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Sell the motorhome & get a caravan???


Stewart Hendry

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Please don’t tell any motor home friends that you may have, but we are considering selling the motor home after 4 years ownership and becoming tuggers purely for the ease of moving around once on a fixed site for any period of time. The motor home is great for many of the trips we have made to France, but we have to decide whether we take the scooter or the bikes. Unfortunately we can’t take both and I’m not going to buy another car to tow as that would mean 3 vehicles being paid for. Have also considered selling the Golf and getting a smaller car to tow but if we are going to tow, why not a caravan then only one motorised vehicle to pay for!!!

 

Is there anyone out here who has made the switch and if so what do you see as the benefits or drawbacks.

 

Looking forward to your responses. (?)

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We did exactly what you are thinking of sold the motorhome bought a VW Golf and a brand new caravan with all the bit and bobs you need including awning .Used it once less than 100 miles , but because my wife has a hearing and balance problem the motion of towing made her travell sick, so it was back to the dealers and they are trying to sell the whole bundle for us at a knock down price " our loss " but never mind when its sold we will be looking to buying a new motorhome , one of lifes expierences  onwards and upwards as they say..
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There are pros and cons with both ways of holidaying as we all know and when we move house to a larger plot we intend getting a touring caravan to tow with the car so that we have the best of both leisure worlds!

 

Plus I also fancy a Mazda Bongo type of van with it's own hob, fridge and loo to make rented property / holiday home touring that much easier too!

 

Oh yes - and we also fancy a narrowboat on the canals too!

 

Well why not - if we don't spend it our kids sure will!

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kelly58 - 2010-07-30 6:16 PM

 

We did exactly what you are thinking of sold the motorhome bought a VW Golf and a brand new caravan with all the bit and bobs you need including awning .Used it once less than 100 miles , but because my wife has a hearing and balance problem the motion of towing made her travell sick, so it was back to the dealers and they are trying to sell the whole bundle for us at a knock down price " our loss " but never mind when its sold we will be looking to buying a new motorhome , one of lifes expierences  onwards and upwards as they say..

 

That must be love !

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Thanks for your responses. I need to keep sitting down and supping red wine whilst pondering the big question of what to do. We have found that when exploring new areas you need a good few days just to get a feel of the place, so in our case we have never moved on quickly unless it is for a short stop on route to our main destination. Hopefully we will make the right decision in due course, but travelling and exploring this and other countries by motorhome or caravan is an experience not to be missed.

 

regards, Stewart

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Inevitably, it depends on where you go, and what you do.  We have worked our way through frame tent, trailer tent, two small caravans and, over the past five years, two motorhomes.  Each has it pros and cons, and there is no fixed answer to which is "best".  As between caravan and motorhome, for me, the main pleasure of the motorhome is speed of set-up on arrival, more or less instant pack-up and departure, and relative ease of parking en-route.  Apart from the obvious mirrored disadvantages with the caravan, were that I never "trusted" it behind the car (though both were completely stable when towing - this was just me :-)), the need to erect an awning to gain sufficient living space (small caravans behind small cars - another personal decision), and the fact that once sited as a base, one spent increasing amounts of time passing and re-passing the same roads as one sought interest in surrounding areas.  This was mostly rural France (because we were then both working, and so limited as to when, and for how long, we could go away).  One aspect of rural France is that it takes little time, in most areas, to pick it dry of interest, so you have to travel further and further to keep your interests fed - hence all that passing and re-passing, exacerbated in mountain regions.  Since retiring, and getting the van, we have travelled further, and for much longer, and in truth I do not think we would have contemplated the journeys we have made, if with a caravan - although I freely accept that a small band of stalwarts do.

