We had looked in Germany in 1977 we were at Bergen Hohne (Belsen) and we were looking at buying a replacement caravan then they were plentiful used, but we really wanted new, but could'nt strectch our finances that far, I was a Corporal at the time.

From there we moved to Munsterlager and decided on a camper, we were just a few days away from taking delivery and I was asked to take the place of a guy in Northern Ireland who's wife was dying of cancer, so I left Jen and went to Antrim for 2.5 years. I was in a civilian house and had long hair.

I took delivery of our camper from Bristol and drove it back to Munsterlager after staying at my parents house in Gloucester for a night. It's about a 650 mile drive but I had all I needed onboard. We travelled extensivley in Euurope in that camper, I even drove it nude due to the heat over Stelvio pass.

We then traded that for another camper, but looked at various makes of German caravans. LMC, Hobby, Burstner, Wuppert, Tabbert etc and we were planning on a purchase, but again I was asked to take someone else's place on a Northern Ireland trip, this time I was at a well known internment camp, but I took my Mini 1275gt with me.

I returned from there and we bought our Burstner but again had looked at Eriba. We had that Burrstner for 18 years toured Europe extensivley again, right down to Etna on Sicily, and it came back to Gloucester every time we spent leave here, 2 or 3 times a year, mostly via Calais and then the hovercraft.

We bought the Eriba from Lechlade and owned it 10 years, in that time we went everywhere we wanted to, never had any faults! nor did we withh the Burstner, I had to replace a few water pumps and 4 batteries since 1977

I will only ever buy a German caravan as I believe they are the best, I'm biased I know, but I trust my belief. If / when we ever have another caravan, it will be German and it will be an Eriba, it might be a copy of a WWB if we think we need more space BUT I bet we would end up with a Troll 540gt.

FWIW I paid £5600 for the Burstner then claimed the tax back, so less than £5000, we sold it 18 years later for £1800. The Eriba we paid £13000 for and sold it 10 years later for £????????? that's between us and it's new owner (I have morals)

On reflection, it was the iconic look of the Eriba that first led us to look at them, ease of towing, residuals, and all that other rubbish never even entered our heads, we are PROUD to say we owned an Eriba, and yes we do miss it, but we have a plan!

Best of luck to all you future purchasers

Good topic, I suppose as they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I will soon be on my 3rd Eriba. I have had a 1993 Puck which was silver and cream, 2012 Familia white and grey and now soon to have a Silver 2015 Eriba Familia.

Since 1958 Eriba has consistently changed the colours but fortunately for us the concept and shape has stayed the same.
The all silver colour is stunning when I saw one in the flesh and it was one of the attractions as well as the interior which prompted me to px.

I think Hymer are trying hard to revitalise the brand to attract new owners, however it's always a fine line how far to go when modernising a classic without compromising the ethos that draws us to the Eriba brand. In my personal humble opinion Hymer has got it right, the new Eriba still has the external classic lines that we all love and with an interior that looks like an expensive yaught......

When we first decided that we wanted to become campers we took a visit to Airstream, my husband said he wouldn't be seen dead towing a white box but he said he would consider towing a silver one. We were actually looking at a T@B, all silver and funky, but having looked around at the various models we didn't feel as though the build quality was quite there.
We left it for a few months before we started looking again. We spent a lot of time researching Eribas, I stalked this website long before we bought the Troll.
We took another visit to Airstream to have a look at the troll, we were instantly impressed with the quality, we specifically wanted silver, it's sleek and contemporary and compliments our car perfectly.
We like the fact the modern van has barely changed from the original design, we knew we were buying a timeless classic that would never need replacing.
If I'm honest the outside of the Eriba is far more appealing than the inside and I instantly knew when I saw the very beige interior, with the silky satin curtains, some radical transformation would have to take place. The curtains went before we got out of the showroom, and after injecting some colour it now feels like home!

Incidentally we bought our Eriba from AL, Airstream couldn't match their offer, although I can say their customer service was spot on.

As for old versus new, it's a difficult one, externally they all look great, internally some look dated (vintage), I'm hoping one day our van will be a classic too!!

Zitat

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1. Why did you choose to buy an Eriba? Was it a carefully considered decision or was it love at first sight and totally impulsive, and

2. What do you think about the traditional versus the new colour schemes? Has Hymer got it right or do you, like me, mourn the phasing-out of the 'classic' colour scheme?

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1. For me, never having been interested in caravans except to mutter rude words whenever I came up behind one,
It was another hobby that got me started I was at the time showing stationary engines at steam rallies and other similar bygone type events some of which allowed camping over the weekend for exhibitors. To cart the engines about I bought a ford ranger pickup (2 seater with a huge cargo area on the back) this would carry my kit and when unloaded would let me sleep in the back.
I already had a big airbed from my camping days so attended my first weekend event unloaded and blew up the airbed ready for the night..... not the best nights sleep iv'e ever had with loads of kit on a shelf covering 1\2 of the sleeping area and a rear door that left a gap even when closed. Some of the guys towed a caravan behind their trucks to sleep in and one was a puck, never seen one of those before and never having towed anything bigger that an 8 by 4 trailer which I was hopeless at reversing (had to disconnect it and push it backwards)
I was wary about towing a caravan even though the 2.5 L ranger would tow up to 2 metric tons but the puck was no bigger than my 8 x 4 trailer...........just a bit taller anyway we had a party by the caravans next evening and I was invited by the puck owner who let me have a look round it........it was a 1990 model and within my price range and looked a lot better than the back of the truck it had a fridge for the beer and a gas burner for my whistling kettle and most important a bed to sleep on , so the rest was history I got me one of those little eriba thingies

