M
mpill990
Hi all I've saved this review until we had had chance to get to know the van and use it for a few trips.
Anyway we have owned it for about 2 months now and stayed away in it for approx 3 weeks in total and {spoiler alert} in short we absolutely love it. We had our previous van - Camper King T5 for 4 years and had some really great trips in it including 4 months in Scotland in late 2019 and whilst not claiming to be experts I guess its fair to say that we have a little bit of knowledge/insight into life in a van...
I note that there is a fair bit of negativity and critcism on this forum on both the 600 and the 680 and if I had read through the various threads before we bought the van we probably would have stayed with our trusty T5 which would have been a real shame.
It seems to me that forums and social media in general capture negativity more effectively than positivity which is a real problem as it has the potential to cause real damage to our society {but I digress}...
Returning to the van and our buying decision - we really hadn't considered changing our T5 and with lockdown beginning to ease we had begun planning our trips for late 21 through 22 but one thing had changed. We'd got ourselves a dog {a red fox lab} and we were beginning to feel that space was more of a challenge. We had an awning so we were fine in the summer but I prefer going away in the winter and a dog in the awning in January is probably a bit cruel. So we had that thought in our minds ...
I'd had a quick go on Google and had a look at various motorhomes but for whatever reason I really didn't like the look of them so I looked at caravans and again I really didn't like the look of them - I'm sure that they are great and very practical etc but just not for us. The only one I saw that I liked were the airstream caravans but what with their price and also having to buy a new car to tow it I quickly put that idea on the backburner..
So back to the T5 - we were away in it in the Malverns in May having a great time with the awining up when the weather suddenly took a turn for the worse with 40 mph winds forecast for the following day. So the awning had to come down and we decided to cut our losses and go home early and literally as we were driving out of the campsite a 600 cali turned into the campsite to book in. We both probably had the same thought at the same time 'Hmm that looks nice what the hell is it?'
Anyway one thing led to another and we bought our 680 about 1 week later.
600 or 680? I couldn't really decide so I wanted to see them both side by side to compare the differences. So I phoned our local dealer 'sorry none in stock'. I eventually tracked both down to SMG Tonbridge and I arranged a demo of both. SMG Tonbridge were very helpful and for us the 680 seemed the best fit [I'm 6'3 and my wife is nearly 6ft]. They were also selling their ex demo 680 with all the extras we wanted for quite a reasonable price, so we took the plunge.
Sorry if I'm going on a bit but I wanted to give you some back ground into why and how we bought the 680. We're not the sort of people who would spend months compairing specs and measuring the size of cupboards and worktops to the last mm but we both had in our mind what we wanted and the 680 ticked all of the boxes for us.
On with the review - what we like:
The drive - much better than our T5 and the adaptive cruise control is great!
Not having put put a bed up and down every day. And the bed is very confortable - no problem with the mattress when using a mattress topper.
More space - whats not to like! and the dog as plenty of room. He usually sleeps under the table.
More storage - room for every possible camping extra that you need and some that you don't - hurray!
A shower and toilet - again what's not to like...
Seating area table - I like a big table especially for breakfast things. Now we have just enough space to layout all the essentials in life. Tea, coffee, porridge, muesli, eggs, bread, yogurt, kafir, butter, cheese (at least 2), berries, bananas, peanut butter, croissants - the list couls go on. Did I mention that I like the big table?
Solar panel - no need for electric hookup. Goes down to about 80% overnight and recharges to 100% during the day even when cloudy.
Outside shower - great for washing the dog after he'd rolled on a dead sheep
Things I don't like:
It doesn't look that great from outside. I think he problem is that the wheels look too small So I'm going to change them to some trendy black wheels with chunky all terrain tyres.
No other dislikes I can think of.
It's worth noting that we've had no problems and everything works as it should. The handover was a bit daunting but after a bit of trial and error we managed to figure out how everything worked without too many problems.
This review probably seems to be a bit biased but that's because we like it.. I can appreciate that they won't suit everyone but overall I'd give it 11 out of 10
Anway that's enough from me - happy camping everyone!!
