Wild Living ... No Renting, No Buying, No Selling ...

PasturesNew

fushion_julz wrote: »

...However, I think you are being optomistic on your 20mpg budget...I non-turbo Transit based small motorhome will only acheive 20mpg(ish) on a long, slow motorway cruise...Around town, in traffic, country lanes, etc, even lightly loaded you are in the 12-15mpg territory...

I was purely guessing, I should look it up

fushion_julz wrote: »

Downside is you'll need a C1 licence, but you can pick these things up from the traveller community very cheap...They are more suited to full-timing, too, with loads of storage, wood burners, etc...

Not sure what my license says ... but I know I can drive up to 7.5 tonnes, so long as it's not an HGV III.

I want a smallish thing so I can get into as many normal car parks as possible - and park in a normal car parking space.

PasturesNew

Today I walked into (and prodded around) my first van. Never been in one before. Loo/shower was tiny. Cupboards were well built etc but it seemed they'd gone for volume of nooks and crannies rather than usable volume for belongings, but it's just me so there'll be room (it was a 3-berth). Bed looks perfectly doable for me too. The one I saw was out of my price range - and I've dismissed the dealer as being serious because I looked at one that matched exactly what I think I want .... and 4 others he had that aren't the model I want (but did confirm I had made the right choice of brand name) .... and the dealer had made no effort to clean them up... in one there were three dead flies round the burners ... ewwww.

The one I saw today had done 47k miles and was a few quid short of £20k, but nice to actually step inside.

A bit later I was sat in a car park looking out to sea and there was this small, shuffling old git, he must have been 80 if he was a day ... and he had the exact van I want... and there he was parked up looking at the view, then he popped into the back and made himself a brew and sat in the more comfortable seating area.... I so wanted his van. Looked like he'd peg it soon .... then I could have snatched it

fc123

PasturesNew wrote: »

Today I walked into (and prodded around) my first van. Never been in one before. Loo/shower was tiny. Cupboards were well built etc but it seemed they'd gone for volume of nooks and crannies rather than usable volume for belongings, but it's just me so there'll be room (it was a 3-berth). Bed looks perfectly doable for me too. The one I saw was out of my price range - and I've dismissed the dealer as being serious because I looked at one that matched exactly what I think I want .... and 4 others he had that aren't the model I want (but did confirm I had made the right choice of brand name) .... and the dealer had made no effort to clean them up... in one there were three dead flies round the burners ... ewwww.

The one I saw today had done 47k miles and was a few quid short of £20k, but nice to actually step inside.

A bit later I was sat in a car park looking out to sea and there was this small, shuffling old git, he must have been 80 if he was a day ... and he had the exact van I want... and there he was parked up looking at the view, then he popped into the back and made himself a brew and sat in the more comfortable seating area.... I so wanted his van. Looked like he'd peg it soon .... then I could have snatched it

:rotfl::rotfl:

If you do do it....when you come to London, you can park outside ours.:)

dopester

PasturesNew wrote: »

Today I walked into (and prodded around) my first van. Never been in one before. Loo/shower was tiny. Cupboards were well built etc but it seemed they'd gone for volume of nooks and crannies rather than usable volume for belongings, but it's just me so there'll be room (it was a 3-berth). Bed looks perfectly doable for me too. The one I saw was out of my price range - and I've dismissed the dealer as being serious because I looked at one that matched exactly what I think I want .... and 4 others he had that aren't the model I want (but did confirm I had made the right choice of brand name) .... and the dealer had made no effort to clean them up... in one there were three dead flies round the burners ... ewwww.

The one I saw today had done 47k miles and was a few quid short of £20k, but nice to actually step inside.

A bit later I was sat in a car park looking out to sea and there was this small, shuffling old git, he must have been 80 if he was a day ... and he had the exact van I want... and there he was parked up looking at the view, then he popped into the back and made himself a brew and sat in the more comfortable seating area.... I so wanted his van. Looked like he'd peg it soon .... then I could have snatched it

How about this PN? I've been monitoring it since the first hour it became listed on ebay. I'm no expert in used values with autosleepers... half-expected this one to reach £6k/£7K tbh, but there is still a day of it's listing remaining.

