[00:00:08] Keith Gooden: Welcome to the Motorhome Matt podcast. I’m Keith Gooden.
[00:00:10] Matt Sims: And I’m Motorhome Matt.
[00:00:12] Keith Gooden: Industry insights.
[00:00:13] Matt Sims: And expert advice.
[00:00:15] Keith Gooden: For the world of motorhomes, caravans and camper vans.
[00:00:18] Matt Sims: You got there. Well done.
[00:00:19] Keith Gooden: It’s brought to you with That Leisure Shop dot com and sponsored by Ripe.
[00:00:24] Matt Sims: Now remember, you can get 15% off your insurance premium. Just head to mhmp.info/insurance.
[00:00:31] Keith Gooden: Here we are at the big show. It is the NEC in October. So good to have you along. And we are with our good friends at Caravan Radio on their Rolls Royce of a stand Rolls Royce.
[00:00:44] Matt Sims: Yes. Okay. I was getting more Bentley. Were you? Yeah.
[00:00:47] Keith Gooden: I’ve heard that about you. So thanks to Caravan Radio for giving us the space. And thanks for the hundreds of people who have turned up to ask some questions. Today’s podcast is all about questions and answers Q and A, and as Matt always says, this podcast is nothing without your involvement. And you have been giving us questions for the last five years or so. So Matt, shall we get started?
[00:01:12] Matt Sims: Let’s go over the first one. So I’m going to put my glasses on for this. Andrew Jones is in Chester and he says, hi Matt, great to say hi. Today. I stumbled across your stand after having just dropped a deposit on a new Dreamer Lift Van. You were the first person other than my wife that I spoke to, and I was feeling a little shell shocked, to say the least. It felt like checking in with an old friend. Given the amount of time I’ve watched your podcasts. I had watched your What Not to Do when buying at a show video last night, and it was great advice and a great reminder. A nice chat and your words. Congratulations. Welcome to the club. Time to start planning. were very well received and I shall certainly follow them. No question for you right now. Oh, okay. I’m sure they will be soon. Say hi to Keith, a comedy legend. There you go, mate. That’s you. There we are. That was Andrew in Chester. Congratulations, Andrew. On your new van, which I know he purchased yesterday. We’ve got another one here. That’s an interesting one for you. Try and work that name out, sir.
[00:02:11] Keith Gooden: Stevie McGrath is in Belfast. Hi, gents. Makes us sound like a public toilet. Trying to purchase a little generator which is quite quiet. Around 2000W, 2300. To go off grid to power, say, a little air fryer or TV or lights. An iPhone, something like that. I’ve got gas for heat and oven use now. Is that a Swift Edge that. He says that it.
[00:02:39] Matt Sims: Is a Swift Edge.
[00:02:39] Keith Gooden: Yeah. So. So what’s your answer?
[00:02:41] Matt Sims: Well, you would be no one’s friend with a generator. I don’t know about you not listening, but I am not a fan of a neighbour on a campsite with a generator. Are you?
[00:02:49] Keith Gooden: Hang on a second.
[00:02:53] Matt Sims: Exactly that. I would say consider a portable power pack. They’re not expensive. They’re second hand. They’re out there for hundreds of pounds now, and it will work just as well as a generator. The only challenge is recharging it, but I would say be everybody’s friend on a campsite and get yourself a portable power pack, not a combustion engine, diesel or petrol generator. It’s very old school technology.
[00:03:17] Keith Gooden: Are they frowned upon?
[00:03:19] Matt Sims: They can be if you’re if you’re the neighbour going to 10:00 at night and they’re often banned on campsites. So yeah, I would not want you next to me with your petrol genny. The smell and the noise. Horrible.
[00:03:32] Keith Gooden: Now, have we got somebody who wants to ask a question of us? First of all, sir, what is your name? Glyn. Glyn, where are you from? Glyn. Up near Manchester. Oldham.
[00:03:43] Matt Sims: Manchester. Oldham. Okay, go for it. What’s your question, Glyn?
[00:03:47] Glyn: I’ve got an A-class motorhome with an electric front blind. It’s a, it’s a custom made one. It’s damaged and I need to replace it. I don’t want to go to the the main dealer. It’s very, very expensive. So I’m I’m looking. How do I source a dealer that might be able to supply me with the full kit, so I can just literally swap it out.
