We are taking delivery of a nine year old Troll 550 in a couple of weeks, although it's not my first caravan (yes I know Eribas aren't really caravans) it's been a long time and is a big departure from what we're used to and were intending to buy. A week ago we had no idea we wanted an Eriba in our lives!

Having spent the last year fruitlessly searching for a motorhome to replace the Eura Mobil we sold in 2018 we decided to scrap the idea and instead get a caravan in there form of a T@B 400 which we happened upon during an internet search. Quirky and compact it looked an interesting option so I dashed over to the dealers to investigate further, only to find he no longer had it. But he did have an Eriba ..........

We live in Hungary and the dealer is located near to Budapest, he has imported the Troll from the Netherlands, it seems to have been one owner, looks to my untrained eyes to be in very good condition and includes motor mover and awning. We paid GBP equivalent of £19k for it, included in this the dealer will an onboard 45L water tank, plumb in my Alugas 11Kg gas cylinder for LPG and fit a couple of USB sockets.

So now to the nitty gritty. I'm fast learning that planet Eriba is somewhat different to what we've been used to with spartan equipment levels, when I realised it had no shower I nearly walked away but the elegant simplicity of the vehicle won me over. As I understand it we have the following systems in place:

Three way AES fridge
Gas cooker
12V power only when connected to mains (lights, water pump and blown air)
Gas fired heater which will work independently but only with blown air when hooked up

This has been fitted by the original owner but the dealer thinks it is only to power the motor mover whereas some quick research by me indicates that it is a 12V source in it's own right, can anyone confirm one way or the other?

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The fixed bed appears to have a secondary mattress, I'm not sure if this is original or aftermarket but it is very heavy:

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What is the grey pipe sitting in the cutlery draw?

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The included awning looks to be extensive, in immaculate condition but heavy and is custom made by Kirsten Tenten in Holland. Any ideas on the likely weight of this?

I'll be towing this with a VW Golf 7 variant 4Motion 1.6TDI, towing capacity is good but I expect to be marginal on power. Mirrors look another borderline issue with the car being fractionally narrower than the van.

Anything else I should be aware of?

Welcome. I’m not very technical but I do know the grey pipe is the chimney extension, you need it when using the gas fire.
Everything else I’m sure there will be someone along shortly.
By the way we use a Hozelock camping shower, works brilliantly.

Thank you Julie, what is a Hozelock shower, what does it attach to?

The weight of a non-standard mattress is a bit like the length of a piece of string, maybe an enquiry of the Dutch manufacturer might help. Remember that the van's MIRO may not include the weight of the original fixed bed option unless it was considered as standard.

The grey pipe is to extend the space heater flue pipe if there's a likelihood of snow.

The pack is a 12V power source, which movers need as they run on 12V. It makes you wonder why they didn't go the whole hog and convert to a normal 12V system and battery for the whole van. I guess if you always use a hook up there's no issue. Presumably a straight power pack with no other connections was cheaper.

Hymer offer both 12V heating fan and 240V, so yours could be either.

Ok, regarding the Hozelock shower. It doesn’t attach to anything, it’s a very basic piece of kit. It’s basically like a garden spray but with a shower head. You fill it with warm water, 1 kettle of boiling & 2 cold does it for us. Then pump it up to get the pressure and off you go. We use it in the awning, some people have a separate shower/toilet tent. It works well for sites where there are no facilities.

Thanks all, that's shed a bit more light.

I can see I've got a bit of adapting to do in my new life as an Eribanaut!

Just sit back and enjoy!