Lexcolin Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 Hi, We are wanting to make several trips round Canada and the USA over the next few years and are considering buying a European motorhome here and shipping it out with a view to storing it in Canada or the U S while we return to the UK. The main reasons for this are the prohibitive cost of hiring an RV for longer periods, fuel economy of a smaller European engine and ease of buying a suitable vehicle here compared with trying to buy one in British Columbia. (We understand that as foreigners, we can't buy one in the US and that there are only two provinces in Canada where foreigners can buy, one of which is french-speaking, which we aren't ! However, we've also been told that the US will not store European motorhomes because of different build and safety standards. Also that US fuels could really mess up a European engine. We are not technical people and not handy with engines ! So we'd love to hear from anyone who has successfully done something similar, or anyone who has any advice on the best way to pursue our ambitions. We have contacted the Camping and Caravanning Club technical team for advice but been told that they are so busy with towing tests that it will be at least a month before we might get a reply. Getting reliable information is proving quite difficult. Many thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 Not sure about storage, but here's the place to go for info. http://www.travelswithnicolle.co.uk/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 If you take the vehicle out of the UK for over 12 months you will have to permanently export it and will then lose your UK registration so will not be legal to use in any other country. https://www.gov.uk/taking-vehicles-out-of-uk Also, the country you take it to will most likely only allow you to use it there for up to 12 months before requiring you to register in that country. And, a European spec MH is very unlikely to be allowed to be registered in Canada (based on comments on a USA/Canada forum). Keith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witzend Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 For many reasons we have always found it easier to hire a car and use motels to tour the US usualy 4 or 5 wks at a time. Never booked a room or had any trouble finding accomadation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevec176 Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 Why are you bothering with the hassle of moving a van over to America when surely it must be cheaper to buy one out there which will be a left hand drive and will also meet their standards. You'll also be able to sell it when you've finished with it. What ever you do sounds like fun, good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weldted Posted June 8, 2019 Share Posted June 8, 2019 Have been making Enquiries to do the same plan to ship it ro-ro with Seabridge Liverpool to Baltimore comes out around £3500 cheaper to do it. Based on 90 days hire, $6700, 10,000 miles @ 47c, 7-8 mpg @ $3.40 a US gallon for a hire van. Diesel is to the same spec as ours. You are allowed to import it in the USA for upto 12 months with no restrictions. Or the fact it's right hand drive. You will have a problem if you want to keep it over there longer than twelve months, or if you buy one over there getting it insured is difficult and expensive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billggski Posted June 8, 2019 Share Posted June 8, 2019 I posted this as an alternative, it sounds cheaper and a lot less hassle. http://www.motorhomeholidayswap.com/index.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don636 Posted June 8, 2019 Share Posted June 8, 2019 Regarding the suggestion that you buy an RV in the US then sell it when you are finished, we did that in 1999. We bought a 4 year old ex rental 30ft RV from Cruise America on a 12 month buy back deal. The limit was 12 months and 12,000 miles and the amount returned was 60% of the sales price before tax. The RV had about 90,000 miles on it and came with a 12 month power train warranty. It came fully checked over and refurbished - it almost looked new. We paid $24,000 and the buyback was to be $13,500. We actually sold it privately after 12 months for $18,000. We had no major problems over the year with only routine servicing and a couple of minor fixes. Cruise America helped us secure insurance using their dealership as our address and had our new plates shipped to us at a town we were staying near. The whole process was painless but were we just lucky. When we came to try and sell the vehicle privately at the end we were advised that we had little chance of success due to the shear number of RVs for sale around Arizona and the amount of time (a week) that we had available so as not to ruin the end of our trip. Timing of the sale was always going to be tricky although I wonder if it could have been left with someone to sell on our behalf? We always had the buy back option but we hoped to get