By Russ and Tiña De Maris
It may be the Airstream trailer of the European continent – the Eriba line has been in the marketplace for more than 60 years, and is releasing its new Touring 820 travel trailer this spring. It’s a 28-footer, evidently designed more for those with luxurious tastes than for what some of us would consider practicality. From the outside, it is a pretty thing, reminiscent of an Airstream, somehow combined with a submarine. Drilling down a bit on the inside, well, it’s a bit too much bling for our tastes.
A child of the Erwin Hymer Group, Eriba is not your grandfather’s travel trailer – “Euro” interior styling replaces wood grain and brass or brushed nickle. No blasting loud forced-air furnace, it’s all in-floor heat. Wrap-around windows fore and aft are the order of the day. A dry-bath offers a separate shower.
Just inside the entry you’ll find a glass-doored case that will handle your champagne flutes and up to three magnums of bubbly. Need a status report, Captain? Grab your iPad and take a quick peek at the battery charge, fresh and waste water, and gas levels. Or, you could “work at it” and use the digital management control panel on the wall. You can actually look out the huge porthole-style window midship and view the weather.
How practical is the rig? Depends on your use. If you’re a weekender looking to impress, it’s likely up your alley. You can easily heat up some soup on the two-burner stove, and relax around the dinette that easily converts to sleep two (in genuine leather, standard feature). But when it comes to the practicality of day-to-day long-term touring, things could get a bit more difficult. We don’t know how often we’d like to roll out to the filling station to refill the 13-gallon fresh water tank. No word on holding tank capacity. And while two can sleep in the front-end V-shaped bed, best guess is you’ll have an interesting time trying to find linens to fit the it.
While European RVers are grousing about the scale weight of the rig, Americans probably wouldn’t bat an eye to hear it weighs in at 4,365 pounds. Still, as hard as we tried, we couldn’t nail down any information about loaded weight, so how much gear you can stow on board is a mystery. There’s no mystery about the price, however. When they hit the market, you’ll be able to pick one up in Europe for a cool 74,990 euros, that’s near $85,000 U.S. As pappy used to say, “I’ll take two, they’re cheap.”
Why would you feature this article in the same issue you expound on the financial irregularities of this manufacturer?
As I understand it, the Eriba Touring 820 is manufactured in Europe, where the Erwin Hymer Group is headquartered (Germany). The financial irregularities referred to in another article are specifically related to Erwin Hymer Group of North America. So, yes, it’s the same company, but these are two entirely unrelated and, we think, interesting stories. Presenting a story about an unusual trailer doesn’t mean that we condone the actions of another branch of the company. Thanks for asking. 😀 —Diane at RVtravel.com
Guess what, RV makers – you’re out of business if you don’t get with it. This is what younger buyers want, and why they’re staying away from your stuff in droves – your design and material’s look like my crazy granny’s house.