To want to buy an old used cheap caravan?

[Fabulassie]

I have done a lot of tent camping. I recently met someone with a small four berth caravan they got for a song. It had no shower or toilet (just a cupboard where one could put in a potty) and the kitchen was rudimentary (don't remember the sink situation).

It occurred to me that this would be so much better than a tent. Like, we could still use the on site toilets, showers, and washing up, but enjoy sleeping off the ground, have a reasonable place to sit if it rained, and enjoy the option of cooking on a hob and keeping milk in the fridge if we wanted to pitch up to an electric outlet.

My husband swears that he will never, ever be one of those annoying people towing a caravan and he says they're very expensive things to keep.

I think I'm capable of towing the thing and other than the initial investment in the towing apparatus, a few bits and bobs, and then the only expense would be to find a place to park it, which I doubt has to be prohibitively expensive.

We can't afford to travel to resorts. Even holiday parks seem too expensive. I think a modest caravan would open up lots of possibilities.

What do you think?

Our towbar is wired in or something we have an xtrail but have towed with a scenic many moons a go I would hate a tent but like camping iyswim we are thinking of down s7zing to the middle aged couple with no children caravan size ours has fixed bunkbeds in it I want a proper bed now

thanks for that! I've looked up our max weight and it's 1300 kg. So that gives me a guideline.

I don't know yet what sort of towbar I need but according to the Renault parts site they all seem priced well below £100 and I expect to be able to fit one for under £200.

I've talked to my husband and he agrees that we could make this an ongoing project of sourcing a caravan, a towbar, and storage space over the next few months with the goal of being able to take the kids on holiday this summer.

We'd been considering a holiday week in Devon that was about £800. The same week in Devon I mentioned above would be half the cost in a tourer but that would be paying for access to all the holiday park facilities, which you need if you're somewhere for a week. Touring and fewer nights in one place would mean less need to worry about bored kids, so cheaper basic sites would be OK.

I think if we spend £2000 total (including a year's storage) we could have it "paid for" in family holidays within about two years. I love the idea of being able to just decide at the last minute that we're going off for a few days or even a long weekend.

I'm really excited about this!

WE have a tourer that we keep in storage - as we don't tow it(too big and old!)

Dont' use it so much now- as the DC aren't interested any more.

Storage is about £400 per year where we have it now.
Insurance is umm about £200 BUT we don't tow it - so may be less than it would be if it were out 'on the road'
Servicing- vital if you are to be towing on the road - annually.

But - i wouldn't do tent camping. Our caravan does have a toilet and water etc- but we tend to use the ones on the site - no one wants to pour the toilet cartridge down the sluice drain. yuk.. So, it could be worth it for you.

Check out the camping websites.

www.towcar.info/images/dijkweg-uk
Loads of places to store caravans for about £ 5 per week.

I'd save a little bit of money if poss for an awning. I've got a van, adding a second hand awning (£80 from ebay inc postage) was the best thing ever, gives you extra space plus a mud room to leave wet boots etc!

Mine is a Sunncamp one, their bottom range ones seem to be reasonably cheap but perfectly ok quality so long as you aren't going to want to use it in a hurricane.

Look on ebay.
This one is within your budget

I would be very wary about buying an old caravan - many of them have horrendous damp problems (I mean absolutely minging, not just a bit damp) and once they have it the cost of dealing with it is prohibitive - far more than the original cost of the caravan. Try and get hold of a damp metre to take with you to test and do your research - some caravans are much more prone to damp than others (apparently Adrias don't have so much of a damp problem, although they're not that common). You also need to factor in costs of storage (can be expensive depending on area), having a towbar fitted, extra petrol (you chew through fuel), having it serviced and the cost of bits and pieces such as an aquaroll, waste water container etc. If it hasn't been used much for a while it will also need new tyres etc. and maybe shocks when you buy it. I would certainly get it serviced to check it's safety when you first buy it.

I think we'll get an awning at some point, although it won't be the first priority if that extra couple hundred make a difference in the caravan. I do like the idea of having a little outdoor shelter to sit in, stretch in, leave boots in.

Is damp something you can recognise immediately when you walk in or is it somehow hidden? And if so, A) how do you spot it and B) does it really matter a whole lot if it's a little bit damp and you can't tell. I know that probably sounds dumb.

I think the first thing to do is to get the towbar fitted so that when I find one I want to see on Gumtree I can go have a look and if I like it drive away with it. I'll be prepared to wait a while - we have until summer.

Our awning had an inner tent so it was an extra bedroom as well as a place for shoes etc to get dumped (also handy if the dcs want to take a friend at some point).
Caravans are great for nipping away for a weekend here and there because most of your stuff stays packed and you just have to trundle out with some clothes and food. We did it all the time until we got horses and couldn't be as flexible any more.
I would have thought if there was damp it would be fairly easy to spot. It would smell musty for a start and you could make sure to check inside the cupboards and under the beds for any sign of mould.

