Today was an auspicious day, journeying to Mrs SDA's first ever engagement with Hf Holidays. From tomorrow she's running a 3 day African & Gospel Singing holiday at their Derwentbank country house around the corner from Keswick.

So a midday sally up the M6 but broken by our first ever visit to the Tebay dealership. This was to reacquaint her ladyship with Eribas and get a steer for her preferences. Tebay had a fairly good display of new vans inside their shed. Probably as well as we weren't going to hang around outside in a hailstorm. Missing for internal inspection were the 550 and 535, but otherwise most were there.
After a clamber and poke around it became apparent that Mrs SDA wanted a second seating area AND doubles which required possible clambering over were out.

So all my ideas for something different seem to be shot to pieces and whatever we buy next it has to be another 540.

Both our previous 540's were private sale buys from members of 'the other place'.
Strangely Tebay only had two used Eribas but a whole heap of new vans, whereas Bournemouth have the new models but also 60 or so used ones too.

We already know it has to have a boiler and as we purchased our '05 model in '12, we should be looking for an '11 to keep pace but whereas '05's were £12,500 in 2012, 2011 vans are £15,000 now and oddly there seems to be a big shortage of that era for sale.

I was reminded of the '05 model issues today. Standing in the washroom with a left shoulder awry due to the edge of the roof and, of course, the low door frame. Then there's the the washroom lighting above the mirror but leaving us gentlemen I the dark when pointing Percy etc. Then there's the shortage of right knee room when poised on the po. Nuff said.

Of course all That's been sorted in the current washroom but £25k for a van is unlikely to gain the bosses approval.

In my enthusiasm I forgot. The Yeti will only pull 1200kg, so it's got to be a pre 2010 model as all the ones with higher roof and door etc weigh 1300kg or more.

So, a pre 2010 540 it is and wear a head torch to the loo and a bike helmet to exit the van.

Maybe a bike helmet with a head torch.

Good choice!😇

I've dropped Dom a note, as we're away for a few days and I'll get in touch with Tony as well. Thanks guys.

It's does not matter if the max plate weight is more than your car can tow. It's the actual weight that counts so if you don't load it to the max you are fine. We towed our 1300kg plated troll with our previous car which had a 1200kg towing limit.

That's absolutely true but, and this equally applies to any potential Continental 1200kg van, will there be enough spare Payload to make 1200kg worth trying for. The reason Hymer increased the standard MTPLM on post 2010 Trolls to 1300kg was because the widening and heightening had increased the MIRO such that 1200kg was getting a tad small.

The current 540 has a 1005kg MIRO which if you add a GT Pack and Autonomy Pack rises to 1077kg. Add several other optional bits and it can easily reach 1100kg and that leaves just 100kg for whatever you want to load. If that includes a mover then you're down to 70kg ish and bedding alone weighs 10kg to 20kg let alone cutlery, crockery, clothes, pans, toiletries etc, etc. It would be almost impossible to run a van on such a low MTPLM.

Taken from the gov.co.uk website.
Towing a trailer with a car or van

'Where the sum of the maximum plated weights of the towing vehicle and of the trailer added together exceed the plated GCW of the towing vehicle, this is not a problem as long as the ‘actual’ weights of the vehicle and trailer (which may not be fully laden at the time) do not exceed the plated GCW.'

Absolutely.
But a current Troll with a MIRO of 1005kg leaves just 195kg of payloadavailable if you run it at 1200kg. If you load it with the 'usual' cost options plus a mover you'll have used up 125kg of that allowance, meaning the empty van or 'actual MIRO' weighs 1130kg, leaving just 70kg to load, which is a tiny amount when you consider all the gear you take caravanning.

Of course you'd never have an over weight van in such circumstances but you could very easily go over the Gross Train Weight, especially if you load the towcar heavily to keep the van weight down.

Looking at my spreadsheet we load our current van with 120kg of stuff and the car with 375kg. I'd have to check the Yeti's weights to see if bumping that up to 425kg would be legal.

Like you have pencils.

Though you can't suck the end of spreadsheets, but they mean I don't have to remember so much.