Over the top prices

Posted on 28/01/2019 21:55 by briantimber

Thanks TDA, we are all fine now after a couple of setbacks in the last month, hope you and yours are doing well. Sorry from me as well OP

Posted on 28/01/2019 19:27 by Boff

A pragmatic rather than a dogmatic approach BB, my approach to life as well.  

Posted on 26/01/2019 09:00 by Merve

I think you’ll find that the prices quoted here are at the very top end of the scale and some are fantasy- £1000 for an inverter?? It’s a 12 volt system- you won’t need anything approaching that. £1,200 for a Lithium? You can knock off £200 from that. Even at £1000 - they compare very favourably with lead acid as they last 20- 25 years. I think shopping around would pay dividends . Reading the thread, I absolutely agree that the length of time you keep your van and, more importantly- how much you use it has a bearing on costs. However, if you are fortunate enough to change your van for a spanker every couple of years there is still the fact that everything is transferable to the new van- even the solar panel which can be of the ‘suitcase type, inverter and battery/s can be swapped over easily. Once the investment has been made, you don’t have to buy it again. The time is coming when a new van will grace our pitch on the storage site. The transfer costs will be minimal. - and another 6 or 7 years of offgrid, money saving years. It’s a personal choice and one that I haven’t regretted at all- in fact, the further I went, the more I liked what I was doing.  

Posted on 29/01/2019 11:00 by MichaelT

Merve

The costs I put in are for a MH as I said based on both experience and insights gained from other forums and are all fitted prices and as I also said if you are OK to do it yourself then you can save a few quid.

If you go Lithium on a MH you also need some changes to the van supply from the alternator I believe as well as a different charger so £1,200 is about right but I may be wrong and indeed only £1,000 may be OK but there is a good thread here if anyone is interested (lots of others as well).

For inverter I was talking a 2000W PSW something like a Victron or Sterling again fitted (Inverter is circa £500-600) and if going with Lithium batteries a Victron inverter/charger.

For us when we are near retiring and planning longer trips where we plan to be off grid most of the time we will look into Lithium and inverters, however we currently have  135W SP with 2* 85 AH AGM batteries & 11KG Gaslow and can spend all our time off grid even in winter with maybe a drive to charge batteries if the sun is not out in winter  and generally we are not on a site more than a day or so anyway.  We watch TV, have hating/water on and lights etc. but even on our modest set up we will probably recoup the initial outlay sometime but the flexibility to use Aires/Stelplatz far outweigh's that.

Posted on 22/01/2019 16:44 by Arrivakids

So it’s time to start thinking about sites for this year. We don’t normally do Club sites more CL sites. But to be honest the prices per night are getting ridiculous. We look to go about 40 mins from where we live as hubby still works so a Friday night quick getaway needs to be close.. Yes the traffic is horrendous at this time of night so , does anyone have any suggestions we are in a Motorhome and need electrics plus we have one small dog . Toilets and showers if possible. We are near Manchester ..Thanks 

Posted on 22/01/2019 20:24 by EmilysDad

but Arrivakids asked for electric ..... 🙄