Sent from my SM-G986B using Tapatalk
Anyway we have owned it for about 2 months now and stayed away in it for approx 3 weeks in total and {spoiler alert} in short we absolutely love it. We had our previous van - Camper King T5 for 4 years and had some really great trips in it including 4 months in Scotland in late 2019 and whilst not claiming to be experts I guess its fair to say that we have a little bit of knowledge/insight into life in a van...
I note that there is a fair bit of negativity and critcism on this forum on both the 600 and the 680 and if I had read through the various threads before we bought the van we probably would have stayed with our trusty T5 which would have been a real shame.
It seems to me that forums and social media in general capture negativity more effectively than positivity which is a real problem as it has the potential to cause real damage to our society {but I digress}...
Returning to the van and our buying decision - we really hadn't considered changing our T5 and with lockdown beginning to ease we had begun planning our trips for late 21 through 22 but one thing had changed. We'd got ourselves a dog {a red fox lab} and we were beginning to feel that space was more of a challenge. We had an awning so we were fine in the summer but I prefer going away in the winter and a dog in the awning in January is probably a bit cruel. So we had that thought in our minds ...
I'd had a quick go on Google and had a look at various motorhomes but for whatever reason I really didn't like the look of them so I looked at caravans and again I really didn't like the look of them - I'm sure that they are great and very practical etc but just not for us. The only one I saw that I liked were the airstream caravans but what with their price and also having to buy a new car to tow it I quickly put that idea on the backburner..
So back to the T5 - we were away in it in the Malverns in May having a great time with the awining up when the weather suddenly took a turn for the worse with 40 mph winds forecast for the following day. So the awning had to come down and we decided to cut our losses and go home early and literally as we were driving out of the campsite a 600 cali turned into the campsite to book in. We both probably had the same thought at the same time 'Hmm that looks nice what the hell is it?'
Anyway one thing led to another and we bought our 680 about 1 week later.
600 or 680? I couldn't really decide so I wanted to see them both side by side to compare the differences. So I phoned our local dealer 'sorry none in stock'. I eventually tracked both down to SMG Tonbridge and I arranged a demo of both. SMG Tonbridge were very helpful and for us the 680 seemed the best fit [I'm 6'3 and my wife is nearly 6ft]. They were also selling their ex demo 680 with all the extras we wanted for quite a reasonable price, so we took the plunge.
Sorry if I'm going on a bit but I wanted to give you some back ground into why and how we bought the 680. We're not the sort of people who would spend months compairing specs and measuring the size of cupboards and worktops to the last mm but we both had in our mind what we wanted and the 680 ticked all of the boxes for us.
On with the review - what we like:
The drive - much better than our T5 and the adaptive cruise control is great!
Not having put put a bed up and down every day. And the bed is very confortable - no problem with the mattress when using a mattress topper.
More space - whats not to like! and the dog as plenty of room. He usually sleeps under the table.
More storage - room for every possible camping extra that you need and some that you don't - hurray!
A shower and toilet - again what's not to like...
Seating area table - I like a big table especially for breakfast things. Now we have just enough space to layout all the essentials in life. Tea, coffee, porridge, muesli, eggs, bread, yogurt, kafir, butter, cheese (at least 2), berries, bananas, peanut butter, croissants - the list couls go on. Did I mention that I like the big table?
Solar panel - no need for electric hookup. Goes down to about 80% overnight and recharges to 100% during the day even when cloudy.
Outside shower - great for washing the dog after he'd rolled on a dead sheep
Things I don't like:
It doesn't look that great from outside. I think he problem is that the wheels look too small So I'm going to change them to some trendy black wheels with chunky all terrain tyres.
No other dislikes I can think of.
It's worth noting that we've had no problems and everything works as it should. The handover was a bit daunting but after a bit of trial and error we managed to figure out how everything worked without too many problems.
This review probably seems to be a bit biased but that's because we like it.. I can appreciate that they won't suit everyone but overall I'd give it 11 out of 10
Anway that's enough from me - happy camping everyone!!
Sent from my SM-G986B using Tapatalk
