Permanent Caravanning.

[cyclebuffs]

We have just read through this thread with great interest.
We have literally just moved into our caravan due to circumstances. We have only been living in it since last Sunday and we are still sorting things out. We have little bugbears at the moment, such as the knob has just dropped off the grill. This will be fixed tomorrow in some daylight. The water tank leaks a little at the pipe joint. Again, its a day light job. We discovered this today when we filled it to the top and then moved the van.
There are some great tips on this thread, which we have made notes off. Thank you to those posters. Having read all the way though this thread, we are feeling a little more confident about things.

 

[Surfer]

We have just read through this thread with great interest.
We have literally just moved into our caravan due to circumstances. We have only been living in it since last Sunday and we are still sorting things out. We have little bugbears at the moment, such as the knob has just dropped off the grill. This will be fixed tomorrow in some daylight. The water tank leaks a little at the pipe joint. Again, its a day light job. We discovered this today when we filled it to the top and then moved the van.
There are some great tips on this thread, which we have made notes off. Thank you to those posters. Having read all the way though this thread, we are feeling a little more confident about things.

Steveinleo can offer some really good advice so do not be scared to ask.

 

[Steve L]

Hi Cyclebuffs.

Welcome to un-conventional living. There are literally hundreds or more, people who are living fulltime in their tourer.
We've been doing it for over 3 years. There are quite a few situations where you come up against the fixed address hurdle and also having to explain your situation in a way that people understand that your neither a householder or a traveller.

We have had first hand experience of a warden who was prejudiced against us living in our van. He had inherited us after the previous wardens handed their notice in to run a coffee and tea room in Yorkshire. Without actually saying straight out, that he wanted rid of us, he did everything possible to make day to day life one of look out for Jim he'll get you. I had to turn round the air deflector I had for towing our van because it had a "circus going on" due to 20 or so holiday destination stickers. Dare not leave the bonnet open of the car for more than 10 mins before he'd come over and accuse me of working on the car. Wasn't allowed to use my battery starter/charger to get our car started when the battery went flat, I had to call the AA out to do it, causing a needless 2 hour delay! Not allowed to clean the caravan even mid week when we were the only ones onsite, the list goes on and on.

Fortunately things have now changed and we have got a new management team and M & M are great. They are very hard working wardens who are seen and not heard. They start at 8am instead of 10am and are still working at 7pm. They keep everything much smarter than their predecessors. Even the grounds people who happen to be good friends of ours and my wife even went to school with one, are much happier and work much better for Malc & Maggie. For the first time in 2 years I can recommend the park to my friends and forum members.

To me fulltime caravanning has given us the freedom to say for once that our home is bought and paid for and no bank or building society has a charge over it. Another thing you'll soon find is that the cost of living is much cheaper in a caravan. We use about £30 of bottled gas a year for our cooker and about £460 a year of electric (metered at 10p/unit). We are council tax exempt as we move sites once a year. If you don't, you could be liable for band A council tax if they find you

. I also love living in the rural black & white village just 5 miles out of town. The townies pay upwards of 200K to live in Eardisland. Our caravan has been a "god send" to us as I was self employed before I became ill due to arthritis in my shoulders and elbows and I got degenerated discs and vertebrae in my back. I would of been "right up a gum tree", if we were still in our house. The caravan has afforded us a comfortable home and a relaxing way of living (even with the jimbo on the war path), which has actually brought us closer together. Our kids (23 &27) are near by if we need help and our chocolate Labrador loves the freedom of the dog run.

My best tip is. To blend in as much as you can by making sure your caravan and awning looks the same as the rest

. the only give away I have on my van is 2 aquaroll's and 2 wastemasters tucked neatly under the van. Surfer and Emmerson can vouch for that as they have both paid me a visit when they were in the Herefordshire area.

If you have any questions on fulltiming, I'll be only too pleased to help if I can.

 

[cyclebuffs]

Wow. Thanks for that.
We have found a great site with 3 other fulltimes on there already. We are booked in for a month and then we will see how it goes. The site owner is of the opinion that having fulltimers means that he is earning the whole time. We might have to change pitches
We have a nice van, Adria Supra, 1989. Porch Awning is new and nice. We have a big water tank but will get an aquaroll too. We have 2 waste containers too. One under the shower room drain hose and one under the kitchen sink drain hose.

