Show us your tin tents

For balance our diddy caravan cost £500

I’ve just had a browse of those wee things. I like

But I’ve decided that most are not aimed at me – they’re ‘proper’ caravans, all grown up and beige.

Now this looks perfect. Shame it’s £15k(!!!!) new, not the £500 yours was. Someone’s done the research though. Bikes inside, canoe on roof, warm, plastic wipe down, bags for stowage, rear door etc.

What about loitering with tin tent?

This deserves a bump

Matt thats a Swift BaseCamp or something? Look great lots of neat features but quite heavy and spendy. My uncle has a Tab 320. Its pretty nice. Only sleeps 2 though.

Kip Shelter is pretty cool too

As it happens Yes, that’s cheap.

£40k? And you’re giving this as evidence of how cheap they are?

And they’re pretty decent too.

Hold their price reasonably well and offer loads of options to come and go as you please.

I like em’, I think they’re cheap for what they are.

YMMV

🤷‍♂️

Matt thats a Swift BaseCamp or something?

It is.

It’s opened my eyes to a warmed, dry tent with a proper bed. Mrs_oab and I had been kicking around a caravan, as camper we just can’t afford.

A small, well designed thing we can do weekends away in is ideal. Perfect if we can keep bikes in it.

I’m looking for ideas, but it will be older and cheap.

It seems all caravans suffer from leaks and damp, and supposedly only last a decade or so…hmmm

Our little setup that we’ve just been to North Berwick in…

We had a wee game on the way up, counting caravans & motorhomes/campers. 3 times as many caravans than motorhomes/campers.

How much do folk tend to recoup in sale value when they shift them on a few years later?

My mate bought a brand new MH 2 years ago & he’s going off the assumption that if you look after it you’ll get pretty close to the original price cos the prices are going up all the time which means 2nd hand prices keep some pace as well.
For what we want a MH is pointless cos A, we couldn’t afford a decent one, B, we’d have to use it as a 2nd vehicle, C, We love the west coast of Scotland & like to get ‘offroad’ (well, as far as an Xtrail will allow anyway), D, I’d hate to have to pack everything away just to go to the shops.
Etc.

Agree with BWD about caravan names. I mean for me, A Buccaneer is one of these:

or one of these:

Not some tin tent rotting away in a front garden.

I guess my caravan impressions are tainted from childhood holidays – my grandfather was very keen on the idea of caravanning and he went through a succession of them. He’d buy a small one, decide it was too small so buy a huge one, then have to buy a bigger car to tow it, then decide that it was too big (more too big to store and to tow) so he’d downsize…repeat ad nauseum.

Anyway, as kids, our family holidays would be me, my sister and my Mum and my grandparents. Us in our car and them towing the ridiculous tin tent to some campsite in the Lakes or Scotland. The problem was that while they were very keen on the idea of caravanning, the practicalites of two elderly and extremely disorganised (and often quite forgetful) people trying to use one on a regular basis was overwhelming for them and they weren’t especially wealthy so everything about it was cheap. The van itself, the stuff in it (like sleeping bags, 2 for £10 from Millets style) was always cheap and this being the mid / late 80’s meant it was usually shit too.

My Mum would do her best to make it work, cooking up meals for 5 on a 2-ring gas hob in a crowded kitchen but it does require ruthlessly efficient use of space and organisation – two things which my grandparents were utterly incapable of. They once went away and forgot to pack any clothes – a case of each thinking the other had put them in – and they’d often forget to properly tie things down so everything would be strewn across the van by the time they’d driven it anywhere.

They tried their hardest bless them and we did actually have some good holidays but I’ll always remember the rain leaking in through knackered old windows and the smell after 5 damp people and one damp dog had tried to dry out in it…

My brother is at a motorhome gathering in Peterborough and is upset. Apparently on the mainland dogs in prams is quite the thing.

This year he says the show is awash with soppy dogs. You can even get dog awnings.

My brother longs for the days when leather cowboy hats and crocs marked you out as a serious motorhomer rather than a dog on wheels.

