To change or not to change
My wife and I have had a two year ill health enforced break from caravanning but we are now making plans for 2020. During this period we have given serious thought to a motorhome and I have posted endless questions on CT. I am now writing to say a huge thank you to the many people who have given invaluable advice and comment. You really are appreciated.
About two weeks ago we both came to the conclusion that a motorhome will never work for us. After almost forty years of caravanning we know that we love to stay in out of the way places for two weeks or more at a time. The car gives us the freedom to explore and we enjoy the sense of homecoming to our little encampment.
Our solution is simplification on the basis that small is beautiful. Along these lines we hope to purchase a smaller caravan and enjoy the benefits of less wear and tear which comes with towing a large outfit on roads which become more and more congested.
I am hoping we will still be able to get travel insurance as France continues to exert her pull on our hearts and minds.
Comments
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Thanks for coming back to update us.
Glad to hear that you're on the road to caravanning again. Enjoy your new van.
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Not a suggestion, just my own thoughts.
I'm 54, I have a retirement plan, buy house in Cornwall, small and cheap, buy a really small caravan, use it abroad for 4 months at a time on a single site.
So I'm looking at the Teardrop ones, the Go-pro and the like, just with an eye to the future.
Michelle and myself have discussed Motorhomes too, not for us, doesnt really suit a static type holiday, but Michelle wont tow, so if I became ill and lost my licence then we would be forced into that route.
As we would be planning to holiday in almost sunshine the small caravans seem the happy halfway house. My in law has a VW T5 camper, spends most of the time living outside it, no difference to a dinky caravan really.
Good luck with it, lets hope you have many many happy years to come
Darren.
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Glad to hear that your health has improved and you're planning to get back on the road.
We've been 'vanning for many years now, previously campers. Never had a large tent or 'van, small is so much easier to tow and site up.
This photo is our little Europa, we now have a slightly bigger Swift 480. Don't have an awning. Spend as much time outside as the weather permits.
Give it a go, if it doesn't suit you can always trade in for something bigger.
Photo taken at Oneputt's favourite CL by the way!
Good luck with whatever you decide.
😊😊😊
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Awesome.
Small is definitely beautiful.
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Go pods! Not go pro, phone predictive, oops.
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Q - Glad your feeling better.
Mrs One has towed all our vans both at home and abroad. When over there she tends to prefer towing on motorways and I do most of the single carriageway stuff. Our current van is just over 7mtrs and she does exceedingly well. By sharing the driving we can safely travel long distances
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After fourteen years towing we decided on a MH, best thing we ever did. Tour at the drop of a hat, First two years sited near towns and villages, used public trans. My disabilities are declining so last year bought small tow car.
We could not do small outfit because my disabilities.
Sometimes small is beautiful but not practical.
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You still talking caravans? Wink wink 😁
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The best decision we have made as we have got older and less mobile,was to sell our last motor caravan and return to towing a two berth caravan just over 6mtr , which has given us back plenty of room, and a go almost anywhere support vehicle which also more than compensates for the lower weight allowance we had before as it is also the overflow larder and OHs extra wardrobe,
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I thought this post was about a member of the forum recovering from ill health and getting back to caravanning, not discussing the price of houses in the Cornwall district. Good luck with all your future tours and may I suggest if going for months at a time get a van with a fixed bed so you don't have to keep making the seats up every night.
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Cheers David, noted.
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Thread drift always happens, it's part of the conversation.
But my apologies.
Sorry get carried away sometimes, well most times
Darren.
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Let's get back on thread.
We moved back to a caravan from a MH last year. We liked and enjoyed the MH but coming back to a caravan we have found it more relaxing.
OH doesn't mind towing which is good as I don't like towing. Much preferred to drive the MH. To be honest he is not a good passenger unless he's asleep
JVB66, my brother lives in Welwyn.
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On useable habitation square footage how do you find the change?
I was comparing inlaws T5 with dinky caravans, and in my eyes a good small caravan coupled to an estate car, wins hands down.
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Best wishes Q, whatever works best for you is what is important. Our caravan is only 13 feet long, a lovely old coachbuilt from 1984. We happily did a month at a time away in it before we bought our little MH. Hoping to get the van back on the road again soon. The key to down sizing is definitely to dump the clutter and travel light without compromising your comfort. 😁
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Best wishes for the future Q, we also looked at getting a MH a couple of years back, OH was keen, I was not so keen.
We spent a month of one trip going round dealers and soon realised that the space we had got used to in our caravan was not easily replicated in a MH that we could actually afford. So we still have the caravan.
