Buying a caravan for 1st time and not buying damp

Reedit, I'm late on this one and obviously biased.

You want to reduce your outgoings and also have a dry van.

I'm on my 4th Eriba pop top caravan. They have a very low incidence of damp, have extremely good resale values (I've sold each on for more than I paid for them) allow near 40mpg towing with a 1.5 petrol engine, can be stored in some garages, have a payload up to twice that of a lot of vans etc.

Colin

Just a word of warning as you're set on buying a used Elddis. We bought an Affinity 550 new in 2016 as our final "retirement caravan". We were initially impressed with the apparent build quality, and to be fair the internal furniture seemed well made.

We had water coming in under the front windows - this turned out to be because of shoddy incomplete  installation of sealant to the window bar above the 3 front windows. This was repaired under warranty but we were never happy with the repair to the inside decorations.

The cladding around the stargazer window fell off and was repaired under warranty. We had several other less-major issues.

Our worst issue resulted from the front gas locker lid splitting as I closed it whilst away on holiday in the van!  Following the eventual (!) replacement, again under warranty, we were told that the gas struts had been designed too strong for the delicate lid, and this was why the lid had broken. It was a well-known problem. But worse, all the hinge mounting screws had caused several splits in the main front panel of the caravan.  Because the front panel was only guaranteed for ONE YEAR, we were now liable for the cost of repairs, which involved drilling each end of each split, then covering the repair with wide black tape! The only alternative was to have the whole front replaced at a cost of £££££s.

That was the point when we took the decision to get rid and go German, despite only having owned the Affinity for 2 years and taking a painful hit on its reduced value.  We have enjoyed our lovely Knaus now for 3 years with no issues whatsoever.

Since that stressful time we've noticed so many Elddis caravans of that era wearing that ugly black repair tape above the gas locker box. And now I've seen that Elddis have changed the design in their latest models.

I wish you luck if you do decide to go Elddis.

Hi

My first rule of thumb in buying a new caravan. Are any of the panels made of ABS? If so, move on to one which has a more suitable material!!!

I haven't read the entire thread so if you are buying second hand, check that service history is all pukka and that you will get the balance of any manufacturers warranty.

Also, buy local - you will have problems so the nearer you are the less stressful the warranty fixes.

See more detail about issues / resolution below, click on the link for details and photos

Problems and fixes