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Motorhome use in Winter

20 replies

AutumnSuns · 06/09/2020 19:08

Looking into getting a Motorhome, and going to hire one first to try. What are they like to stay in in a British winter, and could you say travel to Scandinavian countries over winter, or are we just going to die of hypothermia over night?
Any U.K. campsites with hook up likely to be open over winter?

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Darklane · 06/09/2020 20:26

Quite a few campsites are open over winter. The two big clubs close a lot of their main sites around October/ November till spring but a few are open. You’ll find more of their CLs & CSs are open & a lot of private sites who still want all year income.
A motorhome usually has a really good heating system, our is warmer than our house! We don’t go abroad as we have dogs who we always take on holiday with us

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Funf · 09/09/2020 05:36

Excellent idea try a few different lay outs to decide what's best for you. We fitted a Diesel powered heater to ours as it can be ran whilst driving as many gas ones can't. Its very warn in winter. Plenty of sites are open but we have spent more nights at the road side in lay bys etc than on sites as we have the diesel heater and plenty of solar power so don't need hook up

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Sunflowergirl1 · 12/09/2020 17:34

People go to the alps skiing over winter in motor homes! If you have ALDE central heating you will be like toast.

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ReceptacleForTheRespectable · 12/09/2020 17:39

Don't get a diesel heater - they're noisy to the point of being anti-social. The sound of the diesel heater disturbs the peace for everyone camping around you.

I have a gas heater, and use my van all year round, even in the far north of Scotland. It's easy to keep warm.

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ReceptacleForTheRespectable · 12/09/2020 17:42

I also wouldn't advise staying in laybys. Free camping is great where you can get properly off the road, somewhere tucked away and secluded (out of sight to passing vehicles and habitations). But parking in laybys is very visible and can annoy people.

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lljkk · 12/09/2020 17:44

Friend says condensation (from your own breathing out while asleep) is a huge problem if you use it lots in winter.

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Funf · 12/09/2020 18:21

Our diesel heater has an air inlet and exhaust silencer, so it's quiet, some are noisy but easily silenced. The main advantages are they are usually a bigger output than gas and can be ran whilst moving, our ab heater is rubbish but the diesel has it toasty in 10 minutes.
Lay bys just use common sense, Llandudno for example has areas you are allowed to park overnight for free.
If its cold in the van you will get condensation, but keep it a little bit warmer and its not an issue

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Rumtopf · 12/09/2020 18:36

Our van gets too hot with the heating on it's that good. We've camped in Feb with no problem at all.

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DogInATent · 15/09/2020 19:33

Motorhomes are surprisingly warm, a large part of the wall construction is foam/insulation. The biggest heat-leak is the windscreen, and a set of thermal screens takes care of that. Coldest I've done so far is only -4/-5 in Northumberland, but I only needed the gas heating on its lowest setting to be cosy.

Winterised motorhomes will have insulated (sometimes heated) water/waste tanks as that's the most vulnerable area for cold.

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AutumnSuns · 16/09/2020 13:50

Thanks that’s good to know. We’re looking at a small 6m one, with drop down bed and 2 small low backed sofas at the front. Do people find they can relax on them, and the same “Ah” you get when you sit on a sofa at home, or do you get that mainly from sitting outside in your cosy camp chair?

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DogInATent · 17/09/2020 17:09

Ours is 6m with a drop-down (it's a nearly 30yo Hymer). The living area is comfy enough. Tends to be one of us using the bench as a sofa and the other using the swivelling cab seats (which are very comfy).

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AutumnSuns · 18/09/2020 11:50

@DogInATent that’s interesting as I thought the drop down were a newish thing and we couldn’t look for older ones

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DogInATent · 18/09/2020 12:17

Hymer have been doing the over-cab drop-down beds in their a-class models since the '80s and maybe earlier (confusingly their a-class models are the B-series - Fiat, and S-series - Mercedes). Solidly built too. The downside of the older ones is they don't meet emissions standards for entering London or the French/German low emission zones - but you can generally work around that. The benefit is that you can get a well spec'd, well built, German-quality MH for £10k or less.

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AutumnSuns · 18/09/2020 13:07

Thanks, I’ll take a look. Are they generally quite high still/no head room etc? But your 6m sounds ideal as I think that is the length we want to go for

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DogInATent · 18/09/2020 15:12

Lots of headroom inside - no problems for 6-footers, and with an a-class you've a wider vehicle so the sideways drop-down bed is longer than it would be on a camper.

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Nowthereistwo · 28/09/2020 20:19

We have a touring caravan but have been away the last 2 Christmas periods. Some sites do shut, but the ones that our open can get booked up as it's getting popular going away for Christmas and/or new year.

Our heating is brilliant - too hot, but we like it cool so do get condensation in the morning as there's 2 adults, 2 children and a big dog breathing all night. We just wipe the windows down in the morning.

