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The thin and hard bunk turns out to be good for its 90kg load.
Page 33
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IVIIAN's own-brand contribution for the test came with the LX cab. In short, that is the narrow cab with a high roof. Needless to say, much of its nature is shared with the identically bodied ERFidentical, that is, except for the MAN having the taller roof. After climbing the three steps, the cab is quite spacious, with enough room to stand up and move around for dressing and undressing. The predominantly grey interior is not exactly exciting but everything looks good and the atmosphere is pleasant. The curtains are on the thin side and let too much light shine through, but their biggest problem is the flimsy rail—the first attempt to close the curtains left them stranded with five runners falling from the rail in the middle of the windscreen. The ornament shelf around three-quarters of the cab's perimeter; just above head height, also comes in handy to stash the bunk curtain out of the way.
Our MAN came with two bunks, something of a mixed blessing for one-driver duties. Weigh up the benefits of an extra couple of square metres of storage space against the loss of half a metre of head room. Unless you tend towards claustrophobia, you'll probably go for the space, especially as the top bunk hooks up at 45° to improve seated headroom. The MAN's low engine hump provides a virtually flat floor, which helps moving around within the cab. Under the bunk there is a cool-box on a sliding rail and one big storage box which can also be reached from the outside. On the right side there is another locker but that can only be reached from the outside. Around the cool-box and the plastic storage boxes there could have been a lot more storage space.
With the bunk lowered the first thing you notice is that the bed is a little hard and thin. The folding safety rail on the bunk is more useful for restraining luggage than occupants, as you'd have to be a rather peculiar shape, or very determined, to fall through the gap between the seats.
Once in bed, it is spacious enough but it's too bad the rear wall of the cab has a sort of chimney built-in for the air-intake. If you sleep with your head on the left end of the bunk, this intrudes at shoulder height.
And, in fact, this is exactly where MAN expects you to lie down because the reading light for the lower bunk is on the left side. The overnight heater, windows, roof hatch and right can all be operated from the console next to the driver's seat but, in the right-hand-drive MAN, that's a long way from the pillow. Furthermore, there is no space near the bed for glasses, watch and things like magazines.
Overall though, the MAN provided a comfortable night's sleep. The thin and hard bunk turns out to be good for its 90kg load and we woke up in a reasonably fit condition. The only problem we encountered was turning off the night heater. There seemed no way to get the thing to shut off, so half the night was spent with an open window.