Matt thats a Swift BaseCamp or something?

It is.

It’s opened my eyes to a warmed, dry tent with a proper bed. Mrs_oab and I had been kicking around a caravan, as camper we just can’t afford.

A small, well designed thing we can do weekends away in is ideal. Perfect if we can keep bikes in it.

I’m looking for ideas, but it will be older and cheap.

It seems all caravans suffer from leaks and damp, and supposedly only last a decade or so…hmmm

Thing is that’s just a small two berth caravan with a awning specific to that model. Good marketing by swift You can keep bikes in any caravan. Mine fits under my bed with the front wheel off. Plus you won’t be able to keep them in the base camp when sleeping in it as they will sit where the bed is.

Baileys from 2010, elddis from 2014 and swift 2014 onwards are all better in terms of damp. Look up bailey alutech, swift smart and elddis solid construction techniques. You could get (for example) a bailey Orion 400/2 with composite body for £7k and an air awning for £500 and be sorted. Plus when the awning wears out it’s easily replaced by any brand. Not young and hip inside but nothing a few personal touches can’t sort.
Bikes can be chained to the chassis in the awning. Thieves/anyone can open a caravan door in seconds so keeping them inside will make no difference

It seems all caravans suffer from leaks and damp, and supposedly only last a decade or so…hmmm

No, there are tons of 20 year old vans out there. Mine is dry.

Pre about 2009 they were all made with wood but now most are now timber free or at least limited. These should last for ages. Baileys were being sold with a 10 year warranty at one point.

Parents always took us on holiday in either a caravan/tent/trailer tent and we loved it. While I still love camping in a tent, my wife has had enough of the cold and damp so we’ve recently bought a 2008 Bailey Ranger and compared to our old Fleetwood van, it’s a palace. Everything works on it for a start.
Caravans win over tents easily.

That depends doesn’t it.

Thieves/anyone can open a caravan door in seconds so keeping them inside will make no difference

It was more for travelling.

A peruse of eBay shows a few small, light vans that would work as well. They are more ‘wood, carpet and wine rack’ than ‘warm, washable, simple’. But functional.

How much of a gamble to buy a sub £1500 van…?

Not young and hip inside

Have a look at Knaus, a lot younger and very Euro looking. Almost looks like Ikea did a caravan.

How much of a gamble to buy a sub £1500 van…?

Quite a bit if you don’t know what you’re looking for, but I do. I’ll write you a long PM with things to look at if you want?

It seems all caravans suffer from leaks and damp, and supposedly only last a decade or so…hmmm

We just bought a cheap one, £200. There was a leak in the roof, but the water just ran out the hole in the bottom. We went all over Scotland in it for about 8 years, loved it, then when it got too rotten we gave it away.
I think theres no risk in buying a caravan for a grand or so, if it doesn’t leak now it will soon, but it’ll still be perfectly useable for ages.

nbt

Member
WONN UUUNERED!

This deserves more credit! 😆

Not mine, but saw one like this parked up at the Legoland campsite in Gunsburg.

About the least ‘wild’ campsite you can imagine.

Made me smile. A lot.

He (pretty sure it would have been a ‘he’) bugged out before I had time to take a picture of his beast squeezed up against his Knaus and RollerTeam compadres.

How much of a gamble to buy a sub £1500 van…?

Matt;

Travel with bikes: bike on roof rack or as I do: wrapped in old duvet on the floor. Have had a bad experience where I thought it was safe and propped up and it fell around every where scuffing stuff. Roof rack wins though, I just need to buy one. Newer caravans often have mounts for a rear rack.

Sub 1500 van;

Damp. Buy a £20 damp meter and check the walls everywhere. Google caravan damp check images for an idea where to stick the prongs. <20% moisture should be ok. Under 15 is ideal. You can fix damp. If caught early it’s just resealing the awning rail or Windows. If the woods gone then I’d avoid unless you’re prepared to fix as I’m not a fan of spores. If the walls are spongy they are gone.

