Motorhoming Wannabee (1 Viewer)

[Scoop]

Hi everyone, I'm Mark and married to Lucy. We've been caravanning for the last 17 years and are now looking at early retirement in the next three years.

The aim is to rent out our house and shop and travel around Europe taking it as slow as possible and seeing the bits that we have always flown past on our two week holidays. We've been reading a number of blogs and decided that is the life for us (while we still can do it).

We've been looking for a motor home to suit our needs and quickly realised that it won't be as easy as we thought. Being used to a large caravan (similar layout to an Autotrail Commanche) and a large car to store anything that won't fit in the van has left us a bit spoilt. We want a large lounge, kitchen, bathroom and island bed all packaged up in a motor home that will be able to navigate small villages. Something has to give. Not only that we want the extra two forward facing seat belts for occasional visits from our daughter and fiancé, lots of storage space and we live inside the LEZ.

We've been to Excel this year and looking forward to Peterborough so we can look through more motors and get completely confused again. Since we still have three years to keep looking I'm sure that we will eventually find something that will tick most of the boxes.

Sue has invited us to your beer tent at Peterborough so we might just see some of you there.

 

[slobadoberbob]

you are going to be looking for a long time

Welcome to the forum... you will be looking for a long time I think... that is some wish list.

Bob, Sue and Ezzie the St Bernard

 

[JOHNSTEY]

Hi Mark and Welcome:thumb: Can't go far wrong with a Knaus:thumb:

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[scotjimland]

Hi and welcome...

as Bob said... you will look for ever simply because it doesn't exist .. you will have to compromise either on where you visit or size of van ..

Your preferred accommodation points to a USRV .. and that is too big for small villages... it also guzzles fuel like it's going out of fashion, .... believe me, I've tried it ..

other option is pulling a toad.. Bob will give you the legals..

 

[Ralph-n-Bev]

Hello and welcome.
Good luck with the search, layout is king. Go in as many as you can.
With having caravans you already know what suits you.
just as we did.
We did not want to compromise with the lounge area , space, shower , kitchen, beds and build quality either. We were fortunate to get it right 1st time. Phew !
We kept going back to the same model over and over again .

 

[Ralph-n-Bev]

Hello and welcome.
Good luck with the search, layout is king. Go in as many as you can.
With having caravans you already know what suits you.
just as we did.
We did not want to compromise with the lounge area , space, shower , kitchen, beds and build quality either. We were fortunate to get it right 1st time. Phew !
We kept going back to the same model over and over again .

We plan on keeping it for the foreseeable future. Now we have had it re upholstered its perfect for us.

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[slobadoberbob]

not all US RV's are massive

Hi and welcome...

as Bob said... you will look for ever simply because it doesn't exist .. you will have to compromise either on where you visit or size of van ..

Your preferred accommodation points to a USRV .. and that is too big for small villages... it also guzzles fuel like it's going out of fashion, .... believe me, I've tried it ..

other option is pulling a toad.. Bob will give you the legals..

Not all US RV's are massive.. mine is 23'9" and I can get in to most places.. plus I pull a full size car trailer with a fairly large car on it... all under the magic 7.5 tons all up (8.25 tons mass).....

the red link below gives you some idea of what it looks like.

While I agree with Jim it can be expensive to run.. having a V10 6.8 ltr engine, it returns about 14 mpg with the trailer attached. Plus the RV has all those American goodies like a 4kw generator, roof air con plus dash air con.. fully automatic and petrol so the LEZ is not an issue .. this is a four berth.. has 7 belted seats.. 2 cab, two face forward and face rear and two on the side. Fill size bathroom across the back and a full size fridge and a separate freezer. Mircowave combo oven and a 4 ring grill. I have added air suspension and a 1500 watt inverter plus a satellite dome tv.. back up camera etc.,

So if you can handle the fuel .. it has the comfort and all that you could ask for... oh yes the tv is 26" mains and a DVD as well as free to air sat system. plus it has a slide out to create more room, the towing gear is rated to 5,000 lbs.

Plus most important it is a winnebago and not a wannabe:thumb:

Bob:Blush: