A thorough appraisal Andrew, as ever. A few honest comments if I may, which I know you value, as someone who owned a Troll model (2018) for a few months, but who switched to an Eriba Nova 442L, primarily because we could not get on with the transverse bed and wanted twin beds. The classic Eribas tow really well, with minimal swaying when passed by an HGV because of the aerodynamic shape and solid frame. The Familia would be even easier than the Troll, which is the largest classic Eriba. I think two fit people could manoeuvre a Familia without a motor mover on site, whereas the Troll really needed a motor mover. You are right to point out the positioning of the power sockets: they are too few and placed in inconvenient positions, although the one at the front of the Familia would be safe for a kettle if left plugged in. The overhead locker hinges were under-engineered on our Troll, even though it was a 70 Edition with the posh white finish. The fixing screws are too small and a couple of the hinges became loose quickly because the screw sizes and number of screws used. The pop-up section worked well for us in terms of room, but my problem even at 5'8'' was the entrance door, where I kept on banging my head. On site, the pop-up section was practical in the day, but at night any campsite noise just came through as it would with a tent and as a light sleeper this was not great. I'm passing in these comments in the hope that they will help prospective buyers to decide whether or not this iconic caravan is for them.
As I've said before...I love these tours around the slightly out of the ordinary, not so run of the mill caravans. A very pleasant 20 mins indeedy... Many thanks!!!
Thanks for your video! Fun little caravan (still getting used to not calling it a camper as in USA). Have owned a pop-up camper & a 14 foot camping trailer in the past. But I never had knowledge about specs etc before watching your videos. I also just enjoy your videos for the hikes, visiting new places, the positive “vibe” and seeing Dougal :)
We’ve just bought a familia 320..it’s fabulous .and with the roof up you get the lovely sounds at night..as I was a tenter and my girlfriend is a caravanner so it’s perfect.I’m looking forward to easy squeezy in the Cornish lanes..and Welsh drovers tracks ,8ft wide caravanners eat your heart out..they should make this longer to fit two single beds with a twin axle.
Nice 1970s design! Acres of orange “wood”. Kind of European Airstream without the practicality. Looked at them at the NEC (remember those days!) and thought, why? So many better designed and equipped vans been developed over the last 40yrs!. Lots of people love them but I couldn’t live more than an hour in one!
They got sold A LOT on mainland Europe although they're VERY expensive.Most owners buy these to cover long distances on holidays and also lots of them take these off the big motorways onto the little back roads ,steep mountain passes throught the Alps and driving small narrow villages. Then these caravans make perfect sense
Ah congratulations, you’ve received your very 1st “Eriba kiss”, most owners receive at least 1, some 2, most usually add a cuddly toy (typically a duck as we’re a fun lot!) before they get to 3 ;-) Being vertically challenged I’ve escaped thus far (famous last words). Great tour :)
Odd question, here in the states the trailer wheels, the hubs, have to be removed and the wheel bearings lubed every 3000 miles or so. They don’t use “never lube” or “Zerk” grease/lube fittings, they cheap out. Not sure if you are like me… but preferring to do minor maintenance myself, it’s a pain to repack wheel bearings. Are trailers in the UK like ours or better? Oh, and on Dougal sleeping on the Astroturf… that’s actually too cute! My Paco would have “Christened” it immediately. 🤣
@@andrewjditton I don't know about caravans and have never heard of anyone lubing hubs/bearings on them, but some older Ifor Williams livestock trailers needed their bearing lubed. The twin axle models would often have their bearings wear due to the scrubbing of the tyres in small yards on farms and due to the type of work they do having to back up to a pen or shed for loading and unloading. Many parts are shared with other types of trailers including caravans in terms of running gear although Al-Ko, the main caravan running gear manufacturer is not commonly used on heavy duty trailers like livestock ones. Winterhoff/Knott are the main characters in those shows but not necessarily the axles.
