I recently sold my beloved T5 camper to get a caravan (too many kids to fit in a T5).

Never bought one before so looking for any and all advice….

Makes to look out for, any to avoid?

Must have features?

Are twin axles harder to get onto campsites? (I have seen some sites state “no twin axles”) Is that a general thing?

Anything else?

Twin axles aren’t so easy to manoeuvre but are a lot more stable under tow (and you have limited redundancy if a tyre goes).

It’s basically safety vs learning to park.

Anything else?

Periwinkle blue

Are twin axles harder to get onto campsites? (I have seen some sites state “no twin axles”) Is that a general thing?

I’d always assumed this was just to stop certain groups of people who live in caravans rather than holidaying in them from setting up on the campsite.

Personally, not a fan of caravans.  Hire a bungalow or mobile home if you still want to enjoy the experience of carrying your toilet roll to the toilet block but don’t want to haul a trailer and can’t fit (your family, obvs 🙂 ) into a T5.  Unless you’re retired and use them every other week it seems an extraordinary faff to have to tow your holiday home there and back every time.

Personally, not a fan of caravans. Hire a bungalow or mobile home if you still want to enjoy the experience of carrying your toilet roll to the toilet block but don’t want to haul a trailer and can’t fit (your family, obvs 🙂 ) into a T5. Unless you’re retired and use them every other week it seems an extraordinary faff to have to tow your holiday home there and back every time.

I know, and I never thought I would be a caravan owner, but, the family love camping and being outdoors. I can get a weeks stay onsite for £300 vs a week in a static/cottage for £1000 +

 I can get a weeks stay onsite for £300 vs a week in a static/cottage for £1000 +

and the cost of the caravan?

If you put it in your driveway you are at the epicentre of a 15% decrease in house prices that spans at least a 10 house radius.

Don’t forget your fuel consumption will virtually halve if you’re travelling any distance, that’s what made me finally give up on ours. By the time I’d counted everything up including the hassle factor it made more sense to stay in a static with lots more room and separate bedrooms as the kids got older

Camping != caravanning. Tsk! Some people, mutter, mutter …

Bigger Motorhome?.

Twin axles are by a distance easier to manuvere than single axles. That is if you have loaded them properly.

What I will say is look at the costs of caravan sites .those buggers ain’t cheap which is why I have a camper van -rarely use a site other than for a shower and to dump my waste .

Twin axle vans are huge and unnecessary tbh as there’s plenty of space in a single axle van. Just check out different layouts as some have much more useful storage than others and it helps to have some storage front and back so you can balance the weight out.

They also have toilets and hot and cold running water, as do static caravans, so you don’t have to carry toilet roll anywhere 🙂

Re shopping, depends how much you want to spend, but at the lower end of the market damp is the big thing to look for. Open every cupboard and go under every bunk and tap the  walls everywhere you can, especially up high and in the corners to see if the walls are soft. Damp is like cancer for caravans. Catch it early and it can be fixed. Also trust your nose, and look for mold on soft furnishings. Lastly the floor should be firm and not springy!

On older vans there will probably be clips and fastenings broken, but these are widely available at caravan shops and way to replace.

Obviously check everything works, but also push or pull on the hitch as hard as you can. It should not move. If it does, the damper has failed which is a cheap fix but until it is fixed the van will clonk and snatch on braking.

Also look up how to check the age of tyres. Caravan tyres never wear out, they just age beyond what is safe. 7 years is the usual limit.

 I can get a weeks stay onsite for £300

£300 for a parking space for a week?  Holy crap.

Also, make sure you can legally tow a caravan.

Post 1997 licenses (I think) only allow a trailer weight of up to 750kg, which is too light for caravans I believe.  Check your license to see what categories you have, and the definitions of them here:

https://www.gov.uk/driving-licence-categories

Also need to think about gross train weight, max towing weight, nose weight and all these other fun technicalities around towing.

Cheers,

Keith

Re sites – there are expensive sites, but these tend to be busy and crowded as well as being expensive.  The more like hoilday resorts they are the worse (IMO) and the more expensive.  There are loads of sites that are a tap in a field, sometimes with leccy and a toilet, these tend to be way out in the countryside in beautiful spots and cost a tenner a night or thereabouts.  A much better experience imo.

