MoHo & Caravan storage Loire/Vienne (1 Viewer)

[dawsey]

Hey all. I’m Dawsey, been posting a few months. Loved campers since I was a kid and had quite a few, always 20yr old, always loads of stuff to fix. Now I’m 53 and my sweet little French wife Bea is a youthful 41 (lucky old me).

We sold up in UK last back end (I’m a northerner) and set off to France in our 20yr old camper to find something to buy and run (campsite). After what seems like an eternity, we have found something, made offer, now applying for finance.

Our business plan includes providing undercover storage for Caravans. I know not too many caravanners on here, but there are loads of folk with big caravan experience. for those who used to be a ‘tugger’ - what’s a fair price for year round undercover storage in France? What would you pay to a fellow Brit to take responsibility to ensure your pride and joy was secure, insured, and protected from the elements. I know it’s only a few hundred euro, but it’s important we get numbers right before going to bank.

We need to know to understand what we need to borrow to build the appropriate storage asset. Location is on border of Indre-Loire and Vienne, 50km south of Tours.

Many thanks

 

[MisterB]

are you going to offer taking the caravans out of storage and placing them on a pitch ready for the arrival of those who have vans in storage? the campsite we have had statics on for the last 16 years in Challans offers that facility, so it might be something worth considering? im not sure of the exact price but think it was around a couple of hundred euros per year for undercover, though to be honest most of the french vans were just left out in the open rather than undercover.

if youre building a covered area from scratch, i might (in your position) build it using a roof built of solar panels .... it might not be water tight but it would protect from the weather, including the sun, and provide you with a free energy source at a cost not too much higher than a traditional roof?

will you be offering static pitches or just touring?

 

[Sue and Rick]

I’m sure there’s some sort of french government incentive to do the solar thing on new buildings. Im sure a farmer near our mates in dordogne had a big barn with solar built with some funding from government. May be worth looking into.

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[dawsey]

are you going to offer taking the caravans out of storage and placing them on a pitch ready for the arrival of those who have vans in storage? the campsite we have had statics on for the last 16 years in Challans offers that facility, so it might be something worth considering? im not sure of the exact price but think it was around a couple of hundred euros per year for undercover, though to be honest most of the french vans were just left out in the open rather than undercover.

if youre building a covered area from scratch, i might (in your position) build it using a roof built of solar panels .... it might not be water tight but it would protect from the weather, including the sun, and provide you with a free energy source at a cost not too much higher than a traditional roof?

will you be offering static pitches or just touring?

Yes a full service will be offered. A purpose built facility with a roof made of panels sounds awesome, but the costs of that would mean storage charges very well in excess of €200 a year though

As always, it’s finding a balance between what it costs to provide a service and what the market will stand

 

[dawsey]

I’m sure there’s some sort of french government incentive to do the solar thing on new buildings. Im sure a farmer near our mates in dordogne had a big barn with solar built with some funding from government. May be worth looking into.

Thanks, we will look into it. Our problem will be to not damage the feel of our place with big buildings. I was hoping to hide the vans behind a hedge or something, or maybe rent land offsite and maybe have some sort of low cost coverage solution to keep
costs low for all. We will do our research.

I’ve seen these structures with panels in suoermarket car parks. Great idea, keep the customers cool and happy and make renewable energy and money at the same time. They look expensive though.. Sometimes I think the Frenchies are light years ahead of us Brits, they certainly are in terms of public services.

 

[Brains]

dawsey

Whilst I think the best idea is a field of solar panels on 3.5m legs instead of the normal 1m legs is the best long term 'storage at a profit' option, as caravans and motorhomes do not need to be inside, but its desirable to have them out of direct sunlight and rain and snow.

A short term solution could be 'saddle roof container tarps' (Google it)

A number of companies make these sort of roofs, different sizes and heights, very widely used by the military services world wide, so there is also an 'army surplus' market.
Standard size is 20x20' which will do for a couple of smaller motorhomes or decent size caravans, also suitable for boats and classic cars.

Cost for new ones are change from £1,000, plus the cost of a couple of containers.
You can rent out the containers for around a grand a year each (depends on the local market)

It's all about security.

You cant just stuff this in a nearby field.
It needs to be on your site, or in an adjacent field where the only access is via your front gate.
You will need to protect the site with a ditch and berm, and/or a proper fence with tree planting, plus CCTV etc.

See my comments re fob controlled 'airlock' gates on the other long running thread

The 'gentlemen' of 'non paying members of the caravan club' are on the lookout for caravan storage places with low security, there are many stories around of how they have ram raided a location and driven off with half a dozen caravans all inside 5 minutes.

I had to fill in the multi page form sent by my Insurance company on the security used at my storage location before they would add it to their 'approved' list and therefore permit me (and 200 others) to use the facility.
(How deep is the ditch? how high is the berm? What trees are planted on the top of the berm and how big are they ? model number of the CCTV cameras etc. very very detailed)

No doubting this is a good idea.
If you have an area that you can (partially?) cover with hardcore, then:
A few days with a JCB you could build a ditch & berm and a few more days to plant suitable trees (I seem to remember hawthorn was the best) which maybe enough to get you started in the storage business.
But it will take some effort time and money to get the security right.

On top of everything else, I think this may have to go into the long term plan

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