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?

We have a caravan and love it! We went to flamingoland last year for a week and the kids loved it! We went to various east coast resorts on Easter holidays and any other school hols from May to oct.
The caravan paid for it's self very quickly.
We managed to get one that came with an awning so hopefully you will too. One word of advice that's been mentioned - damp! We saw 3 caravans that we didn't buy because of this before we got the one we have now.
If you love camping you honestly won't regret it.
When you are on a campsite in your van and it's damp and miserable outside and you see the campers in tents huddled up round a fire you'll be so glad you did it!

I know someone else mentioned towing lessons as an option but please check your driving licence as there are rules on what you are allowed to toe, depending on what year you passed your test. As pp also said, it's a great idea to have some lessons in towing, I see many people on campsites trying to reverse their caravan and having no idea what they are doing!!

I'm so grateful for all the advice on here!

I do realise that there will be various costs that make it not as affordable as it may initially appear but they don't bother me. I guess I like the idea that they're spread out throughout the year in small bits. £200-£300 a year to store it doesn't phase me, really. Bits and bobs of maintenance can be done when it's convenient. Higher petrol costs will be OK because it's just once in a while, when we use it. I know pitches will cost more but we can still afford it - still much cheaper than a proper holiday on the Continent or even a static caravan at a Butlins.

I loved camping at the last minute when we lived in Argyll - weather looked good on a Friday so we'd say "Right. Get in the car - we're off to Kintyre!" and I think that this will be so much easier when we have a caravan. And not having to worry that the weather could be less than perfect will be great.

As it is, we look at the website for the holiday camp in Devon and hem and haw about it because who knows what the weather will really be and of course it looks good in the photos but will our kids really like the place for a week and £800 at once is such a lot of money to pay right now but what if it sells out...

And thanks to you all for the practical advice on looking for damp. It sounds like the thing to do is press the walls around the door and windows.

If it doesn't smell of mildew and the walls aren't spongy I think we'll be fine.

And I don't care if it looks a bit grubby. I'm happy to put in some elbow grease to save some money and I'm willing to pay our friendly affordable carpet cleaner guy to give it a good going over.

When we store it, assuming it will be in the open, we'll cover it well with a good tarp, which should help keep it dry year round.

I've got one! I don't take it around and about for various reasons. It stays in one place for most of the year and I use it there. It was £300, has a working oven, grill, hot plate and hob but no bathroom. I've never bothered sorting running water for it. It can sleep 4 but was originally designed to sleep 5 as it had a bunk bed. Generally it's just me in it now, I love it! I bought fabric to do the seat covers but never got around to doing it. Have wallpapered the cupboard doors and painted the walls and ceiling though!

Hope you go for it. Got my first caravan when the kids were babies and had it for ten years. It was a static on a site so we could just roll up to it. We were like the clampetts on a Friday night . Loaded to the gunwales with kids, food clothes and we even took the cat! He loved it. He moused for all he was worth in the fields and he used to love next doors dog who was tied up!

After a break of 20 odd years I'm now onto my third tourer.

Again we keep it on a site. Same one as before as we love it so much. Rents arent too expensive and include winter stowage. We don't have tow bars either.

I've been lucky to trade up each time without paying too much extra and getting good prices for the others. They've all been second hand. This one is huge. There's only a few bigger.9 years old and was immaculate. But you wouldnt want to tow such a beast I wouldn't think.

eBay and autotrader and preloved are good places to look

Happy hunting.

The good news is the season starts next week ;-)

Fabulassie..that's why we have ours sited. We are not reliant on the weather or pitches being full and to be honest I couldn't trust the hubs to tow it without bashing it.

If you do tow it's worth joining the caravan club

I wouldn't care to be permanently sited- the appeal of a touring caravan is going lots of different places. I suppose it could be nice to have a permanent site that we like a lot and still have the option to tour around but I would expect that to cost a lot more than just storing it.

Anyway, after my husband's seemingly initial agreement, he has come up with reasons why it's not practical to do anything just now... there is a long list of things to be done on the car, which will be done bit-by-bit according to urgency over a period of months and at any point he figures our ten-year-old car may be finished and so we may be buying a new one although that won't be until the next MOT if we do, probably, which is some months away. So, I guess we won't be installing any tow bars. We always buy used cars and drive them into the ground so I think this will always be the state of things and I think he's happy to have this convenient reason to never have to commit to a caravan.

Marking place to show DH!

Are you licensed to tow? I forget when the changes came in meaning that you need a seperate test if you learn to drive after that date. Other than that it sounds great as long as you avoid damp. We had an old camper van and ended up getting rid of it due to this issue.

