Do you lend out your motorhome?

Trev45 said:
I included my eldest daughter and my youngest daughters partner on my PVC insurance and they have borrowed it no problem . At the end of the day it is something to be enjoyed by all the family .
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Both my sons are named on my insurance with pleasure. It really excites me to see the families off on an adventure as I know how it feels.
My elder son (47) and wife did a 4 month tour of Europe last summer which was too long for me to be without my magic carpet. Hiring would've cost many thousands so I paid for a m/h (£18k) that he chose and we agreed that when he came back he could pay me the difference (assuming a loss) after we sold it. I made him a trailer to tow his scooter. The m/h ran faultlessly for c.8,000 miles and two weeks after returning we sold it at a £2,600 profit (and made £250 profit on the trailer).
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No way... I worry enough about pranging it myself so would be pacing the room if I lent ours out.

My dad did suggest he could borrow it just after we bought it. Luckily it hasn't come up again and at his age I doubt he's even allowed as he's 82.
He used to drive lorries but having been in his car on the motorway that's scary enough to convince me its a bad idea at his age.

I tend to find nobody looks after stuff when it doesn't belong to them, tools, cars etc. Its just a big can of worms I don't want to open and risk losing a friend.
 
I would lend it to my son or daughters.. They all have motorhomes of their own so know whats what
But I also know they would never ask, being motorhomers them selves !
 
I wouldn't lend it (except in exceptional circumstances) but have gone away in it with family and that has worked out well.

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the only way we have ever leant ours is as a spare bedroom at home
 
Camdoon said:
2 main reasons:
Most people aren't used to driving a van so it is very easy to dent, clip or scrape some part of it especially squeezing into a pitch, no doubt on your insurance. Driving also necessitates using all the gears, leaving larger gaps and slowing for bends and dramatically for roundabouts. You have to be far more switched on far more of the time.
The internal workings of a van are light, not built to house standards and are complicated so it is easy to break things. It takes 2-3 hours to hand over a new van to even an experienced motorhomer. If the person being lent the van has not used one before then there would be concerns over, remembering how to use the control panel half an hour after you have explained it, fixing a fuse, switching stuff off to not ruin a battery, dump valves, not forcing things, remembering to lock cupboards, shut windows, remove cables etc when setting off. In general something needs done after/during every trip and a stitch in time saves 9 so tightening a loose screw or handle which you might do without thinking would not be done, again perhaps needing an expensive replacement. It is easy to stow something in the boot whici think it's more personal than bricks and mortar.h placed the wrong way round or stacked in the wrong order can be easily scored or damaged, or damage something else. When you do these things yourself then it is a case of live and learn when someone else does it, they are abusing your very expensive baby/home.
It is difficult to explain the above to a non motorhomer without being regarded as a tad anal but the risk of something being damaged is high, hence the simplicity of a rented motorhome with fewer gizmos and the high insurance costs.
Like the others, lending is not for me.
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Agree! Empire rent out RV's with a team to drive and pitch it for this reason. Also
 
nicholsong said:
Spriddler

If your son was obliged to make up any loss on ree-sale was he allowed to keep the profit on the MH?

Just askin'
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In fact I told him to keep all the money (it was doing nothing interesting in the bank) and just 3 weeks ago he put it towards a 2018 Chausson Welcome.
He may as well have a bit of his inheritance whilst I'm still here to see him enjoy it rather than when I'll be a bag of crisps (after being beaten up in a care home at £1800 a week).
Anyway, I'll hang on to my Dignitas ISA. :xwink:

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Don't have any family to lend it to - but we wouldn't anyway. Have been asked a couple of times if we hire it out - a very firm no was the answer.

We made that decision before we bought it and it would have to be very exceptional circumstances for us to even think about it.
 
gus-lopez said:
Illegal now since October 2012 unless you test it using IVA.
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It was originally an approved base. I just cut and rebuilt it with a flat bed (from four scrapped square section ali overhead walkway grilles from a dairy which I found at a breakers yard for 20 quid), tie down eyes, new mudguards, tyres and a few other bits and pieces. The original base still had its approval plate if anyone had cared to inspect it. :xwink:
This was how we bought it for £30 (heavy iron, weak rotting weld areas and rustier than it looks) before we modified it......
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Trailer 006 1.jpg


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No .. never. Cars and Motorcycles , not a problem, but not the MH.
nicholsong said:
As far as I remember I have never even lent any car to anyone, but the insurance has been for me only as is the MH.

