Moving from Caravan to Motorhome
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Exactly the same here, Husky. Same dimensions as well. I always think whether white van man would go there or Tesco home delivery. If they can, so can I.
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Surely city centre car parks are not available to Moho's as they have the height restriction bars.
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youre right Rocky, some are....but not all. there are still open air carparks that allow larger vehicles.
Certainly, over there, this isnt the case....towns positively welcome MH owners.....and before JVB bounces back, i did say that if tied to the UK i might consider a caravan due to the anti MH stance taken by many local authorities.
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TW, we're also 6.40m but a tad slimmer at 2.12m. we certainly dont feel restricted in parking on street or in most (open) car parks.
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for MHers' information, despite it mainly focussing on mainland Europe, www.campingcar-infos.com has plenty of UK entries for 'permitted parking' areas, including night parking.
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6.4m? Goodness, it looks huge compared to ours.
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i need to change my avatar which os not possible on an Ipad, ill fire up the desktop sometime...
however, to the untrained eye, itll look very similar
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Haha, thats a picture of the previous van at the dealers, prior to delivery.
not sure they have the same spacing requirements as CC, lol.
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Hi BB, one problem with threads of any sort is that posters start to become polarised but I was simply showing that for each of your points there was an opposite.
You MH as it suits you and the same with us and the van but, as said before, it's not right and wrong just different.
To illustrate the differences I read your comments below;
"we called into Avranches on the way back from Spain....it could have easily been somewhere else.....but we just drove into town, parked at the aire (mh only, im afraid) did some exploring then a lovely lunch before setting off again for the ferry.....lovely town, but didnt see any caravans.
amazingly, the aire at Avranches is at Avranches...."
but looking at that Aire it is, to my mind, no more than a car park and, if going on a 'quest' not what would fit the bill for us even if we could use it.
We have friends, with a near 8m Autotrail, who have solved the parking issue on some foreign trips though. They leave the trailer and scooter at home and we do our sightseeing together.Smiley!
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Ah well, A&J, each to their own. You are biased towards caravans, others are not. Live and let live, I say.
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Tinwheeler,no you don't,that's why you use the word bias.
How you get to me being biased based on my saying it was just different preferences I do not know. If it's because I choose not to spend my holidays in a car park then that does not make me biased either, it's just my choice.
Bye the way how would you describe your choice of leisure vehicle, preference or bias?
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A bias can be favourable or unfavourable and is not an accusation but for some reason you seem to feel the need to keep going on about MHs staying in 'car parks' (something I have never done, incidentally) and analysing each phrase.
Yes, it's choice. It may not be mine, it may not be yours but so what? Let people holiday in the way they want. I say again live and let live and that is what I mean. Please do not presume to tell me I do not mean what I say.
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You MH as it suits you and the same with us and the van but, as said before, it's not right and wrong just different.
Thats what I said and what you said was more or less the same.
I believe I have mentioned car parks once and that only to show that what one views as a suitable stop others may not.
I have posted quite specifically before that we were looking at changing to a MH but needed to be able to accommodate a travel cot and the vans we were interested in did not have the room we needed.
How you choose to holiday is none of my business but so long as people are posting about the advantages of one type, as in the post from BB that I responded to,then others will feel inclined to mention alternatives as I did, and with the 'Smiley' comment.
It's the sort of conversation that if had on site, in a pub or wherever would doubtless be a light hearted and involve teasing and laughter but thats difficult to convey on here hence why I type the word Smiley to show that's how I am viewing the 'conversation'.
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A & J, 'aire' in French simply means 'area', a place to stay. Aires (and Sostas, Stellplatzen etc) all mean stopping places....
they arent campsites, they are convenient resting and sleeping places.
i was merely illustrating the difference in 'convenience' an aire in most towns makes to touring overseas....again, i say that if i was tied to the uk, i might not choose to have a MH due to the difference in feeling towards them by many local authorities.
i dont actually 'spend my holidays in car parks' merely make use of them during a long trip or to visit a town of interest, making life for the touring MHer a much simpler one.....call in where you please.
When we do get settled somewhere, we like top notch sites with great facilities like pool, close to beaches, bars, towns, often spending many weeks if we really like a place.
as said, no right or wrong way.....we love the MH and as we do most of our touring 'there' its a great way to bumble about, changing direction and having little in the way of planning.
as soon as we come back 'here' and decide we want to get out in the van, the process changes and its out with site books, maps, phone numbers, credit cards.....planning and booking and sometimes paying for trips before weve even left home.....so, different, and not as MH friendly.
so, perhaps the OP should consider 'where' they might tour as well as 'when' (they have a school age child) along with the 'how'.
if it were me in the UK, in school hols Id stick with a caravan.
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youre right, David, there are many who stay many days at a time on streets and in car parks just yards from sites.
we usually only stay the one night when stopping over, but we did do a couple of nights in an aire in a lovely village where the Mayor personally invited us to 'stay as long as we liked' despite the regs stating a max of 48 hrs.
they wanted our custom and appreciated the visit.
good luck with the upcoming trip. stay in touch.
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90% of my touring is France, Spain and Germany, (never using motorways), where m/h are welcomed and well-provided with sites and Aires which are generally very close to or at least within a short walk to town/village centres.
I don't enjoy touring U.K., but obviously, living on the South coast my drive to le continent (15 miles) is easily the shortest drive I ever make in the m/h.
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I do see the appeal of MH if I wanted to tour a particular area (going round the coastline of Scotland for example is one I'd like to do but impractical with a caravan) but for now I like going to a 'base camp' and visit the area from there.
Back on topic. Has anyone who has swopped (whichever way) worked out or noticed difference in fuel costs? You would think that while towing your mpg is higher but then lower when on site, but then with a car would you do more visiting places off site? Or does it all just average out?
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Not all Aires are free and increasingly they are being charged for.
CS, fuel consumption all depends on outfits. My first motorhome was cheaper on fuel than my volvo/caravan combination but my current one not so. I can imagine someone with a large 4x4 towing a 7 to 8 meter caravan would use more than most motorhomes. Some campervans average 30 plus m.p.g. Road tax is definitely cheaper than a 4x4 and a volvo by some considerable margin especially for a private HGV. Insurance possibly cheaper, servicing about the same.
peedee
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received wisdom is that a 'rough' figure for MH mpg for the ubiquitous Ducato 2.3 130bhp is around 27-31, depending on size, driving pace etc.
our previous Carthago (150bhp) did just about 27.
this one is smaller, lighter, same engine currently around 25.5 but has only done one trip, 5000km, so plenty of time to loosen up and get better.
our 2nd Bolero really started to fly and give great mileage after about 20k miles....upto 32.
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