couple of other things that we should cover okay um bathroom CU it's kind of an obvious one and we haven't talked about it yet so bathroom and shower we should talk about that and I think we should talk about what it's like to drive and park CU I know that's a big thing for a lot of people they think about the size of the van physically parking maneuvering all that sort of stuff so I'll tell you what let's do that first and we'll do toilet last okay finish on a High um so um what's it like to drive it's we were talking about this the other day weren't we when we were coming back from our last um pob stop over so rattle wise and all of that stuff we had one or two little squeaky rattles which we've sorted now and it's basically as quiet as it's going to be um so what what's the engine and horsepower and gearbox and stuff in this so so this is the 177 horsepower um automatic 8speed autom it's biggest engine and best gear box you can put in one of these um M's or Crafters it's adequate um it's not it's not fast it's from Speed Demon will who's well hang on Whose EV at the moment has how much horsepower is ridiculous that's irrelevant it's more it's it's more about comparing it to the California yes so we had a 204 for motion California as the last one DSG one and we had a 204 two wheel drive before that um obviously transporter T6 and then t6.1 uh this isn't as fast as that um there's no question it's not as fast as that um this Probably sounds a little more yeah there's less sound proofing less sound proofing from the engine bay into the cab yeah um gearbox is better in this definitely uh it's a bit smoother it's very easy to drive there's no question power steering gearbox setup everything makes it super super easy to drive it really is it's not quite as quiet um it's not noisy but it's not quite as quiet um refined I yeah it's definitely an insulation yeah thing I think from the bay handling wise you can just tell it's a bit heavier and a bit bulkier so a bit more wallowy yeah I mean obviously it's not the kind of van that we've tried you know rallying down back roads and things to take it steady you could Hustle the Cali along better than this yeah and but I think I felt um not quite the right word but safer doing so in the Cali probably just CU it was a bit smaller felt a bit more confident in it smaller in width marginally and obviously substantially shorter and lower down had that more kind of although it was definitely a van has that slightly more cocooning feel whereas in this because you've got a higher roof and things everything just feels bit more spacious that said on the motorway I feel much better in this um with it being bigger yeah with it and we haven't about this but yeah we've done quite a lot of Motorway miles already and in this you feel you know right in the kind of the the middle League of the size of vehicles you're not an hgv but you're also not a you know a transit or a transporter or a car you're right in the middle of all of that and it feels as it's got real Road presence when you're on the motor that's true it really does people don't tend to pull out in front of you we've found anyway and I think the thing I actually really like um is the difference between your transporter and your crafter size vehicles is the door mirrors on it yeah they might not be fancy and colorcoded and folding in and all of that loveliness that you kind of get with the more car and transporter nicer models but they're big functional they're really big and functional so you've got a mirror on the side that's like this big and then underneath it one that kind of is fixed and faces sort of down into the side of the van so it acts as a blind spot mirror really easily on the motorways which is actually really important I didn't it hadn't really cross my mind that you've got these windows B these pills are and so that means you've got an enormous pillar here that essentially is your blind spot and obviously you got the same on the other side as well you've got no rear mirror so you're not looking out the back of the van so those side mirrors become super super important and it's especially superb when you're driving around towns and you've got curbs and things to navigate because you can see where your rear wheel is in the so as you're yeah so as you're pulling out of a junction you know exactly when you need to be turning and not clipping the curb there's no guess work involved in it at all it's beautiful really really you miss it when you drive your car again yeah and I think for me as well I I was absolutely convinced in the first few miles I was driving this that it was probably about 5 m longer than it actually is of that amount of space I was trying to give it to sort of come out so as not to clip those curbs but those mirrors have kind of sealed it in my mind actually as to it's it's longer but it's not that long in terms of the wheel base so yeah makes it really easy Drive actually I agree and um this one's got front and rear parking sensors rear parking camera as well which does make it super easy to park in parallel parking spaces or you know normal Bay parking that kind of thing we uh we went to our local town the other day and uh went to the normal kind of car park found a normal car space which has some grass behind It reversed it into the space and I took a picture from the side so you can see what kind of overhang you've got at the back compared to the parking space itself it's actually standard kind a car parking size of what 2 2 2.4 m 2 and 1/2 M by 5ish yeah mean r 6 M long yeah and there's about a meter around the rear so rear wheels touching