The wife of the site owner lived in the same village as I did as a kid, I don't think I remember her though, and the site owners pals went to the same school as I did but left as I joined (its a age thing not an 'OH MY GOD, look who's arrived at the school' thing)

We have now been in our van for 2 full weeks, we have had high winds, torrential rain, hail storm with massive hail stones. We had a wheel drop off as the AA towed the van after our immobiliser on the car died. But so far, we are loving it. We have a Saluki and a pair of terriers, plus us all in the van. Everyone is happy. We won't be looking for a flat anytime soon. We might look for a bigger van at some point though. Job hunting starts tomorrow. We are going to ask some friends if we can use their address for the DVLA etc.

No interweb yet. In a cafe in the city at the moment.

 

[Surfer]

Before commiting to a dongle for broadband, get a free PAYG simcard from a suppleir like three or O2 and try it in your phone. If you get good signal, go for it. I find Three and O2 to be very good for reception, but generally Three have the better deals. For 1GB download I pay £7.50 a month using Mi-Fio which is a better option than a dongle.

 

[Steve L]

Glad you settling in. It's much easier when you have a good group of folks around.
I agree with surfer it is a good idea to see what the others are doing as far as mobile broadband are concerned. They'll be able to give you the SP.

We tried 3 for our PC as it was supposed to be good coverage but found it to be no good at the site. We use T-mobile now and don't know why, but we get a great signal. I could have something to do with the Shobdon air strip being near by. But hey ho we get a good one. Most PAYG broadbands on offer only do 1GB now as they have become so popular that their servers can't cope. We got our latest dongle from argos and they wrongly advertised it as a 3GB. After some wrangling with T-mobile and eventually getting through to the UK tech team, I negotiated and got 2GB. We use all of that and some on our PC, but because of TM's fair use policy we can carry on using tinternet for all except gaming and large capacity downloads. We are limited on this from 4pm to midnight.

One tip for the up and coming cold snaps. We keep a 10 Ltr can of water inside the van so that we can at the very least have a hot drink when the water is stopped by jack frost.

Atb Steve.

 

[cyclebuffs]

Thanks again.
It seems to be Vodafone and Orange for dongle use where we are. The 3 phone simply doesn't work until we get about half a mile up the main road, for some reason.
We popped to ASDA last night and got a 5l bottle of water for inside the van, it makes life a bit easier for topping up the dog's water. They won't touch the water out of the tap. It still has a feint tang of milton. We might have overdone the sterilising solution a bit when we sterilised the tank and pipes

.

Mr Cyclebuff has just about found a job. He was due to start tomorrow but it might be thursday now, its only a 5 mile cycle up the road, which is good. I am having problems as everyone seems to want some form of ID and the council where we used to live, are still trying to trace my driving licence, passport, birth certificate and last years accounts and letter from the inland revenue. They posted it back to us and then the post office lost it. It is somewhere in a sorting office in Scotland. The post office won't talk to us as we are the recipient, they will only talk to the council and they are not being very fast. It could take another fortnight yet to get a reply from the post office and then another fortnight for the post office to pay compensation (for replacement of licence, passport etc) to the council and then the council will take up to 28 working days to refund us so we can then get replacements. What a palava.
Our friend Mark has loaned us his address for mail to come to. Total star that he is.
We are going to look about on gumtree and similar for some awning furniture as we have an empty awning which we could be using for sitting in, possibly cooking & eating in too.

 

[Surfer]

Go for cane furniture that can be dis-assembled quickly and transported quickly. We got ours off Freecyle. We also got a tall lampstadn for the awning along with vinyle flooring to keep it warm during the winter. The vinyl was placed onto top of the groundsheets. .

 

[cyclebuffs]

Thanks. That's a great tip.
We have moved the van a couple of times now, to let the grass grow under the awning. We have it down to 90 minutes now and it is acomplished with far less bad language. We have got ourselves into a corner at the moment as the wind is a bit interesting. It blew the porch awning along about 4 inches the other night. We were suprised at the force of the gusts.

5 weeks on and we are still loving it. We have considered a flat and then dismissed it. We have got used to not having to find the electric money, council tax and whatnot. Much more civilised. Then again, it hasn't snowed yet, we might feel differently when we have to dig ourselves out a few times. Mr CycleBuff's job finished but we are applying for Caravan Site Warden jobs and now looking for cheap photocopying to send CVs out on spec to a lot of local sites. 10p a sheet is just too expensive at the moment. Nevermind, a job will come along soon.

