Your experience buying your first caravan
How was your experience buying your first caravan? Did you try out a touring caravan before you made your first purchase?
It would be great to know what support was useful in the buying process as we are exploring whether we need to update the Club website for those considering the hobby and want to ensure we have relevant and useful information. Many thanks.
Comments
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It was a case of that'll fit the bill, will you take £75? Right, it's ours.
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We rented or borrowed vans for nearly 20 years before deciding to buy about 6 years ago. Never referred to the club as it seemed to be older, middle class people who haunted it corridors.
We did a lot of research, visited no end of dealers until Mrs One's eureka moment when she set her heart on a Lunar Steller. We didn't join the club till nearly a year after our purchase.
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That was big money, Boff.
Hush, you'll worry the avertisers.
Great idea, mind. Really useful.
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Asked my brother for advice as they took the plunge a couple of years before us. Visited his dealer, even though they were 300 miles away, looked in about 20 vans until we went in a Bailey Pageant and both knew straight away it was the one for us. Plenty of wheeler dealing later we were the proud owners of a fully fitted out van which my brother and his wife towed up to Perth for us a couple of weeks later after it has been serviced. Near 25 years later we still love it.
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Advert in the London Evening News, £299. we didn't have a clue but off to Kent the following weekend
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Given the replies so far, many of which date from many years ago and before the current era of modern caravans with electrics and running water (just joking), would not this thread be more relevant to our most recent caravan purchase?
Or more specifically to caravan/motorhome purchases in the last couple of years.
Then you will get information about mptlm, various heating options, solar panels, motor movers, awning types, dodgy dealer's etc etc.
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Quite right, Simon. I carefully read the OP before replying as I wouldn't want to knowingly go off topic.
And your comment was on target in our case as there was no lekky, running water, toilet, washroom, fridge, heating, oven.....
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Perhaps we should quantify how much more enjoyable it has become. Now we have moved away from. The prehistoric staying on a field and siting on a bucket school.
So what does a beginner need to know:
1 MRO just a number a manufacturer makes up
2 MPTLM an unachievable number that it only slightly higher than the MRO
3 CMC is not a campaigning organisation so you are on your own.
4 You need towing mirrors, unless you have X ray vision
5 Don't over think all of this it is about having fun.
6 Towing course is probably money well spent
7 If you join Mayday and need it make sure you tell the Greenflag call centre that you are entitled to double journey cover
8 You really don't need ehu.
9 It's better to have spent £300 pounds on a van and enjoy your stay Than to spend £30 000 and spend the whole time worrying about it getting damaged
10 Most people you will meet are nice Their are some people who just want to be miserable and complain. These people are willing to make considerable efforts into achieving this
This list isn't exhaustive and sorry for any misspelt words that might of have crept in.
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Went to Barrons about 25 years ago & said we want a caravan costing £hundreds rather than £thousands. They'd just got in a Robin as part ex that came with everything in it including an awning. All for £385. Had some great times away with the kids despite it only being 10' 6" internal length but quite heavy with its coil spring suspension & glass windows. Sold it years later for more than we'd paid for it.
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Our experience is very much the same as MM's. Our first caravan purchase in 1991was a 20yr old Elldis Whirlwind 4 berth with bunk beds across the back (no washroom). It came with an Isabella awning of similar vintage. Cost £450, served us well for two years, then sold it on to a work colleague for £500. Now 26 yrs later we still look back with fond memories of our first caravan, whilst enjoying trips away in our new all singing, all dancing van. Halcyon days.
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Has anyone visited a dealer that allowed you to try out a caravan before you purchased?
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Sadly my memory doesn't go back as far as when we bought the first caravan!
My ex - in laws owned a van and that is how we got into it and learned all the ins and outs. It Could be incredibly useful if dealers would allow you an overnight in a van as a trial if you were considering buying because if you've never tried it before it can be a big investment that really isn't for you!
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All i can remember about buying our first caravan it was at a (as was in those days)a little dealer? and he had a small building with a plot of land and about six caravans,the second hand van we could afford was a Robin with one gas mantle light no heating (we bought a free standing radiant gas fire
) and i think two gas rings, the water was only cold that was "pumped" into the sink with a foot pump,and the toilet was just a "thunder bucket"but it was as far as we were concerned the bees knees after tenting in a storm with our then first baby (she is 50 next year the same as our membership with the cc club) One bit of advise i would give to anyone buying their first leisure vehicle would be do not be swayed by a "good deal" at one of the shows from a dealer that is many miles from where you live,because sorry to say it will be very rare that it will be "fault free"and will need some warranty work which will entail normally a trip or trips to the supplying dealer
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I went to a dealer, they worked out what size of caravan my car could tow and we looked around their stock which was expensive but a couple of weeks later they had one which was in my budget.
