Hi Jet/ Porter or Suzuki Carry mini caravan required

Hello I am looking for a small motor caravan
Hi Jet/Porter or Suzuki Carry models
Seem to fit the bill but would certainly consider
one based on Berlingo or Kangoo type vehicles.

Well how much have you got to spend on one?? Your budget is going to decide what you are going to be getting. £3,000 to £5,000 will get you a nice Mk5 Demountable Hi-Jet Romahome. Forget about a Bedford Rascal or Suzuki Carry. They are 1 litre and gutless. Romahome never made a Demountable or a fixed van on the later 1300 Suzuki. There are a few nice coach built Versions using the 1300 Suzuki but the few I have seen can vary between £6,000 and £12,000.

A DECENT cheap Citroën C15 usually starts around £4to£5000. I would only have one as a gift. Dreadful gutless rustbuckets with gutless engines and no Power Steering. A Cowboy Company in the Gloucester area called Somar I think did a power steering conversion and also a few with Auto Gearboxes. John was absolutely hopeless to get hold of and had more poo than the local Sewage Works. We had nothing but trouble with him at Romahome and got so fed up with his lies we stopped dealing with him. I believe that they went bust thankfully.

I have never liked Citroën Cars except the one they made with the Maserati engine and the swivelling Headlights which moved with the direction of the Steering Wheel. They were something else. Bit of a Wolf in sheep's clothing. The early 70's model had the 2.7 litre V6 Maserati developing 175bp and would do a genuine 125mp  but later in mid 70s were fitted with a 3 litre V6 - the same engine fitted in the Maserati Merak developing 215 bhp which was more than a Jaguar Mk2 or S type of the time. An E Type had 265 bhp but somewhat lighter  than the SM although the SM had a pretty low line aerodynamic body. One SM had the Maserati Bi-Turbo engine fitted developing 260 bhp for speed trials in Bonneville and set a record of 202 mph. Now that is what I CALL a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing.


But you are talking about a Romahome Berlingo then they are a good base vehicle. An R reg Duo one will set you back £8,000 - £10,000. Any less than that and you will be buying yourself a pile of rubbish - unless you get very lucky.

A Hy-Lo around 2001/2 before the face lift model came in will probably be £11,000 - £13,000.
The Outlook came out in 2002 as a budget version below the Duo and Duo Plus. They are more basic inside but still fetching good money.

Going back to the Demountable models the Mk 4 or especially the Mk5 body is the one to go for - BUT only the Hi-Jet 1300. DO NOT GO FOR THE DIESEL. 1200D or 1400D. Dual Fuel 1300 is the model to go for. If the Caravan Pod does not have opening windows on a Hi-Jet then it is not a Genuine Romahome combination from the Factory. It will have come off of a Honda Acty 550. Forget it if it doesn't have opening windows and or one Roof Light. You need to have the Mk3 - Mk5 model with opening windows as in the summer when it is really hot they are like an oven inside. Also make sure you get one with two opening Sky Lights.

You pays your money - you takes your choice. Cheap and cheerful is not always a good idea.

By the way - I am a Crowthorne Boy - born in Wokingham Hospital.

Cheers Woodie,I spent a lot of time in Broadmoor(as a BT engineer not a resident)back in the day.Appreciate the heads up.Good to know which models to check out and which to avoid.Now a displaced Windsorboy in Berkhamsted Herts
Paul Healy.

Hi Paul. I hope that you never met Mr Saville while you were working there. When I was a kid it was known as Broadmoor Lunatic Assylum.


One of the inmates, John Straffen escaped from there in 1952 having been inturned there in 1951 for murdering two little girls. My mother was expecting my sister and was walking home from the Doctors and she was knocked to the ground by Straffen jumping a hedge and off into the woods belonging to Crowthorne Golf course and Ravenswood Home for . She recognised him from pictures in the Newspapers a few months before. She knew that there was an escapee as the Warning Siren was constant. I went to school at St Sebastians along the Nine Mile Road and EVERY Monday morning they tested the Siren at 9.55am until 10.00 am.

She hurried home and phoned the police to say what had happened to her and they told mum that "It could not be him as someone the other side of Crowthorne had reported seeing him there."

So her report was discounted. Later that day he killed another little girl at Farley Hill near Reading - so my mum was right and had indeed been knocked over by John Straffen. If they had listened to my mum (mind you - I never did) the little girl could well be alive today aged 71.
He was re-captured and sentenced to death by Hanging - but because of his mental state his sentence of death by hanging was commuted to life in prison until he died.
He was the longest serving prisoner ever in the British Justice System. He spent 55 years in there. I was gobsmacked in the mid Noughties when I heard that he had only just died aged 77. I had assumed that he was long dead.

Small World isn't it??

I have just Googled Straffen and he escaped and killed the 5 years old girl on the 29th of April 1952. My sister Beverly was born  3 weeks early on 1st of May 1952. Looks like he could have been the cause of Beverly's pre-mature birth. But it still doesn't account for my Insanity.

I blame the pressure of all the questions I get asked about on Hi-Jets and Romahome - - Oh and Wee Phil up in Scotland. He is blamed for driving everyone mad on this and other Forums.
The answer is NO PHIL - I haven't got one - don't know anything and the price has just gone up 1000%

No meetings with the vile JS.I remember the siren test every Monday at 10 am if memory serves.Some officious Pillock did once threaten to not let me and s colleague out if we couldn't get his phone working.....PRAT.Used to check out top range bikes at Berkshire cycles.