The caravan thread

[Mito Man]

Hymer

[DeskJockey]

excellent suggestion.

Found a place in the New Forest who hire them. http://www.swaymotorhomecaravanhire.co.uk
Probably get them to set it up somewhere for us (at any site within 10 miles, as they offer). I doubt I could use trying out a caravan as an excuse to buy a new car

Do try the towing as well. My dad bought a caravan years ago with a plan to tow it down to Italy and leave it there permanently. By the time he'd got it home (50 miles) he was fed up with towing. You're probably more patient than he is, but worth making sure you're okay with it.

[DeskJockey]

how appealing a hymen would be

Anyone?

Don't kick a "man" when he's down.

[Sundayjumper]

I doubt I could use trying out a caravan as an excuse to buy a new car

Pffft. Amateur

[Rich B]

how appealing a hymen would be

Anyone?

Mito definitely has a (fully intact) hymen.

[dinny_g]

Do try the towing as well.

And setting up, packing away, chemical toilet disposal etc. All part of the experience

[drcarlos]

I got into this at an early age and we've been running a van for about 15 years now (bought to go racing initially but we have used it for our main holiday in the summer now for about 10 years) and we've been through several in this time and various tow cars.
Currently on a Bailey Senator Oklahoma (4/5 berth, fixed end bed and small washroom) but have had 2 Avondales and an Elddis. The current Bailey is without a doubt the worst of the lot despite being the best appointed, most expensive and most comfortable. This is mainly due to the crappy build quality and design flaws of the pre-Alu tech Baileys. I haven't decided if it's being changed this year but I the fact that Bailey now have this new construction (Alu-tech) I would buy another but it would be Alu-tech construction.
Motor movers are good but not as useful as made out, any incline or kerb needs to be reversed up or pushed as the mover just spins on the tyres chewing them up, so if you have a steep drive or kerb to get over think again, but you do become quite adept at reversing with them and it's easier than with a small trailer.
When buying check for damp above all else and check everywhere, a seemly nice well cared for van can have many hidden problems and after total disasters that my mate had between us we've broken some hearts over the years when we've found damp in some old couples pride and joy. My current Bailey has had water ingress and there are areas that show it but it's dry now but damage has been done and it's a massive job to fix it and just not cost effective on it now.
Think of layout, make sure you get something suitable. A poor layout for you won't be a problem if you are only doing weekends but becomes hugely annoying (to the point you want to change the van) if you go somewhere for a week or more, changing is expensive so choose carefully.
German vans? Well they present an interesting proposition but you need to be careful, some are not legal to tow on UK roads unless you have a commercial vehicle (and pickups don't count, you need LWB sprinters, Twin wheel transits, etc), which is another reason why they are so popular with the travellers as they generally have these already due to their trading. Makers like Hobby, Knaus and Fendt sell different widths with smaller 6.5 foot vans and bigger 7ft wide ones and it's these that need a commercial to tow. They are also likely to not have toilets (travellers don't use them and use the woods) which is essential for us as most races are rough camped. They are more expensive to insure too, but are generally well made.
Tow car wise we have used, Toyota Lucida (used to struggle to cool with the weight), L200 (slow but would pull it no problems), Ranger (faster but not as reliable), Mitsubishi Grandis (pulled it no problems, but not good for racing) and the current Navara (an utter money pit, but tows really well). The pickup suits me well as it works for towing well, seats 5 and has capacity for my race mower, plus when we need to get out of a wet field it has no problems at all. Nissan aren't what they were though and too much of the Renault has crept in and I wouldn't buy another. The L200 and Hilux don't drive as well but they are more reliable and as well appointed. Next time I'll buy one of those. The big people carrier like the Grandis or S-Max are decent too and the diesel engines are plenty capable if you don't need to go off road, but you need to be careful when matching the van weight (the big single axles are fine but any twin axles might be too big), where even the biggest van is no problem match wise for any pickup. Also nose weight, some cars have a very low nose weight limit (big drawback with the Grandis) and this is hard when packing as you can't 'backload' to take weight off the nose as you end up with an unstable (see snaking) rig.
Where will it live when you aren't using it? If you intend to store at home check that there are no covenants in place preventing it as many newer estates have these and storage in our area is limited since the big place in Fleet was forced to close a few years ago.
As you are local still feel free to come and see what I'm on about as our van lives at home and I can covey far more over a brew than on here.

Carl.

[JonMad]

that's awesome and thanks for the offer. I had thought about the deeds and whether one had to be kept elsewhere - something to check. The wife is getting particularly excited about this concept now we've started researching it.

[Rich B]

Basically, don’t buy anything that Carlos would!

[Sundayjumper]

As you are local still feel free to come and see what I'm on about as our van lives at home and I can covey far more over a brew than on here.

I'd be curious to have a nose round as well. Evo mini-meet

[Jobbo]

Currently on a Bailey Anal Senator Oklahoma (4/5 berth, fixed end bed and small washroom) but have had 2 Anal Avondales and an Anal Elddis.

FTFY

[drcarlos]

As you are local still feel free to come and see what I'm on about as our van lives at home and I can covey far more over a brew than on here.