The Caravan and Motorhome Club is as bad as it sounds, but it might be worth joining because they have a huge network of this kind of site called Certified Locations, limited to 5 vans.  The Caravan and Camping club has similar.

 I can get a weeks stay onsite for £300

A week in the caravan usually costs me less than £100.  Paid something like £150 for our week in Braemar IIRC and that was a full campsite not a CL.

As for hassle – it’s really not that bad once you get it down.  Much simpler than camping.  Our new van is in storage, and all we do is put bikes on the roof, put clothes and food in the car and go pick up the van.  No different to staying anywhere else really.

It does take a bit longer to drive, but I reckon on our trip to Scotland it cost us an extra 2 hours each way, but we saved that and more by not having to take a big tent down and pack all our crap into the car/trailer.

Post 1997 licenses (I think) only allow a trailer weight of up to 750kg, which is too light for caravans I believe.

Nope.  You are limited to a gross train weight of 3,500kg if you have a post 1997 license.  Not an issue unless you have an SUV and a big caravan – although your van might also put you close to this.

.Twin axle vans are huge and unnecessary tbh as there’s plenty of space in a single axle van Just check out different layouts as some have much more useful storage than others and it helps to have some storage front and back so you can balance the weight out.

The sentence that proves someone knows nothing about Caravans……

Twin axle vans are huge and unnecessary tbh as there’s plenty of space in a single axle van…….Safer when towing ……give more flexibility of design load capacity

and it helps to have some storage front and back so you can balance the weight out………erm  especially importanton a single axle van the wight should be low down and over the axle not stored at each end which just creates a seesaw affect (also dampened by a twin axle)

Basically what you need to do is first not jump straight inand buy the first van you see, go round ALOT of dealers/showrooms new and second hand and look for design features that do/dont suit you. When you’ve done this prioritise the list and then work out what vans tick most boxes, as to manufacturer there are really only two in Britain now, Swift group and bailey, alot of the others are actually owned by these. Dont discount some Euro manufacturers they make some pretty nice lighthigh spec vans

Re the twin axle on sites…..never had a issue in brittain (on our third twin) but some european sites do refuse to take them.

Fyi it cost me 350 quid for a days days tuition and my test for my trailer license. Highly recommend you think about it. Opens van options up and also teaches you the correct way to manuvere and to think about loading  a trailer. Too many have a go heroes at campsites near wiped out my old van trying to put them into massive pitches  badly.

A week in the caravan usually costs me less than £100.

Whaaaaaaat?! How do you manage that? When we go away on the camper, it’s usually around £20-£25 a night with hookup, and that’s on small ‘tap and showerblock’ sites, not fancy-pants ones.

ive never seen one for less than 20 quid these days – and i dont take hookup unless its not any cheaper not to take it …..

many campsites can be that a night for 2 people and a small tent these days.

Re: Molgrips assertion of MGTW of 3500kg:

You’re right.  it’s max vehicle of 3500kg plus up to 750kg trailer, OR max total train weight <3500kg (if trailer is over 750kg).

My misunderstanding. Not that I’ll ever get the wife in a tent or caravan anyway, so its all a bit moot.

Whaaaaaaat?! How do you manage that? When we go away on the camper, it’s usually around £20-£25 a night with hookup, and that’s on small ‘tap and showerblock’ sites, not fancy-pants ones.

£10 on a 5-van Certificated location with just water and waste facilities. maybe £15 if you want electric hook-up (we paid £12 a night, just outside of Lydney)

Helps though if your caravan if has a toilet and shower, not very common in a T5.

ive never seen one for less than 20 quid these days – and i dont take hookup unless its not any cheaper not to take it …..

many campsites can be that a night for 2 people and a small tent these days.

Yup (it’s also a gripe that I have to pay more, generally, for the T5 camper, than someone who has a tent and a car, who uses over twice the field space that I do)

£10 on a 5-van Certificated location with just water and waste facilities. maybe £15 if you want electric hook-up

+ (cost of your Caravan Club membership / number of times you use the discount it brings)

Twin axle vans are huge and unnecessary tbh as there’s plenty of space in a single axle van.

