Aarggh just bought a motorhome……..

Sad, but the bit we really enjoyed is almost every other campervan gives you a wave. Felt like we had lots of friends. Don’t know why but it’s just ticked us.

What Sundayjumper said. Like many I dream of owning one but they are seldom a rational decision and often become money pits.
If you have loads of cash or you are going to use it lots then they make sense. Otherwise may as well hire.
I would love to own a place in Southern Spain (wouldn’t we all) but until I retire it makes far more sense to hire somebody elses. Doesn’t stop lots of people buying through.

Best dosh I ever spent in terms of quality time and holidays with the family. My only regret is that I waited too long to buy mine. My oldest lad has only been away in it a couple of times.
040 by Davesport62[/url], on Flickr
061 by Davesport62[/url], on Flickr
Panorama 2 by Davesport62[/url], on Flickr
019 by Davesport62[/url], on Flickr
002 by Davesport62[/url], on Flickr

Does anyone have a good recommendation for hiring motor homes?

I’m getting my holiday list together here – Davesport where were your pics taken, it looks lovely?

Love Tracey’s reg plate!

Always fancied a T5 campervan, but I suddenly have a really strong desire for a big 4 berth with a 4 bike garage….

That’s a serious garage at the back of Davesport’s.

At least with a caravan you can leave it on site and use the car. Are there advantages vs a caravan I’m not seeing?

I reckon a camper van is better for pure touring – as in, stopping here and there as you drive. When we caravan we stop in a CL somewhere remote for however long, then we drive to wherever we want to go. At Easter we stayed in the New Forest and visited Salisbury, Stonehenge etc – was much easier just to get in the car and drive off.

But then we’ve got little kids so they need the downtime that’s not spend driving and doing stuff. If we didn’t have kids, we’d probably have found a site near some biking and still gone out from the ‘van.

Campervans have a couple of disadvantages for me. They’re hideously expensive for what they are; and they’re really very cramped inside compared to caravans. That and the driving away thing.

Possibly easier to store on your drive too, depending on size. But then you have to tax, insure and service it which may be extra money depending on what other vehicles you need.

For decent Camper van hire, Just Go, near Luton are ace, they sell them off cheaply too, fully kitted out with X boxes and all the cutlery etc.

Thanks PePPeR!

GDM4

I’m getting my holiday list together here – Davesport where were your pics taken, it looks lovely?

The first two pics taken on the Ross of Mull. Wild camp with owners permission…£1.00 per night ! Third picture take ISTR on Uist in the outer Hebrides. Fourth picture taken at Kilchoan on Ardnamurchan. And the last one taken at Laggan Wolftrax.

That’s a serious garage at the back of Davesport’s.

There’s a heated double bed above that garage 🙂 It’s lovely to come back to after a long day out on the bikes.

Great pics. Great purchase.
Veering slightly ot but how safe are passengers in motorhomes? Currently have a Vw camper and it’s been great to us, but with expanding young family it’s too small now. how do people travel there young kids in motorhomes safely?

Belted seats and booster/child seats, the days of piling in on the sofa are pretty much over.

Yes but I doubt the body of a camper is that safe. Not much of a roll cage.

The requirement to pack up before you drive off is brought up as an issue for a campervan compared to a caravan but I’m not really sure about that. When we had the caravan we still had to pack the bed up to have the seating and dining area and as I’m not a filthy animal I wash up after meals anyway. There is very little difference in that side of things.

There is less space but that’s more apparent on smaller ones. My parents have a big motorhome and whilst there’s less space than a big caravan it’s not mostly the fact that the cab takes up room and that leaves it easier to drive away.

Practically campers and motorhomes are more flexible for fitting on new driving licenses.

The packing up before moving was never a big deal for us. Basically just do dishes, chuck surfboards inside and unplug the electricity cable if on a site.

The big upside for us was having somewhere to change in out wetsuits, eat lunch, sleep post surf by the beach. Especially for winter sessions. Problem now, in France anyway, is that so many beach parking places have height restrictions so can’t get anything taller than a standard van in.

The requirement to pack up before you drive off is brought up as an issue for a campervan

Never been a problem for and can’t see why it’d be any different for a caravan. Our motorhome has fixed beds so no need to sort any of that out before driving off. The seating area can be converted into a bed but we’ve rarely used it as ours has two fixed doubles.

There are toys all over our caravan most of the time…

Motorhome awnings can be taken out and put away in minutes, caravans take forever.

TBH my folks have a caravan that we use but given the choice I’d have a motorhome any day of the week. They are far better in terms of range and going off the beaten track. You can camp anywhere really so long as you’re not in the way and you don’t need six spaces (yes, really!) just to park the thing at a supermarket (longest 4 berth ever).

Also, you only need to tax it when it’s on the road (insurance dependent), if you’re lying up for winter why tax?

We bought a motor home for our family of six in December. Even though it looks massive from the outside, inside it is pretty cramped compared to our old caravan. Doing anything is a bit like tetris. For us though a camper suits our style of holidays as we tend not to stay anywhere longer than a few days and in summer it’s a long trip to Italy, S of France or Croatia where being able to go faster is a real bonus. Travelling in them is more comfortable, too but I do wonder about the safety aspect of the in a crash situation as the rear seats are effectively wooden boards.