Fabulassie our car is 17 years old and we tow a 26ft twin axle caravan with it so that's a poor excuse of your hubby's!!
And before that we used my 21 year old minibus but stopped using it cos we looked like gypsies

Join one of the clubs to get discounts on site fees.
A couple of them will also enable you to get discounts on breakdown service membership. As has been mentioned above normal breakdown cover won't inlude a caravan or campervans over a certain length.
Camping and Caravan club do deals with RAC
Caravan Club do deals with Greenflag.

I've got a campervan. Its great to raock up at a campsite or festival, pull on handbrake and get the kettle on, without having to footer around with a tent.
Although at some festivals Zi'll have younger DD in a tent next to the van.

Id get a CO alarm if you plan on cooking inside.

DD also has a van which she has just got an awning for it so extra space.

Do check your licence for restrictions on driving and towing. DD1 had to jump through hoops to be allowed to drive her van, it was a conversion but we had tomproove the weight before DVLA would ok it as campervan and also allow her to drive it. (We did contemplate swapping vans at one point as mine is smaller)

10 years is no age for a car! We generally buy them at about that age .

Oh another tip. Dont use a pressure hose to wash near the windows as it can cause water to seep around seals

I think he's back on board with the plan!

Regarding licenses to tow: a regular license covers a typical family car and not-huge caravan. The exact numbers regarding weight limits are published and generous enough to cover what I'm looking to do.

If you get one with stabilisers on the towing bracket that link into an attachment on the towing car, remember to take the attachment off the seller's car as well.

We used to camp, then when our tent had disintegrated (about30 years ago) rented a touring caravan for our summer holiday. We never looked back - bought the tourer on return and have caravaned ever since, with children, grandchildren, dogs and friends.
We have been all over the UK, France, Spain and Italy (dogs have passports too). We are members of the caravan club, and although we find it a bit "stuffy" we like the cl network of small simple sites. They are also very useful for advice about technical stuff like towing limits and nose weights.
You do t have to spend a fortune on a van, but make sure it is dry, damp is a killer of vans. Even a cheap van will have a gas hob, oven, small fridge and toilet compartment (you may have to add your own portapotti) and I would recomend an awning if you intend staying on one site for several days. A cheaper light weight one is fine.
You might find the FB group "preloved caravan and camping sales UK" helpful in your search.
And for those anti caravaners out there, well Jeremy, if the caravan/car combination is correct, and van and car loaded correctly, there is no reason why they should not be driven to the national speed limit. Poor drivers will always cause trouble, whether or not they are towing.

I think that a bit of a makeover could make this van look ace.
Disclaimer: no idea if it's damp or anything, I've just seen it on eBay as we're buying a different van from the same dealer.

My daughters caravan is nearly 25 years old but is still going strong. They have a fixed bed at the back and just use the toilet with portapotti as a cupboard. Quite a lot do.

Seasoned campers often don't use their showers as they don't want to risk their floors getting wet.

Apparently our previous owners took our van as far as Croatia. Very ambitious!

Our caravan is 25 years old. It's been great, we've had it four years. We founds a bit of damp in one corner last year but hubby repaired it and it's been fine since. The only thing when they hit 25 is a lot of companies won't insure them.

We're looking for a van about ten years old now to replace it, but we are finding the quality the top of the range caravan from 25 yrs ago is much superior to the newer ones.

We're in your area OP and selling our old one soon......!

I wanted to do this but we decided to get an old folding camper instead...easier to tow and can store on our driveway :)

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but you'll want insurance for the caravan and your vehicle's mileage will go down when towing, so fuel will cost more to get from home to wherever you're camping. I'm in the US so not sure about UK caravan insurance, nor exactly how towing will affect your particular car's MPG.

We've been RV'ing for almost 20 years, from when our kids were young and we love it. We started with a VW camper-van and we now tow a 31 ft caravan with a 1 tonne truck. I'm sure RV'ing here is very different than in the UK, but the fun is the same! Our next journey is a 3000 mile trip to Florida.

Be careful. It's addicting!!! You'll start with your little 2nd hand caravan, but trust me, you'll want to 'upgrade' soon. And as far as your DH is concerned, mine was dead set against it. I told him I was sick and tired of sleeping on the ground and getting up in the middle of the night to 'go outside and squat'. He gave in grumbling all the time, but after our first trip he said 'Now, THIS is camping!'. He hasn't looked back since!

Thanks everyone for your very encouraging and helpful posts. I am really starting to get excited about this and I think my husband is even starting to, as well.

We figure that doing this gradually in stages, starting with getting the car fitted with the necessary hardware and then patiently watching listings for possible 'vans will work. I think once we've got the car ready I will save up about £1000 in cash and start looking. The longer I look, the more money I'll have saved and I expect we may well pay as much as £1500 or maybe a bit more. Would be thrilled to pay less but I want to increase our chances of being happily sorted by summer.

I covet one of those trailer-tent pop-up thingies - easier to store, and really nice inside. Probably pricey though...