Prices have certainly shot up in recent years. We paid just over 5k for an 2008 4 birth Bailey about 3 year ago and they’re closer to 8k now. Don’t do what we did and get the first one we saw because we were all excited. Found out that when we got it on site, the dirty git hadn’t emptied the bog. Was wretching for ages after dealing with it. 🤮

Although I’ve currently got the top off our toilet cassette & it is a bit manky inside, even though it gets a proper good rinse every time I empty it along with using decent chemical.
It’s 8 yrs old mind.

Who gives a crap. (Pun intended)

I use mine for going for a dump. At least I know the bit I’m sat on and the room I’m in is clean.

But as for the cartridge being a bit dirty …it’s literally receptical for holding poo. It serves no other purpose. Your not going to use it as a gravy boat with Sunday dinner are you ….

Whatever way you dress it, emptying the cassette is a pretty awful job. We didn’t shit in ours as it didn’t flush properly but did pee. The one time one of the kids did do a Tom Tit, it was bloody horrid!
To be fair The artist’s van look’s palatial compared to our circa Y2k Avondale Dart.

Whatever way you dress it, emptying the cassette is a pretty awful job. We didn’t shit in ours as it didn’t flush properly but did pee. The one time one of the kids did do a Tom Tit, it was bloody horrid!

What cassette you got. I’ve a Thetford c200 and honestly. Emptying shit or emptying wee…. It’s neither here nor there for me. Using the correct chemicals it’s all pretty much liquid anyway. ….

We don’t have it anymore, it was a thetford. Yep, did use chemicals👍

Haven’t read all of the posts but had several caravans over 10 years. We were lucky and could safely park on our driveway using it as a spare room for visitors too. Easy to load up and keep the battery charged for trips.

Observations:

Every second hand caravan will have damp, it’s just how much and where. Inspect the latest damp report from the last service to see where the problems are. Speak to the servicing tech if in doubt for their opinion. If it doesn’t have a damp report/service and you’re keen you should pay to have one done.

£5k will get you something useable. As above though – there will be problems so it’s
A matter of seeing where and what (check all appliances on gas, mains, 12v).

We used ours loads in the early days – weekends away, week long holidays and 3 weeks in Europe too. That makes the expense worth it. Latterly we didn’t use it so much.

Factor in annual maintenance, servicing and insurance costs. Factor in increased fuel usage on trips. Factor in repairs to appliances and the odd bit of damp work if you’re unlucky (£1k to have the front of ours rebuilt).

We loved it with the kids and dog for quite a while. Never underestimate the power of. A play park for a few quiet hours if you have kids. It ended up feeling like going on holiday in a muddy cupboard though and we sold our last one a few months ago. We figure booking a cottage for a few weeks a year in various places will be reasonably cost effective and fun than using the van.

Never had an issue emptying the khazi, just make sure you don’t point it at a stupid angle when ejecting the contents. Hose in, bit of water, lid on, embrace your inner Tom Cruise, rinse and repeat as necessary.

As for smell, there shouldn’t be any beyond the chemicals.

We’ve towed with normal cars rather than SUVs and our fuel economy is about half what I get solo – around 30mpg. However, 30mpg seems to be what the caravan gets so you probably get the same towing with a van or SUV.

30mpg seems to be what the caravan gets so you probably get the same towing with a van or SUV.

Under 20 with the Disco. Caravan is 2t though

With current fuel it cost me about £150 to drive up to Scotland in August. Would’ve cost £300 with a caravan, so that’s a fair old whack. 500 miles tho. To be fair, with the Passat I could get about 34mpg on a good day without bikes on the roof.