[00:04:14] Matt Sims: And what’s actually broken on it? The motor’s gone.
[00:04:16] Glyn: No, the more the motor is fine, it’s the actual blinds. The blinds have become detached. It simply won’t go up or down. It’s not repairable.
[00:04:26] Matt Sims: That’s annoying. So thank you for that, Glen. That’s great. My advice would be find a parts supplier. There are some online places like Leisure Shop Direct. You may find that they sell one. Or you could even try us at That Leisure Shop. We may be able to source one for you. It’s going to come from Europe. So we’re going to have to wait a little while for it to arrive. Send us the make and model and I will see if I or one of the team can speak to REMIS and let’s see what we can find at a lower price. Great question.
[00:04:58] Keith Gooden: team@thatleisureshop.com.
[00:05:01] Matt Sims: There. You got it. Yeah. Anyone else with a question?
[00:05:04] Keith Gooden: Yeah. Hang on a second. Let me do me a bit.
[00:05:06] Matt Sims: Oh, sorry.
[00:05:06] Keith Gooden: Go on. It’s the Motorhome Matt podcast here at the NEC. The Big Show in October brought to you with That Leisure Shop dot com and sponsored by Ripe. Anybody else with any questions? This is Martin Birch. Hi, Matt. Not sure where your advice extends to. I am new to the motorhome world. We are a couple in our 60s and looking to buy a motorhome. Considerations are under 3.5 tonnes. Drop-down bed longitudinal and one that drops to waist height so I can get out later at night. We all know why that is. We all the middle aged man.
[00:05:43] Matt Sims: Man of a certain age.
[00:05:45] Keith Gooden: Alarm clock, auto and separate shower and toilet. Good spec and second hand. Any recommendations? Looked at the Chausson 640 Titanium, but all options considered. Many thanks in advance.
[00:05:59] Matt Sims: Great question. Thank you for that. Yeah, the Chausson 640 is a good choice. I’d also suggest considering an Adria 590 SG. Whether you’d find a second hand one that is automatic, I’m not sure. You haven’t said what the budget is. I’d also look at maybe a Bürstner Ixeo. That would be another one. So lots of European brands that are that layout you might find a British layout, something like a Bailey may have something or Swift, but they are going to probably be a bit newer. So there’s a few ideas. Get searching, go to a show, definitely head to a show. Lots of brand new ones here at the NEC. Or you can head to a Warner show where there’s lots of used ones as well. So that’s my advice.
[00:06:44] Keith Gooden: So what sort of budget.
[00:06:45] Matt Sims: You’re probably looking at? I would suggest 40,000 plus for some, something like that.
[00:06:50] Keith Gooden: Still a lot of money.
[00:06:51] Matt Sims: It’s a lot of money. Yeah. But a lovely van. Lovely layout. We have a question. We have Charles here from Fiamma. It’s great to have you here.
[00:06:58] Charles Pozzi: In a live show.
[00:07:02] Matt Sims: What’s your question, Charles?
[00:07:03] Charles Pozzi: You know, I was wondering, what’s your favourite place to go on holiday in a motor home in England.
[00:07:08] Matt Sims: Oh, in England. Yeah. What about United Kingdom?
[00:07:12] Charles Pozzi: United Kingdom. Okay.
[00:07:13] Matt Sims: Yeah. So my favourite place we’ve been to recently has to be East Harris. It’s out of this world on the outer on the Outer Hebrides. It’s absolutely stunning. Have you ever been.
[00:07:24] Charles Pozzi: No, no.
[00:07:24] Matt Sims: You have to go. It is stunning. Has anyone here been to the Outer Hebrides? Just amazing. You have East Harris and West Harris are very different. West Harris, beautiful beaches, huge beaches. You can almost be in the Caribbean. East Harris really dramatic coastline, loads of wildlife. And there’s nobody there. It’s incredible. It is incredible. That is the word. Yeah. So Outer Hebrides was definitely a highlight. I have to say though, if we were going to drive 1600 miles again from where we live in, in North Somerset, I’d probably go south. I’d probably come down to you. Milan, is that right?
[00:07:59] Charles Pozzi: Well, whenever you want.