 

[Barking]

Empty post (likely not intentional - probably an Internet Explorer issue!)

 

[Steve L]

We got round the photo copying by using our scanner/printer for our PC. My OH blue toothed it and I bought one of those plastic garden storage cuboards to keep it away from prying eyes.
We spent 6 months on grass and it was a nightmare. We weren't allowed to use the ground sheets and I soon found that the corner steady's needed tightening every few days even with the plastic feet. It even happened when on gravel hard standings. I cadged some 10' X 2" by 18" long off cuts of wood from my bor in law, which has cured the steady issue.
If you are both out of work at the mo, don't forget you can still sign on and get housing benefit to cover some or all of the site rent. There is also a council "discretionary payment" available, which is calculated on your income and expenditure. Unfortunately these days, you do have to tell your council what services they have available to cure that penny saving amnesia they seem to suffer from!
Sometimes it does seem easier to "blood out of a stone" but thats just the beurocratic way.
We're on metered electric and jogging along on 87p a day at present. I prefer a cold jan & feb because at our winter site it's an "all in" nightly rate so we can use as much lecky as we like.
Snow is an interesting obstacle but the amounts we have shouldn't be too frustrating. The most important thing is to prepare for the worst and then it only get's better.

 

[fudgethecat]

Hi all
Me back again after a little gap over the summer months. Well it has now been 7 months and my husband and I are still living in our van and loving it, we are a bit concerned about the winter, but have decided to give it a go, with the money we save each month from living in our van, we decided if it gets that bad we will move into the local inn for a few nights if we loose our water. The site we are on has about 12 full timers and we have very much fitted into the community which is lovely. Everyone seems keen to help when needed and I never thought I'd say this but I feel safer sleeping in the van than I ever did in a house due to knowing that I have neighbours near by to look out for me. Our old kitty cat is doing well in the van, we have bought an extra ceramic heater from Argos to use in the winter to make sure she keeps warm. We are going to be buying an outside locker for a few things, including bottled water in case our's is turned off and will be starting to winterize the caravan as much as we can in the next month. Luckily we are on a concrete pitch with water connected and waste connection so it's almost like being in a house (apart from the loo), our electric is included in our rent so we know what our outgoings are and will not change no matter how much we use. Lots of our friends call us gypsies, which we have gotten used to, most of the time we just make them look stupid by asking them what they think the definition of a gypsy is and as we both have good jobs and pay our taxes like everyone else, they can't really back up what they say to us, some have said they wish they could do it too.
I'm sure I'll post more over the winter months, if I get any good tips I'll post on here to help others thinking of it. SteveinLeo was a great help to me especially with making sure the van was highly organised and things in containers to help. I can't actually believe how much we have in our van. Our main storage is literally 2 mins up the road and we recently had a complete reorganisation of the van and took stuff back to storage that we didn't really need to keep in here, but you find that out as you go.
Hope all is well with everyone else living in their vans.

 

[Surfer]

We used to put anti freeze in our waste master because if that freezes up, big issues. We also lagged the water pipes next to our caravan and the pipe from there to the barrel. Worst is when the site Elsan point freezes up and that happened often! Always make sure your vehicle is in a position to get out in the event of a large snowfall.

 

[Steve L]

We have had the same experiance of being pidgeon holed as I call it.
The previous wardens on our site J&L were unknown to us very prejeditial towards us. They falselyaccused both my daughter and her partner of speeding on the site. Visitors to us were turned away if they reported to reception. If my daughter parked for more than 5 yes 5 mins at the caravan jimbo would rush over to complain. If I raised the car bonnet that was a no no. The heated toilet block had the heating turned down to frost stat level when the october seasonals went. But amazingly it was flat out from 6pm friday to mid day sunday for visitors. The washing machine was disconected at that time too. On top of that some of our relatives tagged us for want of a better word.

But we had the last laugh. Jimbo got the tin tack and the mocking relatives have had to join our club of living a cheaply as we can.

