I want a Caravan that's not a Caravan!

My idea of caravanning:

i used to work for a guy who imported and renovated Airstreams and rented them out for promotional work…. polishing them was a PITA. took forever.

Tiger – what model?

CZ – that’s what it looks like when we caravan, except not as shiny and not as hipstery. Airstreams are incredibly heavy and way too lifestyle for me… I sometimes think half the scorn handed out to caravanners is because people think it’s all big sites with shops and entertainments and people putting vases of flowers on bloody doileys in their window then sitting inside watching bloody Emmerdale and coming to the same place every year to meet Dave and Linda from bloody Bedford for the same two weeks and talk about their towing vehicles and tut at people who park their caravans wrong..

Sorted.[/url]

I sometimes think half the scorn handed out to caravanners is because people think it’s all big sites with shops and entertainments and people putting vases of flowers on bloody doileys in their window then sitting inside watching bloody Emmerdale and coming to the same place every year to meet Dave and Linda from bloody Bedford for the same two weeks and talk about their towing vehicles and tut at people who park their caravans wrong..

maybe more to do with this…..

or this…

🙂

Tiger – what model?

Deseo Plus

http://www.knaus.de/en/caravans/deseo/layout-plans/deseo-plus.html

Nice, but I’d worry about the fuel economy!

Didn’t seem to make much difference, it’s pretty light at 750kg

What were you towing with?

My 800kg van reduces my mpg from 60 to about 32! Air resistance is the main factor.

It’s really basic, no hot water, no shower but it’s exactly what we want.

It’s light, dead easy to tow and seemed like a sensible next step from a tent. Does’t feel too caravany inside.

We just wanted a place to crash at the end of a long day and we aren’t too bothered about having to many luxurious extras. We haven’t bought it to live inside it, it has fixed bunks for our kids, space for bikes and gear inside.

No carpets and no brown twee button couches & no net curtains

Going to put a couple of Thule roof bar racks on the draw bar as it’s really long.

The plan is to change the colour to a silver at some point.

And it’s the same width as the car which is handy

And it’s the same width shape as the car which is handy confusing!

😉

Looks just the job. Have you had the first trip yet?

Putting bike racks on the draw bar could add too much noseweight. I’d suggest a noseweight gague as an important accessory – this applies to any caravanner tbh.

no net curtains

I haven’t seen net curtains in a caravan for about 35 years 🙂

Re the luxuries.. we recently stayed for 9 days on a site with no showers or toilets.. so the ones in our van came in handy 🙂

I get 45 fro mmy 1.8 petrol on a motorway run when not towing, goes down to about 28-30 when I’m towing a caravan. it helps to cruise at 56 to 58 or so, like all the lorries.

Looks just the job. Have you had the first trip yet?

Not yet

Re the luxuries.. we recently stayed for 9 days on a site with no showers or toilets.. so the ones in our van came in handy

We are used to tents, we camp in France for our summer hols, a tap and bed are luxury 😉

Yeah, I always cruise at lorry speed.. otherwise you’re clogging the middle lane constantly with a 2mph speed differential, and getting buffeted too.

Is that with a 1.8 turbo?

maybe more to do with this..

nicely cropped to make it look like the car towing the caravan is causing the queue 🙂

indeed, I rarely move out of the inside lane. No,.it’s a v50 1.8 se so just standard, no turbo (don’t think so anyway – don’t really care). Don’t do enough miles to justify a diesel

Ah, a safe haven for the sad bastards…

We’ll be going off in my old mans Senator again this year, just need to get a new car (odds on Mondeo) to avoid the hell that is a C8 for towing the damn thing (horrible car with the instruments in the middle of the dash for some unknown reason).

Love it, if he hadn’t got one I would have (albeit smaller). Missus can pull it as well which is handy, not too shabby at reversing (until female selective deafness occurs when hitching up *:P)

*She’s reading this as I type. Nosey bum.

My mum would never tow a caravan, so I’m glad my wife will. Although she doesn’t fancy manoevring it.. especially after the palaver experienced trying to pull onto the site at Easter.. got stuck, had to reverse back onto a (deserted) road in the dark completely blind. With lights on, dazzled by the van front lights; with them off – dark, obv.

We’ve got a thirty year old Eriba Puck, it’s the same width as the Doblo and only about four inches higher with the roof closed and it weighs nowt, the mpg dropped from 54 to 52 on a recent 160 mile trip and you can’t really feel it’s there when towing,
The alloy construction means it’s dry as a bone with no damp or mildew and the beds mega comfy,
They fetch strong money in good nick though..

I must admit, we saw some really nice vans recently when going to our dealer to pick up £1 parts for our old heap of crap.. however the sheer size of newer vans is somewhat intimidating!

Our current one is 18″ long but the newer ones are quite a bit higher and wider.

Our current one is 18″ long but the newer ones are quite a bit higher and wider.

Blimey, that’s a compact one…. 😉

Yeah.. no bed required, we just wedge ourselves in standing up .

😆

Airstream Mercedes Touring Coach is what you want.

^ playing with the build your own function is fun

Airstream Mercedes Touring Coach is what you want.

I’ll add that to the list of things I don’t need, but want, and will only buy when I win the lottery 🙂

(I know, as a lottery winner you don’t really need a motorhome, but it would be handy for going to races).

^ Base model is a reasonable $150k.

I had never heard of them before until I saw one last week, googled and fell in love.

Base model is a reasonable $150k.

In that case I’ll take two 😀

Airstream Mercedes Touring Coach is what you want.

No way!

No way!

Yes way! It’d be ideal for going to races – turn up, park somewhere near the start line, no need for a campsite or whatever, and marginally less obvious than a caravan.

Yeah but I holiday besides races.

I’d still caravan if I won the lottery. I’d rather a field in the middle of nowhere than a hotel.

Course I might have a motorhome as well, just for races 🙂

Course I might have a motorhome as well, just for races

I never said you couldn’t have both. You could even get new net curtains 🙂

I’m struggling to see what’s so special about that Airstream, I’ve seen self build conversions that look more appealing. That’s also gonna be a really comfy bed with all those ridges and lovely slidey leather.

Molgrips, get an electric mover, only peasants push 😛

I have a mover, it came on my first knackered old van and I nicked it for my newer van when I sold it, along with the stabiliser. The radio doesn’t work so I have to use a cable, and my leisure battery’s knackered so it doesn’t work very well.. 🙂

Best of both worlds then molgrips?

Lounge setup in the van, luxury kitchen and bedroom in the trailer.

solves the issue of packing up the motorhome nicely

I’m pretty upset that this thread can get to 5 pages without someone posting this (unless it’s in one of those broken links)