Keith Gooden
In today’s episode of the Motorhome Matt podcast…
Matt Sims
We’re unpacking different motorhome layouts and the benefits of each.
Keith Gooden
In the news, have your say through the Camping and Caravanning Club’s owner satisfaction survey.
Matt Sims
We answer your questions on EU breakdown, recovery, beginners’ do’s and don’ts and levelling ramps.
Keith Gooden
Welcome to the Motorhome Matt Podcast. I’m Keith Gooden.
Matt Sims
And I’m Motorhome Matt.
Keith Gooden
Industry insights and expert advice for the world of motorhomes, caravans and campervans, and it’s brought to you by www.thatleisureshop.com.
Matt Sims
Now, remember – please follow your favourite podcast app and subscribe on YouTube. Brought to you by www.arobasecrative.co.uk.
Have your say in the Camping and Caravanning Club 2025 Owner Satisfaction Survey
Keith Gooden
In the news today, the Camping and Caravanning Club have launched their 2025 owner satisfaction survey, and it’s your chance to have your say on your favourite brands. If you’ve owned a tent, folding camper or awning from new or a new or pre-owned caravan or motorhome since January 2021, then you can fill out the survey at www.myccc.co.uk/ownersatisfaction. What is that address again, Matt?
Matt Sims
It is www.myccc.co.uk/ownersatisfaction.
Motorhome Matt Approved
Keith Gooden
Tell us about Motorhome Matt Approved then, Matt.
Matt Sims
Absolutely. This is our brand new project, which is going great guns. These are brands, businesses, products and services that I’ve personally used or had first-hand positive experiences of that I commend to you, the listener. I’m regularly getting asked, who do I go to for my tracker, or who do I recommend for motorhome finance? And these are brands in this directory which I can commend to you. And we’ve got some newbies that have joined us.
Keith Gooden
We have – GPSBob, Motorhome Finance, from Creative Funding Solutions and our local friends just around the corner, Bailey of Bristol.
Matt Sims
Yes, a very warm welcome to all of you. And I have to say a special welcome to Bailey, because they are an exceptional brand, investing in their team, and creating vision and values that everyone buys into. And they are a truly passionate bunch.
I’ve been impressed by working with them recently, and so I commend all these brands to you. So if you are looking for finance, Creative are there. You can find out more about GPSBob and their product offering, and, of course, more about Bailey of Bristol.
Keith Gooden
So if somebody wants to visit Motorhome Matt Approved, where do they go?
Matt Sims
Easy. mhmp.info/approved.
Keith Gooden
There you go.
The difference between motorhome layouts
Keith Gooden
It’s the Motorhome Matt Podcast. I’m Keith Gooden.
Matt Sims
And I’m Motorhome Matt.
Keith Gooden
And it’s brought to you with www.thatleisureshop.com. The main part of the podcast this week is about motorhome layouts, and Matt, you’re going to explain them to us. So what determines a layout?
Matt Sims
Generally, the configuration inside, so normally led by the beds. The beds are the biggest piece of furniture in any motorhome, double bed, single bed, or bunk bed, which generally determines the type of layout. And they get nicknamed accordingly.
Most common motorhome layouts
Keith Gooden
So what are the most common types?
Matt Sims
In recent years, the most popular certainly has become the island bed, where you walk on either side of the bed. So it should be called a peninsula bed because the head of it is fixed to the back wall. That makes a motorhome much longer, but it’s a comfortable sleeping area.
And one of the things I love about an island bed motorhome is they’re generally divided from the lounge by the bathroom. So across the middle is the bathroom and the shower, and it means you confine getting dressed and undressed, all your clothes and everything else, to the bedroom and all your living stuff to the lounge area.
When we’re away in a motorhome which is far more open-plan, our stuff is everywhere. We just seem to have pants and socks in the front seat. It’s all going on. Whereas with a bedroom, a dedicated bedroom area, we tend to be a lot neater, and it is a very, very comfortable layout, but a longer motorhome layout, typically.
Keith Gooden
And an island bed, I suppose, means you don’t have to crawl over your partner or whoever is in bed to get to the toilet in the middle of the night. Very important for middle-aged men, incidentally.
