Types
One of THE
problems in the motorcaravan world is the wide range of names applied to the
even wider range of shapes and sizes of vehicles. What follows is a quick
guide, designed to clear up some of the jargon at least.
Aliases:
Motorhome, Motorcaravan, Recreation Vehicle (RV), Camper, Camper-van -
these can all usually be used interchangeably
In order of
decreasing cost(!):
A-class
Any motorhome
built from the chassis up, i.e. there's no recognisable commercial cab up
front. Everything above the wheels is pure motorhome etc. A-class motorhomes
often have drop-down over-cab beds and/or permanent double beds at the
rear.
Coachbuilt (also known as 'Class C' or 'Class
B' in the USA)
A (usually
rectangular) motorhome body built onto the back of a commercial ('chassis cab')
vehicle. The whole of the cab is usually retained unaltered, with the motorhome
body 'sticking out' just behind the cab (and usually over the top of it as
well). Nominally anything from 2 berth to 6 berth, coachbuilts are most
commonly bought by couples. This fact has led to so-called low profile
coachbuilts, with sleeker looks, only nominal headroom above the cab and lower
wind resistance.
High top
(also known as 'Class B' in the USA)
Using even more of
the commercial base vehicle, high top motorcaravans are usually the full van
with the roof removed and a custom, shaped, glass fibre roof stuck on, in a
fairly aerodynamic fashion. Because the main body of the van is retained, the
sides are fairly aerodynamic too, with no protruding edges. Sometimes the
commercial vehicle itself comes with a 'high top' option, in which case you'll
often see this used and all the converter has to do is add windows in the back
of the van where necessary.
Rising roof
Again using the
full commercial van shape and again with the roof removed, this time the
replacement is a folding or concertina mechanism, by which the roof itself can
be raised and lowered, without affecting immunity from the weather. The main
advantage of rising roof is that you stand a chance of getting under some
height barriers.
Demountable
Fairly rare these
days, except in the USA, these are fully self contained (usually glass fibre)
motorhome units shaped to fit on top of (and into) a standard commercial pickup
truck. The idea is that the truck can be used for commercial purposes in the
week and then you load up the motorhome section at weekends!
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