Thank you Andrew for the review. We use to have à eriba puck before the hobby and we love it. We are thinking to buy à eriba 530 after the hobby 👍 Another thing the table is à bit of the pain when you make the bed because you don t know where to put it.we use to put it in the car when the bed was made. To be honest i prefer the eriba 310 you don t have à washroom but you have à fix bed which for me is far more important and à Nice two seat lounge at the front and you just have to buy à potty pot👍🙂
I wonder if those black knobs on the sqab backs are to stop the squabs moving on the rails when its a bed. We designed a very similar system for our van bed a few years ago using aluminium L shaped slats, slotted in to the sides in the same way & intergrating the squab with a ply back. It works a treat but the middle squabs move sometimes ... Im going to try putting knobs on the back of the. Thanks for the interesting video. Cheers from Waiheke Island, new zealand
Hi Andrew! this reminds me of the first time I met you, you were sat in one of these but you couldn't speak for long because you were busy I remember, do you remember?! 😊 People will be disappointed if a Dougal doesn't come with it! Thanks for showing us this vid and many thanks for last week's brilliant episode, I played it so many times! Brilliant ABBA song! Take care, lots of love Annie xxx 🥰🐕😍
I like the Eribas but I'm not a big fan of the front kitchen, prefer the front dinette. The 310 in 60th edition with double dinette would be my choice from the Familia range.
Great presentation Dougal's dad, whoops Andrew. Only dislike would be if the bathroom tap became a shower, the suitability of bathroom materials for getting wet plus the little shelves, ditto. Keep up the great work. Brocky says hi to Dougal from South Australia.
Nice thing, but at 6'3" I don't think it's the 'van for me! It'd be cold at night if you didn't pull down the top at sunset… stooping all the way to the loo!
Thank you for the review - very interesting, way too small for me at 6'2", but many people would find it a great outfit. One point I'd like to mention is about making the bed. As in many caravan reviews we are told "all you have to do is put this between the seats and then drop the back cushions on, it only takes a few seconds." However in practical terms this is not really the case, unless you are just using sleeping bags. Most people (that I know anyway) will first put down a mattress topper, then a fitted sheet, then a couple of pillows and finally a duvet. As you can not walk around three sides of the bed you need to crawl over it and try and push down the topper and the sheet around the edge. This can be a bit of a faff to say the least. Of course then you have to get it all off and packed away in the morning. Indeed it is why we now have a rear fixed bed. So, I'm not saying that making the bed every night is not practical, just that anyone who is not already a caravanner would get the impression that making up a bed in a caravan is a lot easier and quicker than it really is. Each to his own and what suits us would not suit others. Thanks again for doing the video.
We have an Eriba Touring 530 in silver. It’s about a metre longer and very slightly wider so we have a fixed bed at one end and a dinette for 2 at the other. Still much smaller than other caravans, and just as wonderful with just that bit more space. It is impossible to put in words how happy it makes us feel every single time we step inside and we have had it years.
Great review Andrew, I have the same van in silver. They don't come with a grill, most of the owners use a remoska or a double skillet as an oven. The British spec vans tend to come with an autonomy pack which has a battery and charger so that you can go off grid. I am 5'2" so I can walk underneath the lower roof without banging my head, however I usually bang it on the external door frame. .😆
Great review, interesting caravans, not really looked closely at them before. I'm not sure I could live with the pop-up bit, but for some reason I find small caravans (and campers) far more interesting than the bigger ones. I think perhaps because the engineering is cleverer, to fit it all in, and the result, is neater, and also of course cheaper to buy, two, easier to wash and push, and heat. I think the Elddis (Siddle) you have is better in every way, but these have a nice appeal to them.
@@andrewjditton There is a Jay Leno video, where he shows his old 1800s electric car, worth a look to see how the 1800s managed to use so little energy, to achieve so much! Trailer tents are another option.. but it's more fun observing them being put up and down LOL, a spectator sport. There is one good electric campervan project, from Holland, it works on the 1800s concept of 'slow and steady', and has IIRC 2-3kW solar on the roof.. a sunny spanish motorway and it actually makes more power than it uses! My main objection to EVs today is they are flash sports cars with wide tyres.. not efficient!! ;) Aready in Italy, EVs cost more to 'fill', than petrol cars, even with all the petrol taxes. An ideal rig may be the caravan roof also covered in solar, that plugs into the car ;). Lots of engineering solutions exist, like replaceable modular batteries changed at stations next to solar farms.. in my view, EVs doomed themselves when they bolted custom batteries on to the bottom of them. But politics and control seem higher priority. But we can dream! :)
Omph, probably not a lot more than 6ft in reality. I tried to do that when reviewing the Barefoot, and it just doesn't 'feel' right to do the diagonal on a bed... or maybe that's just me ;)
A thorough appraisal Andrew, as ever. A few honest comments if I may, which I know you value, as someone who owned a Troll model (2018) for a few months, but who switched to an Eriba Nova 442L, primarily because we could not get on with the transverse bed and wanted twin beds.
