- Dec 1, 2025
- 16
- 19
- Funster No
- 116,339
- MH
- Don't own one yet
Hi all,
Long time lurker here.
My wife and I are retiring in just over 2 years and plan to move full time to a holiday home we own in Spain.
A big part of our retirement plans is to buy a Spanish registered used Benimar T497 with the Northautokapp winter pack.
After all the usual research it boiled down to:-
1. We want a Benimar as it's locally (Spain) manufactured and well supported for servicing etc.
2. There's a pretty good supply of used models, including ex fleet rental models.
3. The T497 is the sweet spot for us in terms of length, island bed and a Face-to-Face style lounge.
Our plan is to spend the hottest part of summer (June, July & Aug) in the MH travelling north, ultimately as far as Norway / Sweden as well as the British Isles etc for 10-12 weeks at a time and then during the rest of the year do 2-3 shorter trips around the Iberian penninsula and over the Morocco etc.
I would like to install a full Victron 240v leisure system with large LiFePO batteries, fed by 4 X 200w panels if there's enough space for 800w total, with the necessary invertor, DC-DC charger etc to make it all work so I can ditch gas all together and everything will work off either diesel or battery power when off grid and EHU when on a camp site.
Is this possible with a T497? Has anyone done something similar?
Has anyone ditched gas all together (regardless of MH model) and just relied solely on battery power for fridge and induction cooking etc and diesel / electric for combi heating?
Thus far we've only hired a MH a few times for 1-2 weeks at a time to get a feel for it in general and layouts we like / don't like etc
I'd welcome the thoughts of those with actual experience doing this which may temper the idealist approach I'm tempted to take.
Long time lurker here.
My wife and I are retiring in just over 2 years and plan to move full time to a holiday home we own in Spain.
A big part of our retirement plans is to buy a Spanish registered used Benimar T497 with the Northautokapp winter pack.
After all the usual research it boiled down to:-
1. We want a Benimar as it's locally (Spain) manufactured and well supported for servicing etc.
2. There's a pretty good supply of used models, including ex fleet rental models.
3. The T497 is the sweet spot for us in terms of length, island bed and a Face-to-Face style lounge.
Our plan is to spend the hottest part of summer (June, July & Aug) in the MH travelling north, ultimately as far as Norway / Sweden as well as the British Isles etc for 10-12 weeks at a time and then during the rest of the year do 2-3 shorter trips around the Iberian penninsula and over the Morocco etc.
I would like to install a full Victron 240v leisure system with large LiFePO batteries, fed by 4 X 200w panels if there's enough space for 800w total, with the necessary invertor, DC-DC charger etc to make it all work so I can ditch gas all together and everything will work off either diesel or battery power when off grid and EHU when on a camp site.
Is this possible with a T497? Has anyone done something similar?
Has anyone ditched gas all together (regardless of MH model) and just relied solely on battery power for fridge and induction cooking etc and diesel / electric for combi heating?
Thus far we've only hired a MH a few times for 1-2 weeks at a time to get a feel for it in general and layouts we like / don't like etc
I'd welcome the thoughts of those with actual experience doing this which may temper the idealist approach I'm tempted to take.
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