Wheelchair accessible and adapted motorhomes
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- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- What constitutes an adapted motorhome and why are they so hard to find?
An adapted motorhome is one that has been altered or built to be accessible for a wheelchair user or someone with limited mobility and unfortunately, they can be expensive, complicated and fraught with red tape.
It is both a specialist area and each individual customer likely has specific needs in order to have the greatest mobility. So, if you're looking for an adapted motorhome, where do you start? Who can you go to for more information?
In this episode, Matt and Keith speak to Kate Birch from Coachbuilt GB, one of the country's leading specialists in motorhome adaptations. We discover some of the incredible and life-changing alterations they make to motorhomes so that owners facing mobility issues can continue or begin to enjoy life on the road. Kate also details the rules on VAT deduction and the help available for buyers.
Read the full transcript here:
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Those adapted Motorhomes are a game changer !
Fantastic, right? We loved talking to Kate, it was so informative and you can see how much work her and the team put in
i am a wheelchair user and brought a wheelchair adapted motorhome in 2009. was a company called "Nirvana motorhomes" who had standard customised wheelchair suitable motorhomes. avoid them at all costs, the list of terrible things they tried would take me hours but heres a short list of the major ones i recall right now
- miss sold the weight said i would have about 400kg payload. when it arrived i couldn't even fill the fuel tank (let alone add any water at all or any luggage) because i was over the 3.5 tonne limit when empty and just me and my wheelchair + a full tank of fuel
- refused to rectify the weight issue at all, i had to investigate solutions and pay for them (which involved over a year of fighting with DVLA and VOSA and spending thousands on upgrades and getting a new light goods licence)
- had a massive water leak well within warrantee and first claimed i was wrong its not under warrantee, then when i pulled out the warrantee as proof and arguing more agreed to fix but kept saying "if its due to my fault its not covered". at this point we didn't trust them so filmed and photographed the leak and all exterior before at my cost driving it over a hundred miles each way to drop it off
- took months to do the "repair" after saying it would be weeks, kept saying it was to dry out the walls, which is fine until you will see later below
- when i eventually was told it was ready tried to claim its not under warrantee again and in person pressure me to pay and i had to again produce proof its under warrantee
- then told me "the water swooshing sound in the walls is *normal*, as they have to seal in the water because you cant dry walls. when i objected he said this is "standard" practice and i dont know what im talking about he builds them for a living for over 10 years and you never dry water leaked walls and pretends he never intended to dry the walls. at this point i just say "just give me keys and let me go home"
- get home to see the top of the cab has been poorly repainted (colour didn't match whites) and it was obvious he had crashed it and tried to cover up with a repair.
they closed for a few years but reopened under same name but different owner on books some years later.
the motorhome was a lemon, no joke or exaggeration it was in for repairs more often that i ended up using it. eventually got sick of it, even though i got it to a good state and seemingly all the bugs ironed out i just didnt want to risk it anymore so sold it for a HUGE lose. Paid over 60k for it in 2009, about 6 years later barely got 20k back after thousands in repairs and upgrades.
oh and i did look at legal options and i believed i had a strong case but solicitors said, while i had a case because i could technically drive it with a partial tank and my wheelchair theres a chance he would get away with claiming its technically possible/legal to use and the main reason i didnt was i was told it would cost many thousands to do and it and there was a strong chance they would never pay me and just close the company (which they did a few years later anyway)
A great plug for Coachbuilt but don't forget there are custom built alternatives
Of course! There are plenty of great companies around and Coachbuilt GB is a fantastic example of the work they do.
this is brilliantly beautiful!
I need one of these. My husband is my carer and we have 2 kids. I wish we could get one of these for a family. My kids are 10 and 6 and we don't get to go on holidays/camping or trips because of me.
Coachbuilt GB are a fantastic company and I certainly recommend reaching out to them, even if they can point you in the direction of options. Wishing you the best on your search!
I never knew this until I saw the clip so going to nec motorhome caravan show this week
Did you manage to see them? I saw their stand at the show
@@MotorhomeMatt yeah I enquired about a motorhome a swift so got to work money out as it's £98k
What’s the rule for parking a motorhome if you have a blue badge. All disabled spaces are for cars obviously so if you park a large motor home in a standard disabled space you get a ticket for being to big, but surely that’s not really fair. So could I park in a paid van space that’s big enough but avoid extortionate parking fees by displaying your blue badge? Thanks guys
This is a great question! It really would depend on the local council or even the parking attendant on duty on the day. Technically your vehicle should be contained within the marked parking space to be correctly parked. However this may not always be possible. It may be safer to park with your blue badge in a different location if it’s convenient.