Knowing what you know now
- Thread starter Lloyd Davies
- Start date
Great ages for caravanning or motorhome!
Ours became so involved in weekend sport from about age 12 that we couldn’t get away enough to justify keeping the caravan...........and then there were the teenage years,haha. Now retired and finding Moho is ideal.
Make the most of it,don’t rule out caravan....tourer or static.
Good luck
vwalan
Funster
you could decide to go ifth wheeler or mini artic .
saves having a car.
my kids were brought up in vw campers , hardly had a weekend at home .
but had my mini artic for 19 years now and still like it.
changed the truck but kept the trailer.
saves having a car.
my kids were brought up in vw campers , hardly had a weekend at home .
but had my mini artic for 19 years now and still like it.
changed the truck but kept the trailer.
Well, I spent £20k on a van for 2 adults and 3 kids - 5 years on and I'm still happy with that, the van appears to be worth about what I paid for it even now.
Don't just go on number of berths, generally you need more. For example, you've got 4 berths but when they're made up as beds, where do you sit? I've seen parents sat shivering outside because the kids are trying to go to sleep and they've got nowhere to sit inside! I've also seen ones where the dinette bed being made up stops you getting access to the overcab bed, which is just plain daft.
I posted this ages ago when someone was asking about vans for families:-
We are a family of 5 - Mum, Dad, and kids age 8, 12 and 13 - and we've got a van which suits us very well, I admit more by luck than anything else!
First of all, forget the number of berths a van says - ours is a 7 berth which is just right for 5. It only has 6 travel seats in any event. You'll need a 6 or 7 berth for 5 people to be comfortable, but watch the seating on most 6 berths, as I'll describe below.
Payload - is important. When I bought my van it was plated at 3500kg, which was daft as it weighed 3300kg with just me in it. I've had it replated to 4000kg as I've got the licence, to be honest we struggle to keep under that. Don't think bigger van = more payload, it doesn't always work that way, bigger vans weigh more unladen so some have no advantage over smaller ones - you have to check.
Layout. Bunk beds at the back are great, but watch the size of them - if they go straight across the back of the van "side to side" then that's probably fine, but if they are in the back corner and run front to back then check them as many of that style are stupidly small, once a kid reaches teenage years they won't fit in them comfortably. Our bunks are over 7' long which gives some space below the kid's feet for stuff - ours have clothes in a sports bag there.
Some 6 berth vans especially are laid out such that 2 of the kids would have to share a double bed, which if yours are like ours would not be a good idea!
So we've got 2 bunks at the back, the bottom one of which can be folded up to give more garage space. Moving forward we've got the kitchen on one side, bathroom and wardrobe on the other - and forward again we've got a 4 seat dinette and a 2 seat dinette at the front of the van, and a huge bed over the cab - all in a 7.5m coachbuilt van (McLouis Tandy 640 Plus if you want to Google) - like this, although this is newer than our van:-
http://eng.auto24.ee/used/439855
The 2 eldest kids use the bunks at the back, it's important for the older ones especially to have a bit of private space to disappear off to. At night we turn the 2 seat dinette into a bed for our 8 year old - it's a short bed at about 5'4" but of course no problem for him, yet! When it becomes one I suspect our eldest won't be with us on holiday any more, but if she is we could use the 4 seat dinette as a bed for the youngest, that bed is longer as well as wider.
I put a curtain rail up that wraps around the youngest's bed so we can screen it off. Crucially, that leaves the 4 seat dinette for us adults to sit at once the kids are in bed - don't forget about that, I've seen parents freezing outside as all the seats have been turned into beds for the kids! Myself and Mrs F use the big luton bed over the cab. Also make sure that the ladder to the overcab bed is still useable once you have the kids beds all set up, I've seen some vans where it isn't, which is just daft......
