"Did the fire talk to you ? What did it say ?"To be honest if I ever said "motorhomes talk to me" I would expect to be locked up
I agree, I dont get it either. My father bought a really nice one when he sold his boat. He and the merry widow took off to europe in the $hagg8n* waggon as my kids called it. But it was so big they mussed all the nice little places asthey couldn't get parked. So basically he left his nice private house in a leafy street, drove at great cost for many hours, crossed the sea to park up on a busy caravan site with little peace or privacy!Motor homes are on the increase and if you have room beside your house and it puts a smile on your face then great but i just don't get it. Average use is about 4 or 5 weeks a year and its another vehicle to maintain. A caravan has very few parts to maintain but, especially with my leaky Luna, water ingress can be a problem. when you get to where you are going, park it up and pop out in the car. Anyone thinking of a motor home should maybe try a caravan first, although buy a second hand one, our Lunar was £11500 (3 years ago) (2015 Quasar 525) and has dining areas at each end. The dining area at the back is always made up as the bed. This layout is out of fashion and new ones of this design are no longer available. If i had not had this layout as a priority, i would have purchased Coachman or Swift which are better quality than bankrupt Lunar.
Friends who have purchase static caravans have probably had the least success and have sold up within 3 years. A £30,000+ investment and £2500 to £3000 a year for site fees if all the family enjoy the site but this becomes expensive as interest and visits dwindle. Then a £30,000 caravan after 2 or 3 years was worth £13,000 due to restrictions on how the van could be sold, ie only to the site owner.
I didn't get it either, wife wanted a camper van and I wanted a caravanMotor homes are on the increase and if you have room beside your house and it puts a smile on your face then great but i just don't get it. Average use is about 4 or 5 weeks a year and its another vehicle to maintain. A caravan has very few parts to maintain but, especially with my leaky Luna, water ingress can be a problem. when you get to where you are going, park it up and pop out in the car. Anyone thinking of a motor home should maybe try a caravan first, although buy a second hand one, our Lunar was £11500 (3 years ago) (2015 Quasar 525) and has dining areas at each end. The dining area at the back is always made up as the bed. This layout is out of fashion and new ones of this design are no longer available. If i had not had this layout as a priority, i would have purchased Coachman or Swift which are better quality than bankrupt Lunar.
Friends who have purchase static caravans have probably had the least success and have sold up within 3 years. A £30,000+ investment and £2500 to £3000 a year for site fees if all the family enjoy the site but this becomes expensive as interest and visits dwindle. Then a £30,000 caravan after 2 or 3 years was worth £13,000 due to restrictions on how the van could be sold, ie only to the site owner.
I think it’s peaked and prices are coming down now. We see so many retirees with campers and a lot just sit in them all day at the caravan park. Campers are better for travelling about but if you’re going somewhere and parking up then a caravan (in my opinion) is the way to go. Communities have also had enough of campers parking up in community car parks, especially on the west coast. It use to be no hassle but when it becomes a trend and loads of folk doing it it becomes anti-social. But I must say the caravan parks we’ve been to normally have a good percentage that are campers. The caravan parks we’ve been to up here in the last 12 months have all been excellent apart from one in Inverness which was okay, certainly not bad.Motor homes are on the increase and if you have room beside your house and it puts a smile on your face then great but i just don't get it. Average use is about 4 or 5 weeks a year and its another vehicle to maintain. A caravan has very few parts to maintain but, especially with my leaky Luna, water ingress can be a problem. when you get to where you are going, park it up and pop out in the car. Anyone thinking of a motor home should maybe try a caravan first, although buy a second hand one, our Lunar was £11500 (3 years ago) (2015 Quasar 525) and has dining areas at each end. The dining area at the back is always made up as the bed. This layout is out of fashion and new ones of this design are no longer available. If i had not had this layout as a priority, i would have purchased Coachman or Swift which are better quality than bankrupt Lunar.
Friends who have purchase static caravans have probably had the least success and have sold up within 3 years. A £30,000+ investment and £2500 to £3000 a year for site fees if all the family enjoy the site but this becomes expensive as interest and visits dwindle. Then a £30,000 caravan after 2 or 3 years was worth £13,000 due to restrictions on how the van could be sold, ie only to the site owner.
Thats not our experience. The main issue we had,was the "gassing" that was going on.I agree, I dont get it either. My father bought a really nice one when he sold his boat. He and the merry widow took off to europe in the $hagg8n* waggon as my kids called it. But it was so big they mussed all the nice little places asthey couldn't get parked. So basically he left his nice private house in a leafy street, drove at great cost for many hours, crossed the sea to park up on a busy caravan site with little peace or privacy!
I get the freedom of the open road, but so few places where you can do-that in europe!
There appears to be more money in van to motorhome conversions.I think it’s peaked and prices are coming down now. We see so many retirees with campers and a lot just sit in them all day at the caravan park. Campers are better for travelling about but if you’re going somewhere and parking up then a caravan (in my opinion) is the way to go. Communities have also had enough of campers parking up in community car parks, especially on the west coast. It use to be no hassle but when it becomes a trend and loads of folk doing it it becomes anti-social. But I must say the caravan parks we’ve been to normally have a good percentage that are campers. The caravan parks we’ve been to up here in the last 12 months have all been excellent apart from one in Inverness which was okay, certainly not bad.