the curb or the back white line of the space essentially and we were in the space taking up every single inch of said space getting our money's worth but people can still getting the spaces around us and everything and you think actually that's for us that's one reason we didn't go for a long wheel base cuz you'd start overhanging the front of the space even with your wheels right at the back yeah you start having to look for a space that you can drive through and potentially end up having to pay for two yeah when you go into a car Parks so driving yeah thumbs up really really easy yeah super super easy it's not one of those kind of vehicles which you don't look forward to driving put it that way um it's not it's not the best refined it's not the fastest but it's absolutely fine fine absolutely fine yeah if you're used to a Volkswagen or an Audi or something like that you'll be fine yeah no problem right then bathroom the piesta resistance unless we think of anything else in the meantime the bathroom what do we make of it then it's better than I thought it would be I agree actually the only thing I really dislike is the toilet roll holder that West have put in this horrible it's very plasticky it's just incredibly plastic um it's functional but it's not even in the right place if you're sitting on the toilet it's basically down around your ankles pretty much Birch but well it does the job so we we've obviously we've tried the shower in it quite a few times I I quite like showering in here there's no problem um obviously the toilet itself's fine the cassette that you get from the toilet outside to be able to empty and put it back in all just normal normal stuff and very usable it's quite easy to clean cuz it's all wiped down in there there's no wood in there or anything like that yeah um so we just use a cleaning spray and wipe it down with the microfiber and everything in there a dead easy there's a pin up um shower curtain which sounds like a nightmare I can't say that we were particularly impressed by the thought of having a shower curtain cuz they stick to you and cling to you and everything but it pins up and basically clings to the door only um only so it's just literally kind of over the door with a little bit of overhang on both sides and it's fine actually just Pin It Up Out The Way touch me yet no I I for some reason they've obviously designed it in such a way that it just stays out the way um and it it it's fine it just covers the door um it's not a problem and what we've been doing is have a shower and then we've got a um squeegee thing so just literally make sure there's no soap left on the walls or anything like that give everything a quick kind of swipe down the the toilet itself swivels round to give you a bit more space when you're standing in there and then once you've obviously had your shower and everything else rinse it all down then what you can um because the toilet in the fen has got a separate he heating control to the main cab area and living area you can set that to be a higher temperature than in here and then it dries it all out for you as you drive along does the only downside it's got a heated shower tray as well the only downside I've noticed to having it a different temperature in there to out here is that you have a shower in a really beautifully warm little room your warm shower it's hot in there you open the door and you're like and we always we always open the roof vent in there as well to get make sure there's no kind of steam or anything com flying out there but yeah yeah we should remember to turn it up in here before we get out yeah so yeah it's uh it's absolutely fine um and um has changed our thoughts I suppose about what we can and can't do with the van because things like Pub stopovers in wintertime if you're going somewhere to do a pub stopover and then you're going exploring a local town or Villages or walks or whatever the following morning before in the Cali when we weren't having a show and stuff you think you just get a few baby wipes over your face and stuff it's never the same as actually having a shower whereas you know the last one that we stayed at last weekend at um South lenham it was fantastic you wake up in the morning you have a quick shower and the shower was really good and I was lovely and awake and then I went to see take that yes so I think that might have been a life-changing event for you my life changing event yeah forget any memories from the van I think that particular take that concert was something special so so really that that I suppose is our quick summary and there's probably nothing in there which is a particular surprise um it's probably all fairly obvious but I suppose it just depends if you're thinking about whether you should if you haven't got a camper van you think about whether you should have a California or a you know a five or 5.3 meter long normal I say normal van small van or whether you should have a high top van some something like like this I it's a real consideration about where are you going to park it do you want to be able to stand up in it you know and it's these are obvious questions but what kind of layout do you think is going to work for you as well because there are compromises and I think that's the the takeaway in all of this there's always a compromise always always a compromise you know the compromise of having a biger van like this is parking it you know we when we were going down to get the wheels um we'd left our pub stop over um the night before to go down to um Elite to get these wheels and tires and we were going down a lovely little Back Lane with