Gents,

I look to your collective thoughts for a quandry I may be facing.

For 11 years, we've camped in various tents and currently have an OzTent RV5 and loads of stuff to go along with it. Works well with my Tonka-like 110 and we like the overland thing. But repeatedly rainy sites and the hassle of setting up and packing it all away again has worn me down and it no longer holds any appeal, other than to my wife who appears to still enjoy this laborious procedure. And I hate getting wet (usually in the UK) and walking to a toilet / shower. Although a warm, sunny tent experience is rather wonderful, but it's very rare to get that in the UK.

We rented a 6-berth motorhome last week and I loved it. Wifey isn't so keen at all due to the size and lack of ability (relatively) to take it off-pitch and explore the area. I don't necessarily agree with that, but it's a valid view. But a good secondhand Hymer or Auto-Sleeper or equivalent makes sense to me. But it was so easy to get ready and so convenient.

And so we think about a caravan. Has to be large enough to sleep 2 adults and 2 children (so 3 beds) comfortably. Ideally, a fixed double as we found setting up a double in a Swift motorhome a real faff. But these things are about as large as a 6-berth motorhome and then you've got a tow car on the front. And they don't excite me, unless it's an Airstream. And even I can't quite stretch that far.

Budget is around £30k, if agreed as a family.

Or do we forget it and rent cottages, go to hotels, fly to sunny villas and occasionally camp overseas like we do from time to time?

So, what are your thoughts for and against? Si. <This is my name.

I eat rat poison.

A man ain't truly been insulted until he stands buck naked in front of a woman and she didn't even notice. Or care.

Depends how much touring you want to do. I would go for a motorhome if you want lots of short stops, but if you're settling in for a couple of weeks, then I'd go for a tourer.

Also how often you're going to use it - I would think to justify a motorhome, you need fairly regular use, otherwise get a tourer and put the difference towards a car or something else you will use a lot.

We found a place we really liked and bought a static caravan

Hotel with infinity pool.

We found touring Scotland was suprisingly enjoyable last week. There's many campsites near the sea and loch's that are accessed down narrow, twisty roads which a large caravan could potentially struggle with.

And the ability to move around to see more of an area appeals, at least for now. We really enjoyed the 4 campsites we visited last week as each area was different and it gave us an appetite to return.

Previously, we'd rent somewhere or camp for a week in one place. Fine and relaxing but we rarely see much of the surrounding area, which a motorhome allows you to do with greater ease in my view.

Then again, we have two excellent tow cars that a caravan is well suited for. My wife is concerned that a motorhome would make at least one of them pretty much redundant. And selling one isn't an option.

But I've never used a caravan before, so it's difficult to be objective in comparative terms. A user's experience would be helpful, if possible. Si. <This is my name.

I eat rat poison.

A man ain't truly been insulted until he stands buck naked in front of a woman and she didn't even notice. Or care.

Only experience I have had with a motorhome was 6 weeks in Oz a few years back and novelty soon wore off, having to pack everything up everytime you wanted to move was a real PITA. Bought a s/hand caravan last year and it has been great so far, no problem with taking the dogs with us and offers so much flexibility. Caravan I bought is a Hobby (and yes I know they are favoured by the travellers - but there is a reason - they are spacious and very well kitted out) The one we bought is the only twin axle model that is within UK towing regs for a car (anything over 7m must be towed by a commercial vehicle ie transit van or pick up) It is a 2007 model, hardly used and it only cost me £6k, has a fixed double bed, central heating, shower/toilet etc. This was our site last month on Tiree for 2 weeks - stones throw from the beach. I also bought a small suitcase generator so we we had this idyllic site and electric when we needed it. Far better than the motorhome option.

Click image to enlarge

KurtVerbose wrote:

Hotel with infinity pool.

caravan suits me better, as i hate packing up to go anywhere, plus the dog enjoys the awning more than being inside.
Towing is easy, the hard part is thinking for the idiots who struggle to do that when they drive and remebering that you cant use all the lanes

if you buy a van and dont like it you'll not lose much on it after a few months if you sell it on.

As someone who has done both they have their appeals.

Tin tent like mine Here has loads of space, is easy enough to manoeuvre with an FF, doesnt affect MPG that much really, and even on a site that turns boggy(ive done one that wasnt hard standing!) the FF still pulled it out without any drama although you could see it did sink into the grass/mud a little ones the legs were up!