What else? You don't need the latest greatest van, mine was 9 years old when I bought it and it suits us just fine, and you're not so paranoid about it getting marked (although I have to say apart from the odd spilled drink ours survives the kids amazingly well!) You will spend more on bits and pieces and modifying it after you've bought it than you plan to. The kids will love it. Adding lots of USB charge sockets to keep the dreaded phones topped up is a must have for the older ones. A bike rack is an essential but watch that pesky payload - we have the 3 kids bikes on a rack on the back, and us adults have 2 folding bikes which are in the garage and we fit everything in there with the bottom bunk folded down, just! A big (by motorhome standards) fridge freezer is a must have, as is an oven I'd say. The only real downside to us of the layout in our van is the dinette seats aren't the most comfortable in the world, and the cab seats don't swivel which does seem a bit of a waste of space - once the kids are in bed it would be nice to have had a layout where we could have sat in the swivelled round cab seats for a bit more comfort. It's a minor gripe though, layouts with swivelling seats have other problems, you have to compromise somewhere. The passenger seat also acts as storage for our youngest's child seat once we're on site.
An awning and extra space out there is tempting but really limits your options - either you have a roll out roof and fix sides to it - a "safari room" - but then you can't move the van. Or, you have a drive away awning, but still a pain to put up and take down if you're only stopping for a night on the journey. We all sleep in the van, it's much easier, and the kids are quite happy with that.
We have ended up at times with Mum being sat in the back with the kids to keep the peace and one of the kids with me in the cab on long journeys, if they start to get bored and wind each other up, as siblings love to do...... Having 3 of them just gives each of them 2 to annoy......
The van is great for days out with the kids, always having a loo with you and always being able to stop and make up some lunch or snacks spontaneously is a huge bonus (as is always having ice cream on hand! For the kids only, naturally....
) The only time we've taken the car as well has been down in Devon in the summer - those tiny narrow lanes at the busiest time of year really aren't the place for a large van. Elsewhere in the UK and abroad we've never had a problem.
Hope that helps! We love ours, just that dreaded 25 days annual leave limit that stops us using it a lot more. Any further questions let me know.
Don't just go on number of berths, generally you need more. For example, you've got 4 berths but when they're made up as beds, where do you sit? I've seen parents sat shivering outside because the kids are trying to go to sleep and they've got nowhere to sit inside! I've also seen ones where the dinette bed being made up stops you getting access to the overcab bed, which is just plain daft.
I posted this ages ago when someone was asking about vans for families:-
We are a family of 5 - Mum, Dad, and kids age 8, 12 and 13 - and we've got a van which suits us very well, I admit more by luck than anything else!
First of all, forget the number of berths a van says - ours is a 7 berth which is just right for 5. It only has 6 travel seats in any event. You'll need a 6 or 7 berth for 5 people to be comfortable, but watch the seating on most 6 berths, as I'll describe below.
Payload - is important. When I bought my van it was plated at 3500kg, which was daft as it weighed 3300kg with just me in it. I've had it replated to 4000kg as I've got the licence, to be honest we struggle to keep under that. Don't think bigger van = more payload, it doesn't always work that way, bigger vans weigh more unladen so some have no advantage over smaller ones - you have to check.
Layout. Bunk beds at the back are great, but watch the size of them - if they go straight across the back of the van "side to side" then that's probably fine, but if they are in the back corner and run front to back then check them as many of that style are stupidly small, once a kid reaches teenage years they won't fit in them comfortably. Our bunks are over 7' long which gives some space below the kid's feet for stuff - ours have clothes in a sports bag there.
Some 6 berth vans especially are laid out such that 2 of the kids would have to share a double bed, which if yours are like ours would not be a good idea!