Currently £3.3K.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140388442533&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

If it went for £4K/£5K ish... that might be good value for a couple/few years, if it remained in decent working order.

I'd understand if you felt it lacked the cred-factor though. It's just the money-depreciation thing I'm looking at. Something like that at say £4K and you'd have another £8K+ in your bank if you ever needed it, towards a new one in the future ect.

Even newer £12K+ ones can bit hit with mech problems and I wouldn't want to see you out of a home with little money to fall back on if a £12K+ one needed to go in for significant shop work for engine/cambelt/gearbox/crash-damage repair whatever.

carefullycautious

Dont do it PN unless you take someone with you who knows about these. You are planning to do many hundreds of miles in it so need somethinkg reliable.

I can see this ending in tears if you dont do your homework

Dave101t

surely this belongs in the 'mid-life crisis' section?!!!

Sammy85_2

Hi PN,

We've been looking at campervans after spending 6 weeks in our tent travelling round europe! We decided a few more home comforts would be nice!

We started off looking at £4-5k but to be honest, they were mostly dumps and were unlikely to last past the year if really given a good drive out. In the end when we really sat down and thought about what we wanted, it was looking at costing £15k minimum.

We decided that we wanted something with a fixed double bed (so we didnt have to make it up every day or take it apart so we could have our dining area back). We also decided we wanted a van with a bed over the cab. Mostly to use as storage at the moment, but also so that when we start a family we will still have a van that is big enough for us. If we're going to spend that sort of cash we want to get a good few years use out of it and not have to sell on and buy something bigger.

When you get your van and look to insure it check the insurance small print. Many companies have limits to the amount of months per year that you can live in it. As has been said before, there are insurers that will cover you for permanent habitation, but they are pricey.

PasturesNew

dopester wrote: »

How about this PN? I've been monitoring it since the first hour it became listed on ebay. I'm no expert in used values with autosleepers... half-expected this one to reach £6k/£7K tbh, but there is still a day of it's listing remaining.

Currently £3.3K.

*I removed link*

If it went for £4K/£5K ish... that might be good value for a couple/few years, if it remained in decent working order.

I'd understand if you felt it lacked the cred-factor though. It's just the money-depreciation thing I'm looking at. Something like that at say £4K and you'd have another £8K+ in your bank if you ever needed it, towards a new one in the future ect.

Even newer £12K+ ones can bit hit with mech problems and I wouldn't want to see you out of a home with little money to fall back on if a £12K+ one needed to go in for significant shop work for engine/cambelt/gearbox/crash-damage repair whatever.

Well, first problem is it's in Solihull (500 mile round trip, 4 hours 15 minutes each way according to Google, which certainly makes it 3.5 hours each way) ... and if I bought one I'd need to go and kick its tyres for myself, then get a little man in .....

But, I have been thinking about the whole thing .... there is one for sale locally this week that I could go look at, but that is £14k, so that's "spend creep" and I've been wondering if I should just go for something that isn't "exactly what I was after", but instead spend £2k or so on something that just gets me mobile, while I decide what to do.

Being in a remote area really leads to procrastination as you can't just get what you want, but have to engage in a long, drawn-out, system of finding/deciding.

If it were within 50 miles I'd contact the seller and go look ... but, with 58 bids already, I bet it goes out at £9k in the end (picking a figure out of my head). It's coming up to easter.... silly season for campers.

PasturesNew

Dave101t wrote: »

surely this belongs in the 'mid-life crisis' section?!!!

Well, it depends when mid-life is. I think I had my mid-life crisis 10 years ago, although I was too skint.

This isn't really a mid-life crisis, it's more about trying to solve the problems of remoteness/geography and a poor jobs market across the largely rural south west.

When I finally have my mid-life crisis, I think it'll involve a boat or Porsche.

Catblue

PasturesNew wrote: »

When I finally have my mid-life crisis, I think it'll involve a boat or Porsche.

And a 20 year old fella. :cool: