Pro's and Con's, size.......

[Shrimp]

Don’t buy a new van....yet.
Rent a van or two, get to see how they work for you, everybody is different and we all want different things from our vans.
You could regret spending that 65k on a van you can’t get on with.
Do not be hasty, you would be far better to spend less on a used van, doesn’t have to be old just a couple of years old so it’s been through it’s teething stage!

 

[jdk62]

My Mum always told me size doesn’t matter.

It’s not the size of the ship, it’s the motion of the ocean.

My Grannie used to say...”anything more than a handful is a waste!”....

 

[Sapper520]

Don’t buy a new van....yet.
Rent a van or two, get to see how they work for you, everybody is different and we all want different things from our vans.
You could regret spending that 65k on a van you can’t get on with.
Do not be hasty, you would be far better to spend less on a used van, doesn’t have to be old just a couple of years old so it’s been through it’s teething stage!

And......you won’t get a good deal at the moment either.

 

[glenn2926]

As has been said, rent a few differing vans before committing to buy. It is a very expensive mistake. We rented I think four different types of van from short ish coach built to tag axle A class. With/without garage. Single beds, beds to make up each night, large crossways double over the garage, overcab beds different kitchens, in the end we bought a 7.4m coach built with transverse island bed without garage. I would also recommend that you tour as many different ares as possible in the rented vans to see how you get on driving on different types of roads from motorways to Scottish single track with passing places type of roads.
I did like the A class tag but it was way out of my price range and the transverse over garage bed wasn’t ideal for us.

 

[Hymerbell]

Just try something like this first...a Hymer with full solar panel...then decide if you want to upgrade...you may not need to..

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[Jimsnap]

We had a VW camper, T5 LWB for 5 years. We did various trips in the UK and a 10 day trip to the Loiré Valley. At 5.3 meters it was nothing like a motor home but we were largely very happy in it.
It was great for getting into towns and being able to park, we had a drive-away awning as well, that helped a lot.
We're now upgrading but are wary of going too big, it was very tempting to go to 7-7.5mt and we nearly took a test drive in one. In the end we decided 6.4mt was ample for us but eventually went for a new 6mt Adria Twin Supreme.
The extra length of the 6.4 only gave a longer bed and a bit more storage, the bed in the Adria 6mt is fine, and as we found out with the VW, you don't need as much storage as you might think.
The Adria feels huge, although it's only 0.7mt longer than the VW, but it has an ingenious toilet/shower, something we were missing. The other thing we wanted was a fixed bed, which we now have.
To sum up, I don't think you need a large van, but it's easy to be tempted. To me, the go-anywhere nature and easier parking of a 6mt van is a great appeal. I think if flexibility is at all an issue then a smaller van is best, you can use it for 2-3 years and if you find it too small it's easy to trade up, if you buy one that's too big, you'll struggle to enjoy it in my opinion.