HAPPY CAMPERS!

Got a big business idea for 2023? The sage advice, of course, is always to sleep on it… which is quite literally what long term friends and now business partners, Richard Hill and Mike Gerlin weekend camper van. Intrigued, Professional Builder recently caught up with the pair at their well-appointed workshop in rural Sussex where they took us through the backstory of the had got to this exciting point in their careers. “My background is in landscaping and for years I was involved in putting together displays at the Chelsea Flower Show amongst others. I had encountered Mike on a number of occasions and knew that with his excellent engineering skills we shared a lot of common ground on product development.

Great outdoors

“Just before Covid we decided to formalise a working partnership and acquired this workshop to work on some ideas which we had been mulling over for some time. With his Scandinavian background Mike has a real passion for working with wood and, of course, the great outdoors, which people are craving for like never before, post Covid. As a result, the demand for camper vans currently well exceeds current supply and vehicles for sale and hire are attracting unprecedented prices. All of this led us in the direction of thinking that it should be possible to help anyone who owns a small or medium sized to enjoy weekend breaks and leisure pursuits at a fraction of the cost and with minimal disruption to

Electric Van

Available with wheelbases ranging from 3,000mm to 4,750mm, and gross vehicle weights up to 7.2t, the IVECO eDAILY features what the manufacturer describes as class-leading payload potential. As the only eLCV currently on sale to provide a 15kW ePTO, applications are wide-ranging, including tippers and ariel platforms.

Compact Van

Standard safety features on the Mercedes-Benz Citan panel van include Active Brake ASSIST with pedestrian recognition technology; ATTENTION ASSIST, which detects drowsiness in the driver and encourages them to take breaks when tired; and Hill-Start ASSIST to prevent rolling back. There’s also a rear parking aid with reversing camera.

WWW.RDR.LINK/BAQ070

Bobcat

The world’s first allelectric compact track loader – the T7X – has arrived courtesy of Bobcat. With an operating capacity of 1,374 kg, and zero CO2 emissions, the 60.5-kWh lithium-ion battery pack, can deliver four hours of continuous use. In addition, the hydraulics have been completely replaced with an electrical drive system.

GET MORE DETAILS AT:

Avant Tecno

Two new loader models, Avant e5-27 and Avante5-13, will be equipped with Avant Tecno’s OptiTemp batteries (27kWh and 13kWh) featuring what is described as a unique thermal management system. The technology keeps the temperature optimised and gives you the same capacity in hot and freezing weather.

GET MORE DETAILS AT: WWW.RDR.LINK/BAQ074