Matt Sims
It is, yes, and that’s where different beds become so important. So single beds are a big merit when you’ll think, oh yeah, I’m going to be getting up at night, and you don’t want to be waking the other person up in doing so. So that’s where a rear lounge that can be made into single beds can be a real merit or fixed single beds can also be a benefit.
Keith Gooden
So what different sorts of beds can you get, then?
Matt Sims
Blimey, well, let’s run through a few. So the transverse you mentioned, where you have to climb over each other, where you’ve got a bed across the back, one of you is climbing over the other to get out. Rear bunk beds, typically like kids would sleep in.
A dinette bed – so this is like a railway carriage layout of seats, so two face forward, two face backwards, and that gets made into a bed. That’s called a dinette, and that gets made into a bed. A drop-down bed. Now, this is a fairly recent innovation where the bed goes right up into the ceiling. You press a button or pull the handle, and the bed drops down over the lounge area.
Keith Gooden
That’s a good idea.
Matt Sims
A clever innovation, yeah. Quite heavy. So it can have an impact on payload. That can be a consideration.
Keith Gooden
I suppose the motorhome has got to be taller, has it? Because it takes up space, doesn’t it?
Matt Sims
That’s a valid point. Some motorhomes with a drop-down bed have a very low ceiling height, but there are a number that have remarkably high ceiling heights when the bed is up in the ceiling. So that’s certainly something to test.
Go and stand under one when it’s up in the ceiling, and if you’re six foot six, you may be banging your head. We’ve then got French beds. So this is a rear double bed where the corner is cut off and it’s in the back corner of the motorhome.
They’re called French beds because they were launched for the French motorhome market many years ago, and we just adopted the term French bed. And they are very, very comfortable double beds. People often worry that their feet are going to fall out of the bed because the corner is cut off. I’ve slept in a number of them, and that’s never happened to me. It’s odd. I seem to stay in bed.
Keith Gooden
But you’re a shorty. You’re a bit like me. But like you said if you’re six foot six…
Matt Sims
Yeah, then that would be a problem. You want to be on the side where the corner isn’t cut off if you’re six foot six. You might have a lounge bed, so a rear lounge. So the back of the motorhome is a great big lounge area, and that makes up into a bed, either single beds or a big double bed. And then we’ve got an overcab bed, often called a Luton bed. I think it’s a British term for a Luton van.
Keith Gooden
That’s the bit, isn’t it, over the driver and passenger cab.
Matt Sims
That’s right.
Keith Gooden
You see them on removal trucks as well. Or as we call them when I was growing up, pantechnicons. You never hear that anymore. But the Luton bit is the bit above the cab, so it’s extra space you crawl into. You mentioned that a few podcasts ago. You said that you used to feel quite claustrophobic in that one.
Matt Sims
Yeah, we had one. I didn’t like it at all. I think it’s a great place for kids, but for adults, it’s a challenge. Often in a bunk bed motorhome, there are bunk beds at the rear, and it comes with an overcab bed, or Luton beds, as it gets called.
And the endeavour is that the adults are up in the overcab bed. It’s not a place I like to sleep. And then, of course, you go into the campervan market, and you’ve got rock and roll beds, where you’ve got the seats that fold flat to form the double bed. And then you have a pop-top bed as well where the roof pops up. These have been popular on campervans, a VW-type product, or Ford Transits.
Keith Gooden
For decades.
Matt Sims
Yeah, a long time. And now we’re seeing them on coachbuilt motorhomes, which is fascinating. So they pop up, giving you an extra bed in the roof space. And it’s only in the last few years that we’ve seen European manufacturers start to do this, and now British manufacturers are following suit as well.
Choosing the right motorhome layout
Keith Gooden
So what about if you want more garage space in your motorhome? What sort of bed should you go for?
Matt Sims
That’s the kind of overview of bed layout, and garage space is then really key. If you choose a motorhome with a rear lounge, you probably aren’t going to get much storage. We’ve got a Swift motorhome on our hire fleet. You walk in and it’s lovely and spacious, great big rear lounge, and absolutely no storage.
And we made the mistake where we bought a rear lounge motorhome, and all it was was a motorhome with an uncomfortable bed and no storage. And that’s a big compromise, which you know unless you try one, you wouldn’t know. And they are lovely to walk into.