Our van is just six metres long, but more importantly, IMO, just on two metres wide, and well under three metres high, which just about allows us to go anywhere - height barriers excepted.  We tend to plan routes, picking places to visit, and supermarkets at which to shop, along the route, so that we tour as we go.  The smaller van is quite easily manageable in car parks so very seldom restricts access.  Mostly, if we want to get into towns, we select sites on bus/train routes and travel in.  Occasionally we take the van in to visit, and return to our site of departure, but mostly once off site, we just move on.  I do not recognise the faff Clive speaks of because, having a small van, when stuff has been used it has to be put back in its regular place.  We may need to stow a few books/magazines before leaving but generally, once washed, showered, sweet smelling and breakfasted, we wind in the awning, retrieve the ramps if used (seldom), disconnect and wind in the hook-up, start the engine and go.  If table and chairs, or bikes, were out, they were stowed the evening before.  We may than travel 300, or only 20, miles to the next stop.  We travel 8 - 10 weeks at a time, spring and autumn, and visit 30 - 40 sites per trip.  We are seldom in one place longer than 5 days, usually 3, and find that small villages can easily be explored on the day of arrival - providing one arrives by around 15:00, which is why we tend not to travel more than about 300 miles.  We usually leave between 10:00 and 10:30, and stop at mid-day to eat which, in the van, is so easy.

So far we have been around Spain (Albarracin, Cadiz, Seville, Cordoba, Salamanca, Granada, Toledo, Trujillo, Merida, Caceres, Zamora, Burgos, Tordesillas, La Coruna, Santiago de Compostela, and Logrono) and Portugal (Braganca, Braga, Chaves, Porto, Viseu, Vouzela, Tomar, Coimbra, Evora, Faro, Lisbon, Beja, Serpa, and Elvas) twice, Italy (Venice, Florence, Assisi, Gubbio, Bologna, Urbino, Alberobello, Lecce, Matera, Pompei, Herculaneum, Florence, Pisa, Naples, Rome, and Siena), Slovenia (Piran, Bled, Ljubljana, Ptuj, Lendava), Hungary (Keszthely, Pecs, Kecskemet, Hortobagy, Tokaj, Eger, Budapest, Szentendre, and Estergom), the Czech Republic (Telc, Prague, Tabor, Jindrichuv Hradec, Trebon, Ceske Budejovice, Cesky Crumlov, Prachatice, and Domazlice), and Croatia (Medveja, Stoja, Rovinj, Novigrad, Krk, Trogir, Split, Dubrovnik, Starigrad, and Rab), and have crossed and re-crossed France, Austria and Germany stopping at places too numerous to list. 

All this is not to say, "been there - done that", but to illustrate the countries and regions we have been able to get to, in what seems to us a very short period of time, and just to wonder how many of these we might have got to with a caravan.  I would add that we have generally avoided motorways, in part to keep costs down, in part to alleviate the boredom of motorways, and mainly to pass through, and from time to time stop in, small towns and villages along the way, to try to get a flavour of the tempo of life in the more out of the way areas.  I don't think we could have travelled so far, with such ease, in anything other than a motorhome, and I just think the speed with one can set up, and decamp, with a motorhome has given us hours of extra free time to explore where otherwise we should have been trotting around with water and waste carriers, winding up and down steadies, parking and un-hitching, and then re-hitching, a caravan, and possibly erecting and striking an awning.  The longest trip was 4,500 miles, most being around 3,500.  From past experience, I would expect to have travelled much further (in miles per trip) with a caravan, due mainly to the amount of to-ing and fro-ing involved for almost everything we were able to do en-route.

Not a recipe for everyone, obviously, but I hope it may help the evaluation process, and may even whet the appetite for a few places that are well worth visiting, and possibly dispel some of the you can't get to........ myths that so often colour these caravan vs motorhome debates.  Of course, if one had been driving a leviathan, the perspective would shift - but not, I suspect, by that much.