some overhanging trees and you know all that kind of stuff and a branch hit the roof um right at the front and it made one hell of a noise and I thought that's definitely dented it some things happened like solar RI just all all sorts going through our minds hadn't even got a th miles on the van I got out and not a mark on it absolutely fine or at least I haven't found it yet if there is but there's honestly there's nothing but it it just reminded us this is a higher van than we used to because I didn't even it didn't even make me think I need to swerve around that or avoid it I just I kind of saw it dangling a little bit and I thought that's you know yeah it's fine and then you've hit it so just getting in your mind how high the van is think about it basically is different whereas in a Cali it's basically like a high up car or an SUV things like drive-throughs so you're not going to a drivethru anymore no more Mack driveth cers Starbucks or anything like that someone has to get out of the van and go and get it basically which is which is no bad thing really no it's not um but just think about it you know you you're not going to get through a drive-thru it's true but you can come and sit down and eat it when but you could in a there is one other thing actually I've thought of sorry it's turning into a rambling video isn't it these skylights actually right from having been in a van with a pop top of everything's quite dark in the van unless you actually start opening the windows in the pop top but then you get your cold air in actually having some roof lights that you can open up and get some daylight into your van um that way as well I think actually should been really nice I've enjoyed that too yeah so anything we don't like or anything we miss just quickly I think I missed the cuteness I don't I don't ever remember looking at the cie and thinking KY that's big or you know anything like that it was just perfect in every way in terms of its look wasn't it and that that kind of that that element of the heritage of the pop top camper van and so I think I think mine's linked to the daily driver aspect of it of how easy it was to live with in that respect I think mine's linked to that so it's I missed the Volkswagen Thing um I I mean I when everyone asks what van we've got now I say it's an man but it's basically a Volkswagen that's the way that I describe you say m to most people and they're like hey what so so I miss the Volkswagen Thing and I'm with you I the the California is such an allrounder you know you can replace your car with it you can you know do trips to the tip in it you can go away camping in it you can cook in it you know sleep in it it's an amazing allrounder and that's why they're sold so many of them and I think that's the final thing for me this this fan and the one that we've picked this fan head in there's a small group of us in the Country Now who all starting to find each other and connect and you know there's a Facebook group join you have one conversation about it but California's there's so many more of them so if you've got a problem with your California or you're looking to do something with it or you know anything like that there's a much much bigger um population of people who have got them had them selling bits for them modifying them loads of that stuff well that was one of the reasons that we went for a Cali in the first place wasn't it all the accessories gadgets yeah everybody knows what it is yeah so they make stuff for it so there there you go that's our quick well quickish rundown of the first 10 nights what we like uh what we miss yeah uh I do think at some point in the future we should get a California next to this um so we can do a proper video walk around about the difference in the size of the beds and the kind of the kitchen stuff and all that kind of stuff cuz it's rare that you see that I think storage and things like that as well could be quite good got a couple of other videos coming up for you soon as well we're conscious that we been taking a bit of time for ourselves getting to know our new van and stuff but we have got new content coming your way he has bought new Gad I've bought new Gad um and don't switch off now but we are testing another power bank and I know you're going to say go what is it power stop it with the power Banks already this one is different because it's one that we've chosen for our van here for a reason um so do watch that if you're interested if you're not that's fine just pass it by um but yeah other gadge we've bought because it's really important to us and there's a legal aspect to it as well so do watch out for that in the future thanks very much for watching uh sorry it's been a bit of a rambling video and uh well you've watched me consumer nice club Tropa um Sarah's halfway down hers please do remember to like And subscribe we do appreciate it we do we do uh and yeah hopefully this has been useful for you so we'll see you again soon tun for some more Campa van time

Channel: Campervan Time

Views: 31,995

Keywords: Camper van, van conversion, vanlife, camper van conversion, vw camper van, camping essentials, vw transporter, vw california, vw van, campervan conversions uk, campervans, Install, Review, adventure, camping, camper, unboxing, instruction, instructions, fitting, tips, van camping, new campervan, campervan, westfalia, van tour, van review, sven hedin, Westfalia sven hedin, grand california, van comparison, bigger van, is bigger better, bigger better, high roof, pop top

Id: K1OcwJ1Q7nQ

Length: 31min 45sec (1905 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 21 2024