Advice/tips on owning & driving 8.7m tag axle van

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If your dog is not a good traveller in a car,   I would suggest you look at motor caravan  hire to give it a try,    the ride you will find is ,a lot different to a car,, ,   before you commit to spending big money , 

some good advice above....IMHO unless you go really small (panel van ish) then (true impromptu) motorhoming is (to me anyway) more difficult in the UK and certwinly in a very large van.

12 mths in a MH in the UK would challenge us and we do 50-60% of our lives in our van...

why? because for half that time you'll be 'taking notice' of the (potential) weather......and dont believe all that stuff about 'poor clothing'...

if you had to spend a year in the van then if i were to give you one single piece of advice that would be to spend the winter months somewhere warm where you can spend plenty of time outside, living cheaply in a healthy environment and then come home when the Uk has warmed up a bit and again you'll be able to enjoy the 'best' part of the year it has to offer....

winter in the UK can be fun, especially if you can return home by the fire and forget about it, but when confined to a van I'd rather do it when its more clement.

touring overseas in a MH IS easier in so many respects....

wider, less crowded, better surfaced roads...campsites geared up to accommodate the largest of long term vans.. far cheaper to pitch and to live, far better climate, the Aires network (8000+ stopping places in France alone) providing cheap (many free), safe stopping places that are MH only.

once you've grasped the nettle you'll probably forget to come back home for the 2nd six months. 

whats your budget for the van? any preference for the rear bed as in the Cheiftan? would you be happy with a (RHD or even LHD) Continental van?

I think that you are making far too much of this taking notice of the weather thing, and not having the right clothing. As you know we travel throughout this country all year round and, although we do go home occasionally, the clothes I take with me are virtually the same for every trip. All one needs to do is to select the right area to be in depending on the time of year. We have a friend in a Bimbo sized M/H who travelled round the British coast for well over half a year with her dog, so surely there should not be any problem for the OP in a much larger van doing similar for 12 months;l 

im guessing 'bimbo' means small...?

if so, this is exactly the point....its not that easy to do as you say in a very large van for the reasons mentioned by others above.

...this 'weather thing' hasnt been much fun this winter has it? and its a pain to think of zipping from one end of the UK to the other in December just to find somewhere it isnt raining.. 

back home, we're out in most conditions but we havent rented out our home and so given up the 'back up' position of hitting the trip on the head and going home...

being on the road continuously for a year is a big undertaking and it wont all be glamorous or plain sailing....especially the first year...

hence my suggestion to break it up into chunks where one can at least avoid the worst conditions.

whatever the OP chooses, i wish him and his partner luck but this might be a great opportunity to 'see a bit more'.....and in sunshine.

I’m sure he'll choose what's right for him, BB. 👍🏻

Bimbo... a small VW M/H. Surely having the additional space in a larger M/H allows one to take sufficient "stuff" to journey where ever one wants, especially if you select your sites carefully with respect to bus services and cycle routes. We've had very little problem this winter, having been on the road since 21st Jan, and had we been in a M/H we'd not even bother about the one day that we didn't move because of the wind. We have had surprisingly few days where the rain has stopped us from getting out and about. It just need a bit of planning and understanding of the places that are likely to be the least likely to be affected by the weather.

"We've had very little problem this winter, having been on the road since 21st Jan".....well, youve fared better than many.

it makes little difference but we've been on the road since the 8th January and, apart from Storm Gloria, have also had little problem with the weather...other than running out of factor 30

as said, it'll be interesting to hear back from the OP as plans for the van and destinations develop.  

Thank you all so much for being so generous with your time and helpful thoughts.

We could do this in a much smaller van but as new travellers we want  creature comforts and space. We are looking at Auto-Trail vans and considering the 8.7m Chieftain, the 8m Serrano and the 7.5m Mohawk.  The quality of finish, fixtures & fittings in all these make us feel they'd make a good 'home from home'. The issue of van size is we recognise a balance between accessibility and living with a big dog in a motorhome.  

The dog is OK on trains and buses (and even cars when she is being cuddled!) so we are as confident as we can be that she will be OK.  We did look to hire a van but couldn't hire the van we wanted to buy and so, aware of how ride and space affect us and the dog, it seemed like a wasted exercise.  So now we are looking at all 3 vehicles.  The chieftain was perfect for size, it felt like a London flat on wheels but your comments about an 8.7m van have somewhat dampened my ardour!

And yes we will try to pack with care but we have created an emergency budget for a winter cottage rental should we meet the limits of our endurance!  

And I should say that after this first adventure we are looking to a longer tour of the continent where we would keep in the sunshine throughout the year.  We wanted to get ourselves 'shipshape & seaworthy' whilst in the UK and hope that next year Brexit will be settled.

Huge thanks to you all! 

John