I'd be curious to have a nose round as well. Evo mini-meet

We can set something up drop me a note and you can both come round have a brew and a chat.

I'm not saying don't buy an older Bailey (although Alu-tech came in around 2011 so even the early ones of these are now 8 years old) but you have to be really, really careful with Rangers, Pageants and Senators as the plastic nose and rear panels were fitted with rivets that were too large which caused stress cracks and then to split out from the rivet causing leaks. They are bloody hard to repair too and the only real cure is a new front and rear panel!
Alu-tech is better because the panels fit into channels and the panels themselves no longer have wood in them meaning they do not hold water and fail if there is a leak. If they leak water gets in and runs down the walls and you get puddles on the floor which are easy to spot. The old vans the first you knew was when a wall went soft or you picked up damp with a meter on a yearly check and then it's usually too late.

They maybe cumbersome things to tow but a decent powerful tow car (Toureg would be great) makes things less tiresome and fraught. The Navara tows really well (sits at 60mph on nearly everything) and is a decent overall drive for a truck don't get me wrong, they are just built really badly which causes major issues for the 2nd or 3rd owners.

[drcarlos]

Basically, don’t buy anything that Carlos would!

Ain't that the way. Learn from my mistakes!

Seriously though the Navara was always rated as the best all round truck (until chassisgate broke 6 months after I got mine) and the Senator Oklahoma was the award winner for best single axle caravan when it came out. Thought both were fairly safe bets.

[16vCento]

My Van is over 10 now (Ace Aristocrat) and has never had any damp, Swift group made vans are generally quite decent, seem better screwed together than Bailey but also are heavier.

Big capacity has been better for towing economy wise than turbo'd stuff in my experience, the 406 was MUCH better than the 9-5 even though it weighed more and had similar power (when standard), Volvo isn't bad but it's off boost at 60 MPH locked in 5th which helps.

I'd imagine almost any car now has the torque to pull a decent sized van, guy at work has a Kia Soul and he has a 4 berth 1200kg van he tows with it.

If you are thinking about getting something interesting to tow with make sure its type approved, I really wanted a CLS500 (2005, 55 plate) but you can't tow with any CLS of that shape

Same with ST220 Mondeos, Mini Clubman Cooper S, and all sorts of stuff, weirdly RX8s can tow upto 1300kg but I imagine that would be a nightmare and very expensive fuel wise needing to be sat at 7500rpm everytime there is a slight incline

[mik]

Probably wouldn’t affect an RX8.

Drive the bricks off them using all available revs and throttle travel. 22mpg.

Pootle around with light throttle openings, short shifting everywhere. 23mpg.

I think the fuel pumps in them have a fixed flow rate, and anything not used inside the engine is somehow cleverly vented to atmosphere.

[Rich B]

Probably wouldn’t affect an RX8.

Drive the bricks off them using all available revs and throttle travel. 22mpg.

Pootle around with light throttle openings, short shifting everywhere. 23mpg.

I think the fuel pumps in them have a fixed flow rate, and anything not used inside the engine is somehow cleverly vented to atmosphere.

so true!

[V8Granite]

For us a caravan is only better than a tent when it’s either extremely hot or extremely cold.

Our camping gear fits in a small shed, our cooking area is bigger, our table is bigger, our clothes space is about the same and our space under cover is bigger than our friends caravan. I’d say to set up it takes twice as long though and packing away it’s about an hours work. To set up the tent is 20 mins and to totally set up the kitchen, beds is 30 mins. That’s with me or the wife doing it by ourselves. We spent close to 2k on everything and 1200 ish on the tent, an inflatable one.

Our car is full though, nothing in the cabin area but the boot and roof is are full. Plus we just bought a tow bar tray for the tent so the dog has more space.

Caravans always seemed an expensive way to go camping to me but it certainly has its advantages in bad weather, especially when packing away.



That’s without the porch area connectedwhich adds another 1.5 metres or cover.

One great thing about caravans, motorbikes, camping etc is there is literally an endless amount of cool stuff you must have, you will never look at a space saving utensil in the same way again

Dave!

[Rich B]

I have a decent sized tent and I think the most annoying thing is having to dry it out (basically put it up and down all over again) when you get home if it’s rained. But then a caravan needs maintenance and somewhere to live, so neither is perfect.

[V8Granite]

I have a decent sized tent and I think the most annoying thing is having to dry it out (basically put it up and down all over again) when you get home if it’s rained. But then a caravan needs maintenance and somewhere to live, so neither is perfect.

Definitely, we bought a tow ball tray as when packing up in the rain it was a pain as the tent had to go in first, so all your kit was left out which then needed drying when you got home, that wasn’t fun!! Now our tent can go away last.

Dave!

[mik]

As above. Different strokes etc.

We always used an awning on the van - mainly to allow storage of bikes and give us somewhere to store wet boots, hang up jackets to dry etc - so the van itself could be kept completely clean and dry.

I didn’t hate camping but I much preferred the ability to be able to level the van perfectly, cook standing up, not be forced to eat outside, have some decent soundproofing to and from neighbours, increased security for your shizzle etc etc.