The caravan thread

[mik]

Anyway, getting one of these next time.

[Carlos]

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!

This

And you'll need a big knife, I went good size folding as I felt walking around with a 12" Rambo Knife on the hip wasn't appropriate on family orientated sites.

[Rich B]

Anyway, getting one of these next time.

you could tow a trailer with all the furniture too - you could even set the furniture in that trailer so it can be used straight away without unpacking it all...!

[JonMad]

If you must have a caravan, my first call would be to the Sussex Caravan Centre (West Sussex) https://www.sussexcaravancentre.co.uk

Run by a car mad family who will give you honest answers and a decent service. What other caravan place has a DeLorean and Diablo in the staff car park?

tl/dr; looked at some caravans. many things to think about.

-

So we popped over yesterday (didn't notice any tasty staff cars) and spent a long time looking round a small handful of the many caravans on display. A couple second hand at under £6k. One under £12k. Another for £17k, and three new ones up to £23k.

Things we preferred
- end washroom over a central washroom, because with the central one it felt harder to move around and more claustrophobic
- washroom with a separate shower rather than the whole thing being a small wetroom. Felt easier to keep clean and use, and more storage space (obviously requires more total space for this)
- Main lounge/seating area being two seats opposite each other rather than L-shaped as that was fiddly to squeeze around with a table there (may not be a problem if you always use the table in the awning anyway).
- extra seats (the ones with the fold out bunk bed over) were nice when in the middle rather than down the other end, as that felt more sociable.
- Separate, fixed bunks also looked good but again, more space needed for those = more £££s.

Other observations.
- The Swift ones seems slightly better finished than the Lunar ones.
- If I need to change the car anyway to tow something big enough to be pleasantly habitable, why not go whole hog and get a twin axle jobbie (we looked at https://www.sussexcaravancentre.co.uk/u ... lermo-2791) and a grunty large capacity motor that can also provide some torquey amusement day to day, e.g. ML350CDi, though despite comments about the gearbox behaviour I can't help but be tempted by the 420.
- Wife's favourite - that she felt most 'at home' in - was the first one we looked at (https://www.sussexcaravancentre.co.uk/u ... hroom-2507) and she arbitrarily set our budget at £15k, what with that being about the mid point of what we happened to look at. I'd like to think we'd try one first, with a preferred layout, before splashing that kind of cash out. That's also more that I've ever spend on a car (Golf R lease and company cars excepted), so for that reason it feels like a lot of money.
- Then there's a question of the benefit of trying out the concept, including the towing/storing/loading aspects buy buying a smaller one that the current Yeti can tow, knowing that really we'd want more space. 1139kg is the limit of the Yeti 1.2 following the 85% guideline.

[Carlos]

- Then there's a question of the benefit of trying out the concept, including the towing/storing/loading aspects buy buying a smaller one that the current Yeti can tow, knowing that really we'd want more space. 1139kg is the limit of the Yeti 1.2 following the 85% guideline.

The 1.2 Yeti has a plated max. towing weight of 1200kg my old 110hp 2.0 Diesel Yeti towed a van with a MTPLM 1182kg with ease although it does have a plated max. towing weight of 1500kg but cant imagine it being much heavier than the petrol.

[mik]

FWIW we never showered in ours. That’s a facility you use the caravan site for.

Too little water flow, and you only have 13A coming in, so 3KW is yer max total-van useage. Fine for filling the sink to do dishes, but I wouldn’t like to shower under it.

[JonMad]

- Then there's a question of the benefit of trying out the concept, including the towing/storing/loading aspects buy buying a smaller one that the current Yeti can tow, knowing that really we'd want more space. 1139kg is the limit of the Yeti 1.2 following the 85% guideline.

The 1.2 Yeti has a plated max. towing weight of 1200kg my old 110hp 2.0 Diesel Yeti towed a van with a MTPLM 1182kg with ease although it does have a plated max. towing weight of 1500kg but cant imagine it being much heavier than the petrol.

Ta. Parkers reckons a 110hp 2 litre diesel is around 110kg more ( maybe, and that's still a FWD one)

[Richard]

Depending on how old you are (or rather, when you passed your test) as you may not be allowed to tow without a special towing license

I’m not allowed to, for example

[Rich B]

I passed in 1997 and they had just changed the rules - I could tow a trailer with a combined weight of up to 3500kg.

[Mito Man]

That’s the same for me, which sucks as it’s the lower limit so I can only tow single axle trailers. I think they made towing limits even lower more recently.

[drcarlos]

FWIW we never showered in ours. That’s a facility you use the caravan site for.

Too little water flow, and you only have 13A coming in, so 3KW is yer max total-van useage. Fine for filling the sink to do dishes, but I wouldn’t like to shower under it.

