Thinking about motorhoming

If you can wait until October the best way is to visit the NEC and have a good look around, pick up brochures, ask questions etc. We reckon on 30 - 40 litres water for a full 24 hrs including two showers as long as you are frugal.

Visit a dealer or two....look on the many manufacturers/ dealers websites for specifications.

Lots and lots of answers on one page

Can I ask where you intend to pitch if not on camp sites? I know some people wild camp but there are lots of issues both legal and safety related to consider.

Do you have a camping or caravanning background at all Fenuela? lots of things with a MH are similar.

Trying to get what you are looking for in under 6m is going to be a challenge to start with. As others have said go round as many dealers as you can and as daft as it may seem visualise how you would live in it. Where would you sit to eat, watch tv, where would you store clothes, food, chairs for sitting out, can you remove the table and use it outside, if not where would you store a table. Not forgetting you will need levelling chocks,  silver thermal screens etc etc. When we look at a m/h this is how we work out if it would suit our needs.

a good post from TG, especially line one...

it 'can' be done on 6m....as an example, the Adria Twin SP layout has a large rear fixed transverse bed with good storage underneath, even has a pretty good shower/washroom which 'extends' to give quite a lot of room....but the compromise will be a tightish 'euro' lounge and sparsnish kitchen.

take out the fixed bed and you have much more room to lounge in, and a pretty good washroom and kitchen, too... but the compromise will be the bed....do you want to make and unmake each day (and store all that bedding) and will it be as comfortable as a decent fixed bed...??

there will be advocates of each type of design but only you can make this decision...

water tanks on more modern vans have grown significantly, eg the Carthago Malibu PVC has 100 ltr fresh tank and 92 ltr waste, continental vans will more than likely have larger tanks than UK vans...

you wont really get a fully 'winterised' PVC, however those with an inboard fresh water tank will fare much better than those with underslung tanks.

exposed pipework is the bane of many vans in winter time, so of you are touring all yr round give this some thought...the Autotrail V-line Sport range has a double floor (of sorts) which makes a reasonable job of insulating pipework.

 just for info, there are also 6m long 'coachbuilt' vans that are just as easy to drive and park, but have more room inside due to their sides being more vertical than those of a PVC.

As others have said, take in the show at the NEC and get inside the vans and lie on the beds, stand in the showers, pretend to be cooking at the kitchen area, see where your clothes will go, along with all your outside tables and chair, bbq etc....

good luck. 

Before  you  go  trotting  off  to  look  at   real,  live  tin  tents  !!  get  a  copy  of  MMM  &  Practical  Motorhome  this  month  .  The  contents  of  MMM  includes  "Which  Motorcaravan"  as  well,  and  between  the  three  mags  you  should  get  ideas  of  whats  what,  where  it  is,   lay-outs  etc  and  how  its  viewed  by  Journo's  {  who I  know  are  far  from  ideal  but  , ,, ,, ,,   }  Armed  with  this  you  might  be  able  to  reduce  your  searches  (  on-line  &  on  foot )  to  'vans  that  fall  within  your  own  parameters.

Good  Hunting  !

Brian  A B M

The minimum water we get by on is about 15 litres a day with 2 showers and we're very frugal but not smelly! I'd work on hitchglitch's figure. A small motorhome will typically give you up to two days of water supply so you will need to hunt a source down every two days. If you do not intend using campsites, I suggest you research 'wild camping'.

Tammygirl is right to say look at what how you will use the van. It's essential. We've had two 6m vans when we had two children and a dog and our current van is 5.94m long for the two of us. 6m vans have always happily met our needs for up to three weeks of touring [never go longer than that]. However, they would be inadequate for a long European tour of if we were cyclists.

Water is heavy so you need to watch your vans weight. Over 3500kg and you need a C1 licence and uprated chassis. My van carries 120l except it would be overweight if I filled the tank.

Hymer do a range of small motorhomes [mine is a Hymer] which will give you some ideas and there is no shortage of Panel Van Conversions [PVCs] which will meet you basic needs. 

Warners have an outdoor show at Malvern on 12-14 August and at Lincoln on 23-25 September. Both seem doable from Lancashire for a day [we attend from the Wirral]. Both show new and second hand motorhomes. Warners run the Out&About website with a Motorhome Matters forum. The OAL website provides good advice on starting motorhoming as do some other websites. The NEC show in October is for new vans and is excellent. There are long delivery dates for some new vans.

Unless you intend motorhoming in the depths of winter, you'll get away with hardly any winterisation in the UK. Panel Van Conversions are less likley to be winterised than a coachbuilt.

Visit dealers, look at layouts - you will never find the perfect one, so will need to compromise. But get used to what is what, what is most spacious for body size etc as there are many that waste much of the space.

When you are jst about sick of it, and about to give up - you are ready to buy. Buy in December if you can, week before christmas is good. Get a good deal,  don't forget to ask to speak to the manager and politely ask him for more off. Saved me 8 grand anyway!