[Closed] Touring Caravan Rental Possible?

If you search on the Caravan and Motorhome Club<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;"> site and search for 'hire' there's a pdf file you can download that lists all the caravan hire outlets across the UK. Might be worth giving that a check as there may be something near to you.</span>

Thanks - yes, tried that. They were all miles in the opposite direction 🙁

Tried 'Camplify' too and people only wanted to rent out caravans if they could deliver and collect it from the site, which seems to defeat the point.

Googling for touring caravan hire reveals these - I;m sure there wil be something close to you if none of these is suitable

Dorset (is that south west? I'm hazy south of sheffield)
https://www.bmvleisure.co.uk/hire/five-berth/

Salisbury
https://www.tilshead-caravans.com/caravan-hire

Swindon
https://www.swindoncaravansgroup.com/services/hire/

CHeck carefully before you hire - many "four berth" vans include a fixed double, which is not great if you want to put the kids to bed and stay up yourselves

They all offer to deliver to the site of your choice, or to your home.

We were in similar situation last spring. Decided to buy a cheap (£1900) one to test the water. Still got it, had some great holidays & weekends so far. Could probably recoup most of what we paid for it.

Thanks... Dorset not really on the way but maybe we could take a different crossing.

Yeah - TheDT's... That's kind of what I'm thinking, it's not exactly dead money if you don't like it, is it. Worst case - resell and it's probably still one of the cheapest holidays you'll have.

The thing with caravan values, especially with the lower end of the spectrum is that they are really stable so you aren’t likely to lose much if anyone the van itself if you decide to get rid after a couple of trips.

Yes, that’s what I was thinking too.

I have no idea of the relative merits of the brands are though so the pricing could be almost completely arbitrary as far as I know!

Right. Cheap caravan buying advice:

- Brand makes little difference. Buy on layout and condition of the van. Until 2009 ish they were all built the same way so the condition of the van is most important which depends on the life it's had.

- At the lower end, things are very variable. Damp is the big issue, if you get a dry van you're laughing, if not you're doomed cos it's expensive to fix. There's really not much else to go wrong.

- If you buy from a dealer you get some peace of mind, but the ~£2k premium you pay for the privilege can double the price of a cheap van. But if it's known good this could be worth it.

I posted a checklist of how to shop for cheap vans previously, if you can't find it let me know.

If you are buying " Cheap " from a dealer then there's very little warranty.Treat any dealers damp meter reports with a healthy dose of scepticism.
Buy private if you're confident and try to find a van where someones packing in touring.This way you're more likely to get all the gear thrown in,awning,waste/water containers,electric hook up lead,etc. Look at the age of the tyres and not just the tread.Theres a code on the sidewall.My caravan came with a tyre that was seventeen years old.
Damp can be a problem but don't write a caravan off because there is say a leak around a window.I've looked at a caravan at a dealers where i could push my hand through the inside board and pull out a handful of wet,rotten wood.Thats too much work.
Avondales,now out of business,did have a reputation of being leaky vans.
Look at a 'van when its hooked up to the electric.Try all the electrics but especially the fridge.Just because its on doesn't mean its working and feel in the freezer compartment.These are very expensive to replace and would be a deal breaker for me.
Remember to look at the weights as well compared to your towcar.Lunar tend to to make caravans that size for size are usually a bit lighter than the competition.

Avondales,now out of business,did have a reputation of being leaky vans.

Our Avondale Dart is dry so far. We are without fail always the tattiest van on any site 🙂

Buy private if you’re confident and try to find a van where someones packing in touring.This way you’re more likely to get all the gear thrown in

And less likely to get a van that's been bought, temporarily patched up and sold on by a scumbag who is 'selling it for a friend'...

Cheers people. I don't think we'd go for the cheapest option out there. It would have to be 1/2 decent to replace the cavernous trailer tent we have. It's more about the convenience to take short trips and make shorter stop overs with dog in van and the weather proofing that are useful in alpine climes.

I must admit that I don't see a massive difference in some of the £4K to £8K caravans though... maybe £2K of this is the dealer markup.

How much can you afford to spend and what are you towing with, how many kids/age? I'll find an example of what I'd have in the same situation.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F112931335626

Not a bad price for rental.