Floor
Look for delamination. Springy floor. Can be fixed with a kit. Good place to knock money off of you don’t mind work and want rid of the obligatory orange carpet for vinyl floor.

Electrics. Check the 12v system works. I.e when the hook up isn’t plugged in. Should be a leisure battery in place. You do need one even if you never use it. Regulates voltage. 240v may work some lights, charger, fridge etc.
Fridge will be 3 way. Check it works on gas and electric. Easier said than done I suppose when looking.
Heater will be gas/electric. Can see if that works. If it’s broken then spares are in abundance. It will be a carver if fairly old or newer, its parent company replacement truma. The truma is awesome. Check the fan works. I knocked £200 off our old van because the heater needed a £10 part.
Check the water heater works. Gas/electric.

Toilet/shower. Manual flush thetford bog will have no issues. Electric flush may be fussy. Look for drippy taps from ice damage. Shower trays are made of cling film and often crack. Can be replaced if you need to or “speedcoated”.
sites often have showers anyway and whilst functional, a caravan shower isn’t amazing unless you have a direct water feed and a quick water heater.

£1500 will see a floral interior. Check the bed pulls out etc. Everything is made light and out of cheese. Carpet can be cut out and vinyl put down. Newer vans often have removable carpet.

Check the water inlet is not cracked and that they give you a pump! See it run and look for black muck coming out the taps. Will need a good dose of puriclean if so. Check the taps don’t leak. Frost damage is often the cause. Puriclean the system anyway.

Exterior: look of damage to the alloy walls/roof. Pin prick holes. Look for delamination. The awning, roof and window rails should be sealed nicely. Sikaflex is king if needed. Check the windows don’t have stress cracks. Check the rear and front panels are not cracked. Abs is harder to fix than grp. Check external doors close and are sealed nicely.

Running gear. Look for a stabiliser hitch. 13 pin or 7 pin electric to tow bar can be converted in line so that’s not a problem wiring wise.
Tyres should be under 7 years old. Hard to check the brakes unless you tow it. Shouldn’t bang when pulling away or starting to reverse. Check the corner steadies are greased well and work. £40-50 each to replace. Check the handbrake engages nicely.

Look for bits; aquaroll, wastemaster, awning, hitch lock etc.

Have fun. I found £2k+ they start to get better. Facebook marketplace is often good for cheap vans. Everyone will say they are damp free. Even if not.
Sold our old van really quick at 16 years old because I spent £170 on a service with damp check so it proved I had nothing to hide and all was sound.

What olly said.

Also, trust your nose. If it smells damp, it probably is.

Look for people who are obviously selling a van they’ve holidayed in. The ones where they are in a field being ‘sold for a friend’ are a riskier. We viewed many like that and they were awful, and the previous one was sold like that and it had a terrible leak and the guy had patched it up cosmetically, without fixing the leak. It was obvious with a bit more investigation in the far corners of all the cupboards.

Totally expected the hate, it’s a caravan at the end of the day. Most people don’t get them until they’ve tried them.

I had a smaller one 6/7 years ago, albeit that wasn’t exactly tiny. We had to make the bed up every night and something is always a compromise, be it the kitchen, bathroom or bedroom in a smaller van. I always vowed Mr next one would be as big as possible. I’d have had a Hobby if the door was on the right side and they didn’t attract the attention of our traveling communities.

I did point out earlier that I use it for work, but that may have been missed, as I let everyone froth for a bit first 😂 Basically it’s my home for 4 nights a week, but we have/will use it for holidays. I did 2 years working away from home in the last one including a pretty harsh winter. Spending money on hotels is dead money – with this, vi save money and also get something we want out of it. Work aside, holiday wise, you have more freedom than a b&b. I’ve got a decent inflatable tent that I’ll use for festivals (might take the van this year though), booking trips with the lads etc. Mrs STR has arthritis and tenting isn’t really an option for her.

Would love a big motor home one day, but the cost is ridiculous and I also need my Land Rover/pick-uo/van/whatever for work.

