Maiden voyage just completed!

[nickb77]

Picked up the new Cali last Thursday (Ocean 204 4m Indium Grey). Just back from our first overnight trip to a Britstop pub in Somerset and loved it. 8 months from placing the order to getting my hands on it and all the “am I doing the right thing” doubts I had while waiting now well and truly laid to rest.

So initial thoughts from a new owner:

- 204 4motion is brill. Loads of power and grip, e.g. pulling away quickly at junctions - no wheel spin.

- Fuel consumption better than I’d expected. On the way down to Somerset (mostly motorway and A road but including a crawl through Bristol city centre) we finished the day with 40.4 mpg average. Coming home today on mostly winding A and B roads stuck behind those white plastic boxes we finished on 34.8mpg. Roughly 100 miles each way.

- Avoid opening the side door on a dark summer evening when you have the interior lights on as the van will fill with insects in seconds and there’s no way to get rid of the little buggers before you go to sleep.

- Be prepared to develop the combined skills of a Chess Grand Master for the forward planning of any activity such as cooking or getting ready for bed along with those of a synchronised swimming team if there are two or more of you in the van. Those of you who manage with kids and/or dogs I salute you!

- Active Cruise Control is amazing and works really well

- pack lots of kitchen roll. Seem to use loads of the stuff

- gas rings have two settings : ‘inferno’ and ‘off’. Seem tricky to set on a low flame without going out

Looking forward to the next trip already!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[CampervanTime]

SNAP! Looks identical to what we've ordered and collect on Wednesday, although I seem to remember you saying you have the standard grey roof canvas whereas we've (been brave/stupid) and ordered the red one !

Sounds like you had a great first outing, very successful and the MPG is very encouraging. Our last T6 204 (not 4motion) used to average about 37 on the motorway and 30ish when pootling around B roads.

We also found in our T6 the gas burners are much more powerful than we expected. They really can boil a camp kettle quickly but also seem to not use much gas either. We NEVER changed our previous bottle in 2 years of ownership, but we did have a spare with us.

 

[Perfectos]

Hi Nick,

nice write up, thanks for sharing, glad you enjoyed it.

the planning becomes second nature, you will become a Grand master in no time

 

[Graham T]

Love these 'first trip away in a new Cali' write-ups. Isn't it funny how the endless wait we were feeling for months, now seems like it was over in a flash? We thought we weren't using ours enough (yeah, we've had it all of 10 days) so we strapped our bikes to the back yesterday and headed 20 miles away to a local nature reserve, to test out 'day van mode'. Surprise, surprise, it was great.