Greetings from sunny Bedfordshire

[steve2019]

Hello everyone, I am Steve, and me and my better half are hoping to get our first caravan soon, Really hoping to get some good advice and some answers to a ton of questions LOL... I will be new to caravanning, however I am a pretty resourceful guy and very hands on so they won't be questions like "can i tow a hobby twin axle with my mini metro?" (I do need to ask you good folk about Hobbies though..and I can almost see the frowns on your faces as i type) :lol:

 

[Anseo]

Welcome Steve2019

Hobby caravans? Yes please.

 

[Hutch]

Hi Steve,Your not far from Us, Woburn Sands, a few good small sites near us, welcome to the forum. As many will say Just ask away.

 

[steve2019]

Hi Anseo and EH52ARH, I mention Hobby's because we visited our first caravan dealers over the christmas period, the nearest one to us only stocked German caravans and we were shown lots of Hobby's, all of which looked really good quality and most had the desirable Island bed layout my missus really wants, Having done a little research since it appears that most of the ones we looked at are incapable of being towed by car (legally) as they exceed the size restrictions, we did wonder why they looked so roomy inside compared to more common makes..now we know why.
so we are looking at Adria's or swifts or something similar...Lots more homework to do i think

 

[Hutch]

Steve, we, travelled miles, over 6 months, Bristol, Northampton , Etc, its worth travelling around to check out different styles and layouts, We had a Coachman 545 island bed great for a year then went for an end bathroom type with side bed. Try a trip to White Arches in Wellingbourgh. A good variety of new and second had vans. Or Oxford caravans, they are good s well. . If you fancy a chat about vans, Station Pub Woburn Sands ! Fridays/Sundays after 1600. Small white dog and a bigger Black one.
Alistair.

 

[steve2019]

Alistair we really like the look of the side island beds too, we are looking at spending as much as we can afford within reason, even finance if required so we definitely need to get inside a few before we commit and buy one we aren't completely happy with, I know roughly what i'm looking for and know a cheap flimsy build against something well built, but being new to caravans i have no idea whats out there and even less about the things I won't be able to see like how well these things stand up in bad weather etc..
we plan to use it as often as we can too, long weekends at short notice etc...and even hope to spend a bit of time around Europe with it too so I am looking forward to getting to know people on here and sharing information..
appreciate your offer of a chat and a pint..might just do that. :cheer:

 

[Hutch]

Com on Over, We dont store our at home, but At Pottersbury. You can see it and we can give postitives and negatives. Ask a Moderator by the link and they can give me your phone number or Email or just find us in the Station pub.

 

[Raywood]

Welcome to the forum. There is masses of experience on here so ask if you want and someone should be able to help. Not sure what you are planning to tow with but that can be the limiting factor when choosing as caravan. Personally I would not get hung up on makes. We have had six different ones and there is not a lot between them. If buying second hand then choosing a good sound model with the layout you want is probably the most important factor.
Weight saving in the build is needed to keep them within the range of many tow cars, so you do have to allow for that to some extent. How far you have to compromise there depends a lot on what size of caravan you want and what you have to tow it.

 

[steve2019]

Thanks Raywood, I'll be dragging it with a 2.2 BMW 320I Touring, I have uprated the rear coil springs to take extra load mainly because the stock coil springs are weak and I've seen plenty of broken ones on these (I'm a mechanic) so my limit is around 1700kg.
I also have plenty of towing experience as I used to do recovery around europe so not too worried about that side of things..
Just by reading through some of the forum topics I am already opening my eyes to things..never gave fire extinguishers a second thought for example..but its on my list now.

 

[DaveHart]

Hi Steve and welcome.

I'm in a similar boat (although probably less clued up than you as I know equally little about cars - your coil spring comment WAY over my head). I'm in a (lengthy) process of researching caravans and what I want to buy and found the NEC show in October excellent as all makes are there and they have (it seemed to me anyway) every layout and model range there to actually look round in one place. There's another NEC show in February (19 to 24th I think) so might be worth a look.

 

[steve2019]

Hi Dave,
We actually went to the NEC in Oct, at the time we were lookin at motorhomes as that was my first choice, we even rented a couple to get a feel for it but the switch to caravans was decided as we prefer the idea of having the car for transport when we pitch up,
We did see some beautys there but we were more focussed on the motorhomes..