As for TV’s – I’ve 2 X 24″ smart TV’s with Freeview, so don’t bother with a dish. Can get more than enough channels to watch plus Netflix etc. It’s also got a decent Bluetooth stereo system. It’s April and still goes dark reasonably early. Plenty of time to ‘do stuff’ in the day, without feeling the need to sit outside in the cold and dark, just to avoid watching telly.

Driving wise, only maybe slightly hold anyone up on tight lanes, other than that I keep up with the flow of traffic. Down side is the Disco does about 20mpg towing it, but I drive 30k a year for work, a few hundred towing this isn’t really going to make that much difference.

A couple pics from last week and some of the van. Haters gonna hate 😘

2019-04-26_10-30-30 by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

2019-04-26_01-03-24 by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

(Stock photo)

2019-04-26_06-44-01 by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

2019-04-26_06-52-49 by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

2019-04-26_06-42-17 by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

2019-04-26_06-41-51 by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

2019-04-26_06-40-09 by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

Looks blimmin awesome.

👍

My word, that’s rather plush…

Right how do I post an image from Instagram?

Bah

That’s lovely.

Regarding buying a van, we bought from an elderly couple with health issues.
The van was grubby (I gave it some serious cleaning when it came home) but everything was in good order.
We took my fil when we bought our first cheap van. He was able to pick out a really decent one from a group of about 5 or 6. So my advice is take along someone that knows their onions.

One thing – we pulled up some of the floor to discover the fridge had been leaking. Had it not been spotted it would lead to issues. The chap we bought it off had the fridge under guarantee (it had just been serviced, so he got it fixed for us).

Nice van OP! You can get some really nice ones for not *a lot* of £’s, friends of ours picked up a lovely 3 yr old Coachman something or another for 13.5K (from a dealer, with a warranty) which was just about unused. The oven grill pan was still in the protective wrapping, didn’t look like the loo had even been used nor the shower. Doubt It’ll get damp either cos he keeps it in a big shed.

*depends on what you class as ‘not a lot’*

Quite plush inside that but it’s not for me, I’ll stick with the a lodge, hotel or cottage thanks.

Regarding buying a van, we bought from an elderly couple with health issues.
The van was grubby (I gave it some serious cleaning when it came home) but everything was in good order.

From experience, elderly people don’t really see that well, often find it difficult in those small, hard-to-reach areas of a cramped caravan and sometimes lack the strength required to do serious deep cleaning. The same started happening to my grandparents caravan – or they’d have forgotten to close a window or dry out the awning properly and from there it was a short road to dealing with lots of mould or mildew or build-up of fat from cooking.

🙁

OP – nice pics, that van of yours does look properly comfortable!

Quite plush inside that but it’s not for me, I’ll stick with the a lodge, hotel or cottage thanks.

I stayed at a hotel for Coed y Brenin once. It was crap. Tried to be a posh country lodge but was just scruffy and naff.

I stayed at a hotel for Coed y Brenin once. It was crap. Tried to be a posh country lodge but was just scruffy and naff.

Unlucky.

We are looking to get a caravan this year – the cost of cottages is getting silly with 4 kids so whilst it will be a bigger initial cost we should save in the long run – and I suspect actually get away a lot more for adventures! Looking very second hand so there has been some great info on this thread!

The original idea was a campervan, but with enough berths and seatbelted seats things were looking expensive! The idea of a caravan seems more versatile since we can leave it onsite and go off for the day.

Also – I am feeling too old for too much camping now, and it does rain a lot in the UK….

At last our tab320. Great wee caravan. Does absolutely all we need it to. No frills but a great base.

Is the OP Katie Price?

Is the OP Katie Price?

Poor effort, it’s not pink ffs

At last our tab320.

Nice. My uncle and aunty have been all over the US in theirs. I really like them.

As a motorcyclist, I love caravans… Mobile chicanes. What’s not to like?

Thieves/anyone can open a caravan door in seconds so keeping them inside will make no difference

Just as an side, it seems manufacturers have finally given up on floral interiors. New Swift models have plain fabric.