[00:08:01] Matt Sims: Let’s do it again. Thank you. John. This is Charles, the CEO of co-CEO of Fiamma, a brand we are all very, very familiar with and a great friend of the podcast. It’s lovely to see you. Pleasure to.
[00:08:12] Keith Gooden: Be here. And he’s decided to do an Oprah today and give everybody £1,000 worth of free. Oh, no. Sorry. No. Just look under your seat. Oh, sorry. Okay. Another question here from Alastair Westland, who’s in Cranbrook. We have a large motorhome with a manual gearbox. Getting it onto levelling chocks is quite exciting, he says. We’re wondering if an automatic gearbox makes it easier or more difficult. So you’ve mentioned this in the past before an auto gearbox and chocks.
[00:08:47] Matt Sims: Yeah. So my experience of driving onto levelling ramps with an automatic gearbox is it was quite tricky because you’re trying to juggle the brake and the accelerator and it’s, you don’t have the same control as with a manual gearbox and a clutch. And then loads of people started commenting, saying, you’re talking rubbish, Matt. It’s dead easy. But there is an issue where if you press the brake and the accelerator at the same time and it’s the newer gearbox, then you can put the vehicle into limp mode. And this is a real issue and which is not good. So it is possible, I would say that a manual gearbox is easier though.
[00:09:21] Keith Gooden: Okay then. Now we’ve got we’ve got some people who have sent us some audio here and I’m doing this on the fly. So I don’t know if this is going to work, but hang on a second.
[00:09:32] Jayne: I have around 50,000 to spend and don’t know whether to buy a motorhome or a professional converted panel van, Which would decrease in value the quickest based on them doing the same mileage.
[00:09:51] Matt Sims: Oh, that’s a difficult question. That’s a really difficult question. There’s so much nuance to this. It’s all about the spec. I’ll be honest. They’re probably going to depreciate at a similar rate. I’d say it’s all about demand when it’s used. It’s a very popular layout, one that people seek and they’re not a popular van. And in the sense of, you know, mass produced, it’s going to hold its value much better than something that’s very specific to your design. That really is as specific as I can be. I’d say I wouldn’t worry about the used value too much at this point. Just go ahead and get the one that’s right for you now and go and enjoy it. Create loads of memories in it and worry about the price when you come to sell it. I wouldn’t worry too much about that now. Not if you’re going for a mainstream produced van or a known converter. A known converter is definitely something I would consider because a dealer is going to recognise that brand. If you were to part, exchange it.
[00:10:46] Martyn: Hi Matt, it’s Martin here. My partner and I are just starting our journey into campervan life, partly because we’ve reached that point where we’re thinking a lot more about our work life balance, especially with the work we do, what we do with our time, and actually getting out there at this amazing time of our lives. I’ve just listened to your toolkit episode, and then the latest episode where you talked, again, very openly about your heart surgery, mortality and getting on with living. And it got me thinking about a different sort of toolkit. So you’ve met thousands of motorhomes and campsite owners over the years. My question is, do you think the motorhome community is actually good at talking about the harder stuff that comes with getting older? So bereavement, illness, retirement, loss of independence, or even eventually having to give up the lifestyle itself. Campervan lifestyle. You know, if you know. And do you think there will be value in campsite owners and people around the motorhome community having a few simple skills to help them have those conversations when they happen? Thanks, Matt, and thanks for all the advice. You’re you’re both. I should acknowledge you are both helping to complete novices work out what on earth we are doing.
[00:12:13] Keith Gooden: So we’ve been talking the last couple of days very much, and it will be featuring in the podcast in weeks to come about young people coming into the market here. We are going full circle again with somebody who wants to talk about the older consumer and coming to terms with mortality. And he mentioned your heart, OP, which was this time last year, wasn’t it?
[00:12:33] Matt Sims: It was. Yeah. And I think seeing younger people coming into the market is really exciting. It’s Essential to keep this pastime alive. Really important in terms of Martin’s question, Martin represents have since been in contact with Martin. Elephants in rooms is the name of the organisation that he works for, and he has sent me some amazing content which I can distribute. And I’ve got it with me here during this show. Can I go back to Martin’s question because he was saying, are campsites equipped and are we equipped? No, I don’t think we are. We’ve just started a men’s breakfast group, which was a massive success. And we created a two hour space for blokes to get together. We call it Blokes Breakfast and Banter as a working title, and it ran at our That Leisure Shop at Chelston in South Somerset and we had 30 odd guys get together and we just got together, had a chat, a guy called Dan Trudgen, a caravan YouTuber came along and shared his story with us, and then we just had a bacon bap and coffee and there were two brothers in law there. One told the other that over the last ten years he’s had cancer. They hadn’t seen each other for ten years and they lived 20 minutes apart.