The classic Eribas tow really well, with minimal swaying when passed by an HGV because of the aerodynamic shape and solid frame. The Familia would be even easier than the Troll, which is the largest classic Eriba. I think two fit people could manoeuvre a Familia without a motor mover on site, whereas the Troll really needed a motor mover. You are right to point out the positioning of the power sockets: they are too few and placed in inconvenient positions, although the one at the front of the Familia would be safe for a kettle if left plugged in. The overhead locker hinges were under-engineered on our Troll, even though it was a 70 Edition with the posh white finish. The fixing screws are too small and a couple of the hinges became loose quickly because the screw sizes and number of screws used. The pop-up section worked well for us in terms of room, but my problem even at 5'8'' was the entrance door, where I kept on banging my head. On site, the pop-up section was practical in the day, but at night any campsite noise just came through as it would with a tent and as a light sleeper this was not great.
I'm passing in these comments in the hope that they will help prospective buyers to decide whether or not this iconic caravan is for them.
As I've said before...I love these tours around the slightly out of the ordinary, not so run of the mill caravans. A very pleasant 20 mins indeedy... Many thanks!!!
Glad you enjoyed it Mark, thanks!
I had my Eriba…Puck for 14 years 😊 loved her 🥰
Thanks for your video! Fun little caravan (still getting used to not calling it a camper as in USA). Have owned a pop-up camper & a 14 foot camping trailer in the past. But I never had knowledge about specs etc before watching your videos. I also just enjoy your videos for the hikes, visiting new places, the positive “vibe” and seeing Dougal :)
Glad you're enjoying the videos Ginny! Once you get past our different lexicon, it's all the same feeling at the end of the day :)
We’ve just bought a familia 320..it’s fabulous .and with the roof up you get the lovely sounds at night..as I was a tenter and my girlfriend is a caravanner so it’s perfect.I’m looking forward to easy squeezy in the Cornish lanes..and Welsh drovers tracks ,8ft wide caravanners eat your heart out..they should make this longer to fit two single beds with a twin axle.
Dougal always steals the show! Always ♥
Good thorough review, as always. I still love my ‘95 Eriba. Wouldn’t have anything else.
Retro chic..I think, but couldn't possibly purchase one as a dougal's not an optional extra!
Nice 1970s design! Acres of orange “wood”. Kind of European Airstream without the practicality. Looked at them at the NEC (remember those days!) and thought, why? So many better designed and equipped vans been developed over the last 40yrs!. Lots of people love them but I couldn’t live more than an hour in one!
Horses for courses I guess Steve!
Nice but I’d only buy one if it came with a Dougal.
Sadly he's not part of the deal ;)
it’s one of those caravans everyone loves but putting your deposit down and buying one is different.
Well, they're not cheap for a start once you start adding options...
They got sold A LOT on mainland Europe although they're VERY expensive.Most owners buy these to cover long distances on holidays and also lots of them take these off the big motorways onto the little back roads ,steep mountain passes throught the Alps and driving small narrow villages.
Then these caravans make perfect sense
Nice caravan but at 6'4" it's not my cup of tea.
From outside looks like a giant toilet .
Ah congratulations, you’ve received your very 1st “Eriba kiss”, most owners receive at least 1, some 2, most usually add a cuddly toy (typically a duck as we’re a fun lot!) before they get to 3 ;-) Being vertically challenged I’ve escaped thus far (famous last words). Great tour :)
I wondered when you’d get around to reviewing the venerable Eriba….👍
Not a very good kitchen design. Surely they can improve on it.
Odd question, here in the states the trailer wheels, the hubs, have to be removed and the wheel bearings lubed every 3000 miles or so. They don’t use “never lube” or “Zerk” grease/lube fittings, they cheap out. Not sure if you are like me… but preferring to do minor maintenance myself, it’s a pain to repack wheel bearings. Are trailers in the UK like ours or better? Oh, and on Dougal sleeping on the Astroturf… that’s actually too cute! My Paco would have “Christened” it immediately. 🤣
There's no requirement to lube bearings here! Or at least, not that I know of...
@@andrewjditton I don't know about caravans and have never heard of anyone lubing hubs/bearings on them, but some older Ifor Williams livestock trailers needed their bearing lubed. The twin axle models would often have their bearings wear due to the scrubbing of the tyres in small yards on farms and due to the type of work they do having to back up to a pen or shed for loading and unloading. Many parts are shared with other types of trailers including caravans in terms of running gear although Al-Ko, the main caravan running gear manufacturer is not commonly used on heavy duty trailers like livestock ones. Winterhoff/Knott are the main characters in those shows but not necessarily the axles.
They tell you not to stand on the A frame..bad boy no biscuit..
I'd expect that dimpled white finish will be much harder to clean and keep clean than the smooth silver.
Do not like this caravan. Too many negatives.
Thank you Andrew for the review.
We use to have à eriba puck before the hobby and we love it.
We are thinking to buy à eriba 530 after the hobby 👍
Another thing the table is à bit of the pain when you make the bed because you don t know where to put it.we use to put it in the car when the bed was made. To be honest i prefer the eriba 310 you don t have à washroom but you have à fix bed which for me is far more important and à Nice two seat lounge at the front and you just have to buy à potty pot👍🙂
Small caravan for small people
Most of us Eriba Folk are small. There’s not anyone over 5 foot in our community😉
@@richdt6312 Had a 540 GT for 13 years… I’m 6ft… smack my head on something every trip. Love it.
LOL!
Where does the table Stowe?
thank you for a super video ,i love that little caravan
Great vlog and I do love Dougal, he's brilliant 🤩😍
Hello Andrew. I like that one. It's a perfect little compact for one. Thank you. ilona
This ticks all my boxes, I do love small caravans. Thank you so much for a lovely presentation, I really enjoyed it.
Glad you enjoyed it Taffy!
I wonder if those black knobs on the sqab backs are to stop the squabs moving on the rails when its a bed. We designed a very similar system for our van bed a few years ago using aluminium L shaped slats, slotted in to the sides in the same way & intergrating the squab with a ply back. It works a treat but the middle squabs move sometimes ... Im going to try putting knobs on the back of the. Thanks for the interesting video. Cheers from Waiheke Island, new zealand
Hi Andrew! this reminds me of the first time I met you, you were sat in one of these but you couldn't speak for long because you were busy I remember, do you remember?! 😊 People will be disappointed if a Dougal doesn't come with it! Thanks for showing us this vid and many thanks for last week's brilliant episode, I played it so many times! Brilliant ABBA song! Take care, lots of love Annie xxx 🥰🐕😍
I like the Eribas but I'm not a big fan of the front kitchen, prefer the front dinette. The 310 in 60th edition with double dinette would be my choice from the Familia range.
🌱👋🏻
How much fuel is that aerodinamic really going to save you ? That roof is useful for parking in a garage, I guess.
Great presentation Dougal's dad, whoops Andrew. Only dislike would be if the bathroom tap became a shower, the suitability of bathroom materials for getting wet plus the little shelves, ditto.
Keep up the great work. Brocky says hi to Dougal from South Australia.
It is unfortunate to see so much space wasted at the front of the caravan.
Nice thing, but at 6'3" I don't think it's the 'van for me! It'd be cold at night if you didn't pull down the top at sunset… stooping all the way to the loo!
👍👍😁🇳🇱thank you🍃🍄🍁
Yep, another thorough and helpful review. Keeping up the standards there Andrew.... and of course, Dougal! 😊👍
What is the height of the ceiling with the roof raised?
Best caravans around
That under cooker/sink cupboard looks ideal as a den for Dougal!
Thank you for the review - very interesting, way too small for me at 6'2", but many people would find it a great outfit.
