Motorhome News

2009 Northern Motorcaravan Show @ Pickering

lineup-smHaving visited the Northern Motorcaravan Show at Pickering last year, we were keen to go again this year and see if we could find the elusive, perfect motorhome. We did – of which more later…

The weather this year was decidedly dodgy and while driving to Pickering we experienced a downpour that made us wonder if we had taken leave of our senses in going. As it turned out, however, the rain stopped and not a drop fell while we were at the show!

As always, there was a good range of vans on display at the show – in fact, I think it was better than last year:

From small van conversions...
From small van conversions...
...to IH's much larger and more expensive van conversions... (note the unusual custom rear door replacement)
...to IH's much larger and more expensive van conversions... (note the unusual custom rear door replacement)
...to fairly large, European-style coachbuilt motorhomes...
...to fairly large, European-style coachbuilt motorhomes...
...right up to amazingly large US RVs!
...right up to amazingly large US RVs!

One motorhome converter who wasn’t at Pickering in 2008 was Murvi. The Devon-based van converter specialises in high-quality panel van conversions. I’d heard good things about them but not seen them in the flesh before – so was very pleased to find them at Pickering in 2009.

The Murvi Morello is probably the company’s best known van and I would certainly be happy to have one. However, a long wheelbase panel van isn’t a small beast and the Morello would definitely be too long for many car parking spaces.

Even more attractive – in fact, absolutely damn perfect – was Murvi‘s newest model, the Murvi Piccolo. This was based on a medium wheelbase van – a Fiat Ducato in this case – and managed to include an excellent bed, full bathroom and kitchen and two comfortable travel seats, all in a layout that provided ample storage and allowed the bed to be made up in seconds.

For the first time, I really felt that I had found a motorhome on which I would gladly spend £40,000. The other panel van conversions we saw just weren’t quite right for our requirements, but the Piccolo was superb. For some reason, there is no information about it on Murvi’s website (although it is on the price list), so you will just have to make do with these photos:

The Murvi Piccolo
The Murvi Piccolo
The seat folds our to a good-sized double in about 3 seconds - just flip the base over and drop down the back. It's also a top-quaty RIB road travel seat.
The seat folds our to a good-sized double in about 3 seconds - just flip the base over and drop down the back. It's also a top-quaty RIB road travel seat. Both cab seats swivel, too.
The Piccolo has decent-sized kitchen and bathroom facilities (for a MWB panel van)
The Piccolo has decent-sized kitchen and bathroom facilities (for a MWB panel van). It also has an options list as long as your arm - so anything you don't like can be changed - e.g. the oven.