Last winter we only had 10 odd days where the taps in the van froze. We always have a 10 litre can of water inside the van for the kettle. I use XXL size puffa jackets bought for under a fiver from charity shops to insulate the water barrels. By threading the water pump down the sleeve of the jacket for insulation. We use 2 waste masters reversed under the van and we insulate the waste pipes. We also use an awning skirt down the side of the van to shade the waste water from the wind. also by running the hot tap for 5 mins before bed the heat in the waste tanks keeps the water fluid overnight until I get up at 6am.
I was forced by -10 and lower temps to change to propane gas for winter and one 11Kg bottle (£19) lasted from 1st nov through to july this year. I have now replaced that bottle (£25) and converted the front locker to carry 11kg propane & 7kg butane side by side with seperate regulators and isolation valves, to enable quick easy change overs. I also have a wind breaker positioned round the front of the van surrounding the A frame. This cuts the drafts down in the front end and hides our satalite dish. We leave our awning up all year as in the winter it acts as a heat store during the day which we use to heat the van via leaving the door open.
On average our gas & electric (metered) works out to less than £500 a year.

 

[Steve L]

Christmas has come early for us this year.

We have been offered a 1 bed disabled bungalow in Leominster at last. It's took 3 years to get the offer despite us living fulltime in the van. Naturally we have accepted as it is a start on the housing ladder and at a location where we could very easily exchange with someone living out of town who hasn't got the luxury of a car.

I did have to write a 2 page A4 letter detailing all mine and my wife's illnesses which filled that page and then a page discussing ageisum regarding EU legislation and UK legislation recognising that arthritis and anxiety & depression have no age limitation and finally ask that the council consider our case and lift the over 60's age limitation.

I must of hit the right nerves (or was it the right descriminatory suggestion), because it took just 4 days to be offered the bungalow.

We won't be able to consider moving in until sometime after the end of this month as the current tennants have to move out on the 28th, but hey ho, with a fair wind and all. We could be in before christmas, which would suit us as the site fees are paid up to Jan 7th. I've already found storage at my mums for the van as we have no intension of giving up caravanning. We can now go back to being tourist's.

I would like to take the opportunity to say thanks to all of who often spur'd us on with encouragement even when we felt very low especially when we both had to recover from some quite serious operations in the 3+ years we have been in our van.

I'll still be here on the forum to help others to enjoy their caravanning and to also help those out there who are fulltiming.

You never know, we might get fed up with civy street and return to fulltiming.

I'm working on a plan to save the utility costs by converting the house lights to 12 volt and run a battery charged by solar power. I doubt the residents will stand a wind generator.

There is just one scary thing though, we will have a WARDEN !!??

on site to look down on us from their 2nd floor flat.
Mind you after 2 years of Jimbo I'm not gona be in the mood for any antics.

 

[thursdays child]

Steve and Lady Steve!!,what good news.Well done you for getting this result.We all know what a fighter you are to get your rights and at last you have won the battle.Hopefully this is the start of bigger and better changes for you both healthwise especially. Your advice and support has been invaluable to lots of people and they will be glad to hear you will still be available to help as always.
Better get the cheque book ready for the new nest to be feathered!!
Good Luck and happy early CHRISTMASxxxxxx
Thursdays Child

 

[fudgethecat]

What great news Steve, well done on winning your fight for housing. Thanks again for all your advice to living perm in the van, it has been invaluable.

 

[Steve L]

We've taken the plunge and spent our first night in the bungalow.

We spent the first week comuting between cararavan and the bricks & mortar, while we found carpets and replacement furniature that we had to sell off as the cost of storage outweighed the material value of the goods. But thanks to our local charity shops we now have the basics to be comfortable. We found a 6mth old harvey's sofa for £150 and I have a chesterfield recliner for £50. Carpets cost £300 and all that's left to get are wardrobes.

The biggest wrench for us was actually leaving the caravan. It literally took 4 days before we felt that the caravan was not the most comfortable accomodation.

Having spent 3 1/2 years in our caravan we have led a sheltered lifestyle. The site is very good and very quiet. where as, the bungalow has skateboarders out til 10pm and lorries starting up at 5am! Positively deafening noise compared to what we have been used to. At the van you only got disturbed by hawks mating and the skip lorry on a wednesday morning once a fortnight.

Looking back over the time in the van, I can thuroughly recomend living in your touring caravan. We have had some bad times while enduring two winters that topped records in Herefordshire, endured a storm that I honestly thought would shred the awning. It was the first time in 30 years that I actually tied down not only the awning, but actually staked the caravan down. Having to workout a plan to keep water flowing in -10 plus of ice and snow.

But the bad days only amounted to less than a month's worth each year.

