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Campernomics?
Comments
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I have just requested a quote from the caravan club after seeing your post. They don't even ask if it has been serviced. £50 for the year. I am tempted because the second hand value of caravans seems to have increased and it seems worth more now than a few years ago. Our friends admittedly don't have a great driving record and their insurance is over £1500 for their motorhome.
I'll check them out. This was with Saga, and the service thing cut in when it became 25 years old.
If I can get theft and fire for £50, it puts the odds at 60:1, which is reasonable.I want to go back to The Olden Days, when every single thing that I can think of was better.....
(except air quality and Medical Science
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I'd love a campervan but as above its a lot of money to spend if it isnt used. saying that good friends have a Bongo. 25 yo 250k mileage and runs quite well on veg oil. It gets a lot of use both as a daily driver and as a festival home. Also gets used at Xmas & New Year. They have spent a lot of money on it to keep it road worthy. Other friends have a Transit camper and its hardly used outside of the summer months.
Me I compromised and got myself a Berlingo, Ambro boot jump & rear awning. I only use the camping gear in the Summer and the Berlingo is my only vehicle with daily use. Works for me.
A few years ago a former work colleague & his wife bought a £40k motorhome ostensibly to travel around the south of France and Spain for 6 months, they were back in the UK within 2 weeks, didn't work for them.0 -
A few years ago a former work colleague & his wife bought a £40k motorhome ostensibly to travel around the south of France and Spain for 6 months, they were back in the UK within 2 weeks, didn't work for them.
If it's not too rude to ask, what was the (campervan) reason?"For every complicated problem, there is always a simple, wrong answer"0 -
I have just requested a quote from the caravan club after seeing your post. They don't even ask if it has been serviced. £50 for the year.
How did you mange that?
They quoted me (as a member) £109 with 2 years no claims from SAGA (who were only £70 if I had it serviced)
I still don't see how having a service will affect it being stolen, or set on fire by vandals on the drive, it isn't like there is even a gas bottle on it..............I want to go back to The Olden Days, when every single thing that I can think of was better.....
(except air quality and Medical Science)0 -
How often are you going away? You'd need to be making pretty regular trips for it to make economic sense. A friend of mine has a small van style overnight one that he uses most weekends., but I wouldn't get enough use out of it.Unfortunately I would need the campervan to tow something else, so the caravan option does not work...unless I put a tow hitch on the back of the caravan......:eek:
What are you towing? If it's something like a bike or kayak trailer you may be able to get it in / on the caravan.The difference is a caravan looks very silly on the road whereas a campervan looks uber cool.
Camper vans (with the exception of the small overnight style vans) are at least as much of a nuisance on the road as a caravan. Pretty much as big/wide/slow, still hard to reverse and so on.onomatopoeia99 wrote: »You need a car to tow them though and it places greater load than normal driving.
You've probably got the car anyway, but with the campervan you've now got 2x engines, 2x MOT's and associated running costs. With a big camper you might even end off towing the car behind you on a trailer anyway.
You can get plenty of caravans, even up to 4/5 berth that are under 1400kg and can be comfortably towed by a normal family car with a GTW of under 3500kg. A camper could easily be over 3500kg on it's own (needing a C1?), and would need an additional license (C+E, B+E) if you wanted to take a car on tow.Given the weight of many modern caravans, one also needs to be aware of the maximum loads, both amount towed and train weight, and driving licences aren't so simple as they used to be for people that passed their test in the last 20 years.0 -
If it's not too rude to ask, what was the (campervan) reason?
I haven't seen him in the intervening time period. Don't think it anything to with the motorhome as he was a former truck driver and had driven all over Europe and also to Morroco & Tunisia. So I don't know the reason. But it is one illustration that ambition can sometimes be crushed by reality.0 -
Just a demonstration of some caravanners, who buy a huge van and a huge motor, then set off into the wide blue yonder without preparation:
When I was still working in the motor trade and running perfectly serviceable but older cars, OH and I took a holiday touring Devon & Cornwall, stopping at B&B's we had selected. Traveling along a minor route, we came upon a large 'van, towed by a LWB Land Rover. Both offside tyres (double axle) were flat. The guy was polite and well spoken, but obviously had no clue what to do. I asked him if he had spares: "no idea!" He had jacked up the offside, but not loosened the wheel nuts first with wheels on the ground. I carried tools in my own car for just such emergencies, including a long bar and sockets. Dropped the van until wheels were on the floor, then searched the van for spare tyres: 2, as new as the van. Removed the flats, fitted the spares after inflating to correct pressures with my trusty foot pump.
I was quite well rewarded for all this, and I am not taking the Pee out of the guy, but some people set out caravanning without taking the least bit of preparation.I think this job really needs
a much bigger hammer.
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It was £68 with full NCB. Putting the excess to max reduced it to £50. I think insurance is generally quite cheap in my postcode.
Cheers, I tried with the excess at £500 and got it to £78. Might be worth it, I'd still get a couple of thousand back, and I presume they pick up the bill for disposing of the burnt out shell as well.
Caravans do spontaneously combust round here, mainly when full of rubbish and abandoned though...I want to go back to The Olden Days, when every single thing that I can think of was better.....
(except air quality and Medical Science)0 -
We have friends who bought a motorhome and go away with us so we know the problems. It cost 8x more than our caravan. They are always asking our running costs. Zero, zilch, none. When I mentioned you couldn't level it they wanted a £4k hydraulic system. Now they want to tow a car behind it because they can't leave the site when they get there. How much does it cost to keep your caravan on the road Fred? NOTHING.
So you don't use more fuel when towing than when not? Amazing.0
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