bought ours second had about 6 months before the pandemic as an experiment after years of camping. lockdowns aside, we’ve used it more often than we would of gone away camping in the same time period

some general thoughts in no particular order;
– towing isn’t an issue if you’ve already got a big enough car and haven’t bought a ridiculous size van. ours is a 2 berth coachman 380 towed by a skoda superb, and whilst you know the van is there it really isn’t a problem. the only thing you do have to be cautious of is your route and pay to plan it in advance and not blindly follow your sat nav, easy to get into some fairly tight situations on lake district b roads etc
– buy the size of van you actually need, not what you think you need. i see loads of couple in massive 4 berth vans which look like a pain to tow / manoeuvre / store. whilst it’s nice to have a fixed bed and the extra space, a small van still feels like luxury compared to camping and it takes all of 5 minutes to set the bed up
– personally I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t use ours as much if we couldn’t store it on the drive. makes it easy to prep the van for going away and keeping it in good nick. also means we use it as an overflow bedroom / extra work space when required so get additional value out of it. i’d think hard about it if away form home storage is your only option
– get a motor mover even if its a small van, just makes everything easier and far quicker for us due to having awkward access on the drive
– we tend to pay between £15-25 per night at different sites, that’s comparable cost with camping on many sights these days and far more comfortable. definitely cheaper than air bnb’s. obviously have the initial outlay of the van, but they seem to hold their value fairly well
– you need a long weekend to make a trip worth while imho. we’re lucky that only 2.5/3 towing hours from north wales and lakes, so have done a few friday night to Sunday morning trips, but the effort to reward is a bit off, so we tend to take a days holiday for 3 day weekends which makes it far more enjoyable
– don’t really understand the comments people make about the hassle of setting up / packing down. unless your attaching massive awnings, it really isn’t and takes us far less time than camping
– main caravan club sites can be a little ‘rigid’, although perfectly friendly. get out the the small CL sites and they’re far more relaxed

overall, using the caravan as a base for outdoor activities is great. the ability to get clean, dry and warm in comparative comfort and then have a cold beer out of the firdge after a wet day on the hills is brilliant. also opens up more of the year for going away – we’re off to coniston next weekend for 4 days, with the current weather forecast there’s no way i’d be going camping

We’ve done smallish campervan, caravan, and now back to a big tent.

T5 campervan was perfect for our use when it was just Mrs a11y and me. Still OK with 1 young kid but arrival of #2 and the plethora of stuff plus our bikes etc was just too much for the size of the van. We were forever moving stuff to get to other stuff, not much fun with 2 + 2 in a van that size even combined with a driveaway awning. Great for short weekends/overnighters though.

Caravan bought when kids were young. Great for family holidays: space, comfort (-15degC in the snow at Aviemore), easier to use a vehicle during a longer stay than packing a campervan up. However, it was a PITA in other ways. We couldn’t keep it at the house and access to storage was a hassle and costly. Already mentioned, but stopping off enroute or on the way back from trips away takes a lot more planning, as does the roads you can use. And dampness: our <10yr old Hobby had a water leak ‘fixed’ by the dealer a few months after purchase, but it reappeared 18 months later. Was facing a potentially big bill to try to fix it again without guarantee of success.

We currently use a big tent for family hols, generally use it 2-3 times a year. Short trips away just use hotels etc but as the kids get older I’m pining for another campervan so we can avoid hotels if possible for overnighters. Adding a poptop and seat/bed to our current van is costly though.

Put my awning up in the dark last night I’ve got that used to doing it

get a motor mover even if its a small van, just makes everything easier and far quicker for us due to having awkward access on the drive

We used to have one but I got rid of it on the last van because it weighs a lot and we were happy to use the extra payload on other stuff. It was useful moving it by the side of the house, but I can do that with a car with a little more effort. We weren’t using it on sites.

I would hate to go back to a large tent. Miserable when it’s windy and raining, but being in a warm dry caravan watching the rain outside is great 🙂

The setup time isn’t bad if you are organised. In fact it’s one of the joys – park up and get the kettle on in ten minutes, but only if the site is flat enough. If you have a sloping pitch you have to spend time levelling it up.

the ability to get clean, dry and warm in comparative comfort and then have a cold beer out of the firdge after a wet day on the hills is brilliant

Yeah. The shower might not deliver much water but it is warm and having your own warm shower without having to be on a fully featured campsite is just fantastic.

