Bladon Chains - another lost site?

I think we are at this time,feeling the same ,our present caravan is the same body length as our Aurocruise was but with a lot more usable space inside

I think it depends on your destination, length of stay, mobility and choice of outfit in a nutshell. Your choice and where you go seems perfect for you, and the hassle is only  loading and getting there, which in the scale of your journeys appears to be minimal given the length of your stays. 

We are like a Tinny. Use our chosen outfit daily while away, never tow a car, don’t rely upon walking cycling or public transport unless somewhere like York, which is a rarity for us. We love “middle of nowhere” and have an outfit that suits this, and what we like to do. The compromise is not quite as much room inside, but then we know this and sitting inside doing next to nothing isn’t our activity or living choice when touring.

Club Members who switch from a caravan to an MH sometimes have a tendency to buy a MH for ease of some of the chores, often mimicking a good deal of what they had in a caravan, in terms of space, size, sometimes even layout. The MH is taken to a Club Site, pitched up, and often doesn’t roll a wheel until it’s time to move on. It has become a static living space for a few days. You win some aspects, you compromise on some aspects, individual choice, and nothing wrong with it.

Away from the Club, seen much more on CLs and private Sites are MHs bought to be used daily on tour, including big ones. They pitch up, they go out, they come back, they move on. No caravanning history sometimes, so the need to pitch up, connect to various services and not move just isn’t there. Around Northumberland/Borders this year, we stayed amidst some huge MHs, and I can’t recall a single one not coming and going daily unless owners were cycling or walking for pleasure rather than necessity. You would come across other folks out having a picnic, or a beach visit with their MH, miles from the Site, then see them later back on Site for the night. 

Places like Blenheim Palace are great places to take a MH. Big car park, (probably dedicated parking nowadays), you look around, you have lunch in your mobile cafe, you go for a walk, get back, drive off, you arrive at your next chosen Site.  It’s just a different choice.

We have been considering the purchase of a PVC sometime in the next year or so and this is because we have found 3 reasons to do so, 

One, and the main one, would be to visit places that are either inaccessible with a caravan or the logistics are too great to be bothered. This would include visiting as many of the islands in Scotland that would only be possible at the moment on day trips. I think TW does this and we've always enjoyed the islands.

Secondly, we think it would make for easier winter caravanning for just a short time, say 4 or 5 nights, and be able to do it regularly

Thirdly, as Peedee pointed out in one of his posts the Continent do Motorhoming far better than the UK and there have been times when we have toured when being closer to where we want to be by using Stellplatz and Aires etc would be a boon.

Downsides? Obviously cost of both buying a PVC and running costs for both a caravan and PVC. Plus we are still a bit wary of the security angle. There are many places where we would be away from the unit for a long time during the day, either walking, cycling or nature watching. We are not people who would just take it for a ride and a picnic but more active people at the moment so feeling worried about all of our worldly goods sitting in a PVC whilst we were up a mountain might not make us feel comfortable.

So we'll have to make some decisions on priorities soon but as we weren't even having this discussion a few years ago "progress", if that is what it is, is being made.

It’s a great way to go island hopping and for visiting remote areas, WN.

Security hasn't bothered us unduly. A few PVCs have bonded glass windows (usually those based on mini buses) rather than the acrylic caravan style windows and, although nothing's foolproof, we do feel the glass windows provide a bit more security. They also block visibility almost totally for anyone looking into the van from outside. We use a steering wheel lock if we leave the van unattended.

I will also have to think about downsizing soon, next year at the earliest but certainly in the next 3 years. Ideally I would like to go to a campervan but I am not convinced of the practicality of this yet. One thing I am certain on is that I will not be going back to a caravan.

Wherenext, I have never had any problems with security in 20 years of touring with a motorhome.

peedee

I would say a PVC would suit you down to the ground to be honest WN. You could tick all three of your reasons to do so, and having it would almost certainly increase your Winter touring. We tour as much in Winter as we do in Summer in a normal year, and enjoy all sorts of Winter events, getting up into Moors, National Parks Etc... and yes, brilliant for shorter periods away. We have done Christmas Markets in ours for example, gone to watch Winter sports events, visited cities that are rammed with tourists in Summer, but lovely in Winter. It’s why we actually bought ours, because I was caring for Dad and couldn’t go away more than three or four nights. The minute you leave your drive, you are active on on holiday, the focus isn’t on getting to a Site, pitching van and then heading out in car. You set off at 9am, do whatever you want, wherever you until you are ready to go to your chosen night stop, then pull on, plug in, turn on in MH and that’s it. 10 minute set up, 10 minute depart. We keep ours on drive, ready to roll, stick a few valuables in, the dog, and that’s all it takes. 

Security isn’t something we fret over to be honest. We don’t carry unnecessaries like jewellery, cash etc... our outfit, iPads everything else such as bikes are insured. It would be inconvenient if anything ever got stolen, but it’s the same with any other vehicle you might leave. We often leave ours for four, five hours, and touch wood, never had either vehicle or any contents stolen. (No experience abroad of course, but others will have) All you can do is get decent insurance, make sure your security is as good as it can be, don’t leave things obviously on view, and get on with things. We don’t go overboard with our tech stuff, no TV, use iPads for everything, including music, book reading, film watching, etc.....(If there’s another MH around, bigger, shinier and more full of toys than ours, we will park next to it, hoping that any tea leafs will target this rather than us🤣) 

We still have our van. But it simply stopped being as convenient and easy to be honest. It’s worth nothing, but if we get chance we might relocate it somewhere and use it as a seasonal getaway, like we used to do. Van is better for places we love in Cornwall, but they are seriously remote and narrow.

Some photos of how we use ours, top of Long Mynd in Shropshire for walking, in Forest half way up Simonside, walking in Northumberland, at side of Caerhays Beach, swimming/walking in Cornwall

Thank you for your replies.

Our idea of security has been tempered somewhat by 2 incidents, one here and one abroad.

The one abroad was in the south of France on one of our first visits. There is a parking place at the top of a small hill that allows you to walk a beautiful ridge to a couple of extremely pretty villages. We pulled in and the first thing we saw were a couple of broken car windows and 2 Roughnecks haring away down hill followed 10 seconds later by 2 Gendarmes careering after them. We took the view that it was probably the safest place for 3 hours and parked up but every time we revisited we parked in the town at the bottom of the hill and just added to our walk.

The one in the uK was at the start of a hill climb in a small car park where a PVC van had its windows broken and the owners standing outside waiting for the Police. 

These are the type of places we usually find ourselves in and yes I know that there is always Insurance 🤗.  We have decided against leaving the car once or twice when we are getting a bad vibe and there are a couple of places in France where we actually park outside Police Stations before going off on our walk/cycle. Just hope we never see any Police cars with broken windows there. 

We too have been lucky with crime in all of the 30+ years of touring and have always taken the view that property is replaceable but we really don't want the hassle. We are not totally paranoid, just partially. We once left stuff outside our caravan in Mid France on municipal site where the only other occupants were French people who were there to visit their relatives in the nearby prison and didn't worry about it as they seemed genuinely nice people. Similarly with some high end Gypsy people in Germany. Mind you their outfits, car and caravan, must have cost £100,000 and most were new so our 15 year table and chairs were definitely safe.😃

It’s a great way to go island hopping and for visiting remote areas, WN.

We are also hoping to use it if a potential tour of Finland, Estonia and Lithuania comes to fruition. A lot of things have to come together for that one but one never knows.

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That’s quite a plan and I’d think it would certainly be easier than towing a caravan that distance. 👍🏻