how long did you look (1 Viewer)

[Bellini]

I wasn't officially looking.

As far as my wife was concerned, we weren't going to buy (maybe) until April 2014.

But once we'd hired our first motorhome in August 2013, I started looking through eBay and Motorhome Trader to 'see what was out there'. It passed the time and was an enjoyable pastime.

Things gathered pace once I registered on here not long after that and widened my internet browsing to Germany and The Netherlands on the advice here.

My view was always that I'd know when the right motorhome would appear. I had a few close calls with a 1988 Hymer 660 in Germany, but it wasn't quite what we wanted. Clare saw a newer Fiat Hymer that she liked but I always wanted a Mercedes base.

When I first saw the advert for Udo on mobile.de in early October, I knew that I needed to speak to Clare to see if I could win her over. The advert just talked to me. Coincidentally, on our wedding anniversary that month she confided that maybe we could advance our plans. But she had no idea I'd already found the ideal model.

That was a few tense days once she'd seen the advert, emails between me and the dealer and myself and Snowbird.

We collected in mid November.

 

[davanne]

Please.

I've sent you a pm

 

[cruiser]

if you can come down to p/boro.you cant miss the funster club.make yourself known.i am sure a few of us would show you around.and give you a few pointers.and make you feel at home.there is a lot of older vans that have got rear end seating that can be made into a bed.so please don't give up yet.:thumb:

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[MHVirgins]

Our first van was new, end lounge, mid dinette, loo combined with shower (which soon became a real pain). A lot of people find the end lounge the ideal layout, but it wasn't for us.

After a few months we left the rear lounge cushions down all the time as a fixed bed. There were just us two in the 6 berth van and we spent most of our time in the mid-dinette at the table..........however, a year after that we decided we wanted a change of layout and bought another van.

We would not think about buying a new van again, although we know we got a good trade-in from the dealer, compared to others. Take your time and look over as many vans as you can, sit on the loo and check how much space you will have when you going about the usual "daily tasks", how much cooking you intend to do when in the van, is a small fridge enough, worktop space, do you need external storage, separate shower etc. I suppose it's down to how you will use your van in the end.........men seem to need less space to do things than women do oh:
We're happy with the van we have at the moment, but we could well change it again over the years ahead.

Good luck and happy hunting:thumb:

Margaret

 

[margareth]

:Angry:keep typing a thank you and it cuts me off... every time i make it shorter. tahnk you Chaser .. looked at it and another one the same. I learnt a lot from it. Thank you. Thank you Anne lovely to talk to you ... I am going with Movan this weekend if she is out of hsoptial after her small op .... as she is eager for me to find a van and hubby dillydallying.. We will drive past first and then ask to see it inside if it looks ok and we are then going to another van place that we have found on the internet. Will try and post this again. Is it because it is joys computer i am using and she automatically connects to some websites? Not this one though.

 

[Ralph-n-Bev]

We knew which layout we wanted as we'd had caravans in the past. So we knew what suited us. We wanted a good build quality internally with a big fridge and proper shower unit. We saw the one we bought , after visiting the second dealers. But it was more than double what we'd set out to pay. We didn't want to have to cash in more savings.
Every time we went to look at other vans we either were put off just by walking in and smelling them , or were surprised what they were asking for in our eyes , sheds. Why would we want to spend so much on a dated ,grubby , cramped up rust bucket , when for the same price we could have got a lovely spacious caravan ?
We seriously thought about not bothering. But kept going back to the same MIZAR GTL LIVING. After 1 week of umming and arring. We decided to trade the caravan in, part x . He offered us more than we expected. Threw the fiamma zip store that he didn't realise was in the garage. Along with ramps , and a few other bits and pieces . Came down on the price a bit cos we did a bank transfer.
We had to go into another savings account.
BUT it was our first van and we've had it since then , and use it most weekends , and are keeping it till we do a van conversion before we retire. Which we hope to keep to be our last :Sad:

We got it right first time. :thumb:

It hasn't been a bit of bother. Touch wood.
It's flown through all it's mots.
The only thing we've changed is the upholstery. Put solar panel on and Trojan batteries. Plus all of Ralph's boy toy gadgets.
Plus we ended up with Webasto diesel heating and a fully winterised van . Without even knowing , how good that was. :Blush:

AND we got it right first time.:thumb:
so really the extra we spent to buy it , we saved, by not having to get a couple more before getting it right.
Does that sound like a typical woman's logic ?