Often, motorhomes with a big rear lounge have a front lounge as well, so they’ve got the seats with the seat belts at the front, giving you two lounges, which might be a beneficial layout if you’ve got teenage kids and you want them to sit separately. So two lounges can be beneficial.
Keith Gooden
So just remind me which sort of beds give me more garage space.
Matt Sims
So generally, a fixed bed, I would say. So look at an island bed, a French bed. Sometimes they’re lower, so that compromises the garage space in height. Single beds, if they’re up high, again, you get a big garage at the back, which is ideal for putting bicycles in, or a transverse double bed, where you’re climbing over each other. They are the types of layouts that give you the most garage space. There are some exceptions, as there always are, but those fixed bed layouts give you maximum garage space.
Keith Gooden
And we’ve already mentioned your head height for the drop-down beds. And we talked about the pop-top beds. Now, you’ve mentioned to me before that you can’t camp incognito. Why would you want to do that?
Matt Sims
If you want to be a little bit covert under the radar, and you’ve got a great big diagonal roof sticking out the top… Well, it depends on where you’re parking. You know, I got a customer years ago. I bet he couldn’t do this now, but he had a van, and he would go into London, and his son sang in the Westminster choir.
And so he would go to Westminster Cathedral every other weekend to see his son and park on Parliament Square in his motorhome and sleep there in his van. And it looked like a van. I bet you couldn’t get away with it now. But he said, “I’ve been doing it for months.” Kept quiet and it was covert, whereas if he was doing that in a VW van with a pop roof, he’d have been clocked.
Keith Gooden
Now, overhead and bunk beds are great for families. You mentioned that. Dinette beds tend to feature in motorhomes with more belts. Can you explain that?
Matt Sims
So if you need six seatbelts… I’m a father of four, so we need a motorhome with six seatbelts. Well, the kids increasingly don’t want to come with us anymore! But you would need to look at a motorhome with a dinette layout, so where you’ve got that kind of railway carriage feel.
It’s not a lounging space because the seats are fixed, but it means you’ve got two forward-facing seat belts, and two rearward-facing seat belts, and it converts into a double bed. The disadvantage with that is there’s usually less room in it.
So the classic mistake people make when they want to hire a motorhome is, oh, we want the biggest you’ve got. Let’s have a six berth. There are only three of us. You think, well, you’re going to have less room because there’s more furniture.
So if you don’t need six belts, don’t go for a motorhome with a double dinette, because they’re not very lounging. They’re not very relaxing. They are for dining. They’re for sitting up, and they’re travelling seats. So if you need six belts, you would have to probably go for a double dinette layout.
Keith Gooden
So just explain about rock and roll beds again, would you?
Matt Sims
So in VW campervans, these have been prolific for years. You’ve got the rear seat with two or three seatbelts in it, and you pull the bottom forward, and it folds flat into a double bed. Not very wide, but double enough for certainly two kids, if not two adults, small adults, and it’s just called a rock and roll bed. I don’t know why. It’s just a term that they’ve been given.
Motorhome layout model names
Keith Gooden
Now, certain manufacturers, they’re trying to make it a bit easier with the model names, aren’t they?
Matt Sims
They are. Many don’t, though, I have to say. One of the helpful branding conventions or model conventions is used by one manufacturer in particular – Adria. So I’ve always found their layout convention names easy to access.
Once you understand them, it’s great. So SC is an island bed. SL, single beds. SP is a transverse bed. And of course, these letters don’t bear any correlation to our English language, because they’re made in Slovenia. So it’s just a code, but once you’ve cracked the code, you start to get an idea of the layout. So if it says SC on it, you know it’s going to be an island bed.
Keith Gooden
Right. If it says SC, you know it’s going to be an island bed.
Matt Sims
On an Adria.
Keith Gooden
On an Adria.
Matt Sims
Then you get into brands like Rapido and Pilote and it’s just numbers and letters. It’s like a randomizer. I’m sure they just made them up.
Keith Gooden
They should call it the Prostate and the Thunderer.
Matt Sims
I don’t think that’s going to sell.
Keith Gooden
Well, because you have to get up in the middle of the night.
