Crossing to ‘The Dark Side’

One thing that stands out amongst a very large it seems membership that the UK motor caravanners tend to use their engine powered caravan just as they did in the past when useing their more versatile car on front combo ,by stopping at sites where there is not a need to move the M/C to leave site once set up ,

I think in the UK a PVC is more user friendly,

where as "over there" as we found in the past a motor caravan can be at times worth the initial high cost

Not us ,we go out in our M/H every day ,there is always somewhere to see or park up and have a good walk then back for a cup of tea ,looking at the view....

But then you seem to be one of the UK minority

Us too, Husky, along with many others.

We have both a smallish MH and a small caravan. We don’t keep both at home, MH is alongside house, caravan on my Mum’s drive.

MH: all preparation done at home. We travel full water tank, empty waste tank. Food for at least three days is stored. Clothes and all personal requirements on board, either bikes or storage box is on back, depending what we want to do. Dog requirements all onboard. Set off, travel to first site, stopping off enroute to take in something of interest, maybe have a meal if it’s a long travel day. Next bit is oh so easy.....Arrive, choose a pitch, brake on, hook up cable plugged in, sit down and enjoy a cuppa. We might take 30 seconds to roll out canopy. 

Caravan (assume at home) careful storage of all requirement mainly in van as car is full of dog. Travel, being careful of where we stop off to see something or take a break. Clamber over stuff in caravan (awning, spare tyre, bikes etc....)to sort out a meal, or we might pack a picnic and flask. Arrive, pick a pitch, start set up. Water, waste, hook up. Put things in caravan into proper places.Depending on arrival time and weather, put awning up (small one takes 20 minutes, large one half an hour) might be deferred until next day.

We love the MH for its capacity to tour around from place to place, and travel days are “doing days”. We use it for days out as well.

We love the caravan for more space and longer stays at sites. Makes the extra set up time worth it. We do sometimes do two or three sites in a holiday, but  we are very light travellers, don’t cart around the kitchen sink.

might I suggest no backwards and forwards with Aquarolls and Wastemaster, ( although i admit fully serviced pitches can cure that one.) being able to just pull into a layby and have a break without having to exit the vehicle, same goes for parking at beauty spots with a view. We have gone from caravans to Coachbuilt M/H to Panel van conversion at 6m but wouldnt go any smaller. Yes, easier. Especially if you dont put up a fixed awning, our roll out does everything we need, and is rolled away in 5 minutes.

just different.

+ 1 to that. No longer needing to fetch and carry water is a huge bonus.

Also no hitching/unhitching, no jockey wheel winding, no cornersteady winding (on most MHs), no difficulty levelling as the van can simply be moved a few inches if necessary.

Easier travelling without a big white wind resistant box on the back, the ability to do 70mph and use all lanes of a m/way, passing HGVs even going downhill, parking in conventional car parks (as long as there’s no height barrier). Yep, they’re all easier.

It is as you say we have done both except we have not the room to keep even a small M/C at home so actually it is easier to tow as we just load car on the road outside the house at home then pick up the caravan from storage ,off to site then off load what is needed from car,we only ever fill aquaroll once on arrival then keep it topped up with watering cans ,as noted a lot of M/Cs do when pitched up,

As i said a PVC in the UK is easy,but then less space inside compared to c/v of body length,when we moved up? to a coach built it was more restrictive,so thats when we returned to tugging with a go anywhere support vehicle

I don't think the OP was asking for a comparison JVB, I'm sure there are as many with "small" caravans as there are those who have small motorhomes. Equally some choose to stay on site and some to move on or go out for the day, that's entirely up to them and what suits them. 

Storage on some motorhomes sometimes means a re-think as not all have outside storage or easy to reach areas. Finding a good place for all the stuff that's needed at set up, levelling blocks etc is one consideration, make sure you have adequate ramps, take the biggest you can store.