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Hi i was a caravaner for 25 years and loved it. kids grew up and the wife had shoulder problems which left me to do all the towing and fetching and carrying. because of this changed to m/h . would i go back? NO the freedom and the stress free traveling make it worthwhile,the added bonus is leading fairly hectic lives we keep it stocked up on drive and when things get to much i come home fill with water and disapear for the weekend :-D we were never able to do that on the spur of the moment with c/van. we also have a small buggy which we tow when we want to go somewhere to explore,it makes no difference to fuel consumption and is easily removed this gives us the ability to go anywhere on or of road beach or mountain. we still like to move on after a few days normaly when things need emptying >:-) . as time goes by and you need to chill out more i dont think it is so easy with caravan mind you have great fun watching people moving vans with motor movers :D sit down think hard about your needs health and abilities before you make you choice.we are all different so what suits us and many others may not suit you,maybe go to a show or a few rallies and ask around why people choose one above th other (!)
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  • 2 weeks later...
kelly58 - 2010-07-30 6:16 PM We did exactly what you are thinking of sold the motorhome bought a VW Golf and a brand new caravan with all the bit and bobs you need including awning .Used it once less than 100 miles , but because my wife has a hearing and balance problem the motion of towing made her travell sick, so it was back to the dealers and they are trying to sell the whole bundle for us at a knock down price " our loss " but never mind when its sold we will be looking to buying a new motorhome , one of lifes expierences  onwards and upwards as they say..

At last caravan has been sold so now its time to look for another motorhome

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Never been a tugger but my sister and her hubby love it mind you they have 3 kids..7..4 and 2 and they have a large caravan with bunks for the kids We full timed for 2 years and only recently earlier this year sold the Motorhome to help finance a move to Tenerife..we were going to move here a few years ago which is why we got the motorhome as the sale of our property took longer than anticipated which unfortunately led to us not being able to acquire the property we wanted in Tenerife so we full timed for the 2 years..However it was a definate wrench when we eventually sold the van and we have been discussing the possibility of going back full timing..not that the dream has gone sour over here if the truth be known we both miss the joy of travelling especially on the continent and the beauty of getting to a new place and seeing what the day will bring us the new vistas..So if I get my way I think a Motorhome will be on the cards within two years!!
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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Stewart,

 

There are pros and cons to both methods of holidaying and we have just put our MH on the market and are looking to return to large caravan and 4x4, albeit for slightly different reasons.

 

We intend coming back once the kids stop coming away with us.

 

Good luck with whatever you decide to do,

 

 

Ken.

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I never understood this Oh you have to pack every thing away to go anywhere, put it away as you go. Four years ago on tour we had a call to say our son 14 had been knocked down and the outcome did not look good we left that campsite in about five minutes allbe it that the wife was putting the last of the knives and forks away as I passed through the gate, fourtunatly after a 90 mile journey at speeds best not admitted too(some campers can go) we arrived to find our worst fears had not come to pass, but try doing that with a caravan, I accept of course you would leave it behind but with a camper you dont have to.
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Guest pelmetman

It all depends on your prefered style of camping, we have tugger friends who we go away once a year with.

 

They prefer to stay at one site, but I find myself going stir crazy after a week on one site :D So now we compromise and have week at one and a week at another :-D

 

Normally when on our own we rarely spend more than 3 nights in one place, which probably explains how I clocked 4000 miles in 4 weeks :D

But with the fuel price hikes >:-( I might still move own regularly but not so far :-D

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Thanks to all who have replied. The NEC last Oct and Manchester this month have made our minds up - we are going to become tuggers so the Autocruise Starburst will be going up for sale as sad as it will be.

 

I know all products are going up in price but £48K ish for a new Starburst with a few extras just seems a step too far nor do I think it is as good as our 2006 model which had won van of the year in 2005.

 

Got to agonise now a suitable towcar but we would have replaced our 6 year old golf this year anyway.

Happy camping folks.

 

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kelly58 - 2010-07-30 6:16 PM We did exactly what you are thinking of sold the motorhome bought a VW Golf and a brand new caravan with all the bit and bobs you need including awning .Used it once less than 100 miles , but because my wife has a hearing and balance problem the motion of towing made her travell sick, so it was back to the dealers and they are trying to sell the whole bundle for us at a knock down price " our loss " but never mind when its sold we will be looking to buying a new motorhome , one of lifes expierences  onwards and upwards as they say..