I used to know a guy that couldn’t understand why any anyone would buy an estate car.  He used to tell me that he could pack his car so efficiently he couldn’t imagine why anyone would need that extra space.  I tried to explain a scenario where someone could pack just as efficiently as him, but had more stuff to carry, and thus would need an estate.  He just couldn’t compute this as he was completely unable to see beyond his own scenario.  I told him to imagine he had 3 kids rather than 1—no, still could not compute.

Camping/Caravanning/Motorhoming – different strokes for different folks. We’ve got one kid and holiday cottages mean she’s pretty isolated with us, if we camp/caravan/motorhome she always makes little friends and it’s lovely to see. I’m not a fan of line up white box campsites but a mix and match of CLs and sites is OK. They are getting blinking expensive tho. We’re lucky being in Scotland that actually finding a plethora of quiet places is reasonably easy within 2-3 hours, other parts of UK you might find a bit harder.

Layout for vans is key and that they don’t leak i’d say as well. Also the Caravan and Motorhome Club (ex Caravan club) magazine has a fantastic classifieds which my mate used to get a minter van for not much from a retiring couple – the letters page is also excellent bog fodder for a read. Makes the Daily Mail look positively open minded and liberal ! Some of the C&MC sites are ace, some are run by ex NCP car park attendants. The C&CC is OK as well, membership for both isn’t much.

6.8m long, 1588kg mtplm 4 berth single axle (Bailey Madrid) is where I’m currently sitting. Towed to the site we’re on with our Galaxy.

We’re in a CMC ‘CL’ so only 5 pitches on a farm, overlooking the Downs, mtb & road riding from the door, leccy & water point & paid £25 a night.

Fuel economy dips from circa 44mpg to around 38mpg with the ‘van on the back.

Plenty of room for the 2 of us & our 2 dogs. Nice big washroom/shower, proper central heating for the winter & loads of storage space.

We site it on a seasonal pitch from end of Oct to end of Feb & use it loads through winter. That costs £550 for as much use as we want & is a fully serviced pitch on a lovely site near Wareham. (Even did last Christmas in it) then a 2 week summer holiday (like now) plus odd weekend and overnight stays.

Had a T5, loved it but got sick of camper van Tetris. Had a trailer tent but then you have the hassle of towing alongside the hassle of putting a tent up & down.

The caravan works out pretty cheap over the amount of use it gets especially if you take into account the limited (& more expensive) b&b/cottage iptiobs when you’ve got 2 dogs.

TA vans tend to be bigger & heavier but with more room inside. Our single axle is about as big as they get. Smaller vans have more compromises; smaller washroom, or smaller beds/sofas. Best to go to a big showroom or the nec show & have a good look at lots of options.

Out first van was £3.5k & we pxed it for the current one last year for 3k after 18 months use. Current van is 6 years old, was 24k new & we paid 15k for it. Intend to keep it for years yet.

Thanks all so far.

Cost is not an issue we have already decided this is the route for us. Towing is good also, I am old enough to have the right licence and used to work on a farm so manoeuvring etc is all in the memory banks. I have also just picked up a Volvo xc90 with its massive kerb weight so should be able to pull just about anything with that.

As for layout we are thinking rear bunks with the garage door to the side looks best for us.

A few things which come to mind:

We had 2 Coachmans and were happy with both. Beds which can be left made for kids are good, especially when travelling as you can carry them asleep from car to van and dump them in. Separate shower cubicle was a must for us. – Not for showering but as a drying room. The newer vans generally seem to be designed to be plugged in, with things like blown air heating, electric toiler flush, motor mover, microwaves etc. All good if you are plugged in but drain the battery very quickly if not.

Ironically, we got rid of our caravan to buy a T5.

I know, and I never thought I would be a caravan owner, but, the family love camping and being outdoors.

What about a big tent/awning on the side of the T5?

Caravanning is not camping… Also given how slow they are & how much they block the roads up in summer surely it can’t be any fun to drive any distance in one?

Okay nobody so far has actually hit the point of twin axles.