I shower in mine, even using the battery it is possible but not ideal but given the choice between no shower and a shower after a dry and dusty race meet I'll take the shower.
The pump is a limiting factor (you can help this be running on hookup or a generator which we do) but really the biggest limit is that you only have stored around a gallon of hot water and it's gone quickly in a shower.
Also most sites we visit are wired and breakered for 16 amps these days and we haven't tripped them yet. Although we use the hob to boil the kettle and don't take an electric one.

Carl.

[drcarlos]

I'd been thinking about changing ours (we've had it about 8 years now and keep caravans substantially longer than cars) and once I know where the truck leaves me I think I will definitely another Bailey (as I don't want standard construction again) either a Unicorn Vigo or Valencia. I'm liking the idea of a fixed lsland bed as the inevitable late night piss means I have to climb over the wife disturbing her with the fixed side bed. There goes another £15k!

[dinny_g]

I'd been thinking about changing ours (we've had it about 8 years now and keep caravans substantially longer than cars) and once I know where the truck leaves me I think I will definitely another Bailey (as I don't want standard construction again) either a Unicorn Vigo or Valencia. I'm liking the idea of a fixed lsland bed as the inevitable late night piss means I have to climb over the wife disturbing her with the fixed side bed. There goes another £15k!

That bed’s an expensive option!!!

[Sundayjumper]

The old automatic entitlement to C1+E seems a bit bonkers now. A seventeen year old passes their test in a Mini, can immediately go out unsupervised in a rig weighing 12 tonnes

[drcarlos]

I'd been thinking about changing ours (we've had it about 8 years now and keep caravans substantially longer than cars) and once I know where the truck leaves me I think I will definitely another Bailey (as I don't want standard construction again) either a Unicorn Vigo or Valencia. I'm liking the idea of a fixed lsland bed as the inevitable late night piss means I have to climb over the wife disturbing her with the fixed side bed. There goes another £15k!

That bed’s an expensive option!!!

The 2 models I've identified are both around £15k used both same chassis but one has a fixed island bed the other fixed side bed (like our current van), while ours is OK the island bed might be a better option as I usually have a few beers after racing so it's inevitable that there will be a couple of trips in the night.

Carl.

[drcarlos]

The old automatic entitlement to C1+E seems a bit bonkers now. A seventeen year old passes their test in a Mini, can immediately go out unsupervised in a rig weighing 12 tonnes

Maybe, but there was a lot less traffic on the roads back then too. You see the difference when towing in France as it's so easy due to the comparative lack of traffic to the UK. As long as you are careful and considerate (of both other road users and the fact you have an extra lump on the back of the car) there is nothing really hard about towing a caravan. the only thing that takes a bit of learning is reversing which I have to kind of partially re-learn every spring when we take the first trip of the year.

Carl.

[dinny_g]

I'd been thinking about changing ours (we've had it about 8 years now and keep caravans substantially longer than cars) and once I know where the truck leaves me I think I will definitely another Bailey (as I don't want standard construction again) either a Unicorn Vigo or Valencia. I'm liking the idea of a fixed lsland bed as the inevitable late night piss means I have to climb over the wife disturbing her with the fixed side bed. There goes another £15k!

That bed’s an expensive option!!!

The 2 models I've identified are both around £15k used both same chassis but one has a fixed island bed the other fixed side bed (like our current van), while ours is OK the island bed might be a better option as I usually have a few beers after racing so it's inevitable that there will be a couple of trips in the night.

Carl.

In the same vein as The Russians brought a pencil...

Couldn’t your wife sleep on the wall side???

[drcarlos]

That bed’s an expensive option!!!

The 2 models I've identified are both around £15k used both same chassis but one has a fixed island bed the other fixed side bed (like our current van), while ours is OK the island bed might be a better option as I usually have a few beers after racing so it's inevitable that there will be a couple of trips in the night.

Carl.

In the same vein as The Russians brought a pencil...

Couldn’t your wife sleep on the wall side???

replace 'bee'r with 'wine/cider' in the above sentence and you have an answer

[Sundayjumper]

Maybe, but there was a lot less traffic on the roads back then too.

And brakes weren't as good, and tyres weren't as good, and traction control barely existed, etc...

Anyway, it wasn't so much the idea of hooking up a caravan to your Dad's Cortina that I was talking about, it was being allowed to jump in a 7 tonne truck with a 5 tonne trailer straight away without ever towing anything before.

[John]

As Mik says I wouldn't get too hung up on the size of the bathroom as you'll probably find you hardly use it. Don't expect to be able to leave the caravan shower running for too long either as you'll use all the hot water in no time. You can get a shower head called an Ecocamel that adds air to the water flow to make it last longer, we've got one in the motorhome and it's very good.