Transition from caravan to motorhome
Comments
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I would say that moving from a caravan to a MH is very much all about size. If you are used to a large caravan (large being over 12 foot to us!) then adapting to living in a smaller space can take some doing. However, long term it is probably easier, and cheaper, than buying a big MH that might restrict you more to choosing sites close to urban centres, or relying on walking or public transport. Large MH is probably easier overseas, but not if you enjoy a lot of UK holidays and like to move around.
We are at YRP at the moment, I would say that at least 80% of the outfits are MHs, and of these most are on the large side. Perfect site for such here, short stroll into city. But it’s the little ones that are out and about, off pitch during the day.
Top tips from us......I would give things another year OP, but get the maps out, and plan some tours, hopping from site to site with lots of things of interest around. Don’t forget that most NT, EH and other historic places, gardens etc.... have huge car parks, many with dedicated MH parking spots, so you can leave a site, drive to somewhere interesting, park up, look around, maybe have lunch in your mobile cafe, and then move onto your next site. And repeat next day! It’s really that simple. But travel light, don’t take all the paraphernalia that usually goes with a caravan. Keep a bit of water in your tank, make sure you have a gas kettle, and that’s really all you need to have a great day out even if the weather turns nasty. Aim to get set time to no more than 15 minutes on arrival, 20 minutes to be off next day. If you don’t restrict yourself to Club Sites, but use CLs and private sites, touring becomes very easy in UK.
I have no idea where you are based, but we did a lovely Winter tour in Shropshire. We used Bromyard Downs, then up to a nice CL near Ludlow, then up to Much Wenlock, (RIP, but lots of CLs in area) then home via Ashbourne and Castleton. Another great touring place is Northumberland.....Old Hartley, then sites along Hadrians Wall, then head North along Coast up to Berwick and Borders. Loads of sites, all with different facilities and prices depending upon what you need. 😁
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Yours is the other alternative EuroT. We still have our little van. We used to do tours in this as well, although we did stay longer on fewer sites. The one place in UK we prefer car and van is Cornwall. Even our small MH is too big to get to some of our favourite locations such as Lerryn and Church Cove!😁
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Reference my earlier photo which is Camping la Palombiere at Les Mathes - and this is the nearest Motorhome Aire which helped us decide not to switch .
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Thank you all for posting so much sound advice and comments. Our MH is a 6.5m Autotrail so a reasonably small coach built but still find many restrictions if trying to park up during the day. The living space inside is perfect for us, as is the layout.
Our first year was all in the UK, we have just booked a ferry crossing to France so now look forward to trying things out over there. You have all inspired me to carry on with the MH this year. Just got to work on the planning before we go!1 -
depending on the time of year, id say don't over plan...
despite ET's photo of a typical large/popular town aire, there are 8000. or more in france alone and the vast majority look a lit different to this. the photo is more like a typical 'pull in for a lunch stop' variety....loads of different types....explore and enjoy.
sites and aires (other than the peak six weeks, lated July and August) wont be busy so you can tour where you like without booking.
folk are all different, but if a place seems to hold more of your interest, stay a bit longer, if its not what you thought just move on.
after the first few days youll be away......just as we are on the ferry in an hour or so....
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We changed from Caravanning to Motorhoming over 10 years ago now, we have towed a car behind a large Coachbuilt (7.3 metres) and have finally found 'our' ideal size, a 6m Panel van conversion, we can pack it up for moving in 15 minutes, yet it is big enough for a lengthy stay if we like our surroundings, yet is small enough to take into small villages and park in Supermarket car parks when required...ok you need a bit of 'overhang' to fit right in...but so do some large SUVs.
You just need to find the 'right' van, then hang on to it. Dont be tempted to 'update' too soon, Which we did whilst visiting a dealers....just looking, We are a bit wiser now.
We are UK only tourers, but still enjoy the freedom.
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Nice size rayjsj, really does become easy touring if you are a bit smaller. 😁
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Same here, Ray, a 6m PVC that goes virtually anywhere and is ideal for island hopping👍🏻. We’ve lived in it for 6 weeks with no trouble. Small is beautiful😀.
We can beat your 15 min pack up time, though. What takes you so long?😊
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We have to store the dog’s tie rope, and put his bowl away!🙄😁
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We had a MH for 6 years and toured all over France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Spain + UK of course.
However 18mths ago we went back to a caravan, wasn't sure if we would regret it but happy to say we don't.
We like the fact that we can use out of the way sites (quieter/less busy) we can still us the bikes but for pleasure rather than as a necessity. We have the car for further a field day trips and for the heavier shopping.
We did take the MH off site a few times but didn't really want to do that on a regular basis as it felt like we were constantly living 'out of a suitcase' we always stayed on sites as 'Aires' just didn't do it for us.
Would we go back to a MH
not sure maybe one day but if we did it would be a PVC something around the 6m size1 -
That's just how we feel about having a motor caravan in the UK ,and have since returned to a caravan, it is very noticeable on UK sites if not near easy access to public transport the caravan/motor caravan ratios are by far much higher for caravans despite the growth in motor caravan ownership,
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Whilst the growth in motorhome ownership has increased substantially in recent years, when I last looked at the figures, the number of caravans sold was still higher although the gap has narrowed. In our latter years of caravan ownership we noticed that we were always looking for sites near to things we could do without use of the car, perhaps shopping being the exception. We also rarely stayed on sites for more than 4/5 days so the change to a motorhome did not mean we had to change the way we camped. Rarely would we look for an "out of the way" campsites for two reasons. Firstly we like being near to things and we feel going away in the motorhome is about doing things. If we wanted to relax its a lot easier and cheaper to do that at home! If we got to the stage where walking to a village/town or bus stop became a physical difficulty I think we would seriously think about giving up completely!