Advantages,
Is its about 30mins for me to get setup when on a site and hooked up.
another 60mins for the awning which is full length and a bit bigger than the one pictured above.
Can then drive the FF where ever i want and the caravan offers a decent amount of space to chuck some bikes and bits in without straining the FF. Its a bit much for 2 people but still good and is setup such that if i want to go away next weekend i know i can roll up friday afternoon, hookup and head off.

Downsides
Storage costs me between £10-15 p/w and insurance is about £30 a month as well.
Annual service is needed as well and is a big fecker to was every few months as well if not used and after each trip, especially the roof!
narrow lanes can be fun and you really need the wing mirror extenders though you can just about get away without them on an FF its not advisable.


Motorhomes get rid of most of the disadvantages but do cost more for something of the same age as you are buying a two in one effectively.
Disdvantage is that when you get there you either have to pack up all the clobber in the unit when you want to travel somewhere or using an A frame and tow a small car behind the motorhome. A fair few do this with Smart cars or fiestas and the ilk as they are pretty light so tow easily. If it were me i'd probably us a towing dolly instead of an A frame as i can never trust the things. FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
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Definitely caravan. Motorhomes are a royal PITA to pack up everything if you need to drive anywhere. Unless you tow one of those micr cars you don't have wheels at your destination and if you're going to tow it might as well be a caravan.

If you're going to tug with a Defender remember these can be up-plated into commercial class which removes the length restriction on the caravan And then the world is your oyster

Sleeps 9 BTW

Guys

IMHO The only caravan i find suitable for a full fat is an airstream ..
possibly 27' or bigger .......
that's been my dream , yet to be fulfilled .

There are some companies that import them used from USA , you just have to tear-down the whole interior and have it refurbished by your local caravan maker , with proper power system and brannd new gizmos ....
and finally you polish the outside !!! Jaybear

2002 V8 , premier edition , 19" alloys ,

make sure you get motor movers,one thing that came fitted on our van - absolutely brilliant, defo recommend these makes getting it back down the side of the house a breeze as its a big van to man handle and saves any hassle from 'you know who.......!' who is always keen to supervise

kiter wrote:

saves any hassle from 'you know who.......!'

Dude, you need to man-up and tell her, "Get the holiday clothes washed and make a brew while I sort the man's work"


and then run like F***ing hell.

Im going to say caravan.

For the reasons stated above, but unless you want to tow a smart behind your motorhome you will find yourself trying to get into all of the nice places you want to visit in a 30' tank......think small cornish village.

Plus with 30k to spend you will get a decent second hand motor home but would get a very nice caravan to tow behind the ffrr.

Speaking of using an uprated defender, to tow longer vans im assuming its not possible to uprate a ff. Kitter have you managed to get away with towing an oversized hobby with your ff? It looks like a big one +7m in body? There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
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The advice I got is the measurement that is used for calculating the permitted towing length excludes the A Frame and our one is a 610 model which is just 8cm under the 7m maximum towing length excluding the A Frame. With the A Frame included it is 8.1m. Far as I know it is the only twin axle hobby that complies in the UK. I almost bought a bigger 720 (it is over 8m without the A Frame) till I discovered this by accident. Alot of places selling them will tell you it doesnt matter and pc plod wont bother you, but my insurance company said in the event of an accident neither car or van would be covered if the legal towing limits were found to have been exceeded. It's a great van and being 7 ft wide makes it really spacious inside, you do need the towing mirrors though as you can see feck all behind you without them. There is apparently a move to increase this limit to bring us into line with the EU but hasn't come into effect as yet, unless it has been really recent. FFRR tows it no bother and it looked really good, although I did over hear someone on the ferry refer to us as 'posh gypos', reckon it was a bit of the green eyed monster.............

For me its a caravan every time. Total comfort & you dont have to haul a lumbering motorhome around for the rest of the year. Having said that, I've also got a Mazda Bongo campervan. To simply stop in Glencoe on a beautiful summers evening, pop the top up, bed down & just take in the scenery before pressing the button & the blinds come down very gracefully. Its time to go to the land of nod. All that with 40mpg (yes really) its blissful.

PS:I fit & service Powrtouch caravan movers, so even my caravan is 4 wheel drive






Fitted by my own fair hand. :D

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