a bit more (and did). As a comparison we met a family from Holland who were also touring for a year but just came over to buy a van on spec. This turned out to be a nightmare as a couple of weeks at the start were required to find a vehicle during which time they had to stay in motels and hire a car and with no holiday and two kids going nuts being dragged round dealerships. They paid $15,000 for a 10 year old 26ft RV which looked old and rough. The engine failed, the brakes, the ac and other work required totally $10,000. The woman literally cried when she saw our van and berated her husband in front of us for not doing what we did. To be fair I reckon they must have been clueless to get into that situation. We would love to go back with our own PVC but it all sounds too much of a hassle now as it appears that the process is more tricky now than it was in 1999. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexcolin Posted June 15, 2019 Author Share Posted June 15, 2019 Thanks for all the replies. It's starting to sound like shipping a vehicle from the UK would be too difficult so we'll look into buying in Canada. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 Long shot, but try contacting Frank (JeffersonCampervan), who is Canadian and spends a fair amount of time touring Europe. He bought his van in Europe, where it stays in the care of the selling dealer, who handles all the servicing and testing for him, and also, if I remember, insures it for him as well, so that all he has to do is fly in a drive off. Apologies in advance if I've misremembered bits of the detail, but might a similar deal, in reverse, suit you. He is a very helpful chap, so I'm sure he'll be able to feed you lots of info on what you want to do. Apologies also to Frank for dropping him in it without first asking! Hope you don't mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 Brian, I suspect 'Autreacher' is a spammer as the same username has posted weird postings on a number of other random forums. I'm watching him/her! Keith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 Keithl - 2020-04-09 7:45 PM Brian, I suspect 'Autreacher' is a spammer as the same username has posted weird postings on a number of other random forums. I'm watching him/her! Keith. Thanks, and further apologies to Frank! :$ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weldted Posted April 12, 2020 Share Posted April 12, 2020 Re the fuel it is to a similar spec to ours if anything a bit higher, lots of Volvo trucks run for over a million miles on it so I would not worry about it. We bought a brand new A Class Burstner with the express intention of shipping it over there for six months, its now a very expensive extra fridge sat on the drive. Such is life, on day things will get better. I am more worried for everyone than not going on a trip. Keep safe, keep in, help the NHS and all around you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexcolin Posted April 13, 2020 Author Share Posted April 13, 2020 I don't know why this post has suddenly generated a flurry of activity as I made the original post 10 months ago! But, suffice to say, I don't need any more advice on this subject thank you. We have made our decision about what approach to take and if we are ever allowed to travel again .... we'll be doing so in a rented RV. Thanks for all the input everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 Lexcolin The forum discussion relating to your original enquiry completed with your posting of 15 June 2019 7:06 PM. The subject was revived on 9 April 2020 by a new forum-member “Autreacher” (Real name “John Doe” according to his/her Profile!) and (I’m guessing) the fact that your own enquiry was 10 months old was not noticed (someting that happens quite often when a thread is suddenly resurrected). As Keithl said in his posting of 9 April 2020 7:45 PM above, the user-name “Autreacher” appears elsewhere and on this link https://www.skyscrapercity.com/threads/mortgage-payment-downloads.1944242/ the 5-days-old posting by Autreacher begins as follows "I remember I had the same problem when I had to pay my mortgage, and to be honest it was an Internet connection issue...” This is similar in construction to the Autreacher posting here, so - as Keithl suspects - Autreacher is probably just entertaining himself/herself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexcolin Posted April 13, 2020 Author Share Posted April 13, 2020 Yes, I saw that Derek, but then a couple of other on-topic messages appeared. I'm just saying, I'm happy to close the subject now. :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witzend Posted April 15, 2020 Share Posted April 15, 2020 Lexcolin - 2019-06-07 3:44 PM Hi, We are wanting to make several trips round Canada and the USA over the next few years https://motorhomer.com/threads/virtual-tour-of-canada.42095/ This member was all set for his trip and had to cancel because of the virus a search thru his posts may help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.