Crewlie .. thats a good looking motor there. What model is it?

Nice photos folks, it is making me jealous. I will have to stick to the tent for now.

Motorhome awnings can be taken out and put away in minutes, caravans take forever.

Only the big ones. You get a choice between those, which give huge living space, and the same kind of lightweight mini ones you get with camper vans. You can even get the inflatable ones and simple canopies. We have a full size one and a small porch job, going to make ourselves a canopy too.

But yes, depends on the mechanics of your actual holiday. I’d consider the choice more carefully if it weren’t for the incredible cost of camper vans…

This would be our motorhome of choice http://earthcruiser.com/%5B/url%5D. No limits.

We’ve had a classic T2 and found that leaving it anywhere other than a campsite was a really bad idea as it got broken into several times. The Ducato got broken into, bits nicked off it and one determined but failed effort at theft. You can’t park the things in many nice places in France. Madame might buy another but I’m not keen.

Madame hated towing the caravan and the gendarmes were asking questions as soon as we stopped but once installed on a campsite it was as good as the campsite (which can be ace or hell on earth). You have the car to go where you want and not worry about it being broken into or being banned where you want to go. I reckon it’s a better solution than a motorhome unless you intend to move on regularly.

We currently have a car we can sleep in, several sizes of tent and don’t worry about what we spend on hotels, because the depreciation and running costs on a camper van will pay for a lot of nights in hotels, B&Bs, gîtes, Airbnb. When we leave the car nothing is visible. We can park on the sea front in St Jean de Luz (though we norally use the free station car park) and leave the thing in a remote car park all day and expect to find it intact.

I really don’t want to spend my holiday in some camper van ghetto between the main road and the railway in the grottiest part of town when I can stay in a monastery, a time warp 50s hotel, a converted church, an old brothel, a fisherman’s cottage or some delightful wild campsites you can only reach on foot.

It’s something I keep looking into… just cost that stops it really. We may go and look at some van conversions soon though and talk about finance.

I want something bigger, but the other half is less convinced. She always wanted a classic VW though – probably something to do with spending too much time in Cornwall. Fitting the two of us and three small children in a van may be a bit tight though for anything more than a night or two!

Friends with three young kids bought a motorhome and sold it within a year. They replaced with a Westphalia Scudo which they’ve now had about five years because:

The lady hated driving the motorhome, and they couldn’t park in nice places or even in most supermarket car parks. The kids like the Scudo, it’s fast on the autoroute and tolls are the same as a car, it’s economical, it can be used as a daily driver (two vehicles depreciating not three). The youngest sleeps on a mattress/board across the front seat.

Yeah I suppose mileage varies with awnings, if it wasn’t for the weight already being close you the limit I’d see about a van style roll out job. It really does discourage touring though, not as easy to just move on when you have as much faff getting it level, filling tanks, emptying tanks etc.

I clicked this link to mock at all you people.

Now I’m thinking about borrowing my FIL’s ‘van for adventures

if it wasn’t for the weight already being close you the limit I’d see about a van style roll out job.

For which now?

Do it, best thing ever and you would be doing him a favour by giving it a good run 😉

Just back from 3 days away in a Swift Escape 696. 2 adults, 1 child and the faithful compact hound.

I’m not convinced by the whole experience to be honest. All a bit noisy, slow and cramped.

I picked up a mag and must admit an A Class build took my eye (Hymer with v6 Merc diesel, etc) but I doubt even if I had £100k spare I would splash it on one of these.

I can see the allure of parking up on a deserted beach, up a mountain, etc but parking up in a site where folks just seem to push up the sat tv receiver and then proceed to watch the same tv as they do at home is a tad strange.

However my daughter really enjoyed the experience so that is what matters.

Perhaps we need to try it again….

There are plenty of people who sit in both caravans and camper vans watching telly. Doesn’t mean you have to though. We draft in caravan club CLs which are up to 5 vans in the middle of nowhere, the next best thing to being on a beach but with somewhat better security.

The Camper Clean toilet cassette auto cleaning machine was great though!

😯

Yes but I doubt the body of a camper is that safe. Not much of a roll cage.

Perhaps not a roll cage as such, but motorhomes are much stronger than a caravan, and they do not have a habit of snaking down the road before flipping over either! Van conversions are plenty strong enough.

Rear seats in a coachbuilt motorhome are normally with a metre or so of the cab anyway and that has decent enough roll over protection.

The main safety concern in a motorhome is that its a van up front and although they are pretty good with passive safety now (ABS, EBD etc) the active safety (crumple zones, safety cell, airbags, lack of testing) is pretty poor compared to a 5 star NCAP car.

But again, the 5 star NCAP car & caravan is more likely to crash than a motorhome.

Dammit, looks like this thread got another victim. We’ve just bought one too, Mrs hoppy says we can do a long Alps in it next year.

Sad to see our T5 go but it was getting a little hard work trying to fit all the toys in/on.

The main safety concern in a motorhome is that its a van up front and although they are pretty good with passive safety now (ABS, EBD etc) the active safety (crumple zones, safety cell, airbags, lack of testing) is pretty poor compared to a 5 star NCAP car.

My biggest concern was being rear ended by a car that was force above the bumper and into the van. I imagine the consequences to be horrible as there is nothing to stop it mashing the passengers in the rear.