[00:13:42] Matt Sims: It’s ridiculous. He said. We just never meet up. He said this is brilliant. And his brother didn’t know or brother in law didn’t know. He’d been suffering, suffering with cancer and he was now through it. So it was really quite a moving moment really, to hear that story. So we’re hoping we’re going to run another one in November and in December, and we’re going to run more next year. So are we equipped to have these conversations? No. But I actually think creating the time and the space for us to have them and just being good listeners is all a massive part of it. And we, of course, are in a community where we are facing life challenges, we’re facing death, we’re facing divorce, we’re facing all sorts of challenges. Happy, happy. Yeah. But we can celebrate things as well. And actually, we can celebrate the fact that we’ve got women going out on their own in campervans and enjoying the pastime on their own, just as important. So yeah. Martin, thanks for the question, and we will pick up again together on what you’re doing and the resources that you’re offering. Have we got another question? We’ve got the Mr. James Riley from Motorhome Happiness with us. Welcome, James.
[00:14:46] James Riley: Well, when we bought our motorhome, Tilley, our beloved Swift Escape 664, we go to our favourite place of all time in the north east of England, called Seahouses. Do you have a favourite place to go in your campervan with your beloved wife? Or or or do you have a favourite thing to do when you’re away in your motorhome? Because what we like to do when we’re away in our motorhome. My mum likes to watch ‘Allo ‘Allo or our favourite Fawlty Towers, which is a weird combination on a Friday night and I like to watch my James Bond films etc.. What’s your favourite thing to do in your motorhome and what’s your favourite place you’ve been to with your campervan?
[00:15:28] Matt Sims: Thank you James. That’s a great question. Favourite destination I don’t know. We don’t really have a favourite go to, do we? What we love about the motorhome. Because Mrs Motorhome Matt is here in the audience. I’m catching her eye. We love going to different places. That’s the point of the motorhome, really. And we do all the shows in our motorhome. We love doing that. We do loads of those, don’t we? We enjoy doing that in the motorhome. They’d be far less fun if we weren’t in the motorhome. We’re really looking forward to trying to get maybe to Spain. Are we going to make it this year? We’re going to try. I don’t think we will. We are very excited about going out to the Sahara with Marcus Leach. But Marcus Leach is hosting the Inspiration stage and he organises tours to Morocco out into the desert. And he’s very excited about us doing a podcast in the Sahara Desert, which is we don’t think has ever been done before. So we’re excited about that. So I’ll let you know how that goes. But we don’t have one favourite place. But in terms of favourite thing to do in the van. My all time favourite card game is Phase 10. I love it. And we love playing sevens as well and teaching friends how to play it, but Phase 10 is a definite winner for me.
[00:16:42] Keith Gooden: Okay then let’s stop talking about Matt for five minutes, shall we? Please have a question for somebody else. Richard. I think this says offer is in Oxford. Hi. I just started to look at my first RV as I head into retirement. But my favourite place in the world has no hook-ups. Can I add additional solar batteries and an inverter to a second hand motorhome? Even the new one seemed to only have 1 or 2 panels and just 200 amp hours. I believe that 200 H. Is that right?
[00:17:16] Matt Sims: 200 amp hours?
[00:17:17] Keith Gooden: Yeah. How long will that keep a fridge running?
[00:17:20] Matt Sims: That will keep. The fridge is running on electric. It’s going to run for days, I’d imagine. Yeah. You can upgrade your second hand van. Mine is second hand. Or ours, hours, I should say is second hand is used. We’ve had it some years and you may have seen we’ve just done a great big install on ours with the help of BlueFix. We’ve had two Roamer batteries fitted to it, solar panels on the roof and all the BlueFix kit to go with it and Victron stuff. So yes, ours is now fully off grid and we can go, well, we don’t need to hook up at all. We were at a show the other week and we were there for six days, made probably 30 cups of coffee in our Nespresso coffee machine. We were running the airfryer several times for about 16 minutes of time. Jude straightened her hair. I charged my MacBook three times and the battery’s the lowest they got was 84%. Now the sun was out, so it kept charging and kept charging, and we went back to 100% every day. And at one point, Jude went to boil the kettle so we could wash up. And she said, hang on a minute, I’m not going to use the gas kettle. I use the electric kettle because the electrics free. So now we think, well, we don’t need a gas kettle anymore. We’ll probably keep one just in case. But we’re now using electric kettle off the batteries and then allowing the sun to gift us free electric when the batteries get low.
