Newb, with a few specific needs and so many questions

[Eldorado]

Hi there,

just joined here after reaching the limit of what I can find out from Google and the local dealers - hoping the wisdom here will help

Used to be avid (Canvas Frame tent) campers when the kids were smaller. They are all grown up, so just 2 of us. Softer and older now.

Need more comfort, looking to replace airbeds with a nice fixed bed, with enough room for me at 6 foot.

Looking to only be travelling October to March, so we need something that is suitable for that. Stays of 3 to 5 nights, max stay would likely be a week.

Seems expensive, £4000 a year for 40 ish nights a year . . (post Q elsewhere)

First van we actually liked is Knaus 500 UF - but its got the door on the wrong side (is that an issue?). And we don't know which of the other brands we keep seeing are actually any good (so many! Bailey and Adria seem okay)

EDIT - to remove cross posting on costs, apologies

 

[Hutch]

Welcome to the Forum, lots of answers will come your way, I will not put in yet as Just back from the pub. Nice to see you are thinking about winter touring, always a great time to be out.

 

[RogerL]

Hi there,

just joined here after reaching the limit of what I can find out from Google and the local dealers - hoping the wisdom here will help

Used to be avid (Canvas Frame tent) campers when the kids were smaller. They are all grown up, so just 2 of us. Softer and older now.

Need more comfort, looking to replace airbeds with a nice fixed bed, with enough room for me at 6 foot.

Looking to only be travelling October to March, so we need something that is suitable for that. Stays of 3 to 5 nights, max stay would likely be a week.

Early sums seem to show we need c£4000 a year for 40ish nights away (which is more than I expected). This assumes a £25k caravan (new/nearly new), with depreciation, storage, insurance etc included. We would likely be buying in September / October though, which might help.

First van we actually liked is Knaus 500 UF - but its got the door on the wrong side (is that an issue?). And we don't know which of the other brands we keep seeing are actually any good (so many! Bailey and Adria seem okay)

At £4000/year for 40 nights/year over winter (October-March) you should perhaps consider Premier Inns / Travelodges as an alternative which would be around the same cost.

 

[birdman101]

You have two posts running on the question of cost. So the same answer as I have posted on the other. Brand new caravan will depreciate more so £5500 total with other costs not counting towing fuel.

 

[Buckman]

In reason for only using it Oct to March the colder months or are you in the southern hemisphere?

 

[Beachball]

HI Eldorado Welcome to the forum any questions you will receive a answer it nice see you going to try winter touring.

 

[Dustydog]

Welcome to the Forum.
If I did the maths and depreciation etc I'd have given caravanning up decades ago!

As a long time caravanner we keep our caravans a long time. Depreciation becomes irrelevant.
Have you factored in the savings not being at home? Eg power?
As you are going for short stays what distance from home will be your maximum?
You will read good and bad about all makes. A decent honest Dealer can make a massive difference.
Are you buying privately or from a Dealer?

 

[Eldorado]

thanks folks, sorry for the over long intro - have edited and put more detailed Qs elsewhere

After half a lifetime of working away and cheap hotels I am not really keen on Travelodge etc al as a place to relax. A caravan is our own space, our own stuff. We also want peace and quiet, ear plugs and cheap hotels isn't the same. We do still have long weekends in nice B&Bs but they are pricey these days.

We like where we live and have a big garden, we would aim to be at home from Spring to Autumn and travel off season. There are lots of places in UK we want to visit, up to 10+ hours / 500 miles, probably not planning more than a week away at a time.

Given you can have 3 or 4 weeks in an off season resort around Med / Algarve for not much money these days, we were surprised at the cost of caravanning - so I suspect we may have to find a lower cost way of doing this.

FWIW we have never owned / towed a caravan but stayed in plenty over the years. Used to love (Frame tent / Dutch storm tent) camping but post Covid its just not as peaceful as we remember / hope for - and camping is a bit too hard core for UK winters at our age

So far we have only looked at dealers, because we know so little about things - but we arent in any rush

 

[otherclive]

Spend time just sitting in various vans with different layouts, trying to imagine how you would live in one.

 

[toad a caravan]

Welcome aboard

 

[Eldorado]

Thanks folks - quick update

WRT layout we think French bed with separate seating area works best for us, lounge conversion definitely wont - so seeking fixed bed style .

Also want a decent sized shower if we can, which may or may not be something we get to choose

WRT towing, not got much driving experience beyond cars / motorbikes but have done some trailer, minibus and big box van stuff over the years - found a driving school who do caravan training, going to do that

WRT costs / quality, we are now actively looking at used vans. Still not sure which brand(s) we can trust and which will be suitable for off season use

Also trying to find good dealers (who wont go bust soon, as some seem to have), how can you tell the good ones?

 

[Eldorado]

Almost forgot, we are also actively seeking campsites who rent out their own touring caravans (didnt realise that was a thing) - plan is to have a bunch of nights away in other peoples' vans over the summer to see what really matters / works for us

 

[VM72]

Hi, as a fellow newbie definitely take your time, we purchased our first caravan at the start of this month as we want to do Euro touring next year when we retire. But have never done holidays like this so had no clue. We started with a very very low budget, that went very high, we visited so many caravan dealers, sat in lots of vans, laid on lots of beds, quickly ruled out and caravans with middle bathroom where the island bed ends against the mirror/sink yet we thought that was ideal. Then we had a reality check and went middle of the road with the budget in case we didn’t like it/ its not the right model for us and have ended up buying a barely used 2020 Compass with a transverse bed. We got lots of ideas hints and tips from forums and brought privately, with a FSH (it was a steal compared to dealer prices, even taking into account it doesn’t have a warranty). Even with all the other paraphernalia, insurance, storage etc.etc we are still well under our maximum budget. We have had one brilliant yet slightly stressful newbies not knowing what they are doing trip in it and our next one is next weekend.

 

[Buckman]

Few people like ourselves bought an older caravan privately, used it for awhile as renewed my towing experience and helped us decide on layout. When we traded it in, I think we lost about £50. As it turned out the new caravan that we really wanted was just out of our price range at the time so we settled for a slightly different layout. In January the prices of caravans was reduced significantly and the caravan we could not afford was now affordable so we traded in again and hardly lost anything. We also moved from a single axle to a twin axle and stayed with twin axle for the next 20 years.