It gets dark so early we set ourselves up with dvds, games and books. Also need to have wet weather plans.

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noodlmcdoodl · 29/09/2020 05:13

To backtrack a bit - when looking for a winterised motorhome (ours partially is) checkout out the pipe work, fresh water and waste tanks. The fully winterised ones will have all the pipe work and tanks situated so they won’t freeze. We have a heater for our waste tank and fresh water is on board and pipe work internal but we don’t have a double floor, so it wouldn’t withstand proper ski resort freezing.

Another thing to consider - if you are travelling Scandinavia (or anywhere abroad!) you need to consider your gas. Different countries have different bottles and adaptors which aren’t compatible. We had one of our standard bottles converted to a refillable LPG, it’s a system called GasIt (was about half the price of the Gaslow system). This means we can fill up at any petrol station with an LPG pump in the U.K. or abroad. In the winter our 11kg bottle lasts a week and our van carries two. We use the gas to have the heating on all the time, power the fridge, heat the water and cook.

If you are planning on travelling the Scandinavian countries - ensure you download the relevant apps. I use park4night for travelling in France, Spain Germany and Italy for identifying tolerated overnight parkings, aires and stellplatz. These are specific areas for motorhomes to park overnight. Also to identify service points (to empty toilet and fill fresh tank). These are often free or cheap. For example we spent 5 months travelling France, Spain and Portugal recently and only spent 5 euros on an overnight and 1 Euro on water. We’re just at the end of 5 weeks in Germany and have spent a total of 48 euros on Stellplatz (not so much free in Germany, but it balances out with the cost of much cheaper diesel and free motorways). Campsites are expensive and pointless with a motorhome abroad as you can easily find specific facilities for motorhomes many of which have electricity too.

Lastly consider vehicle weight - ours is 4 tonne which I’m unable to drive on my licence (check your licence - if you passed your test before a certain date you’ll be able to drive up to 7.5 tonne). I’d have to do an HGV test which would cost in the region of £1,000. If we travelled on motorways in certain countries like Austria we would have to pay more than those in a 3.5 tonne vehicle. That would be an important consideration for some of the Scandinavian countries. I would never swap back to a lighter motorhome though as we can carry a huge weight in our garage or tow a car.

For consideration with a drop down bed - do you both tend to go to bed/ get up at the same time?! Sounds bizarre, but we don’t tend to so ruled out a drop down bed. I tend to go to bed earlier and getup earlier where as DP sits up watching tv or reading. We have a fixed double bed at the back (over garage although our previous van had a rear fixed bed with no garage). So it means the living room area is always there, not taken up by the bed. It also gives an extra lounging area in the day. I love parking up on a mountain top and lazing on the bed looking at the view!!

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noodlmcdoodl · 29/09/2020 05:29

You can also get something called a silverscrean for the windscreen and side cab windows. It’s like a duvet that covers them on the outside. These are essential for winter/ cold. We had a cheap one in our old van that helped, but have the expensive thick ones for this van. It makes a huge difference in keeping the van warm. It has velcrotabs so you can pull the windscreen cover down during the day.

We also have a solar panel which keeps the leisure battery charged, so can stay in one spot without switching the engine on/ needing an electric hookup. It isn’t as effective in the winter (obviously!) but it hasn’t been a problem (have done lots of winter U.K. trips camping wild).

Park4night and search4sights give U.K. wild camping spots. There’s also a wild camping forum you can subscribe to and then get satnav POIs for wild camping spots. Lots of Facebook groups too like motorhome sleepyspots. We’ve covered the entire U.K. in our motorhome wild camping, never had trouble or been asked to move on (van is big - 3 metre hight/ 8 metres long so not discreet!). We’ve only stayed on a campsite twice in 10 years of motorhoming and that was to meet-up with my parents in their caravan, then in France as it was cheaper and nicer than the Aire (village we wanted to visit! - normally we’d avoid if we had to pay in France).

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noodlmcdoodl · 29/09/2020 05:43

Last post! Condensation isn’t a problem in winter. It affects two small storage cupboards over the fixed bed (weirdly not the middle one which is on the same external wall). I just don’t fill them as much and dry them in the morning. It only happens below 0. Obviously you get it on the windows (but not the cab windows if the silver screen is on) but just wipe it.

Motorhome is super duper cozy too in the winter (blown air heating)! Love the heated shower cubicle and shower room in the winter (don’t have heating in my bathroom at home!). The heating is so good (thermostatically controlled), I was absolute gobsmacked to wake up to a whiteout one morning in France (Central Massif so we were high up) and temperatures of -7!

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AutumnSuns · 29/09/2020 19:33

Thanks @noodlmcdoodl that’s really useful.
It’s on hold at the moment as we can’t find a similar one that we are looking to buy to rent. Everyone seems to be hiring them currently for some reason......

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