As for going small, that was our original plan back in about 2005, to go to a 2 berth, but a 4 month trip to Scandinavia when we retired in 2007, making up the bed every night, made me think a fixed bed would be better on long trips.
As a result we bought a twin axle Sterling with fixed bed, large shower room, Alde heating and big fridge/freezer......all the features we wanted. We still have it 11 years on, it will likely be our last van as I am now about to turn 77.
W&M.......the idea of spending 4 months on one site is a non starter for us, we like to explore and see lots of different places. We have done a couple of 4 month tours, but that was when going to my home in Norway, which is a very long way to tow, and even then we were only at home for about 6 weeks at the most.
Get out there and explore, Europe is huge!
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I remember from your previous posts that you did a lot of research on what sort of motorhome you were thinking of. If your preferred option is to stay in out of the way places for a couple of weeks you have probably made the right decision to stay with a caravan. We changed from a caravan to motorhome six years ago and are now on our second one. Even when we had a caravan it was very rare that we stayed anywhere as long as a week, usually it was between three and five days. We no longer have the need to go away in order to relax, if we want that we can stay at home! Can't see us going back to a caravan as unlike Tammygirl we find a motorhome much easier and relaxing to drive and generally operate.
David
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Motorhomes do have their drawbacks. Mobility from site being one unless going small and then living space is compromised. The upside is the lack of faff hooking up and setting up. I can't say I've found the journey aspect makes much difference.
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We no longer have the need to go away in order to relax, if we want that we can stay at home
we do Exactly that, am fortunate enough to have a hard standing next to bungalow with all services and only live 5 mins from beach, so certainly during July & August I sit in the caravan and pretend i am out touring
dont intend to change to a MH or buy a new caravan, caravan probably only used to 6 months of year as a touring vehicle, dont see any point in touring in the UK during winter months, normally do 3 months over there staying for sometimes a much as 6 weeks on one site, so having a car to get about is good.0 -
even a small (basic swift?) caravan will give far more room than a T5 and the estate car will let you go anywhere....but for T5 owners, that isn't the thing...
like many any mhers they tour in a different way to what you're advocating (park somewhere for ages and go out and back everyday)...
they want to explore somewhere in their van and if they like it the hand brake goes on and that's it....no going back to fetch your caravan...
they can also move a few miles every few days far more easily, parking at more impromtu places than you can with a caravan....(unless it's Glastonbury where you can park any old crap caravan anywhere apparently...another story)....
style of touring has a huge bearing on what sort of vehicle you want to do it in....
if I was only touring the uk, and only staying on sites we'd probably have a small caravan, but the ease of MH touring in Europe (especially away from formal sites) is the big attaction for us and, as we do far more of our touring there, we're more than happy with a smallish MH and our ebikes in the garage.
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There seems to be a buoyant sale in VW campers (leased?)and quite as few have the electric lift up roof,also drive away awnings ,which seem to be the living areas, so I would think they or similar are maybe the future go away LVs for couples or young families and if,maybe a small trailer for longer stays /tours to carry add kit
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Having had the challenges of the last couple of years we know what we want and don't want in a new caravan. We find it disappointing that UK manufacturers all provide a full size cooker and a microwave. We really don't want to spend fuel transporting the weight of such things which we will never need or use. Furthermore, all the UK vans are wider than we would want. It looks as if we will pay more for less and buy an Eriba Touring. It's narrow - only 200 cms. - and comes with just a two burner hob which is more than adequate. We cannot remember ever using more than one burner at a time in the past so two burners are more than sufficient. The lack of a cooker provides more storage for other essentials. An added benefit of the Eriba is that a Thule sun canopy can be attached.
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The UK caravan industry design and build what they think their main market desires. If that includes a full size cooker and a microwave that is what the market gets. A microwave can easily be removed to provide more storage space. We would be reluctant to buy a motorhome without both a cooker and a microwave, in fact we were surprised how inconvenient it was when the microwave gave up the ghost in the previous motorhome! I have always admired the build quality of the Eriba caravans but could I live with one, I doubt it. Might be fine if you can live outdoors all the time but I think I would find it very claustrophobic. Going back to your original idea of a motorhome I would have thought a small PVC would offer more spacious accommodation than an Eriba. I know you wanted an automatic gearbox. Renault do a proper auto box as will Fiat from next year. There are lots on converters that will build to an almost custom layout. If you could manage in a 5.5 mts van conversion I would have thought all of your issues would be solved as it would be small enough to park and compact for get along narrower roads.
David
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There are a few 'micro' Motorhomes like the Nu_Venture range that cram quite a lot in a small footprint.
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