I could be wrong but I have wondered why aren’t Caravan companies more flexible with their layouts. A lot of caravan interiors just feel dated and old fashioned and why can’t you spec the layout from a few choices. What suits a couple isn’t going to suit a small family. I have thought it may be a good little business doing bespoke caravan mods.
They are insane prices...There appears to be more money in van to motorhome conversions.
They are so labour intensive, coach built ones are assembled a bit like a kit.There appears to be more money in van to motorhome conversions.
In the past we have had volvo 340 and v40 cars and the weakness was the Renault engines. VW make much more reliable engines.I didn't get it either, wife wanted a camper van and I wanted a caravan
Wife won, I was determined not to like it but I'm a convert
It's classed as a motor home but it's just a Renault Master converted so not massive and you do have to be creative with parking sometimes
Now planning the next van, looking to purchase something next year a little newer and do a home conversion
My wife and I went for a drive yesterday and stopped at the Swift Caravan dealer as we wanted to get a couple of things. While we were there we had a look at the caravans and I couldn’t stop thinking about how I would design the inside to make it much better for how we would use it. You’re right plenty of companies doing camper conversions which tend to be quite innovative. Talking to the salesman and he said the Swift Basecamp 2 is their second best selling caravan. I just think there’s a market to get a way from the old fashioned caravan and make a caravan more suited to how people use them. We use caravan sites and always use the shower block, only use the toilet for number 1s and only use the shower when off grid so not that often. The shower room normally is a drying room but I like the combined shower/toilet in the Basecamp. It’s a good use of space. Our caravan is a Basecamp 4 but the Basecamp 2 is a small compact van but probably has the biggest bed of any new vans, it’s probably super king size. That makes a huge difference to me to have a good size bed. I’d love to strip out a modern van, put a Basecamp 2 bed/seats arrangement in the rear, middle combined toilet/shower on one side and open cupboard on the other with the Basecamp pullout carry bags. At the front have the Basecamp 4 seats/bed/dining (Basecamp 2 seats if they could fit) and in the middle have a kitchen with as much worktop surface that could be worked in. I’d also not have any wood grain furniture or curtains. A more modern contemporary colour scheme and materials. The Basecamp seats are fantastic and as they are open create a feeling of more space but they look cheaper so maybe folk would think they are getting less. But they also fold up so you have a great open area to load bikes etc into the van. Great for families or couples with kit. I’m a little alternative so never really know if what I’d like would be popular with the average person buying a caravan but I think the popularity of the Basecamp shows there are folk out there that want a more practical caravan.There appears to be more money in van to motorhome conversions.
IIRC there are some custom builders out there, Elkhart Indiana is the camper capital, allot of the mass produced are made there.I don't have a caravan/motorhome, but have read this thread with interest. It surprises me that you can't buy a caravan in the same manner that you buy a kitchen for your house. No 2 kitchens are the same. all designed to suit the end user and their own personal lifestyles, but they all comprise the same modular units - so why can't caravans be the same?
Also when looking at motorhomes, (out of interest), why are all the furnishings, invariably and mostly, covered in that disgusting patterned fabric that is generally found on a park and ride bus or a railway carriage??
What you are describing is the traditional caravan with bathroom/toilet and cooking facilities in the middle, living areas in the front and rear. Both front and rear are dining areas which convert into bedding areas. This is our preferred layout and we leave the rear bed area made up all the time. For some reason Lunar stopped making this in 2015 and Coachman stopped making this layout in 2010, the reason being that it was not popular.My wife and I went for a drive yesterday and stopped at the Swift Caravan dealer as we wanted to get a couple of things. While we were there we had a look at the caravans and I couldn’t stop thinking about how I would design the inside to make it much better for how we would use it. You’re right plenty of companies doing camper conversions which tend to be quite innovative. Talking to the salesman and he said the Swift Basecamp 2 is their second best selling caravan. I just think there’s a market to get a way from the old fashioned caravan and make a caravan more suited to how people use them. We use caravan sites and always use the shower block, only use the toilet for number 1s and only use the shower when off grid so not that often. The shower room normally is a drying room but I like the combined shower/toilet in the Basecamp. It’s a good use of space. Our caravan is a Basecamp 4 but the Basecamp 2 is a small compact van but probably has the biggest bed of any new vans, it’s probably super king size. That makes a huge difference to me to have a good size bed. I’d love to strip out a modern van, put a Basecamp 2 bed/seats arrangement in the rear, middle combined toilet/shower on one side and open cupboard on the other with the Basecamp pullout carry bags. At the front have the Basecamp 4 seats/bed/dining (Basecamp 2 seats if they could fit) and in the middle have a kitchen with as much worktop surface that could be worked in. I’d also not have any wood grain furniture or curtains. A more modern contemporary colour scheme and materials. The Basecamp seats are fantastic and as they are open create a feeling of more space but they look cheaper so maybe folk would think they are getting less. But they also fold up so you have a great open area to load bikes etc into the van. Great for families or couples with kit. I’m a little alternative so never really know if what I’d like would be popular with the average person buying a caravan but I think the popularity of the Basecamp shows there are folk out there that want a more practical caravan.