Matt Sims
Two single beds. That’s a good name for it, the Prostate.
Keith Gooden
So a fixed bed – a big waste of space, isn’t it? In my head, you see, as somebody new to this industry, it’s a waste of space. You just fold the thing up.
Matt Sims
There are two groups of people that buy into that, in my experience. People who’ve never had a motorhome before, walk in and see the big fixed double bed and think, goodness, what a waste of space. Or people who’ve come to motorhoming from a caravan, and in a caravan, you generally have to make up the bed.
But in recent years, fixed beds have become far more commonplace in caravans. I think a fixed bed is wonderful because you spend the most time in bed, don’t you? You think you’re going to do one thing for eight hours. I’ll lie down and sleep.
So having the fixed bed means you can be out walking, cycling, climbing, sailing, I don’t know, whatever you’re doing. You come back to the motorhome. You haven’t got the faff of moving all the cushions around playing Tetris with your sofa. You just get straight into bed and comfort straight away.
We have a little Adria twin, which is six metres long. And the back third is a fixed bed. And we love it. You just get into bed, it’s done, and you get up. And we’ve got a small lounge. We do spend quite a bit of time outside of the van. You know, we don’t need a big living area. And I’ll take it anywhere. I’ll go anywhere in it. A fixed bed is often perceived to be a waste of space. My advice is to try one before you dismiss it.
Which motorhome layout is best?
Keith Gooden
So how do you know which is the best layout for you?
Matt Sims
It’s going to be practice, and practice is going to make perfect. I know people who are on their fourth or fifth motorhome, and they still haven’t found what they believe is going to be their forever motorhome. I’m not sure one exists. But it is about trying as many as possible.
I always recommend you try before you buy, particularly these days, because, you know, it’s such a lot of money to buy. Yet hire rates haven’t followed suit by going up in price quite as much. And yes, hiring isn’t cheap, but it could save you thousands of pounds if you make a mistake. So go and try one, and learn about the layout. Learn what works best for you.
Keith Gooden
And how do you want to sleep?
Matt Sims
That’s my starting point. How do you want to sleep? Do you want to sleep together? Do you want to sleep so you’re not climbing over one another? Do you want to sleep separately? And I thought sleeping in an overcab bed would be fine. It was horrible. Hated it. I didn’t know that until I tried it. So I should have hired first, and that was a big mistake. So trying before you buy is critical, I think.
Keith Gooden
Do dealers ever, you know, offer you to come and sleep in something on the forecourt? They do with hot tubs before you buy them.
Matt Sims
Really? Spend the night in a hot tub?
Keith Gooden
No, you don’t spend the night, no! But you can go along and do some hot tubbing.
Matt Sims
Have a splash. Yes, but a hot tub’s easy, surely. It’s just getting in a big bath.
Keith Gooden
It is, yes. Well, a motorhome is easy, isn’t it? It’s just sitting in a big van.
Matt Sims
It’s very different to being in the house, though, isn’t it? Because you’re in a confined space and you don’t know how you’re going to live in it, that’s the thing. And there are loads of other considerations in terms of the best layout and which works best for you.
How many of you there are is the first factor as well. So how do you want to sleep? How many seat belts do you need? Those are critical criteria that you can’t easily change unless you leave your least favourite child behind. And then when are you going to do it?
So if you’re going to go away a lot through the winter, then you’re going to spend a lot more time in the motorhome. Having a big, roomy lounge is going to be important. If you’re going to go away mostly in the summer, and you think, well, we’re going to spend a lot of time in Spain, you’re hardly going to be in the motorhome – only to sleep and use the loo. So the other thing to try is toilets. We’re talking about loos. Go and sit on them. You know, try it, but don’t use it.
Keith Gooden
Did you say sit?
Matt Sims
Yeah, I did say sit! And with the lid down. Just behave. You will not be the dealer’s friend if you actually… believe me, I’ve been that dealer at a show. Oh, what?! Really?! Sit on it and see how comfortable it is, and how much leg space is there.
Can you move around? Can you put your knees where you want them to be? These are all things you don’t know until it’s probably too late and you’ve bought it. So you know, be practical when you’re looking around at motorhomes, and go and sit and try as many as possible.