MTPLM – Maximum Technical Permissible Laden Mass

Single axle is always going to have a lower permissable laden mass than the equivalent double axle, typically up to 1500kg for a single and about 1700kg for a double. That might not seem a lot but if you were to get a large single, like my dad has, then you may be upset to find out you only have 236kg to play with from the dry weight (Mass in Running Order or MRO). That’s not a lot when you are on a post 1997 licence and fancy taking bikes and all that sort of stuff with you or an awning to sit in when the kids are in bed. You end up with a massive van with loads of space but bugger all you can put in it.

When buying a caravan or motorhome always look for dampness. Any soft bits are good indicators of rotton wood, check in cupboards and especially in the corners. Check things work and ESPECIALLY check the damn fridge. If they go they are very expensive to fix. Electric movers are nice to have but are aftermarket additions so you need to account for them when looking at weight. A habitation check is about £200 but tbh after the last one we got done I’d hesitate to say it’s worth it, we got things failed as they wouldn’t light on gas which was fair enough since they never had the wherewithal to check there was gas in the bottle. Broken things are generally more expensive to fix than normal household items especially the branded fittings like water socket covers, rooflights and such. Buying second hand may net extra stuff like a water butt and wastemaster.

On things like mpg YMMV (literally). My 120hp C8 drops from ~38mpg to about 17mpg at best, a lot of the time it was about 14mpg on inclines and dropping gears like no tomorrow. 6th is a fantasy, even in the 140hp Mondeo.

EDIT: Saw the thing about garages. Crap on a caravan, totally defeats the whole point of loading correctly unless you load the bikes above the axles for travelling.

Also given how slow they are & how much they block the roads up in summer surely it can’t be any fun to drive any distance in one?

Faster than lorries in Scotland and no more obstructive than one. I find it quite relaxing, just get it up to speed and one a straight road you just fling on the cruise control and sit back. 10mph isn’t much of a sacrifice if I’m honest.

That’s not a lot when you are on a post 1997 licence and fancy taking bikes and all that sort of stuff with you or an awning to sit in when the kids are in bed. You end up with a massive van with loads of space but bugger all you can put in it.

Caravan shouldn’t really be laden when under tow, unless you can put the load on the axle. Gas bottle, leisure batteries and stuff is probably OK but you shouldn’t be planning to use it as a trailer. That’s just going to make the stability worse. Put your kit in the car.

Looking at Static v Motorhome v caravans, caravans seem the cheapest option….

Caravanning is not camping…

I don’t get this sentiment at all, and I’ve never owned a caravan. I have been camping with families who’ve been in a caravan, and I think an experience where the children spend 90% of their awake time outside larking about, playing games, swinging from trees, eating off their laps, and generally really enjoying themselves in the outdoors is fantastic for them. Who cares if they sleep in a big plastic box rather than under fabric, and have the option of somewhere dry to sit and play board games if it rains.

Camping doesn’t have to be lighting fires with two sticks and crapping in a hole.

We had a twin axle Dethleffs caravan which weighed nearly 2 tonnes. Driving it was a bit of  a pain as it took ages to get up to 100kmh in it with our T5 and then getting stuck behind trucks would mean spending ages getting up to speed again. We mainly used it in southern Europe and Germany and there were a few campsites who wouldn’t allow twin axles on them,… not because of some sort of stigma but simply because the lanes on the campsite were too tight to get a 9.5m long caravan along them. We had a mover which made moving the caravan fairly easy but they are not as manouverable as a single axle van and often it took a while to get the caravan positioned. Once set up though for our large family (4 kids) it was great. The kids had their own bedroom with a bunk and double bed and so did we with a living area in the middle.

We have just dipped into caravanning but only spent £4500.

I have no motor mover. So if you don’t have one get good at reversing. Or pay £600+ for one.

We have a single axle. Ours weighs 1150kg. The feeling of towing it is weird.

Look for damp. Even new ones can have problems. Swift have their SMART construction and bailey have alutech to do away with wood. Water can still get in. Buy new for warranty or get a damp meter and check the van. Looking for readings <14%

We have an outdoor revolution air awning. It’s a doddle and goes up super quick. Pumps up, job done.

If buying an older van usb ports etc can be added easily on the 12v system.

Fridges aren’t the biggest for a growing family. Electric coolbox in awning compliments that.

Don’t forget the cadac.

