As the nephew and part-time mechanic to a couple of pensioners with a penchant for motorhomes, I would say, "don't do it!".
These vehicles are based on vans that are designed to clock up mega miles in a few years then fall apart.
Instead, they clock up hardly any miles over years and years and consequently develop all sorts of annoying and expensive mechanical faults.
In addition, they hold their values to a ridiculous level and, as well as the mechanical faults, they develop "household" faults with plumbing, electrics, etc. that can be almost impossible to sort out.
Buy a nice car and drive from hotel to hotel or, if you must, campsite to campsite.
The narrowboat is a nice idea but doesn't make a very sensible channel-crossing vessel.
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Big capacity motor-bike (touring rather than sports - torque and fuel economy bias) tent and the road is yours.
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"Big capacity motor-bike"
Any motorbike would do ;-0
I`m still attracted to dry sump Triumph twins.. Don`t know why because I have memories of finding top dead centre by inserting a notched pencil in the plug holes...
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"penchant for motorhomes, I would say, "don't do it!".
I know, that`s how i see it too. It`s all rhetorical as I couldn`t even force myself to buy a car, let alone a luxury one.
Trapped by personality attributes - you can but peer out ;-)
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Why not consider a folding caravan or trailer tent. These come in various degrees of size & functionality. The advantage is that you're not much bigger than a large-ish trailer & always have the option of camping (although they're more like caravan level than tent level) or 'hotelling' when the mood takes. They store when not in use fairly unobtrusively & would even 'fit' in a hotel car-park for a multi-accommodation type holiday (or when you want shower!)
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We started off with a canal boat... but found it too restricing, unless you are retired and can spend a long time on board then you tend to be limited to within a fairly close range of your main mooring, and there's only so many times you can do the same run up and down the canal before it gets boring... some people like doing that, but not me, I'm more adventurous!
Statics, for us are a no-no... same place every year for years? Zzzzzzzz...
Motorcaravans? Never keen on them, I'd rather have a decent diesel car and caravan, costs less to run and much more flexible than a motorcaravan...
We got a caravan after the boat and travelled all over England, Wales and Scotland with it and found it very enjoyable... but £9k for a Freedom? Is that really how much they are, Oilrag?? Personally I'd get as decent secondhand one for about £3/4k... Which is what we did, an Eccles Amythyst... But my wanderlust got the better of me and I wanted to travel Europe... Now you can do that with a caravan, but if you want to go any distance it takes time, a lot of it, and two week breaks can become tiresome, and foreign sites don't tend to be as cheap as CLs are over here...
So, back in 1999, we went Self Catering, which is where we still are now - We've done the Czech Republic, Holland, Belgium, some of Germany, Luxembourg and much of Northern France... we tend to book a place online and even with the current rubbish exchange rate its still as cheap as S/C over in the UK... and a house/flat is a lot more pleasent than canvas/caravan when you get in from sightseeing...
Personally, if I was travelling the UK again, I'd seriously consider a 13' 2 berth caravan, but for travelling abroad I'd throroughly reccomend self catering houses/cottages/flats - just make sure you get as many piccies of the place as possible!
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Here`s the Freedom.
tinyurl.com/o2qwzz
I had also been perusing the Doblo (yes really) `motorhome` by Danbury just north of Newcastle believe.. But £20,000 ?
While the Romahomes come in around £26,000.....
I`ve seen even 15 year old desperately rusty old motor-homes going for around £10,000
Seems amazing really as the basic van body beneath a lot of these would fetch only scrap value.
We live in a poor position really too, certainly if we lived south of London and not a days drive down to Dover from Yorkshire - we would likely have a caravan.
Of course there are the ferries from Hull, but i just can`t bring myself to pay the price when Sea France often does an under £60 return to Calais.
Woodbines, A folder would be on the drive and it never stops raining around here.
Edited by oilrag on 22/05/2009 at 20:45
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Blimey! They used to be the cheap end of the market as well! I'd stick with what I said before, if it was a 'van for UK use I'd settle for a good 2 berth 13' early 90s one for £3/4k, those Freedoms are overpriced... I looked at a 2 berth when I had the Fabia and you could get one with an all-up weight of below 1000kg which most modern superminis would be able to tow no problems...
Going to Europe I'll stick with self catering...
Re the folder, the roof covers everything when its folded down so rain shouldn't cause it any problems... you could always get a cover for it as well... we used to store ours in a barn on a farm nearby over the winter, btw.
You've also given me the other reason I nevre went for motorhomes... they are too expensive!
Edited by b308 on 22/05/2009 at 21:03
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>>> A plain long-chassis Mercedes Sprinter with the biggest available engine and the highest available axle ratio would be all right though. Everything in the back low down, lightweight and of course properly secured. Flush skylights and a disguised periscope. <
What a thoroughly spiffing idea! I tried a Motorhome some years back when I had some of the green folding stuff - I bought a Hymer, proper one like - with the merc engine ... absolutely hated the thing!
I've orften thought of doing what Brother Lud has suggested ... I've even thought of signing it up with something like Billy's sawdust supplies or Fred's fresh fish :)
... Like the periscope idea mucho!