Maybe one way to refuse a request with the MH is to say " I will lend you the manual to study and if you can pass my test on its contents with 90%, then I will consider it. Also I want a £3,000 deposit against damage" Should see request withdrawn.

I have never lent my 33foot boat to anyone - but I did give it away last year, but that was to the engineer who maintained it and who has more sailing experience than even I - it will have a good home.
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I assume that is with the proviso that you can use it at his convenience. ?
I was given a bike on a similar basis. Its back up and ready to race now, i would never have bought it , but it was too free to pass up. To be fair, i would let the guy ride it and any of my others anyway , but it was a nice jesture that worked for both of us and kept a rare bike running.
 
We lent our camper to our son and his family to go around and about in Iceland, no problem. We drove and ferried out, had three weeks or so there. Then son and family flew out and we flew back and picked up their car at the airport. They then had their holiday and ferried/ drove back.

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No way would I let anyone borrow it. Strange though as I’d lend the car to most people and I wouldn’t have a problem with someone I know house sitting. Odd how you become so attached to your van. Sometimes I just go out and do a bit of cleaning or sorting out in it just to be in the van especially if we haven’t been away for a while!
 
Nope and as PhilG says... cars and bikes probs but van? Def not.
 
Awnings

Rental motorhomes don't have them because they know how much carnage can be caused in the wrong hands.

Who doesn't have an awning here.
 
Graham of Madrid said:
Awnings
Who doesn't have an awning here.
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We don't use an awning, though we have bought various different ones thinking we would. We have never in over ten years of regular campervanning in all seasons found that we actually needed one.

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PhilG said:
No .. never. Cars and Motorcycles , not a problem, but not the MH.

I assume that is with the proviso that you can use it at his convenience. ?
I was given a bike on a similar basis. Its back up and ready to race now, i would never have bought it , but it was too free to pass up. To be fair, i would let the guy ride it and any of my others anyway , but it was a nice jesture that worked for both of us and kept a rare bike running.
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No conditions attached.

Anyway he is going to bring it back to UK so I would not be interested in sailing it there, but have offered to crew it up the French canals.

Geoff
 
I have set mine up on a caravan site for my daughter and the kids, showed them how everything worked where to fill up and empty the tanks . Fortunately they didn’t run out of anything so,hunky dory
 
No, wouldn’t lend or rent it. We uprated it so no use to kids anyway.
 
We encourage our kids to take their families away as often as they can. We love to know that they have as much pleasure out of it as we do. If they break something I'll fix it no problem. Better to be used (if we are not using it) rather than just sitting there on the drive.

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I have exactly one friend to whom I'd lend it without any hesitation. But I doubt he'd ask or even consider it. Friendship is much more precious than saving on a trip budget.
 
violet said:
We lent our camper to our son and his family to go around and about in Iceland, no problem. We drove and ferried out, had three weeks or so there. Then son and family flew out and we flew back and picked up their car at the airport. They then had their holiday and ferried/ drove back.
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That was brave.
If you get caught in a storm over there the dust strips the paint off vehicles like sand blasting ?
 
Not a chance...….we lent our horse trailer out and it came back with a wrecked tyre on the spare wheel, when it left us it was a new tyre...….the new one was on their caravan. They swore black was white that they hadn't done it.
Saying all that, there is one family we would lend it to if they asked as they had also borrowed our horse trailer to move their daughters horse up to stables near the uni she went to, he had been in it before as I picked him up when she bought him, so we knew he would travel well in it.
When it came back he had replaced the wrecked tyre and refused payment for doing it, the naughty man.....butt they are THE only ones.
 
Silver-Fox said:
That was brave.
If you get caught in a storm over there the dust strips the paint off vehicles like sand blasting ?
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You are right Silver-Fox, our van has 'done' Iceland four times and one time we were holed up for 3 days as we couldn't do the south roads because of the wind. When it was ok to travel we saw that the wind had ripped the tarmac from some of the road.
By the way we did see an Arctic Fox in the wild, if not a silver one!
 
We have offered to both kids, worried that son is heavy handed so quite pleased he hasn’t wanted to. However daughter has used it but on all accounts she was neurotic hence her wife said never again!

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