P1300093.JPG - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

Not a liking for caravans or even a love affair for an eriba (that came later) more a need for a mobile bed that attracted me. (no rude comments please)

Looking at that picture now I could have saved the tyres and put the puck in the back of the truck

That was in 2012 .............the engines the puck and the pickup have all gone now but somewhere along the line the Eriba bug bit me while my mind was on other things so now the light of my life is my imported Triton and its towcar closely accompanied by a bear with a flat hat and a bow tie
P1000671.JPG - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)


2. The classic colour scheme has a lot going for it but even "classics" need to evolve in a modern market or get left behind for me the most striking change in recent times has been the 2009 revamp of the roof ...... not so much for the small height increase but the shaping and style of the new roof I find a great improvement paint is after all just paint and as long as it is within reason makes little difference to me although I have been put off by a couple of interiors with ghastly (to me) upholstery colours.

My favourite colour scheme would have to be the 1999\2000 yellow stripe\yellow roof canvas model.

Quote: Aaron Calder wrote in post #1

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So what do you think?

1. Why did you choose to buy an Eriba? Was it a carefully considered decision or was it love at first sight and totally impulsive, and

2. What do you think about the traditional versus the new colour schemes? Has Hymer got it right or do you, like me, mourn the phasing-out of the 'classic' colour scheme?

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We've been driving down to visit elderly parents in Barcelona for years staying in hotels in France which we used to enjoy.....but then it got really expensive the supper with bottle of wine costing more than the room, we decided to buy a rather large tent believing that the entrance to the house in Barcelona was way too restricted for a caravan....plus the idea of towing a caravan had never appealed to either of us. On our first journey down....consisting of 3 ...1 night stops it took almost an hour to set up each stop...we enjoyed the freedom of camping and having our own stuff around but the setting up and taking down was a bit of a drag ...on the way home at one of the sites we stopped at there was an Eriba....and BINGO.....we knew it was small enough to fit in the garage in Barcelona and we were sold......not to mention the fact that we were completely taken with the look of the Eriba. We got home, I went on the net and within a month we had a Familia which was the only one we could find to buy before our next trip down to Spain....we used to go down 3 times a year for a couple of weeks in those days. It was a dream...set up and sitting out in the lovely sunshine with a 'Bloody Mary' within fifteen to twenty minutes .... what more could one want!!! We did change the Familia for a Triton within the year so that we could leave the bed made permanently and we could eat inside the van in the mornings at either end of the year when the weather was cooler. We now adore our Triton, RB....he has hot water an integral water supply to give us the cupboard space, LED lights and spots over the bed... and lots more electrical points. He came with a Soplair awning and recently we bought a Westfield easy air light weight awning which hubby can erect alone whilst I recover from arthroscopic surgery on my shoulder. Mother in law died 7 years ago and sadly my father in law died in April this year just after his 95th birthday we shall continue to drive down to the house there spending much longer on the road now that we have the freedom to do so....my hubby retires in April (at last, I retired several years ago..he's my toy boy, don't ya know) so we expect to winter away down in the south of Spain then.. Wouldn't be without RB now not for all the tea in China :-)

I came across Eribas, and not using a tent to much due to the weather, however at a dog event which forced to use the tent again, realised how much I missed it but wanted something to use easy for going to the dogs events and easy to just get up and away at a moments notice. I saw Tabs and started a search for small caravans and came across the Eribas amongst others.

I also looked at small 2 berth WWB's and hated all that they were like soft furnishings, carpets ovens, showers etc, and the more basic I was shown the more I liked it which confused the salesman.

Then when I compared prices on teardrops of varying makes and the Eriba, the Eriba won me over. I also was cycling past a caravan site in Cardiff and admired one on site from the 80's or early 90's and the couple invited me to look in and said to select carefully as some models have long beds and others go across the van.

I researched various years, models and looked at new at the NEC. For me the new ones were getting to close to WWB's and I wanted a simple basic classic Eriba and the earliest I would take was between 1999 to 2008. I went to Norfolk looked at some models and the 420GT worked for me. It came at the right time as I had a major bereavement with my Mother after approx 12 years of bad luck health wise myself and as I had saved money in bonds after a car accident decided that I may as well use it and enjoy (rather than a rainy day! savings that was doing nothing). I do have regrets, the one being I didn't do this sooner to be able to enjoy it with the person no longer here who always wanted to own a caravan herself and even had a name for her imaginary WWB. She would have loved the Eriba!

I watched a 4 x 4 towing a caravan approach a bend very much faster than
the British caravans I had seen, it went around as if it were on rails and that
classic shape to rival Sophia Loren (I could not afford her so made do
with the Eriba)
It has such an art deco appeal so I bought a Puck L 230GT probably the
best looking of the Eriba Tourings.

Quote: Randa france wrote in post #12

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Brand new I'm led to believe.
Randa

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