One point I'd like to mention is about making the bed. As in many caravan reviews we are told "all you have to do is put this between the seats and then drop the back cushions on, it only takes a few seconds." However in practical terms this is not really the case, unless you are just using sleeping bags. Most people (that I know anyway) will first put down a mattress topper, then a fitted sheet, then a couple of pillows and finally a duvet. As you can not walk around three sides of the bed you need to crawl over it and try and push down the topper and the sheet around the edge. This can be a bit of a faff to say the least. Of course then you have to get it all off and packed away in the morning. Indeed it is why we now have a rear fixed bed.
So, I'm not saying that making the bed every night is not practical, just that anyone who is not already a caravanner would get the impression that making up a bed in a caravan is a lot easier and quicker than it really is.
Each to his own and what suits us would not suit others.
Thanks again for doing the video.
Good point Keith, but now I have a Duvalay, that does make bed making MUCH quicker!
🤗🥰🐕
Whats the height of it with the roof down? :)
We have an Eriba Touring 530 in silver. It’s about a metre longer and very slightly wider so we have a fixed bed at one end and a dinette for 2 at the other. Still much smaller than other caravans, and just as wonderful with just that bit more space. It is impossible to put in words how happy it makes us feel every single time we step inside and we have had it years.
'That feeling'? That's THE most important part of ANY caravan or motorhome! :)
Cute caravan, great review Andrew nice to see Dougal. Stay safe and well both of you x
Thank you! Will do!
The interior looks very umm "retro"
Check out the next video on Sunday... ;)
Great caravan.
With regard to the hard-to-reach corner of the front storage area, it looks like easy access is provided by the hatch behind the toilet.
Good spot! I'll check it out next time, cheers.
Maybe Hymer should offer a Dougle accessory! Wonderful tour as always Andrew!
That would be cool! But only an imitation one, of course ;)
Great review Andrew, I have the same van in silver. They don't come with a grill, most of the owners use a remoska or a double skillet as an oven. The British spec vans tend to come with an autonomy pack which has a battery and charger so that you can go off grid. I am 5'2" so I can walk underneath the lower roof without banging my head, however I usually bang it on the external door frame. .😆
@@user-tb5cd7lq3m I have had a two Familias since 2012, they are great vans..😀
@@user-tb5cd7lq3m yes you are correct, they no longer make the Familia 320..
Great review, interesting caravans, not really looked closely at them before. I'm not sure I could live with the pop-up bit, but for some reason I find small caravans (and campers) far more interesting than the bigger ones. I think perhaps because the engineering is cleverer, to fit it all in, and the result, is neater, and also of course cheaper to buy, two, easier to wash and push, and heat. I think the Elddis (Siddle) you have is better in every way, but these have a nice appeal to them.
Cheers Graham! Mind you, with the price of fuel, these Eriba low-profile vans might be getting more popular.
@@andrewjditton There is a Jay Leno video, where he shows his old 1800s electric car, worth a look to see how the 1800s managed to use so little energy, to achieve so much! Trailer tents are another option.. but it's more fun observing them being put up and down LOL, a spectator sport. There is one good electric campervan project, from Holland, it works on the 1800s concept of 'slow and steady', and has IIRC 2-3kW solar on the roof.. a sunny spanish motorway and it actually makes more power than it uses! My main objection to EVs today is they are flash sports cars with wide tyres.. not efficient!! ;)
Aready in Italy, EVs cost more to 'fill', than petrol cars, even with all the petrol taxes.
An ideal rig may be the caravan roof also covered in solar, that plugs into the car ;).
Lots of engineering solutions exist, like replaceable modular batteries changed at stations next to solar farms.. in my view, EVs doomed themselves when they bolted custom batteries on to the bottom of them.
But politics and control seem higher priority. But we can dream! :)
It's only a shame that the interior decor stopped somewhere in the 90ties. Otherwise Eribas are very cool.
Great video!
Aha! Stay tuned for the next video... ;)
Thanks for vid...
What do you reckon the diagonal of the bed would be?
Asking for a friend.
:)
Omph, probably not a lot more than 6ft in reality. I tried to do that when reviewing the Barefoot, and it just doesn't 'feel' right to do the diagonal on a bed... or maybe that's just me ;)
Thanks for that Sir.
Best wishes to you & Dougal.
terrible for the money ugliest caravan on market