FWIW I’ve got two awnings, a little roll out one (4x3m) and a full clip on awning.
Little one stays attached all the time, so i can use the caravan for a quick weekend away whenever i want, the full awning goes in if i’m away for longer with the kids, takes longer to put up, but gives loads more space. Especially if you have a bit of bad weather to contend with

See thread about canal boats.

Add water.

Last year we booked (and paid for) 3 nights in a Travelodge at Christmas whilst visiting my folks. It was so shit (the hotel, not my folks) we drove home at 10pm on Boxing Day rather than stay another night.

I’ve spent quite a few years travelling with work over the last few years, and Travelodge quickly turned out to be the very worst of all the commonly available hotel chains. Only to be used as a last resort, and certainly never to be used for anything resembling a nice weekend away.

Yeah well we had no choice other than spending several hundred quid.

Yeah well we had no choice other than spending several hundred quid.

I’m not having a go – sometimes these things are necessary. Just amused that you picked on the chain that I’d drive an hour to avoid. 😀

Only to be used as a last resort, and certainly never to be used for anything resembling a nice weekend away.

tbf, when their prices are often down to £30 a room, ie cheaper than caravan site fees, I have pretty low expectations

I’m not having a go – sometimes these things are necessary. Just amused that you picked on the chain that I’d drive an hour to avoid.

Yes quite, it was 90 mins in our case 🙂

Oh one more point from up there ^^ the biggest pain for us when towing is stopping on the way. It’s fine in motorway services (usually – Abington I’m looking at you here) but you’re never sure if you can pull in when you want to stop at a cafe etc. Petrol stations are usable, if sometimes a little tight, because they’re designed to allow tankers in of course. I’ve never failed to be able to fill up but I’ve found it a bit tight. Fortunately it’s rare to be going far enough away from a motorway to need to do this. And google Streetview can help you plan.

The way around the lunch/pee stop issue is stopping in laybys and eating in the van, which I actually quite enjoy if it’s a nice location. But if you have to stop to pick something up it can be hard. I once realised on the way somewhere that I’d forgotten a bike lock, so we had to stop at a Halfords in a retail park. We scouted the location on Google Maps and parked up temporarily at the back of a car park so I could run in. For some reason a dim-witted security guard thought we were travellers colonising the place (despite very obviously being on a family holiday, bikes on roof etc). My wife got all flustered, cos she’s like that – I’d have told him to piss off because I knew I was only going to be 5 mins and simply being present with a caravan doesn’t mean you’re actually camping…

If you have a sloping pitch you have to spend time levelling it up

The shower might not deliver much water but it is warm and having your own warm shower without having to be on a fully featured campsite is just fantastic.

Get a Buccaneer my dear – electric self leveling legs and hydraulic rams 😉

Shower is actually decent in mine, red hot if you want it to be. Standard setting is 2kw, but you can turn it up to 3kw on the Alde panel. Uses 16-20l of water for me to have a decent enough shower and a good flow too – you can get fancy shower heads now that make the water seemingly come out with more force

Get a Buccaneer my dear – electric self leveling legs and hydraulic rams

Well, we’re not all as rich as you. Thanks for reminding us.

Well, we’re not all as rich as you. Thanks for reminding us.

🤣 I’m not rich. In the slightest. The van is funded through my business and offset by a big saving not staying in hotels

The van is 6 years old. I’d have to be pretty well off to afford a new one though, they are eye watering

Get a Buccaneer my dear – electric self leveling legs and hydraulic rams 😉

Can’t you afford a motorhome that has those?

That’s like saying, ‘ I drive a Porsche Boxter cos I can’t afford a 911 Turbo. 😂😂

Can’t you afford a motorhome that has those?

Can’t see National Highways letting me plaster a motorhome up with Chapter 8 and pull into motorway closures to be really honest 🤣

It’s not a motorhome, it’s a welfare van!

It’s not a motorhome, it’s a welfare van!

🤣🤣