Caravan v Motorhome Dilemma or Pipedream?
This story happened on: 19/01/2013
In an earlier story I asked whether we could do without a caravan mover and by a large margin we decided that we could not. That got us thinking about whether we should think about a Motorhome. Sacrilege I hear you cry but let’s not be dog in the manger about it! We have caravanned for over thirty years and visited many countries in Europe as well as staying on sites in the UK.
So what has brought this rash thought into our heads? Well the problem with the mover for one and the issues caused by a non-functioning mover the inconvenience caused by impatient neighbours and parking. Having towed in excess of 80,000 miles it is not the towing. My Sorento is also getting to the point where it should be replaced with something which is more economical and costs less to tax each year. That in itself will be a big investment. The thought then followed that if we used that money and the trade in value of the caravan perhaps that would give us a large slice towards a motorhome, or so we thought! When I get a bee in my bonnet about something I tend to go to town. Margaret was bombarded with information whether she wanted it or not. Websites were searched to see what was on offer. I think it fair to say that we would want to buy new. The only problem we soon discovered was that new motorhomes, especially by the time you have added a few extras and other charges soon mount up to a tidy sum. It seems that you have to be prepared to invest in the region of £40000/45000 for even the most modest of motorhomes. This we found somewhat scary given that we would not want to borrow money to buy and it would leave a massive hole in our savings, something that Margaret has a bigger problem with than me but I can understand that those savings have been hard won and not to be fritted away on a whim! There is also the risk that if we did not like it any further change could prove loss making.
Moving away from the cost implications we would have to decide on size. Our caravan has an internal length of about 6 metres. Layout is front settees and a fixed bed with bathroom across the back of the van. It has proved to be ideal for our longer trips as no bed making involved. Now you can get motorhomes with similar layouts, albeit not always possible to get the rear bathroom. The Bailey Approach 745 seemed an ideal candidate but at 7.5 metres long is it too big? The other layout we quite like is the rear U shaped seating which converts to a double bed and this allows you to reduce the length by a metre. The strange thing is that having a smaller motorhome does not seem to shave off the total cost! There are other considerations, do you go for a van conversion, coach built or A Class? Should it be manual of automatic gearbox just like my current car. You can see that I seem to be getting to grips with the subject, or perhaps just too much information.
There are of course other issues like could we manage without a car? We do stay at a lot of campsites where we can use public transport but in other cases we are right out in the countryside. I don’t wish to sound impolite to those that do this but to give up caravanning and then tow a car behind a motorhome seems a bit pointless? So the decision comes down to sticking with caravanning or making a leap of faith in changing to a motorhome. Whist the idea of a motorhome has many attractions I think we are edging towards staying with the caravan. We do plan to go to the NEC to explore the idea further so this might not be the end of the story!!!
David
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chasncath