Keith Gooden
So if you’ve got any tips that you want to share with us, then please get in touch. We’ll give you some more details of how to get in touch in just a few minutes.
Audience Q&A
Keith Gooden
It is the Motorhome Matt Podcast. I’m Keith Gooden.
Matt Sims
And I’m Motorhome Matt.
Keith Gooden
Let’s do the Q and A, the questions and answers, where you ask the questions and Matt will answer them to the best of his expert knowledge. If he doesn’t know, he’ll find somebody who does! Robert’s in Lutterworth.
Robert
We’re travelling to France in the latter part of July, and I’m looking for European breakdown recovery, particularly for a service that will recover an eight-metre motorhome, 3,850, kilos that will fit on and or be recovered by the appropriate services they use. So just thinking about doing that research, whether you’ve got any advice on who is most likely to be able to cope with that if the worst happens. Thank you.
Keith Gooden
Thanks very much, Robert. He’s in Lutterworth in Leicestershire. So Matt, what’s the answer?
Matt Sims
Well, I use RAC only because they have a specific product called RAC Arrival, which is designed for motorhomes that are over seven metres long and over three and a half tonnes. To gain access to it, you have to join the Camping and Caravanning Club, get a code, and then contact the RAC with the code.
They will allow you to become an RAC Arrival member. I’ve been a member for, I don’t know, 30-odd years. The membership cards are white, and I once broke down in Lincolnshire in a 10-tonne Winnebago. The rear axle had to be split for me to be dragged back, and they brought it back on a spec lift through the night.
I reckon it cost them about 2,500 pounds to get me home. And this was a long time ago, so a lot more than that now. And it cost me nothing, only my annual membership, and it costs the RAC probably two or three grand.
So it covers me for my car or cars. It covers me on a motorbike, and it covers me in any type of motorhome. So anything I’m driving, they’ll recover it. You bolt on a European cover, and they will cover you and repatriate you back to the UK.
But remember, if you break down on the equivalent of a motorway in France, you will have to pay to be taken off the motorway by a private contractor. The RAC or its agent in France is not allowed to come and rescue you from the motorway. It’s a chargeable service that a local region will supply, and you have to pay them.
Keith Gooden
Andy and Ruth Clark are in Totnes, which is in Devon. “Hi, Matt. We’re complete newbies, going to the big show at the NEC this October. Wondering – any beginner’s do’s and don’ts? Should we even buy new? We’re looking along the lines of a panel van conversion, a Fiat Ducato or similar, trying to figure out the best heating, toilet and battery needs. It’s such a lot to think about. Where do we even start?” And by the way, Matt, they love the podcast.
Matt Sims
Thank you, guys. Love it. Gosh, that’s a massive question. Buying at a show… wear comfortable shoes. So some practical advice first on going to a show. I would consider going for two days if not three, so you can take your time.
Do your research before you go, look at all the exhibitors that are there, look at the ones you think you want to see, and be open-minded. Walk around with your eyes open. Keep looking for others that you’ve never heard of that might catch your eye. Comfy shoes are a must.
I would take a bag or a wheeled trolley, because we’re an industry that loves brochures, and you’re probably going to collect loads of them. And take a packed lunch as well, because the catering is blooming expensive at the NEC. So take a sandwich!
One of the things to note as well, really important when you’re buying a motorhome or talking to a dealer about buying a motorhome at a show – the stands are manned by dealers from across the country. So the manufacturer pays for the stand, and then they bring their dealers in. They charge them to come on the stand.
Great example. You could be talking to the dealer in Scotland who will want to sell you a motorhome, and that’s a long way to go to get it. After you’ve bought it, as we talked about recently, you’re probably going to have to take it back there to have the warranty work done, or any servicing done. So it’s a big consideration. Who am I buying from? Ask them.
Tell the dealer or the person on the stand where you live, and they will work with you to find a dealer who is on the stand from your nearby area. And it might be there isn’t one, so it might be that you don’t buy at the show, but you go to that agent who’s near you because not all the dealers want to go to the show. After all, it is expensive. You know, hotel costs, food and so on.