It didn't have a motor mover which I wanted so that was an add on, but I was told you must have this and that and the other and the bill crept up.
It would be useful to know what is absolutely necessary and what you really don't need when someone like me falls into the world of addons.
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I just knew I wanted a caravan! I had never towed or been in a tourer before I bought our first one which was in the local rag . I went to see it- an Avondale, Leda Pennine 5/6 and bought it there and then. The seller agreed to tow it to my storage. Since those nerve racking moments we have, as a family, enjoyed the most fantastic holidays with the kids and now, by ourselves. I write this lying on my fixed bed on the Welsh coast and looking out at some stunning scenery. On the purchase of my first van, it ticked all the boxes like hot and cold running water- with four kids- that was a must. 4 burner cooker, sleep accommodation etc. These days, technologies have moved on a pace Ro and it would be negligent of the club not to mention these. Others have mentioned them before me so I won't labour the point but I would feel let down if the club did not point out the alternative lifestyle now accessed by the modern technologies. This is the one way where you can make advice more relevant. We still have people coming on asking about non EHU caravanning and really wanting to know about it. And please, don't call it 'basic caravanning! ' it isn't! This of course will be medicine that the club will find difficult to swallow as it has the potential to directly impact on the bottom line of the balance sheet. As far as the other pointers are concerned, getting the van professionally checked for damp ingress would be one of the important ones. Then things like the importance of servicing, tyres overloading and loading correctly , noseweight, levelling, don't change. Thanks for your concern Ro, I hope you and the family are well.
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Rosie. My goodness, that's a 'how long is a piece of string' question if ever there was one. There is a list of basics you need for a caravan. Aquaroll or similar, wastemaster or similar, gas cylinder- refillable preferably if you intend to do offgrid caravanning, a small level, spare bulbs, fuses etc, small tool kit perhaps? Some would argue that a motor mover is a luxury but it all depends on how old you are !! We wouldn't have considered one at one time,- now we wouldn't consider being without one! It has been a Godsend on several occasions. Levelling planks are another costless item. They can be acquired virtually anywhere. Ramps cost and things like Lock n Level really costs but the convenience is there to justify it. Basically a caravan with a few items mentioned and a towcar is all you need. What you want is something entirely different! 😂😂😂
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Hi All
Now we are newbies to the rest of you here and your right certain information would be good however as most don't join this club until you own a van then perhaps we are not reaching out to those who need to know these things? We plunged in after seeing many vans and fell in love with our Avondale 2002 2 berth, No body however said anything about all the extras we had to buy! as we only brought the van and not the secondhand tat he was trying to palm off on us! So we started at the bottom and brought everything we thought we needed new..lol However as you visit sites and talk to others its then you realize I want one of those as well..lol So as time has gone on in our first season we can now say we do have everything including the kitchen sink, TV, windbreak, awning etc..lol
So perhaps we should warn new caravan owners that buying the van is just the start wait till you see what else can go in it..lol
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Another newbie here - less than 12 months of ownership. We didn't even consider one for years, we were happy in our tents... until in our 60's decided that no more packing of wet flapping canvas, plus sleeping higher than the floor, without the need to cross a campsite for the loo at night, were all worth having. Didn't fancy towing, so looked at camping vans, then realised that the ones we liked cost too much both to buy & maintain, when we visited the NEC show last October. Looked at new caravans and... sorry advertisers... didn't like the currently fashionable layouts of 90% of them (I can see I'm going to be very popular!) so after further research, some here, more on the Caravan Talk forum, we settled on a 2 berth 17yr old pop-top which has all the technology we need, has more light in through its windows, is a dream to tow, and doesn't bump the mpg up nearly as far. And as has been already said, didn't cost 30K to buy or anything like it. We're converts!
Info on the C&MC website was very useful as far as it went. As Merve says, there's a stunning absence of useful info on such things as non-EHU, and I'd add, or on other ways of making caravanning (and MH-ing) more eco-friendly; which is surprising given that the tide is now running more and more in this direction, and technologies are being produced to make this eco-tide go further, faster, and cheaper. If you want to appeal to a significant portion of potential new members, you're missing a trick here at present, we feel.0 -
We were both in our sixties and had never owned a caravan or a tent. When the kids were young we did lots of Eurocamping so we were familiar with life on campsites.