David
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Just to prove that there are many different ways of using a motorhome, we use ours much the same as when we had a caravan and rarely in the UK due to never wanting to book and not liking the weather.
We stay at some sites for several weeks and often the same ones as when we had the caravan. We don’t use aires and don’t hop around from town to town. The only real difference is that we look for sites close to towns so that we can walk in. We also use local buses on occasions (or ferries on the Italian lakes). If we are staying at one place for a week or two then we will take the motorhome to the local supermarket and top up water on the way back. Grey waste is disposed of in the same way as our continental friends (watering the hedgerows usually), but water/ waste points are often provided on continental pitches.
People like to do different things but we never found excursions by car to towns in Europe to be much fun and would rather do a hotel break for a few days.
So, we don’t use the mobility of a motorhome but love the simplicity. Not typical I guess, but then we only use it around 5 weeks a year; the rest of the time it’s hotels and cruises and it stays parked on our drive depreciating.
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I’m liking the sound of 6m PVC option, maybe that is something we should consider for easier access in towns/daytime parking etc. Like I say, will give this MH another try over the coming months then see how we feel. Will be bearing in mind all the different views on here.
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There you go. It fits in a supermarket parking bay with about 0.5m overhang.
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Hi TG
As you know from our meeting at Meathop last November, we're much the same as you, except we had MHs for 19 years. We don't regret it either, having a car is a bonus at times, although at the moment I think we're still in "MH-mode" to an extent.
There is no right or wrong in either having a MH or caravan, it's about what suits you best and that can change, and does, over time.
We don't take half a day to pack up, in fact, we've said that it doesn't take much longer to get ready than it did with a MH. We've been in a queue before now at the waste water point, when MHs in front have been emptying and refilling, which can take quite some time!
Swings and roundabouts is what I'd describe it as.
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When at Seacroft over the new year the last couple of days as posted elsewhere motor caravans well out numbered caravans but speaking to several owners in the main meeting point"(dishwash area) all bar one said if there was not the easy access to cromer and /or the public transport they would not use the site,and would not consider sites that did not have near access to some form of transport or local town/village
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That makes sense. Many people might consider that sitting in the vehicle for several hours to arrive at a site that it’s a bit of a busman’s holiday to get in the driving seat again to visit the nearest town.
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Which was one of the main reasons that we and others it seems have now reverted to a caravan with its add load capacity and go anytime tow vehicle alongside enabling nearly any site in area within reach,in the UK where we now in the last years do all our touring
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We previously had a 7.5 metre motorhome which was not only long but quite wide. Six years later we decided to downsize a bit. We looked very carefully at PVC's for the very reasons that have been mentioned. In the end we decided that we preferred the room in a smaller (6.6 metre) coachbuilt. Its small enough to get into most supermarkets and we have even taken it out to a country house once and will do so again. To keep swapping things can become an expensive business so I would encourage you to persevere with what you have and carefully evaluate where the problems are. It may be that a 6 metre PVC would be the ideal vehicle for you but I think I would want to convince myself that motorhoming is what you want to do in the longer term.
David
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unless car parks are very busy, you will be able to park your 6.5m AT at the rear somewhere, taking two spaces if necessary.
folk in cars wont walk an extra few yards and generally park as close as possible to the entrance, so you will usually be fine 'out of the way'.
BTW, i hope those cars who park next to TW's van are careful with their shopping trollies and adjacent car doors
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We have not had any problems yet using Supermarkets for restocking. Although there are a few that, knowing them, I would avoid. However, on a tour you are often going in blind. Some have been tight but we have always managed to get parked. Our MH is 6.94. We looked at the 6.5 version of our model, but I just could not get the drivers seat back far enough to be comfortable. It was obviously designed for someone with a shorter leg length than myself. We did consider 6 m PCV's but decided that for us they were a step too far.
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“BTW, i hope those cars who park next to TW's van are careful with their shopping trollies and adjacent car doors”
That’s the chance we all take, BB, but the advantage of the sliding hab door is that we can always get back in no matter how close someone parks.
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Fortunately we now mainly holiday at less busy times of the year. I imagine for those with MH's at peak time holiday destinations it could well be challenging. We took ours out for a run a week and a half before Christmas and the Sainsburys we called into was rather tight, 😂 even then.
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Think we must be extraordinarily lucky with our parking. We go all over into towns and cities in ours. The only blip we have ever had is in Lichfield, where we fell about laughing realising the car park we had chosen was a multi storey! We didn’t panic, there was another one less than 200 metres away.
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That's why I park my ML at the far side of the car park from the store & might park on the white line to my nearside to make it a space that is less than desirable for others
..... Big cars are nice to drive but can be a PITA to park.0 -
If motorhoming in the UK, the size is a significant factor given that a lot of our roads appear to be based on mediaeval cart tracks which, at times, haven't been widened to accommodate modern vehicles. If touring is predominately abroad, then it becomes much less of an issue. The weather is another aspect, as the UK often entails a fair bit of time inside and caravans can, therefore, be less claustrophobic.
The suitability is probably weighted towards caravans in the UK and motorhomes abroad.
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