One very important tip I would give permanent caravanners is to keep your sense of humor at all times.
The next important is not to use any sites that you have or might consider using for holidays. Doing this keeps holiday and fulltiming memories totally seperate, thus avoiding an emotional roller coaster.

 

[manton1]

Why dont you look at the like's of the caravan club or similar and get a job as site wardens, problems solved and you get to live in your van
and meet likeminded interesting people, good luck !

 

[microwave]

THIS THREAD, if such a huge mine of invaluable information and wise comment can be so described, is imo the BEST RESOURCE on the internet on this topic.

I'm a dedicated full time van dweller of 12 years duration, so I know good advice when I see it. I've a few hints and tips to contribute from my own experience . . .

As regards the question "bricks'n mortar v caravan" - t's a non-issue for me!

Thanks to all the briliant contributors - i've never seen such a consistently on-topic and useful discussion in ANY forum. I can only think it's a reflection of the sorts of people who can think "out side the box" and have the courage to defy conventional wisdom.

GO FOR IT vanners!

 

[microwave]

My initiation to caravan living began 12 years ago. A friend who had an old static on a coastal site was unable to make use of it due to work committments, so I paid her the yearly rental and she kept ownership for herself so she could return to it whenever she chose - we alternated sharing it for the first year. Simply an "informal arrangement" which suited everybody. The second year she had no spare time at all for caravaning, and as I had enjoyed staying there so much, and was renting a place in town which I didn't really like, I just stayed in the van more or less full time, finally terminating my town rental. So I gradually moved into full timing - there was no big decision or agonising over "should I or shouldn't I".

So if I was advising a newbie (as I was) who was considering full timing, I should say emphatically TRY BEFORE YOU BUY. It's a great advantage of this way of life that one can give it a go, at little expense, to find out if this is the life for YOU PERSONALLY. Buy a second hand trailer and join a club - the C&CC or the CC, and go vanning especially in winter. That's the time of year that separates the sheep from the goats. You will know FOR CERTAIN if you can hack it full time. Forget about trivia like addresses for documents and post, insurance etc. These can be dealt with, both from these pages and experienced full timers who you will certainly meet.

It's so easy to be disheartened by imagining all the possible problems and things that can go wrong. Thankfully some of the magnificent commentators who have preceded me have given a taste of the humour, fun and good fellowship which can be found EVERYWHERE in our community.

 

[Steve L]

You're quite right microwave, the world outside caravanners realy do need to learn about being a community rather than spending their time thinking they are on their own pedistall.

We have over the last 7 months realy considered moving back into our caravan purely because of the comaradery of fellow caravanners. Our neighbours around our bricks and mortar are a strange lot!
I have to park the car in the disabled space before 3pm an a sunday, otherwise a very nimble oap will park her car there and not move it all week. BTW she doesn't have any mobility issues as she can sprint down the stairs of her 2nd floor flat and park her car inside 2 mins. (my son timed her one day after he'd noticed her stalking the carpark from her lounge window).
I've had to ward off shed thieves and garden ornament pilferer's as the locals think they can do what ever they like to people who they think won't fight back.
I now know what people mean about the urban jungle!
We never had any of this from fellow caravanners. Hence why we probably every week mention about how good life was in the caravan.

 

[Surfer]

A big difference between living in a static and a touring caravan as with a touring caravan every now and then you have to shift it. Alos water supply issues in winter etc, but as Steve says we missed it until we were able to secure accommodation in a quiet rural area. Initially we were in a town area and did not like the way some people carried on.

 

[Scotland_fan]

Hi all,

Can you advise me on where I can get to get insurance cover for the caravan when living in it permanantly. I'm going to be homeless in a few months as my parents are moving and I'm looking to live in my touring caravan for a year or so as a temporary measure.

The trouble is nobody seems to insure it for permanant residence. If it were a cheap old van I wouldn't bother insuring it, but its almost brand new!

Please help!

 

[Surfer]

Hi all,

Can you advise me on where I can get to get insurance cover for the caravan when living in it permanantly. I'm going to be homeless in a few months as my parents are moving and I'm looking to live in my touring caravan for a year or so as a temporary measure.

The trouble is nobody seems to insure it for permanant residence. If it were a cheap old van I wouldn't bother insuring it, but its almost brand new!

Please help!

How will they know you are living in it permanently if you are using someone else's address for your mail and registration of car plus driver's licence? Wink!