Buying secondhand - for the first time, knowing nothing... (1 Viewer)

[lizmh]

Dear motorhomers, please help

I'm a caravanner looking to stop towing...We bought our caravan off eBay for a huge £600 and it has been great. But we know nothing about engines or frankly anything mechanical.

I have generally buoght new or newish cars and had them serviced and repaired by main dealers, but cannot afford a new or newish motorhome...I know that there are people who will find you a secondhand car for commission, and friends who have used them have been really happy. I've also had the AA 'check' a secondhand landrover. Does anyone know of a similar service for people wanting a motorhome?

I'm more than happy to research exactly what I need, but I simply have no idea whether what I eventually buy will last a week or 10 years! If we had got it wrong with the caravan, we wouldn't have lost much, but I'm guessing we'll need to spend almost 10 times as much this time.

We're based in South Wales.

Liz

 

[ginge61]

decide what will suit you first then look at the layouts etc then find a forum like this poss for the make of vec you looking at a lot of campers rv motorhomes are low milage gen ,so long as they have been looked after norm all are pretty good even 20 year old vans etc and some older

 

[Ralph-Dot]

You will be very lucky to get a decent motorhome for only 10x you caravan.

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[pappajohn]

Welcome to the FUN Liz,

if buying from a dealer ask to see the habitation service and damp check paperwork.

damp can kill a motorhome and can be very expensive, or even impossible financially, to rectify.

to check for damp yourself look and smell EVERYWHERE for signs......water marks and mildew on walls/ceiling (especially where they join each other), around windows, vents and door, musty smells in cupboards.

any sign of damp...walk away.
dont let the dealer fob you off with "oh yes, thats been fixed"...how do you know it has?

 

[madbluemad]

Hi Liz

I think your question is too big to be answered properley. I think that you need to research the mh - rv - camper that you want and then start asking the questions regarding that specific van.

Theres loads of knowledge on here but theres nothing like asking direct questions about a specific van. A lot of the answers will be the same an example being damp as mentioned before.

Get around and have a good look, a lot of the answers to your questions will become self apparent.

All the best

Jim

 

[DandG5515]

When we started looking earlier this year we must of looked at 100's. Needless to say we went for a completely different layout, berths and length to what we first thought we wanted. Having done the trawling of dealerships around and seeing what would work best for us we ended up buying a new Roller Team 600 and we love it.

Good luck in your search

Dale

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[DESCO]

Hi lizmh
WELCOME to MH Fun

As said nothing can replace looking at as many MH as possible, even if you know it is not what you want. You will get a feel for the vans many you will reject at first look, but you are learning all the time. Then with this base knowledge you will find what you are looking for, it's out there somewhere, just a case of finding it.

Best of luck with your search.


Dave:thumb::thumb:

 

[Peter JohnsCross MH]

Hi Liz,

Your always welcome to phone Andy and pick his brains, he lives in his full time

Peter

 

[Rainy]

Dear motorhomers, please help

I'm a caravanner looking to stop towing...We bought our caravan off eBay for a huge £600 and it has been great. But we know nothing about engines or frankly anything mechanical.

I have generally buoght new or newish cars and had them serviced and repaired by main dealers, but cannot afford a new or newish motorhome...I know that there are people who will find you a secondhand car for commission, and friends who have used them have been really happy. I've also had the AA 'check' a secondhand landrover. Does anyone know of a similar service for people wanting a motorhome?

I'm more than happy to research exactly what I need, but I simply have no idea whether what I eventually buy will last a week or 10 years! If we had got it wrong with the caravan, we wouldn't have lost much, but I'm guessing we'll need to spend almost 10 times as much this time.

We're based in South Wales.

Liz

Hi Liz We've just bought ours so we are just staring out. We spent most of this year looking at different motorhomes mostly from main agents like Johns Cross Motorhomes and others in our area We did this to give us an idea on the type of internal layout we wanted We eventually decided to hire a motorhome for a week from Johns Cross and off we went ..It was brilliant, it helped us to make our decsion as to what we wanted ... a seating area with a table to eat, we also decided we would like a fixed bed rather than make the bed up every night So you need to decide what you want&how much you can afford before you buy Look around and get an idea on prices Good luck Rainy:thumb:

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[winchman]

For me two things are important
How often you will use it
How much you have to spend and are prepaired to tie up in it.
I had very little and only use mine for Lads and Dads camping so I bought an old Bedford for £500, its fab
details here
thattoheathmountainrescue

What ever you buy its well worth paying some one to look at it first, some one in the Bedford CF owners club bought a camper then joined the club, if they had done this the other way around one of us could have looked at it first and saved her having to replace the engine and several other bits.
The tale of woe, we have seen this with new campers so its no just the budget stuff
Bedford CF Message Board > CF Blog Spot > Margrae\'s little problem.

 

[MIN663]

Hi Liz,

When we were looking / researching a motorhome we found "Go Motorhoming Europe" a very good source of information on buying tips etc. You can get it from Motorhome &amp caravan books, guides and maps, Go Motorhoming Europe, Camperstop Europe, France Passion, campsite guides, full-timing the facts, Aires and stopovers guides and amazon.

We bought a 20 year old hymer best thing we have done.
Good luck Min