Find a mobile caravan service guy and get him to give a van the once over. Their damp meter will be accurate. Cost you a couple of hundred but might save you from disaster.

Our first van was £4K from a dealer. We were really happy with it and it was definitely nicer condition than some of the 2k ish stuff we saw.

Sold to us with ‘no damp’ on the pdi report. 8 (summer) months later we decide we love caravanning and my wife inherits a sum of money so we go back there and upgrade to a much newer and slightly larger van, px the old one.

When we got there to pick the new one up they tried to halve the amount of px value as the old one was ‘very damp’ at the back and must have been for some time apparently. He went very quiet when I produced the 8 month old report from their workshop. Manager gave me some flannel about water based glue in the furniture board affecting the readings, I got a bigger px value than originally planned but still, dodgy as f and from what I’ve heard not uncommon caravan dealer type of practice.

Nice! Thanks for the tips.

I met someone last week with lots of experience in this area as well and she suggested the independent test too. Sounds like a no-brainer.

Re: van set up, we’re most likely to go with fixed triple bunk at one end and U shaped sofa at the other. Fixed double looking less likely.

We have 3 kids 12, 12, 10 and a medium sized dog (at the moment, that might change if she doesn’t stop barking 😉)
and use would be UK over Autumn / Summer and Euro-tours, presuming we don’t have to build a wall between us and France in November.

Budget... started off small but somehow seems to have risen to about 10k. Given that it’s usually nearly 3 just to rent somewhere in the alps for a couple of weeks this isn’t too bad.

Re layouts, We’re looking at things like this at the moment: Bailey Pegasus Ancona 6 Berth.

Any more ideas welcome, great find on that rental. Thanks

Look at a sprite major 6 Td. That's what I'd have if I had three kids.
I've got two kids so managed to find a fixed double, bunks and lounge van but I'd defo check out the sprite.

Bailey also do a pursuit with two lounges. One has two beds with a bunk across the both of them. Can close the kids off then.

Thanks - I’ll take a look around!

Bailey Pegasus Ancona 6 Berth.

That's what I'd have. Although the two lounge concept aka double dinette works really well too. In ours, the dinette at the back becomes a double bed with an extra bunk on top.

What car are you towing with?

At the £10k price range you should be fine though. That's enough to buy into the modern timer-free or low timber construction. They can still leak and let in rain, many early Bailey ones did apparently, but you fix the leak and all's well. It doesn't spread like cancer like it used to in older vans full of timber.

Thanks - we looked at a few today. We’re sold on the triple bunk now and like the idea of the convertible seats down the bunk end too that can be shut off to create a room for the kids (or whoever).

Before we looked, we also liked the look of the wraparound lounge area but it seems that when they do this they shorten the side sofas so the 2 bench seats seem to give more room.

We didn’t get to see an Ancona so still need to check the detail measurements for the seating but we saw:

Pegasus 546 6 berth triple bunk
Pegasus Palermo which was more expensive and only had double bunks but other than that was a good fit.

Car? The forum standard T6 of course! Got to put the bikes somewhere. It should have enough grunt according to the internet.

Having a separate lounge area for kids is well worth it. As does having an area that’s easy to separate off do you can enjoy evenings if kids go to bed early. Ours has fixed singles at the front, U-shaped lounge at rear, with solid slinging door to close off the singles - perfect for our 4 and 6 yr olds and early bedtimes. Hobby Vita Veneto 495UL. Sitting in it right now.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/a11y_m/mBDNyz

T6 will comfortably tow most caravans within reason. We’re towing with 130ps Transit Custom, 1500kg caravan. Not the fastest but gets there.

Looks good! Thanks for the info. Yeah ours is the 150 so pretty similar.

Got to put the bikes somewhere. It should have enough grunt according to the internet.

Power isn't the issue, it's kerb weight. But I still think you will be ok with a T6, vans are heavy.

I also don't favour the U shaped seating area. Dinettes are so comfortable only because you can slouch on one side with your feet on the other. If you're in the U shaped bit you can't do that, so no-one will ever want to sit there, so it's wasted space. Will be different for younger kids though as they are always sitting up doing something at the table. But if they have fixed bunk they can lie down there if they want to chill.