Changing gear/lifestyle...

Prices do seem to have gone higher on a lot of things including classic cars and campervans of any age (I call it the Covid tax), however campervans also seem to have always held their money.

Caravans seem to be much less affected - I presume that is because people view them in a totally different light; I must admit, I am no lover of them myself (many years stuck behind them on A roads in Scotland!), but when you look at the package as a whole they make so much more sense. I've seen one for sale this evening (I really need to stop looking and torturing myself!) which to be honest is the sort of thing that you'd expect to get anything between five and ten years out of and is £3500, so half the price of that campervan I linked to yesterday; and it is a belter (twin axle, 4 berth, air conditioning, heating, hot/cold shower, toilet, gas cooker etc) and is pretty much like new.

Prices are starting to come down a tad, but it also has to be borne in mind that I am generally going to be in the 'as cheap as possible' camp (because... skint), so price drops at that end of the market are going to be minimal really. For example, a Facebook notification today for a caravan that I must have looked at this week dropped from £1900 to £1700. All academic really as I can't afford one

The dream always was, from being quite young, was to buy a coach and convert it (Leopard/Tiger with Duple Dominant or Plaxton Paramount/Supreme body were the favourite) but the reality of that is that they are not cheap to buy, really quite hard to store, are complete strangers to fuel economy of any sort and many sites are likely to baulk at something 40ft long and weighing the thick end of 12 tons - - and that is before we get to my complete lack of DIY skills to fit one out. Similar would apply to vans to be honest.

 

Scary money. And I do mean scary. In fact one of our old ones is for sale currently £8250 for a 2001 that has been to the moon and back. 10-litre Cummins, 4-6 miles to the gallon (might manage 8 if the back axle is changed for a high speed one), then it would need converting. Looking at the belter of a caravan with air conditioning and all sorts for £3500 (probably get it for £3200 if you haggled) or even the one at £1700 it is really hard to justify going for a decker.

Don't get me wrong, the space inside would be fantastic (lounge/kitchen down, two beds and bath up I reckon) but it would want deep pockets to buy and even deeper ones to run - - and at circa 15 tons, likely to be wildly unpopular with most sites.

God, when did I become so sensible????

 

I suppose, that being my second, may well be it.

 

Not a bad idea and one I will think about - the problem is going to be finding someone that we trust and who is also interested, and also of course the worry about clashing bookings....

I continue to do some research, but it is a bit of a minefield to be honest - storage being only one issue. Going to knock up a spreadsheet with pros and cons I think

 

That isn't a million miles away from the one I was looking at (and was snapped up the night after it was advertised!) - there is a slight risk we would get caught out with ULEZ in future if they move the boundary out to the M25 but I have a feeling that they have shelved that plan as it would cost a lot more than they would bring in

 

OK, the first very brief summary, giving each item as score out of ten:



Much as it pains me to admit it, a caravan would seem to be better suited to our needs.

It is highly unlikely that we are going to get a campervan that has sufficient space for three adults and a dog (with some degree of privacy) that fits in our driveway (21ft max available and that is pushing it) and that is before we get to the prices of them which to be honest range from overpriced to just plain daft.

I shall return with further reasoning shortly...

 

OK - whilst this is not the absolute cheapest camper around, it is remarkably near it. £4k will buy you something that resembles a shed (no joking!)

2001 Swift Gazelle 4 Berth Motorhome | eBay

Now, ironically going against everything I said in my last post, that one would actually fit us like a glove and would even fit in our driveway (displace the car), so could be SORN'ed a while to keep costs down if we wanted/needed to. Campers like that don't turn up very often at that sort of price and you can just about guarantee that will be gone by the end of the day. They have been coming up at a hell of a lot more than that for something in that condition. However when all is said and done that is £5000 before we even start, and no way to finance it.

 

For half the amount, a caravan can be purchased that has more space internally - swift conqueror 640 lux 5 berth twin axle caravan 1998 | eBay

There are couple of caveats here though - there is £1000 to add on for the installation of a towbar to the car and then there is the cost of storing this one.

Aaarrrgh... the comparison I have just done makes it so marginal simply because that particular campervan is such a good fit, and is the only one that I have seen in weeks that does fit. For balance, this is more typical of the sort of thing knocking around - Motorhome Mercedes 208D 1989 Autotrail Apache 208d Camper Van | eBay