We managed to sell the caravan and bought a new Autosleeper Nuevo II EK last September and went to France to give it a try-out and realised we had done the wrong thing in buying the caravan in hindsight we should have hired one to try before we went all hog and bought a new caravan but we only lost £1200  still a lot of money, but no doubt it could have been a lot more as they say you live and learn usually by making mistakes and life's too short to worry about it.

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We used to do caravanning when the kids were at home years ago and loved every minute, and went back to it between vans, we only had one short outing in it, to realise it was a big mistake. I only have to hear the word Aquaroll to break into a sweat, I seemed to spend most of the few days away walking backwards and forwards filling and emptying containers. It takes me all my time to pull a Banana skin down sometimes. Also aires are out of the question, so is the odd dodgy night parked up. So no contest for us, and the abiltity to have the kettle on in 1 minute flat is a huge plus. Also when you have finally wound down the steadies, fetched the water, sorted your waste tank etc, etc, then the caravanners from hell pitch next to you well..............................
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I'm really surprised, and in these days of equality too. Oops got to go she 's just walked in ! !, oh it's OK she said my dinner is ready. Catch a big one for me, used to love my fishing, but can't see a size 16 to nylon any more.
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  • 3 weeks later...

We started with a caravan in the 70’s and moved up to a motorhome in the 80’s. It was a Compass Clipper on a Mercedes chassis and one of the first that Compass ever made. We kept it for 10+ years and loved it to bits. Travelled all over Europe with 2 kids in tow. However although the Mercedes was as tough as old boots it had a top speed of 50 mph and dropped to a walking pace on every hill. Turbos were still in infancy back then.

 

Once we ‘persuaded’ the kids to leave home and set up themselves we sold the family house and bought an apartment which we could lock and leave for long periods. The downside was the motorhome had to go as we could not park it in the car park. So we decided that as we had to store either caravan or motorhome in a CASSOA site we might as well get a caravan as that allowed us to keep the car at home. Plus the caravan was a Hell of a lot cheaper than the motorhome. So we are now ‘tuggers’ again and love it just as much. The ‘boss’ prefers the caravan as there is much more living space per foot of length and I kinda disagree with the comments about setting up etc. Most motorhomes these days need ramps to level themselves and also often have rear steadies, so no real difference. Plus my caravan has a motor mover so positioning it is a matter of pushing the remote contol and if I want along the back of a pitch, easy peasy. No shunting backwards and forwards trying to turn. My awning is a sunshade so is up and down in minutes. We also have the car to tour around. I know motorhomes can have scooters but that does not work if you have more than 2 people, so finding sites with transport links was always a problem. I also fail to see the logic of towing a small car either on an A Frame or tralier. Double road tax and fuel consumption reduced. Why?? Don;'t forget that you also pay less Autoroute Tolls with a caravan. It all adds up.

 

As for the Aquaroll, I do not have one as there is a tank in the front locker. As we use the site showers we use little water and it lasts 3-4 days. I also roll the waste to the dump, not manouever the van to it.

 

So as others have mentioned it is ‘horses for courses’ but please do not disregard caravans as like many things, times have changed.

 

I still 'drool' over motorhomes but at this stage in life I doubt we will change again.

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Hi Dave 225, thanks for your comments which basically reflect the way we have been thinking for some time now. We have now sold the motorhome with great sadness as we have had the most fantastic trips we could ever have imagined with many others in the wishful planning stages, but due to a fairly major op on my wifes neck last year taking the scooter with us became a no no.

We have now bought a suitable towing car (the old one needed replacing anyway) and are waiting for the caravan to be delivered. The caravan is top of the range with virtually the whole package paid for by the sale of the motorhome.

I'm booked on to a caravan club course and once thats done will look forward to our future trips and will be able to accomodate the grandkids for a few family holidays which we couldn't do with our beloved Starburst.

Here's to future adventures whether a tugger or motorhomer.

 

Stewart

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