Our trip last week to Matamata had many highlights including finding the delightful park over property run by Ron and Gayle Arnott, that I wrote about in my previous blog. But our real reason for the trip was to visit Matamata Saddlery to have a cover made for the front windscreen of the motorhome. In the past we have done a large amount of freedom camping and we both felt the cover would provide just a little bit more protection. Plus being a thermal cover, it would help keep us warmer in winter. Although my health issues and Covid, have prevented travel recently, 2023 will offer new opportunities and we want to be prepared and ready.
Sarah had been doing an enormous amount of research looking into covers and had found one, on the European Dethleff’s site. (The make of our motorhome.) We made an enquiry to the local agent here in Pokeno to discover that the item was out of stock and could not be supplied. They did give us a price if it had been available and that was a useful reference in our search.
I made a number of phone calls to various auto trimmers here in Auckland to discover that they were all too busy to even look at the project until the new year. Good news for them, in that they were obviously busy, not such good news for us. Then that night I was looking through the NZMCA publication the Motor Caravanner and saw an advert for OCD Covers who despite also being named Matamata Saddlery also make covers for such things as bikes, toad covers and motorhomes.
Giving them a call, I found out that they hadn’t yet made a cover for any A Class motorhome except a Mobilvetta and that’s a completely different shape to ours. This meant that they didn’t have a pattern to use and couldn’t just make one for us to collect. They would need our motorhome over two days. The first for a good six hours to enable them to make a pattern for the screen, we walked Matamata during this time exploring the magnificent centennial drive. and the second to manufacture the cover.
You might think that they just needed to measure up our huge windscreen and then cut out a square of fabric and hey presto it’s all done. But what they actually did is dovetail the front, so it fitted neatly over the windscreen wipers. The cover is also sectioned with Velcro on the separate pieces for easy attachment. and it all comes in a handy bag.
Fitting is quite easy and provided that you are as tall as I am (179cm) you could do this without a ladder. Although it is a little stretch. There is a channel strip fitted to the motorhome, like you would find for securing a caravan awning. You then feed the sides through that and then loop the top over the mirrors, securing them with a Velcro loop.
We chose to have the sides only cover the front 1/4light windows, but they also made the pattern to cover all the way back to the door’s which is what they normally do. A couple of straps were also fitted to help secure the front in case the wind gets up while you are using it.
The cover is made to include a thermal protection so it’s warmer in winter with no cold seeping into the motorhome through the front windscreen. This also means that there will be no condensation forming on your windows. The whole exercise wasn’t cheap, but I don’t think anything associated with motorhomes is. We are both very happy with it and it’s a very high standard of workmanship.
We are looking forward to using it in our upcoming travels.
To view the places we have visited click here to see them on Google maps. You can then click the link to read the blog about that area.