Have a good weekend , Motorhome shopping with Joy. I hope you find one.

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[Mastercamper]

Sounds good, why don't you set up the Snowbird Valhalla meet. Somewhere with a good slipway, rugged yet beautiful. I'm sure Suggy will make the effort. I'll rig up some LPG tanks with electric valves. Old-mo will crack a few jokes. JJ will saw you in half first.

This is going to be a cracker, any idea of date ?

Not sure of a firm date, but am sure it`s getting closer, faster than it used to.

 

[cmcardle75]

How long were you looking for your van before you found one that was within your price range and had the necessary fixtures etc?

In the months we have been looking we have only found two that really fit and have been gazzumped on both of them... My friend bought her first one when she wasn't even looking for one, saw it, fell in love and bought it.. I am beginning to feel that it is not going to happen before this summer unless we go for something that isn't really what we want. The ones we like or that are in an acceptable condition are usually way over our budget. We find others but find they are petrol ... and we are led to believe to go for deisel. Have started to consider a caravan as a better option, as either way we will need to pay for storage, and that won't add another road tax and mot to our bills.:Sad::Sad:

Personally I prefer petrol to diesel, provided there is room and payload spare for an LPG conversion. Petrols are cheaper than diesels by enough to pay for the conversion. You can have a fixed vapour tank fixed at the same time to replace your Calor bottles.

One advantage of petrol is that you have far fewer problems with low emission zones. Most allow all petrols, or Euro 1. Diesels are usually only allowed to be about 5 years old and now require DPFs which drink half your diesel and then inevitably clog up and cost you £1000 each time. They've just changed the MOT to make removing them permanently impractical.

 

[Allanm]

We bought our first van in 1990( ish) when we were a lot younger. We bought our last van last year, after months of research.
In between we have had 2 more vans and 3 caravans.
Now, we are a bit older and there will be just the two of us using the van, it was easier to list our wants and don't wants, coupled with lots of experience over the years, we are sure we have the right van now.
But, its difficult to chose the right van for long term keeping. Needs change over the years, but the older you get, the less change you need.
Maybe in 10 years we might change the van for something different, new stuff comes along all the time and those "can't do without" things are evolving all the time.

For now, we have the right van for us.

Allan

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[daisy mae]

I have got the right layout for me, probably due to having a few caravans, I bought a small one to start off with, then fourteen months later went for a larger one, knew which engine and habitation build that I wanted, I would never buy new, quality is better with the older ones, I doubt whether I will change mine very happy with it.

There are older MH`S about, look at the monocoque sp bodies, they don`t leak, just check the windows though, all in all I think they have less problems, than the ones with seams, jmho, you can get an older one for the money that you have, and the engines are easier to work on than new engines.

I put my name on just about every dealers list with what I wanted. trouble is, they are very rarely just round the corner, have to be prepared to travel, I did , in the end it was nearly a four hundred round trip, but love what I have. Well worth it to me.

Good luck,

Margaret

Have had caravans for years still have one, I prefer Motor homes, too much faffing about with caravans, set up on site, specially with an awning, over an hour or more later, you may be able to sit down with a drink, then all the hassle of packing up, lovely when it is raining, not, Motor home, minutes you are having a drink,

 

[Spidey]

We are waiting for delivery of our first motorhome. We have had a caravan for 4 years, but we have spent the last year looking at motorhomes. We wanted loads of living space, fixed bed (well sort of), big fridge, not bothered about oven and big bathroom all in 6m well we got it, i think, in the flash 510. Hoping we have it right

 

[easygirl]

We looked at our new van for about 40 mins before an impulse buy

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[deleted-member02]

I'm not sure if this Euramobil might be of interest. Nottinghamshire, so not too far away.
Of course, you never see how decent a van is from the pictures, but the price seems reasonable if the van is in good order.
Broken Link Removed

Oh, and it took us 18 months to find our first van. We drove hundreds of miles and had many wasted journeys but it was all worth it in the end

 

[UK Pete]

I looked for about 10 weeks, then as if it was meant to happen the perfect van appeared for sale, so i snapped it up,
pete