[00:18:37] Keith Gooden: But that’s the thing, isn’t it? When people have got solar panels on their house, like me.
[00:18:40] Matt Sims: For instance, solar obsessed.
[00:18:43] Keith Gooden: I’ve got 16 panels, generates 4000W, four kilowatts. Yeah. When you’ve got a couple of panels on a motorhome, you aren’t generating very much at all.
[00:18:52] Matt Sims: No, but as long as you’ve got more watts and you’ve got amp power. So I’ve got 400 and I can’t remember 450W of solar thereabouts, and 288 amp hours of battery power. And we have found that the lowest we’ve got the batteries ever is, I think, 64%. And in a day, a sunny day. And we’ve been blessed with a few of those recently, haven’t we? In a sunny day, it was back up to 100% by mid-afternoon. So we don’t need loads. It just depends how much battery capacity you’ve got. And of course, depending on what you’re using, will determine how much battery capacity you need. Now we have, I think, more than enough for our needs. But if you want to be doing something like our dear friend Steve Radford, who’s charging Lindsey’s Tesla from his Deffleths Motorhome Matt, that’s nuts. We don’t want to be doing anything like that. Steve needs loads of solar to power all those batteries. We just want to run an air fryer, a coffee machine, charge my Mac and do hair straighteners so we have more than enough.
[00:19:52] Keith Gooden: Okay then. So last question for this podcast. And now if I can get this right, have you got the knob up there? No you haven’t. You’re not doing your job there.
[00:20:01] Matt Sims: You see my knobs up. Carry on.
[00:20:03] Keith Gooden: Yeah, yeah. And I’ll just press.
[00:20:07] Steve: Hi Keith and Matt it’s Steve from Freckenham in Suffolk. Just upgraded from a VW campervan. And now in a Pilote P626D Evidence. Our previous van we used to have the battery, not the leisure battery but the battery on the van on a Blue Smart charger. It was a Victron energy box, which I’ve still got. And I just wondered, is there any need to do that on the Pilote? Thank you very much. Love the program. I’m always listening in and I’ll speak to you soon.
[00:20:35] Matt Sims: So thanks for that question, Steve. It’s very common on a Pilote motorhome that the starter battery is not charged by the solar or by hooking up. And so many Pilote owners fit an aftermarket battery, DC to DC charger. So it links the two together. And this is something I don’t know why Pilote don’t do this at the factory. It’s really silly, but they insist on not fitting one. So yes, you would need to fit some kind of B2B charger so that your starter battery is being charged when you’re hooked up or in the sun. B to B battery to battery. Yeah. There you are.
[00:21:09] Keith Gooden: There you go. Thanks to our friends at Caravan Radio. How do people get in touch?
[00:21:13] Matt Sims: Oh, we’d love it if you did. If you’ve got a question, you can record it at mhmp.info/askmatt. Just press the little orange button. Please remember to tell us where in the world you are, and we’ll play it into the podcast. Or if you’d rather, you can fill in the form and we’ll read it for you. Do you check out the Motorhome Matt Approved directory? This is a brilliant collection of products, brands, and services that I can commend to you. I’m always being asked, Matt, who do you recommend for a tracker? Who do you recommend for cleaning products? Who do you recommend for insurance? And lots of my favourite brands are listed at Motorhome Matt Approved. You can go and view the directory at mhmp.info/approved.
[00:21:53] Keith Gooden: And if you’re watching this then click on the little bell. It does make a difference. It means that you’ll get more episodes as and when they’re published.
[00:22:04] Keith Gooden: Thanks for listening to the Motorhome Matt podcast. Remember to check back here for more episodes full of hints and tips and helpful advice. We’ll see you soon for another Motorhome Matt podcast brought to you with That Leisure Shop dot com.
