Motorhome v caravan?

There really isn't much in it and it depends so much on road tax classes, your insurance and servicing costs. There's no hard and fast answer. 

Not the exact same question but you might like to take a look at this thread.

We ran caravans then did 6 years with an american RV, now back to a caravan.  From our experiece a caravan is a lot cheaper, but then we run an old towcar which doubles as my daily driver and running an RV wasnt cheap as all parts had to be imported.

Factors on a MH are tax (ours was lower than the car) insurance, MOT/repair costs..

As  an  old  footballing  pal  of  mine  used  to  say  :--

What  would  you  rather  be  or  a  wasp  ??

It's  an  unanswerable  question  to  pose  really,  so  very  much  is  dependant  on  your  own  conditions.

I  have  nowhere  to  park  a  caravan  so  it  would  have  to  be  in  storage  of  some  sort  --  a cost  many  don't  have  but  some  deliberately  choose  to  go  that  way.

Likewise  for  many  other  items  you  pick  your  own  way  !

Dean

I can only go by my recent experience of changing from a caravan to a motorhome about three years ago. Since having the motorhome its the first time in our lives we have ever had two vehicles!!! First of all road tax, I am still paying less per year if I add the Bailey 740 and my Kia Venga together compared to my previous Kia Sorento which was approaching £500 a year when I sold it. In terms of fuel economy I do no more miles than I did towing but I get more miles to the gallon. Insurance wise the motormome is about the same to insure as my caravan and my Venga far less to insure than the Sorento. With these two items I am showing a saving compared to caravanning of about £200 a year. Servicing costs are about the same as with a car and caravan except that the motorhome also needs a cab service which is where the additional money comes in but direct comparision suggests that overall it is only costing me a couple of hundred pounds more a year to have a motorhome and small car compared to having a caravan and a large tow car. These calculations completely ignore how much you invest in a motorhome or in a caravan and tow car be they new or secondhand.

Of course this is only part of the story and the decision on which one to go for very much depends on your style of camping, how often you can use your outfit and many more things!!

David

I can only imagine the motorhome+car option being very expensive up front although David's running costs appear relatively little different.

Depending on your current transport, you may need to factor in changing your car to a suitable towcar, capital purchase of the caravan as against changing to a motorhome (very high capital cost unless you buy secondhand?) plus changing to a small car plus a trailer to carry it. I am no expert but for Europe towing a car with a drawbar/towing frame (?) appears to be illegal (?)

I think it's the capital investment and depreciation that may well be a deciding factor plus, as stated, the type of trips you want to do.It is really important to imagine yourself travelling and trying to weigh up which will be best for you.

You don't say what you currently do or what experience you have?

Whilst, if you have the capital for either option, I would certainly say "Go for it!" , we just couldn't justify spending many thousands on a new motorhome so went the caravan route and are happy with that choice so far although it is a steep learning curve to start either option from scratch especially if you have never towed before.

I'm interested to see how this one turns out.

Of course this is only part of the story and the decision on which one to go for very much depends on your style of camping, how often you can use your outfit and many more things!!

 Such as do you like to use buses.  

Of course this is only part of the story and the decision on which one to go for very much depends on your style of camping, how often you can use your outfit and many more things!!

 Such as do you like to use buses.  

Buses? What have they to fo with the cost of MH v Cvan?

For the record, I've not used a bus in 20 years.

I tend to agree with David K, running costs are similar if you have something like a 7 meter 3.5 ton motorhome and small car. Larger heavy motorhomes can be more expensive especially on fuel costs. I had an Autotrail Mohican for 10years and the average maintence costs worked out at £650p.a, insurance and tax £513p.a. In use, inclusive of all costs other than depreciation it used to work out at  67p a mile or £48 per night.

peedee

I doubt there is any hard and fast answer to which is cheaper to run. It all depends on what you buy, how you use it and many other factors.

If you want a large motorhome and need two cars then the motorhome has to be more expensive. That apart the costs are not that dissimilar and the way you use it and personal preferences should be the determining factor.