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There were some enterprising young ladies who used to park their unmarked Transit vans at Leith docks on fine evenings apparently. Once inside, it was alleged that they were very comfortably appointed......
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>>> Don`t know why because I have memories of finding top dead centre by inserting a notched pencil in the plug holes... <<<
I did that with a Biro on a Mrk3 2000GXL Cortina once - The top came orf the damn pen, I wasn't going to take the head off so I started it up (bang, bang, bang.) gave it a run and it burnt orf and was ok afterwards I think (customers car!)
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enterprising young ladies
Great minds think alike innit HB?
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Once inside it was alleged that they were verycomfortably appointed......
Leather or Velour??
MD
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Thank you perro. I was beginning to think everyone wanted to puff around in a top-heavy, fussy and perhaps hugely expensive touristy-looking thing that you just expect to be badly and obstructively driven, and no one would like my idea of the invisible express motorhome - zap across Europe at 100, stop wherever you want and be completely invisible.
'Whassat van then Fritz?'
'Dunno. It's nearest the dry cleaners. Might be theirs. Or the sausage shop's perhaps.'
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You could have the periscope descending in reverse, though the centre of the floor - just the job to see if any of the grease on the brake lines needs re-doing..
Actually, there was a three year old high top Ducato van going for £6,000 at a dealers a few months back. Only 40,000 miles and VAT paid too. I really thought about that - just putting a double bed in the back in a four poster style with drapes...
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There was a time when my wife and I would go away for weeks on end. Touring all over the hotter bits of Europe armed with nothing more than a Westfield, a credit card and a holdall. Seems like a lifetime ago now.
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I bought the static in leafy North Yorkshire nearly three years ago.
Didn't know what to expect, but it's worked out well.
I think some people buy them too far away - mine's 40-odd miles from work and 50-odd from home.
Friday night, leave work at a reasonable time and crack the first can not long after 6pm.
I view my static as a weekend home, so I live in bricks and mortar for five days a week and in a tin box for the other two.
It would feel restricting now to have to go back to staying in the same place all week.
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Park with your loo outlet over a drain of the right sort, with a hose to some nearby kind person's yard tap for water supply and you could have a shower and sink and so on without the need for anything very huge by way of a water tank.
You might have to do the occasional runner if the LA didn't like excrement going into their sewers, but those Sprinters do march along.
You could carry a pan of batteries and charge them while, er, charging about.
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I was thinking of a Victorian bath with eagle claw feet - only to be filled and used when stationary - then pulling the plug going down the Mall.. as well as..
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>> only to be filled and used when stationary
That might be sound policy, yes. But the police report of a high-speed motorway crash involving someone taking a bath in a Victorian cast-iron job with eagle claw feet would make interesting reading.
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periscope descending in reverse, though the centre of the floor - just the job to see if any of the grease on the brake lines needs re-doing..
I hadn't thought of that oilrag (although we should all have known that you would)... I agree the feature is necessary though, for surveillance of anyone who has slipped under the high-level radar...
:o}
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swmbo just said (she speaks now & again, either that or I haven't taken my anti-psychotics!) it would be nice to have a little camper van (with elevating roof) ya don't need to go far in Britain to find a 'beauty spot'
I'm going back a few years but - I always liked the ole Bedford Cf with the 2.3 engine, ya could shoot orf on Friday evening to Sunday ... now there's an idea!
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I always liked the ole Bedford Cfwith the 2.3 engine ya could shoot orf on Friday evening to Sunday ... now there's an idea!
Old converted Ambulance?
I nearly got one for £800 when I was 20!
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I'm going back a few years but - I always liked the ole Bedford Cf with the 2.3 engine ya could shoot orf on Friday evening to Sunday ... now there's an idea!
That ole sloping 2.3 engine WOULD pull Granny off of anything.
I've still got some rear brake shoes somewhere for the cf2 van.........any takers??
MD
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Going through Westminster and past the houses of Parliament - the van would automatically `flip` and start claiming road tax as a Sinclair C5.
The plug for the Victorian bath would then be billed to the citizens of Pontefract.
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citizens of Pontefract.
Let them eat cake.
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The problem with a caravan is a psychological one. Most people who stay in a caravan try to live ' in' it, but with camping you live outside, and sleep in the the tent. Give me a tent every time.
The same constraints apply to a motor home, except it is even worse because once you have stopped, you cannot just get up and go out for a meal. Unless you have packed a couple of mopeds or a big bike on the rack at the back.
The trailer tent maybe an option, with possibly the best of both worlds but with a greater cost of trial.
The e r ection issue is not a problem. If it is raining just treat is a tho you are enroute an book into a hotel.
We used to camp and hotel en route over western Europe. I used to describe camping as like staying in a hotel, but more expensive! However to find a hotel that offered large pools, tennis courts and child minding on site would have been very expensive.
Having a second home in france has certain advantages, but some times it seems a little restrictive as I like to make use of it for about 50% of the year. It becomes difficult to justify going else where.
p
Edited by pmh2 on 22/05/2009 at 22:02
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