We did that! We were meant to be going on a camping trip and it poured down the week before. I started to dread the thought of a child and two wet labs in a tent. We saw a cheap caravan on Preloved and bought it. I never thought I'd have one, I was a caravan snob like your hubby, but have to say I loved it! You can keep all your camping stuff in it ready to go (just load up food and clothes and off you go!). It's still like camping - you sit outside and BBQ if the weather is nice just the same, it's just when it's cold or raining you are warm and dry and the beds are comfy! We're lucky as we store ours at home. We've had four years out of ours and now want to get a slightly more expensive one.

Ps, when driving hubby is very good and pulls over to let long queues of traffic past.

We bought a old 4 birth 5 years ago. We now own a 24ft 6birth with a full size awning plus two bed pods.

Last year we went for a week in Devon in August

DH and Myself. DDil and 2 kids best friend and 2 kids

2 dogs.

Cost us 340.00 for the whole week at a camping and caravan site ( we joined the club after buying first caravan )

We have loo that's only used at night. We always shower in the facilities

Has a full size cooker ( although we use the multi cooker in the awning finding it easier)

Best thing we ever did.

Grandkids come with us at least a couple of times a year, plus when we go to see them we take the caravan to a site near them so we get out own space.

Storage fees can cost a lot. Pitches are more expensive for caravans. I would honestly suggest (as an ex camper and now caravaner) to really think about it.

Ooo.Me too!

Also give a thought to some towing lessons! When we first started 30-odd years ago we got stuck down a narrow lane in Cornwall after taking a wrong turning. It was scary trying to reverse as the van goes the opposite way to where you think it's going to go. Trying to reverse into position on a crowded site is always fraught as some buggers love to watch you make an ass of yourself
(Although caravanners are generally lovely and will lend a helping hand if they think you are in trouble).

I had a friend who bought a cheap caravan for the same reason. A year later she had put it up for sale because of the costs. As well as maintenance, increased insurance and paying to store it somewhere, the fuel consumption when towing it was very high.

Lol as I typed caravanners then my auto-correct came up with caravan nerd. Haha

We also really fancied a cheap caravan for soggy festivals. Friends have them that cost £100 each and they are pretty rotten, but still so much drier and warmer in nasty weather than our old crawl-in tent. Not sure I'd be happy now we have a sproglette to be surround by so much mould any more though. However we have no where to store it at home and decided in the end it was daft to pay £240/yr to store, so have invested in a much fancier tent (with carpets! ). It's the happy compromise, and we'll continue to dream of a carawagon!
The storage, transport and maintenance costs are prohibitively expensive to only use a couple of times a year, would a fancy-pants tent not work just as well plus appeal to DH a little more?

A folding camper might also be a good option for you OP, probably cheaper and easier to tow, also has all the conveniences you listed. I'd love to upgrade my tent but it'll have to do for now!

Damp:- you need to look inside the caravan around the top where the roof meets the wall on the side the door is. If you gently press it and it feels spongy it probably has damp. Also check the front of the van under the windows. Another place for damp is in the toilet compartment. If it is not too bad you can reseal the awning rail yourself using sikaflex 221. If you do this make sure you scrape out all the old sealer first.

Please get the chassis and gas serviced as a minimum. Make sure they also check the flame failure devices on the gas appliances. The best way to get this done is by a mobile engineer as you can watch what they do rather than have your caravan disappear into a workshop for a fortnight.

Also try to stay away from baileys they often have damp.

Every caravan owner will tell you their caravan is bone dry, if you can get a damp metre you can often negotiate a cheaper price by showing the owner it does indeed have damp

We've had a caravan for about 8 years now and it isn't that cheap, insurance is about £150 but we do have ncd, service is about £150 if nothing needs doing, we have mobile engineer. We keep ours on the drive or that would be more expense. Reasonable size car needed for towing, AA or other cover needed as you wouldn't want to break down with a caravan. We had to buy new tyres for ours and have a leaky tap fixed. Our caravan is 2004 and its like owning another car for expenses and like with a car, the older it is generally the more expensive the repairs.

Wouldnt be without it though, its just not that cheap, not like a tent.

We changed from a tent to a caravan 3 years ago. Best move ever. Storage cost us £200 per year until we got a new driveway so we now keep it at home.
Insurance is about £160 a year but with a really old van might be cheaper and you may find your household insurance covers the contents.
Enjoy it.

We are lucky with maintenance DH did a caravan main trance course cost 2 grand but he does ours and has a regular cleontal of 10 others charging 200.00 a time

Quick way to test for damp is to press the walls they squish if there is damp if you cant afford an awning buy a gazebo and as long as you peg it down itll be fine gives you an outdoor dry place to sit

Been caravanning for 11 years and wouldn't do anything else. After the initial outlay,hols are cheap cheap cheap!! Got 9 nights in Somerset at easter for £170 and go away 7 times a year, all year round.The stuff we have in it is cheap and cheerful-you don't need expensive stuff.
We certainly don't hold up traffic-but a lot of other drivers are not perfect drivers so they have no room to talk!!
If you do buy one, just check it hasn't got any damp in.