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It was June 17th 2018 that we were packed and ready to go, we pulled out of the driveway to begin our 5 month adventure through Europe in our newly acquired Dutch registered motorhome. Matilda was her name, a 6.5-meter 2001 German-made Burstner and we couldn’t be more excited to embark on our dream trip through Europe with our new home on wheels.
Why the name Matilda? For two reasons:
- She is a German made motorhome and Matilda is a German name
- We are a couple of Australians and Waltzing Matilda is a famous Australian Folk song
So, we will be going a-waltzing with Matilda around Europe! Couldn’t be more fitting. She most definitely isn’t a Bruce or a Sheila!
Buying any vehicle in Europe may seem impossible as a non-EU resident but having gone through the process we can assure you it’s not as difficult as it seems. I will be writing a post shortly on purchasing a motorhome in Europe as a non-EU resident, so look out for that one.
So now the introduction is over, let us take you on a tour of Matilda, starting with the specifications:
Specifications
Make and Model: Burstner T617 Harmony
Style: Low profile coach built
Year: 2001
Engine: 2.8L Fiat Ducato JTD – She got up those Norwegian ascents OK, even if a bit slow at times!
Mileage on Purchase: 106600 kilometres
Dimensions: Length: 620 cm. Width: 230 cm Height: 265 cm
Cab: Left hand drive, manual, power steering, radio. Sadly, no aircon
Fridge: Large fridge and separate freezer 2-way gas and electric. Unfortunately, not 12V as well. One thing we liked about our fridge/freezer is its almost full size. Most motorhomes only come with a small fridge/freezer.
Cooking: 3 Burner-stove
Heating/Hot Water: Gas hot water and heating with fan. We had the heating on a couple of times in Norway and a few times in Eastern Europe on those chilly Autumn nights. She warms us up very quickly!
Windows: Double glazed windows fitted with fly screens and shutters. Large skylight over living area.
Layout: One double fixed bed at rear with curtain to screen off bedroom, coach style seating with large table. The dining area seats 4 and converts to a second bed. Passenger seat swivels sideways, Vaughan loves sitting in this seat and putting his feet up on the driver’s seat, it’s his favourite spot! Good sized bathroom with toilet/shower combination and room to move! Curtain to screen off drivers cab from living area although we never use them much as we have screens we put up on the windows.
Cupboard Space: Another thing we love about our motorhome is the ample cupboard space and storage under the dining seat and bed.
Battery: Main battery and Leisure battery. We have a 1500-watt Inverter which runs off the leisure battery. We use the inverter when wild camping.
Lighting: Some LED, some halogen downlights. Love to switch all lights over to LED but will cost.
Extras: Small oven/grill which we use when connected to electric
Gas: LPG and Propane. The propane we use for the BBQ.
Gadgets: Huawei E5577CS MIFI, Nextbase 412GW Dash Cam, iGO Navigation on Phone, OsmAnd+ for route tracking. I discuss this in more detail in my Setting up our Motorhome post (to come).
Outside:
- Small garage (probably the one thing we like the least, we would love a larger garage)
- Attached awning which can wind out.
- Bike Racks.
- Solar panel on the roof which charges the leisure battery.
Improvements We Made
External gas filler connector
Fitted an external gas filler fitting as it didn’t come with one. If you have a refillable LPG and don’t have an external fill connector then some garages are reluctant to let you fill if you must open the door!
SOG unit for the Thetford Cassette toilet
Best addition we made thanks to the recommendation from Our Tour! The SOG removes the need to add the expensive blue chemicals and reduces the toilet smell considerably. How does it do this? In short, a small fan draws air over the 1’s and 2’s which helps break it down and draws the smell outside through a charcoal filter. We rarely get backdraft stench from the loo and we can go for a couple of days without emptying as opposed to a toilet that uses chemicals that really needs to be emptied every day.
Rather than re-invent the wheel of explanation Our Tour has done an excellent blog on this device from explanation of what it is, to “how to install it”. After watching their videos Vaughan was able to easily install one to our toilet cassette.
What She Came With
We purchased Matilda from Camperfun, a small family run business that has been selling/renting motorhomes for many years. Many of their customers are Australians and New Zealanders who like us, have bought a vehicle and will sell it back at then end of their European tour. The advantage of this is Camperfun have acquired over time a shed full of goodies to fill a motorhome that customers have left behind as they can’t exactly take it with them! These goodies would otherwise cost extra money as well as time in acquiring if you were to buy an empty van.
Matilda came with everything we needed like bedding, towels, kitchen stuff, cleaning equipment, washing line and pegs, outdoor setting (table and chairs) levelling ramps, bikes and a heap more goodies. We really didn’t need to buy anything extra although we did buy a few bits and bobs but I will cover this in more detail in our coming blog “Setting Up Our Motorhome”. In addition to this we had access to Camperfun’s enormous shed to pick out anything else we wanted to add.
Originally, we were looking for a motorhome/camper that was 6 meters and under. If we lived in Europe and were investing a motorhome for many years we could have our choice. But given our circumstances of not being residents of an EU country, the want of a left hand drive plus having a set budget we were limited in our choice of motorhomes. Having a larger motorhome can be a pain to park and will cost more in ferry crossings especially Norway! On the upside its nice having the space and not having to make your bed up every night which is the case on many of the more compact vans.
Im guessing Vaughn added the gas connector and SOG. Perhaps Camperfun woyld tell us where to get done then.
Hi Liz, yes he did it himself. A friend just bought his camper last week and he had to get a gas connector done, Camperfun organised it with a local garage. As for SOG there is a place half hour from Camperfun’s base in Hoogeveen that sells them and they fit them too. My next blog will be about setting up your motorhome and I will cover the SOG in more detail.