We decided to buy a tent and the basics (including electricity) to see if we would still like campsite life (that's different from liking caravans). We spent a summer with the tent camping in the Staffordshire Dales South Devon, West Sussex, All across Northern Germany to name a few. Decided yes this is OK but it would be nice to have a loo to pee in in the the night. When on our last camping trip to The New Forest we spotted some small Vans at a nearby dealer. We had done a fair bit of research so had a good idea of options and were settled on something quite small like a Luna Ariva. The dealer had an Ariva but he also had a Compass Rambler which was marginally bigger but had a lot more space. We spent £5,500 but drove two hundred plus miles home to come back the following week to pick it up after hurriedly getting a towbar fitted. Loved the Rambler and took to round Scotland and soon later round France, Northern Italy, Croatia and Germany and others.
We've depended on our "own nouse" for the most part but have had tips from family and friends who have years of experience. The online forums have been very useful for tidbits of advice.
Traded up to a rear bathroom model after two years and loving the caravan thing
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In 2006 Our first adventure was in a rented caravan from a dealer in Manchester, we spent 4 nights at Marton Mere in Blackpool & learnt a lot!
Firstly,
Haven sites are not our thing!
15ltr water & waste containers are useless (I spent most of the 4 days going between the water tap & the waste!
15ltrs of water (or waste depending which direction your going in) is quite heavy to carry over a long distance,
NO number 2s! especially when you have never even heard of Elsan blue,
level the van side to side before uncoupling & moving the car,
Unclip the break away cable before moving the car,
despite the above (& the weather) we were well & truly hooked!
Six months later we bought a 10yr old Caravan on eBay which turned out to be a complete rot box! Another sharp learning curve!
We kept it about 12months, lost £1500 but had some great times in it, memories that the kids still talk about now!
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We came to caravanning via the tenting route. We rented for a few years, gradually increasing the size of our tents and eventually buying a trailer tent. It was after a very wet year in Cornwall in the TT that we decided to move 'up to a caravan. We bought our first caravan at the NEC show in about 1990. Is was a basic, bottom of the range job, but it started us off on the caravan route.
David
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We came to caravanning by way of tenting, which we had enjoyed for over 30 years. Initially it was because it was what we could afford, but even when caravan ownership was possible, I never fancied towing one. However, after severe back problems during one camping holiday, in the colder autumn months, we decided it was time for proper beds and heating.
We started looking round our local dealer, thinking to buy a second hand one to see if it was really for us. I wanted one that had a dual fuel heating, and in 2004 that generally seemed to be vans of less than six years old. As they keep there values better than cars, we were looking at having to spend circa £6000 to get what we wanted.
On wandering into the showroom with the new vans, we came across a new X display Abbey, with everything we wanted, including a fixed bed, which we had not been able to find in the second hand ones we looked at. At £13,000 we did not hesitate for long, a not used by anyone van with 3 year warranty. It was a great van and we used it extensively, finally trading it in for a new model after 8 years. They gave us £6500, so I feel we had good value.
The dealership were great, giving us plenty of info on what we needed. Advising us to take it to a local site to get familiar with it. Plus training us up on the systems and hitching up at the hand over. Just as well, as although campsites were very familiar, everything else was very alien.
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About 1977 that was sixteen caravans ago. It was a locally advertised Trophy gold about ten years old, £500-00 and came with an awning. Didn't even have a tow bar on the MK4 Cortina so the chap gladly delivered it for us and showed us how to go on. No hot water, no shower, no heater, no fridge, We enjoyed that caravan for five years without a problem but then the season was only Easter 'til August bank holiday( if we were lucky with the weather ).
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Although we now have a motorhome we bought our first caravan about thirteen years ago. We were used to seeing family and friends with a variety of vans. We went to a couple of shows and spent quite a bit of time at a big local dealership trying out vans and thinking about what might suit. We found a fairly new van we liked, it was well looked after, "smelt" OK, ( it's good to give vans a smell test ) and bought it. We brought it home and friends helped us set it up as we were clueless! That worked well, we went off on our first trip to Porlock, probably the worst place to choose for narrow streets etc but we survived.
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B2, yes the 'inclusivity' got missed in this thread....and from the CM, too
i had an interesting 'arrival' into MHing but never having had (nor wanted) a caravan, thats obviously for another thread
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...... not like the digital world we live in now