So we've got 2 bunks at the back, the bottom one of which can be folded up to give more garage space. Moving forward we've got the kitchen on one side, bathroom and wardrobe on the other - and forward again we've got a 4 seat dinette and a 2 seat dinette at the front of the van, and a huge bed over the cab - all in a 7.5m coachbuilt van (McLouis Tandy 640 Plus if you want to Google) - like this, although this is newer than our van:-
http://eng.auto24.ee/used/439855
The 2 eldest kids use the bunks at the back, it's important for the older ones especially to have a bit of private space to disappear off to. At night we turn the 2 seat dinette into a bed for our 8 year old - it's a short bed at about 5'4" but of course no problem for him, yet! When it becomes one I suspect our eldest won't be with us on holiday any more, but if she is we could use the 4 seat dinette as a bed for the youngest, that bed is longer as well as wider.
I put a curtain rail up that wraps around the youngest's bed so we can screen it off. Crucially, that leaves the 4 seat dinette for us adults to sit at once the kids are in bed - don't forget about that, I've seen parents freezing outside as all the seats have been turned into beds for the kids! Myself and Mrs F use the big luton bed over the cab. Also make sure that the ladder to the overcab bed is still useable once you have the kids beds all set up, I've seen some vans where it isn't, which is just daft......
What else? You don't need the latest greatest van, mine was 9 years old when I bought it and it suits us just fine, and you're not so paranoid about it getting marked (although I have to say apart from the odd spilled drink ours survives the kids amazingly well!) You will spend more on bits and pieces and modifying it after you've bought it than you plan to. The kids will love it. Adding lots of USB charge sockets to keep the dreaded phones topped up is a must have for the older ones. A bike rack is an essential but watch that pesky payload - we have the 3 kids bikes on a rack on the back, and us adults have 2 folding bikes which are in the garage and we fit everything in there with the bottom bunk folded down, just! A big (by motorhome standards) fridge freezer is a must have, as is an oven I'd say. The only real downside to us of the layout in our van is the dinette seats aren't the most comfortable in the world, and the cab seats don't swivel which does seem a bit of a waste of space - once the kids are in bed it would be nice to have had a layout where we could have sat in the swivelled round cab seats for a bit more comfort. It's a minor gripe though, layouts with swivelling seats have other problems, you have to compromise somewhere. The passenger seat also acts as storage for our youngest's child seat once we're on site.
An awning and extra space out there is tempting but really limits your options - either you have a roll out roof and fix sides to it - a "safari room" - but then you can't move the van. Or, you have a drive away awning, but still a pain to put up and take down if you're only stopping for a night on the journey. We all sleep in the van, it's much easier, and the kids are quite happy with that.
We have ended up at times with Mum being sat in the back with the kids to keep the peace and one of the kids with me in the cab on long journeys, if they start to get bored and wind each other up, as siblings love to do...... Having 3 of them just gives each of them 2 to annoy......
The van is great for days out with the kids, always having a loo with you and always being able to stop and make up some lunch or snacks spontaneously is a huge bonus (as is always having ice cream on hand! For the kids only, naturally....
) The only time we've taken the car as well has been down in Devon in the summer - those tiny narrow lanes at the busiest time of year really aren't the place for a large van. Elsewhere in the UK and abroad we've never had a problem.Hope that helps! We love ours, just that dreaded 25 days annual leave limit that stops us using it a lot more. Any further questions let me know.
Stagecoach
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- Sep 11, 2018
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That's darn cheap. Friends of ours pay £4500 annually and theirs isn't the most expensive. I just don't see how people can charge the same as a small mortgage without a house being on the land. total rip off IMHO.£1,200 to £1,500 up our way
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Hi. We did the same exercise last year and after months of looking and asking advice we eventually went for a CI Mizar GTL living and haven't regretted it. For £30K you will get a good low mileage 09 plated one with lots of extras already fitted. Great family space but it is a 4 ton vehicle so you'll need the right licence. Good luck in your search. Mike.
Lloyd Davies
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- Jun 4, 2019
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Lloyd Davies
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- Jun 4, 2019
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Joined.Consider spending £15.00 for a years worth of questions
And helpful answers!!!!
Grianan
LIFE MEMBER
- Not a caravan per se but I'm thinking of adding a few quid and buying a little cottage somewhere in the highlands and islands.
Sounds good to me
This, Andrew?
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