What implications does rebadging have?

[Brian Kirby]

The layout you want is a bit of a UK preference, which is why you'll not find many mainland makers produce them, or drop them quickly when they do.  For choice, you'll need to look at UK producers, or just get lucky with an unusual import.  With the latter, if you find one, it will be likely to Hobson's choice: take it or leave it.  For UK, I assume you have looked at the likes of Auto Trail, say an Apache 700, or Swift, say a Voyager 695EL.

However, will you stay in UK?  If not, why concentrate on indoor space?  I'm guessing you will use campsites?  Children can run about outside in good weather, and school holidays generally mean good weather.  I know you said no school holidays for two years, but two years is no time at all, and what then?  You said you wanted to be able to work while travelling.  Even big vans are quite small spaces, and two children take a lot of space in a van.  You have clearly thought all this through, but!!!  :-) 

Once you are restricted to school holidays, unless the children are boarders, that van isn't likely to go very far during term-time.  Big vans can be restrictive, both on sites, but also in where you can actually get to.  Height can be a problem in out of the way villages, for example if houses have overhanging balconies.  Vans have relatively fragile fixtures and fittings, so are relatively easily damaged by boisterous, average, inquisitive, children.  Think blinds, cupboard doors etc.

Not for me to say, of course, but for all these reasons, I just wonder if you might be wise to hang onto your cash, which will be instantly depreciated as soon as you buy, and hire, either in UK or abroad?  That way, you can test your theories without commitment, and the cost - at least for one hiring - is not as great.

So many people think they have cracked it, buy a van, then decide it was a bad choice for all sorts of reasons they hadn't foreseen, and end up changing at great expense.  Not everyone, obviously, but a surprisingly large number - which partly explains why there are so many nearly new, very low mileage, vans for sale.

It is also true that using a motorhome is very difficult to imagine.  It never quite coincides with what one expects, opening up more possibilities here, but imposing more restrictions there.  Thus, one's initial thoughts are prone to being inverted by the experience, which is why the ideal van on a forecourt, is not so often the ideal van on the road, half way up an Alp, or in a southern Italian village.  Oh yes, and that southern Italian village was never really on the agenda when imagining where one might go, that was another possibility that just popped up, almost out of the blue, one rainy afternoon on a campsite in Cleethorpes (sorry Cleethorpes! :-)). 

But, notwithstanding my witterings, good luck with whatever you decide.