It is expensive for a dealer to go, so that’s how the stands work. Many people forget this. But I would go open-minded and go in as many as possible. Ignore the screen price, just go in, open and close cupboards, open and close the bathroom door, and bounce up and down on the seat cushions.
Lie on the bed, kick your shoes off, have a lie-down, sit on the toilet seat, and the dealer will not mind at all. It gets really busy at the show, particularly at the end of the week. So go earlier in the week, get there as early as you can, and it’s quieter.
In the middle of the week, it is also very quiet. So typically, the show runs from Tuesday to Sunday. Wednesday and Thursday are the quieter days. So you can do that – Saturday and Sunday are buggy wars and massive queues to get in them. So, yeah, that’d be my top tip.
Keith Gooden
What you also need to do is make sure you take lots of photographs. And as Matt says, get in there. Have a feel. Have a touch. You know, lie on things. Sit on things.
Keith Gooden
Alison Cruft is in Edinburgh. “I’m collecting my first motorhome later this month. It’s a Fiat Ducato conversion.” She says, “I’m getting various items I know I’ll need. One of the things is levelling ramps. But there is a lot to choose from, and I’m at a loss as to where to start. How do I pick the right ones for me?” First of all, Matt, what is a levelling ramp?
Matt Sims
So these are plastic ramps that you drive on. They normally are sold in pairs so you can get the motorhome level on the campsite.
Keith Gooden
And you don’t want four of them, do you?
Matt Sims
Well, no, because then you end up where you started.
Keith Gooden
Absolutely. So the whole point of a levelling ramp is you’re adjusting the level at which the motorhome is sitting. So you get a packet of two. Now, she says she’s a bit bewildered. Alison says she’s bewildered by the choice.
Matt Sims
Alison, you said you’ve got a Fiat Ducato. You haven’t said how long it is. So the longer and bigger the motorhome is, the bigger the ramps you might want to consider. So you’ll see the Fiamma ones in pretty much every camping and accessory shop. We sell them at www.thatleisureshop.com and in the store as well as at That Leisure Shop.
They are normally yellow. And the yellow ones are just a smooth diagonal that you can drive on very easily. The grey ones are stepped. Now, these are much easier if you’re on your own. There are three positions, three levels, and you can drive on and the motorhome kind of rests in the step, meaning that if you’re on your own, you get to the third position and stop because you’re going to drive over the top.
There are also brands like Milenco, and they make jumbo ramps. They’re huge, great, big black things, and they’re ideal for much bigger motorhomes. So really, it’s about the size of the van and how high you need to get it off the ground.
A Fiat Ducato is going to be probably six metres long, I’m guessing, or five and a half metres long. You’ll probably want to look at the Fiamma ones. For a VW one, Fiamma makes a smaller one, which is ideal for a VW.
But worth noting, even on a flat pitch, a motorhome is always nose down, because that’s just how the chassis is built. It’s for driving efficiency through the air and so on. And regularly on a flat pitch, you will still see the front wheels on ramps just to level up.
Keith Gooden
Can you use them on grass?
Matt Sims
Of course, yeah, if it’s muddy, they are going to sink. I’ve dug a few out of the ground in the past. And you can also buy a little grip track, it’s called, that clips onto the bottom of the ramp, so you can drive up and down onto it. Because if the grass is wet, the tyres are going to spin just trying to get onto the ramp.
Keith Gooden
Yeah, and you’re going to need a spirit level as well.
Matt Sims
Yeah, absolutely. Or a gin and tonic. Keep it level.
Ask Matt
Keith Gooden
Okay, then, how do people get in touch, Matt?
Matt Sims
Dead easy. If you’ve got a question, we love to hear it. Go to mhmp.info/askmatt. Hit the orange button or fill out the form, and we’ll include your question in the podcast.
Keith Gooden
If you fancy some YouTube, what can you do?
Matt Sims
Head to YouTube and please click subscribe and the little bell, and then YouTube will tell you when a new episode is released – sponsored by www.arobasecreative.co.uk.
Keith Gooden
And it’s only fair if you feel like a share. What do you do?
Matt Sims
Please do. If you think someone else you know would benefit from or enjoy this podcast, please send them a link to it. And we’d love to add them to our growing audience, which is getting bigger and bigger by the week, isn’t it?
