Full review

Incredibly, £184,000 is about the entry-level for a Morelo. That’s the price of the example in stock at Premium Motorhomes currently – a fully spec’d Home 82M Trend with an island bed (but otherwise a similar layout to that shown here). Prices are usually quoted in euros and start at €155,500 but it’s not unusual to spend €30k-plus on extras on a ’van like this and the exchange rate used is the one that applies when you order. Loft, Palace and Empire Liner ranges sit above the Home, with prices stretching to €400k or more.

What marks out the Home, though, is that not only is it available with right-hand drive but a UK-handed layout, too, featuring the habitation door (the only entrance) on our nearside. Premium’s Mat Herzberg reckons that it’s an important change as buyers are likely to split their touring time 50/50 between the UK and the Continent, whereas owners of the bigger Morelo models will travel more extensively abroad.

Based on a 5.6-tonne Iveco Daily, the cab of the Home is very different from lesser motorhomes. Thanks to major re-engineering by specialist company, Meier, you sit closer to the windscreen and less inset from the vehicle’s sides than in a standard A-class. Moving the driving seats forward means better visibility, of course, but also creates more living space without additional overall length.

Gone, too, is the usual commercial vehicle dashboard, replaced by a bespoke unit with leather top and a cooled bottle holder in the centre console. You sit high – towering over cars – with panoramic visibility, while driving is made more relaxing by the eight-speed automatic gearbox and 3-litre 205bhp engine. Then, when you park up, there’s a removable steering wheel to ease rotating the driver’s luxurious Isri captain’s chair.

Although, it’s tall (3.32m), the 8.19m length of the Home is actually rather less gargantuan than something like a tag-axle Swift Kon-tiki. Not that you’d ever guess that as you walk about this step-free and oh-so-spacious interior. All the time you’re above a 0.36m-deep double floor which houses 300-litre fresh and 200-litre waste tanks. A closer look here reveals the extensive winterisation and the domestic-quality plumbing – caravan-type fittings are avoided where possible at Morelo. Then there’s the basement storage, accessible only from outside (as internal trapdoors might introduce cold spots) and the 1.22m headroom in the huge rear garage. It’s a good thing there’s over a tonne of payload.

Inside, impressive details range from the quality of the leather trim to the electric roller shutter for the windscreen, from the illuminated locker with wine glasses to the expanding table. Then, there’s a kitchen with built-in Krups coffee machine and Tec-Tower with 190-litre fridge/freezer and oven above. There’s even a pair of sinks built into the Morelosan (Corian-style) worktop. 

The washroom facilities are truly boutique hotel-style and the optional marine-type toilet (with 200-litre holding tank) further increases your independence from site facilities. The shower is definitely domestic-sized (810mm by 670mm with 1.94m headroom) and has a real glass door, while both the shower and toilet doors open either inwards or outwards for added convenience.

At the rear, the 82LS has twin beds but these are only really separated at the foot, where a cut-out aids access. The mattresses are both two metres long and over a metre wide. As in the rest of this rather special motorhome, comfort is not in question when you take to your bed.

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