Advice sought on purchasing my 1st motorhome (1 Viewer)

[Risteard]

Hi I would appreciate some advice please. I have a budget of between 22k and 30k to spend on my first motorhome for myself, wife and 2 small children. Could anybody please advise me as to the best kind to buy. Many thanks
Richard

 

[Scallywag]

Which Motorhome?

How long have you got?

We have been vanning for just 5 years and are on our 3rd van - first one too big to get to all the places we wanted to go to. Second one great, but bed too small and rubbish oven. Current van - too early to say.

Point is, it is very easy to get it wrong - when it is a very personal choice - your combination of plans/desires/kids/hobbies will be unique - so, given our experience, we would recommend you hire for your first trip.

Let the hire company recommend the van - then try it for size/suitability and talk to as many people as you can at the sites you visit. Their motorhoming experience will outweigh anything a dealer might tell you.

Combine that with the mass of advice you will get on this forum, and you may get it right first time.

Good Luck.

 

[Carol]

Hello Richard and welcome to motorhome fun quite exciting looking for your first motor home, My advice would be to look around and not to buy one-new buy one two or three years old let somebody else sort any faults out and the drop in value.

Research and find out which is the best layout to suit you with two children, You will need one with storage, you have made a good start finding motorhome fun, use all the resources here, have fun :welcomefunster:

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[pappajohn]

Hi and welcome.

all motorhomes demand compromise.

some things will be just right for you but other aspects of the same van wont be...you cant have your cake and eat it in the motorhome world unfortunately.

best option is view as many as possible, noting good and bad points until you find something you can live with.

many folks, us included, have bought the wrong van first time round, and some even the second time. oh:

we traded our first one in after 6 months....too small....and lost £5000 in the process.

 

[MHVirgins]

I can only agree with what Carol and pappajohn have just said.

We bought our first van new about two and a half years ago, we have just traded it in for a slightly longer one, but with a completely different layout. Everything is a compromise, if you had exactly everything you wanted in the van, it would either be too big for our roads and a problem to park, or a very small mpg.
As someone else said hiring is an option, it will let you get the feel of it with two adults and two children in it. Or go along to a motorhome show and have a good old look around and get a feel for what will suit the four of you.
Happy hunting, but take plenty of time over it:thumb:

 

[pappajohn]

I can only agree with what Carol and pappajohn have just said.

We bought our first van new about two and a half years ago, we have just traded it in for a slightly longer one, but with a completely different layout. Everything is a compromise, if you had exactly everything you wanted in the van, it would either be too big for our roads and a problem to park, or a very small mpg.
As someone else said hiring is an option, it will let you get the feel of it with two adults and two children in it. Or go along to a motorhome show and have a good old look around and get a feel for what will suit the four of you.
Happy hunting, but take plenty of time over it:thumb:

that sounds just like an American RV.

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[MR. FUSION]

Size ! with 2 kids and 2 adults you should be tempted to get a larger van as living on top of each other for extended periods is better with space. offset that against driving something very large, parking it, storing it, MPG and anything over 6 metres upwards can start attracting extra charges from everything from campsite pitches to tunnel/ferry fees.

If you go secondhand try to get something with a full service history and if you plan to go abroad having a recent Euro engined vehicle will make going into the ever increasing emissions zones simpler.

 

[BigClick]

I would recommend hireahymer in Northampton.
They are great to deal with and you can get a taste of a classic (older van) MH

We hired twice, both for one week, before we bought

 

[maz]

And don't forget that boring old issue - payload. Not much point getting carried away with the ideal layout only to find you have to leave one of the kids behind or be over weight!

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[MHVirgins]

Can anyone really say it is possible to get it right first time? Because you have nothing to compare when you buy your first van and it's only after living in the space for a while that you actually think that it's not quite right for youoh:
When we went to look at vans a few years back, we didn't want a fixed bed, a lot of people had said to us it was a waste of space. We bought the 6 berth Autoquest and guess what.........got fed up making the bed in the rear lounge, so we kept it as a fixed bed and sat at the table in the mid-lounge area mostly.
Although we ended up watching the tv from the bed at the rear.
So it took a couple of years for the need for a different layout to evolve, but maybe that's just us.

Bill

 

[nodge]

We are on our 5th motorhome, everytime we thought we got it right, and we probably did, but then kids get bigger, they won't share a bed, then the wife gets bigger and I wont share a bed. Its a very exciting time, im envious.

 

[hymerman]

Buy a Hymer.
You won't regret it

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[MHVirgins]

We are on our 5th motorhome, everytime we thought we got it right, and we probably did, but then kids get bigger, they won't share a bed, then the wife gets bigger and I wont share a bed. Its a very exciting time, im envious.

Quote:- "then the wife gets bigger"
I trust your wife doesn't read these posts.............oh:

 

[Terry]

Heres what I wrote before
by terry
Hi go for comfort in your van. It is not a lot of use having a drop down bed if you cannot climb into it or perhaps get out in the middle of the night if you had too much wine LAYOUT / comfort is the single most thing you should be looking at We have tied all sorts of layouts from 2 / 4 berth to 6 to 4 again then 6 again and now in a 2 which suits us great. Get out and look / try out as many bed layouts and don't be scared to put up climb in etc, etc, before buying
Use one of the shows or a dealer to try this and get a good idea what is going to suit you then look for what you want.
Also try hiring one for a weekend or mid week this will give a good idea as to what you want
terry

 

[nodge]

Quote:- "then the wife gets bigger"
I trust your wife doesn't read these posts.............oh:

Do you really think i'd write that if there was the remotest chance of getting busted?

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[MHVirgins]

Do you really think i'd write that if there was the remotest chance of getting busted?

I'm just itching to get to a funster meet and have a chat with a few of the wives on here..........

Margaret

 

[ericonabike]

The October show at the NEC is a good way to get inside a lot of vans! Not to suggest buying one there, or even buying new, but there are only so many layouts feasible, and you can see most of them at the show! Have a good nosey and try to visualise living in it.

 

[TheBig1]

i would really recommend you trawl the internet and visit as many dealerships as you can handle for research. what suits one family doesn't suit others. however I would say from experience a van with rear bunk beds as well as a dinette area with seatbelts at the front would be a very good choice

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[sedge]

When people ask this question, it always rather surprises me that nobody says what I always think someone will say .... which is

Go to a large Motorhome Show, eg Malvern, or Newark or ?dunno.

Not only will all the dealers be there and you can look at new vans, and perhaps some S/H because you will get an idea of what features you want.

Then having made a list of priorities - fixed bed? oven? separate shower and loo? whatever - and then show up at the Motorhome Fun rally area. Introduce yourself to the Marshalls - or anyone from MHF - and providing you don't look too shifty, LOL - you will probably find that you can have a look at shedloads of in-use vans - OK they probably won't be for sale at the time, but it will give you an idea of what vans you ought to be aiming for !

If other folk want to see it, people LIKE to show people what they've got.

Or am I entirely wrong about this, is it only me - and would everyone else absolutely hate that happening?

 

[Carol]

Funny you should say that Sedge, that is exactly what happened at the Stratford Show, a young couple hoping to take a couple of years off, happened on to the fun area, they arrived at 1pm and left to travel back to London at 9 . 30pm.

Think they got more information that day than they would have got in months, He was thinking of running his Internet business from his van. When sorted, who better than Grommet to explain about the extra batteries he would need, so extra pay load needed.

So yes a visit to a show and the fun steer area invaluable.