Only in France: knockdown Cali for a knockdown price

[soulstyledevon]

David
I find the fresh water tank quite helpful.
Even on campsites we have used the sink. Especially just to wash out cups etc and aids in keeping things clean, stored and organised.

It’s the gauges and sensors I see little need for. Simply you fill water in a tank, when it starts coming back out, it’s full. I don’t need the display to tell me this?

 

[Velma's Dad]

I'm not even sure we need a water tank. When on site we just get 2litres of water in screw top bottle and put it in the kettle as needed. We have a silicone 'bucket' for the waste but it hardly gets used as we hardly use the sink, so that could go too. We don't wild camp so I wonder what those who do think about it!

We do wild camp (interspersed with campsites) but we are similar to David in that we make limited use of the fitted sink and water tank. Usually fill kettle and dog bowl etc from a small jerrican in the back of van (no I'm not sure why, but Mrs VD swears she can taste the 'plastic water' out of the Cali tank. Although the dog hasn't complained yet).

For washing up, we most often just dump the supper dishes etc into an Outwell collapsible silicone washbowl which sits outside the van overnight and then wash them up in that outside (if wild camping) or at the campsite washup on the way past in the morning if staying on a site.

In that respect we could manage happily with a Beach (maybe with a Slidepod kitchen). But because there are just two of us we don't really need the extra Beach space, the SE/Ocean kitchen is nice to have and the various cupboards work well for us.

Everyone's preferences and travelling styles differ. For ourselves, I'd be interested in a 'simplified' Ocean (manual roof, lose the control panel etc as Soulstyle suggests), no blingy dashboards or gadgets (we'll take our own sound system etc), durable steel wheels. Less to go wrong, so we can just relax and enjoy travelling.

 

[Erbster]

I'm not even sure we need a water tank. When on site we just get 2litres of water in screw top bottle and put it in the kettle as needed. We have a silicone 'bucket' for the waste but it hardly gets used as we hardly use the sink, so that could go too. We don't wild camp so I wonder what those who do think about it!

If I didn’t need a kitchen, I’d have bought a beach! Tap/sink gets used quite a bit, but I don’t put much in the waste tank. I take your point about gauges but I don’t think I’d want to lose a contents gauge. Waste tank gauge is near useless.


https://caliventures364847572.wordpress.com/

 

[David Marsh]

I'm not even sure we need a water tank. When on site we just get 2litres of water in screw top bottle and put it in the kettle as needed. We have a silicone 'bucket' for the waste but it hardly gets used as we hardly use the sink, so that could go too. We don't wild camp so I wonder what those who do think about it!

We don’t wild camp either DoH and Mrs DoH, but Val the scouser (VTS) is ever so wild in this Cali. The amount of water VTS uses I’m thinking of getting a metre cube of water on a trailer! The sink? We should have a competition ‘How long does it take the sink to drain?’ along with ‘How long does it take the waste water tank to drain?’
Been down at Camping Rio Mar since Monday. It’s been a testing time and VTS has failed the test!

 

[WelshGas]

I'm not even sure we need a water tank. When on site we just get 2litres of water in screw top bottle and put it in the kettle as needed. We have a silicone 'bucket' for the waste but it hardly gets used as we hardly use the sink, so that could go too. We don't wild camp so I wonder what those who do think about it!

You are angling towards a Beach.
I use ALL the facilities my SE has to offer. Water and Waste tank included.

 

[DavidofHook]

David
I find the fresh water tank quite helpful.
Even on campsites we have used the sink. Especially just to wash out cups etc and aids in keeping things clean, stored and organised.

It’s the gauges and sensors I see little need for. Simply you fill water in a tank, when it starts coming back out, it’s full. I don’t need the display to tell me this?

One of the difficulties with the sink (and the gas cooker) is that you lose two thirds of the worktop to use them! We have our electric kettle and iPad charger on it plus fresh cakes (we are in France) etc. We put an Ikea tray on the frig which we can lift off with all the junk on it when we need to open it.
Like Velmas Dad we chuck our dirty stuff in the silicon bowl for Mrs DoH to wash up later.
Oh, yes, nearly forgot, we cook outside on a 2 ring electric cooker courtesy Mr Russel Hobbs. Some have advised wearing Wellington boots when doing so, especially in the rain but so far things have been fine!

 

[Hotel California]

How much weight can the hydrolic roof compared to manual and a parking heater be ....50kg ....not much a difference imo .
Most carry more weight on microwaves , tv’s , satelite disch , and other clutter.

 

[WelshGas]

How much weight can the hydrolic roof compared to manual and a parking heater be ....50kg ....not much a difference imo .
Most carry more weight on microwaves , tv’s , satelite disch , and other clutter.

When it comes to the Emission testing every gm/Kgm of vehicle weight will count with the figures. They are only testing the base vehicle as sold. What happens afterwards when owners load up is anyones guess.

 

[Velma's Dad]

When it comes to the Emission testing every gm/Kgm of vehicle weight will count with the figures. They are only testing the base vehicle as sold. What happens afterwards when owners load up is anyones guess.

Absolutely, 50kg would be a very big weight saving for emissions ratings. That's one reason why most of the new cars now lack a spare wheel: a typical 17-inch wheel weighs about 20kg, which can add up to nine grams of CO2 to the vehicle’s emissions.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, VW is chasing a very tough EU emissions regime from 2021. If they don't achieve the 'fleet average' CO2 target, they'll have to pay 95 euros per CO2 gram over target, on all vehicles sold. If they miss the target by say 3 grams, that would mean a penalty of about a billion euros a year on their European sales.

That's a hell of an incentive to get all vehicle weights down as part of their emissions-lowering strategy.

 

[DavidofHook]

You are angling towards a Beach.
I use ALL the facilities my SE has to offer. Water and Waste tank included.

You might be right about a Beach WelshGas but a force greater than myself wants the sink etc even if we hardly use them...... You never know she says!

 

[WelshGas]

It is a wonder VW haven't gone for a Modular approach with various modules Dealer rather than Factory fitted.

Beach 3 seater, Beach 2 seater +/- { Dealer Fitted Storage }

Origins
Origins + { Dealer Fitted Parking Heater }
Ocean

All come with standard 16" steel wheels - Alloys become Dealer Fitted as with Spare wheel

The Driver Options - 3 standard packages increasing in price. ICE basic but coded to allow whole range which can be supplied and fitted by Dealer.

Lowest possible weight at factory gate and hence for emissions. Everything else as Dealer Options wouldn't be tested.