The caravan club is good to join. Yiuve got the mandatory volvo so your sorted. We paid £66 for 4 nights in Anglesey  with electric. <span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>Got a fully serviced pitch in harlech next week for £14 a night. </span>

Next I want a Sprite Major 6 TD. Nothing fancy but ideal for our family needs.

Ignore the haters. Beats sleeping in a wet tent. Ideally I’d like a T5 for day van duties but that’s dreaming, but I can cook a full Sunday roast standing up which is more than can be said for my pals who are living the “dublife”

I am not a caravaner but grew up using them, parents still use a campervan after recently selling their small caravan.

My point is about the club’s.

Caravan club is more upright and snobbish, caravan and camping club not so much and is more open imo. Both are very stayed and full of 60+ers. My parents swapped from the former to the latter. I have been a member of the latter if the sites fitted with our plans for the year.

Thereby s also the freedom camping club that I have just discovered, yet to try a site (for camping but they also do caravans).

The sentence that proves someone knows nothing about Caravans……

I do know a bit about caravanning, been doing it a few years.  And I’m really picky about loading it and finding optimum stability.  I fitted shock absorbers to our new van, for example.

erm  especially importanton a single axle van the wight should be low down and over the axle not stored at each end which just creates a seesaw affect

Well in our van that would result in a huge pile of all our stuff in the middle of the floor.  Don’t think that would be very practical 🙂

We have a twin dinette layout (front and back) and we put camping chairs and bedding up front, and kids’ bedding, clothes and toys in back.  Awning in the toilet which is in the middle, but that’s very light.  Trimming the hitch weight means moving something like the hookup cable to the back or the front – I’m not talking about massive ballast in the back.

Caravan shouldn’t really be laden when under tow, unless you can put the load on the axle. Gas bottle, leisure batteries and stuff is probably OK but you shouldn’t be planning to use it as a trailer. That’s just going to make the stability worse.

Not in my experience.  In our car at least it doesn’t take much in the boot to lower the springs to the point where it makes the ride poor.  We try and load with about 5% of the van’s weight on the hitch, which is at the lower end of the recommended 5-7%.  Our setup is very stable – on a smooth motorway I forget the van is there.  I think a heavier van makes it more stable on motorways.  Although on a rough windy road (Scottish A road) it jerks the car around a bit more.

Okay nobody so far has actually hit the point of twin axles.

They can carry a lot but the vans are so huge they are borderline impractical for windy UK roads.  Re the payloads – 230kg all in is normal, however on modern vans they changed how they measure the mass in running order so it includes normal living stuff, so it looks like the payload is only 150kg or so.  Basically, if you just bring clothes and food and some kids’ toys and crap it works out ok.  Compare it to six or eight big suitcases as you’d take on a plane.  When I learned about this it seemed restrictive, but it’s really not, unless you are looking to bring blowup kayaks or some other kind of gear with you.  Don’t put bikes in the ‘van, they will bounce around and trash the interior, speaking from experience.  I put mine on the roof.

Re MPG, ours is about halved from 62mpg to 30-35mpg depending on wind which of course makes a much bigger difference with a big object towed behind.

Also given how slow they are & how much they block the roads up in summer surely it can’t be any fun to drive any distance in one?

Well – motorways are easy, of course, just sit in with the lorries at 58mph.  You rarely need to pass anything, its easier than driving a normal car in some ways.  Very relaxing to be going slower.

Quiet A roads are ok; on busy ones I do feel a bit guilty holding people up so I pull over a lot.  But you’d be surprised how often you come up behind a car going even more slowly.  Basically all the time on the bigger roads.  Rough B roads are a pain – not so much the actual driving, but the state of the roads makes me fear for the state of my old van and I slow down.  Not as much of an issue with the van we just got though as it now has shocks and is actually screwed tightly together 🙂  Scottish A roads are the worst.  The A93 to Braemar was a bit of a pisstake.  Not the 660m mountain pass, that was fine, but the bit running up to it.  Very windy and uppy downy and rough as hell.  But some of the roads we took cross-country to get to Mull were very narrow and windy and it went on for hooours.

On the other hand, Scottish drivers were pretty relaxed and the roads were really quiet, which really helped.

Oh BTW I am selling my 1994 Bailey Discovery for cheap 🙂 It’s dry…