To wonder if a camper van is worth it? Have campervan envy!

[malificent7]

I am in a campsite in a tent with campervan envy.
They are so lovely but very ecpensive and i am on a budget. If i did get one it would be 2nd hand. Any advice / recommendations about owning a van without breaking the bank?
It is the mechanics that worries me most after hearing some horror stories.

Not what you're asking but i would think unless you'd be using it every weekend it'd be much more cost effective to hire one as and when. None of the expensive maintenance.

It's not just the purchase cost, it's keeping another vehicle on the road too - tax, insurance, servicing, maintenance, parking. And depending on where you like to to they're not the best for driving around in either - hard to park, expensive to run, awkward in tight spaces.

I've been really tempted by them but always concluded that it's impractical. Stick with window shopping (or try to make friends with someone who has one but doesn't use it much )

If you look on ebay you can sometimes find them under market price... but it's almost always a scam (one of my family members almost got caught by one).

I’m with you on the envy they are so lovely but it’s the practalities that put me off.

Where do you store it?
When you camp if you’re staying in the same place at least a tent marks your spot.
Expensive to run.
Height restrictions on getting into car parks
Feeling restricted at going on that type of holiday because you have to get your moneys worth.

Still think they’re gorgeous and cute and am off to price them up again now though 🙂

We had a Mazda Bongo, what UT check was unconverted, but had a raising roof.

It was absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately we didn't get to use it enough as dh works weekends. Would love to have kept it but just wasn't worth it for 3 or 4 trips a year. I'd really recommend looking at these if you want a camper as they're a lot cheaper than most but come loaded with extras and are extremely versatile.

They're also marketed as Ford Freeda (iirc)

which not what UT check

Whenever I bother on about wanting a camper van, my husband gets me to google the cost and suggests how many nights in a nice hotel I could get for that price. He has a point.

We had a converted Vauxhall vivaro van. It had a pull out double bed and wardrobe in it. Then a drive away side awning. It was fine to use a bucket for a couple of nights if you wanted to camp a bit more rural but you needed to camp on campsites for anything longer than two nights really. Because it was a white van from the outside it was easy to park and took up a normal space. It was also parked on our drive at home and DH used it to commute to work so dual purpose. It did feel smug when it was peeing it down with rain and we were in the camper not the tent after a good few years of camping in a tent.

Top tips:
Plan when to use it and when you’re going. Hard to motivate to pack up the van after a busy week at work. If planned in advance it works well.

Get a drive away awning. One that stands up without the van and then hooks over the van to connect it. Leave things like your cooking stuff chairs and tables up then without having to pack up every time you want to drive somewhere.

Get decent insulation in the van but with decent venting system. You will thank me for this tip!

Put a bike rack on the outside of the van. We cycled everywhere.

Get on Pinterest you will go wild with ideas of how well they can be packed and all the nifty tricks.

Good luck.

Stay away from vw transporters. You’re paying for the badge!

I have a campal boot kit. Means I have a car and also a camper. It’s great and cost £1000 also means if my car breaks down I can just pop it into a new one.

campal.co.uk/

Could you afford to run a 2nd car? If not, then running a camper van would probably be unaffordable as the running costs are similar.

Repair bills would probably be more than running a car, as it's likely to be an older vehicle so more things will be likely go wrong with it.

We have a (very old!) motorhome and wouldn't be without it. We offset the running costs a bit by paying £30 pa for Britstop membership, so we have hundreds of places we can stop overnight for free. With pitch fees at £15-20 a night, that's quite a saving over a 2-week holiday. That's not viable with a camper van as you don't have your own lav and shower.

Hire one first. We thought it would be fab and hired a T5 to see how we got on. It was fine, lovely and warm but very small (2 adults, two kids and 1 small dog) it felt like I spent the whole time putting things away and moving things around. On reflection it's not for us.

Now the kids have their eyes on a motorhome!

Plan when to use it and when you’re going. Hard to motivate to pack up the van after a busy week at work. If planned in advance it works well.

Now that, to me, is almost defeating the object. We keep basics (tea, coffee, toiletries etc) on our van all the time and make sure we always have a full gas cyclinder (it holds 2, so we have one in use and a full one spare). In the summer, we keep the bedding on there too.

All we have to do is fill up with water, put milk and butter in the fridge, grab some clothes and we're off. The other weekend, I picked DP up from work at 4 on Friday, said "Do you fancy going away this weekend?" and we were away by 5.

The luxury of being able to go away on a whim is the greatest thing about it imo.

We looked at getting one, a camper van rather than a motorhome, we have a caravan but it would have to be in addition to the caravan not instead of as I can't imagine going away for 2 weeks in one, some do have toilets though.

We're like LakieLady - keep the van stocked all the time (just milk, cheese, wine to put in the fridge). We each have a small storage box for our clothes so it's easy to chuck a few pair of pants and weather suitable changes of clothing into the box, and we're off! Everything inside the van (including the storage boxes) has a place to go, and must be kept in its place. For us it works because it's about living simply, a couple of plates, a couple of pans, a mug, a glass, nice food that can be cooked on 2 rings, solitude, a view.

Our house is full of 'stuff' electronic gadgets, cooking equipment, hobby things, more clothes / shoes etc than we need. It does get used, but it also take up a lot of space and gets messy. In the van there's no room for 'stuff' and no room to be untidy, and strangely in the van everyone puts things away properly (which doesn't happen in the house!). Last weekend the weather wasn't great but we went away anyway. On Sunday morning it was unexpectedly sunny and there was a huge delight in sitting outside in the sunshine drinking my breakfast coffee and enjoying views of grass and trees.

We have a heater for colder nights (or spend the evening in front of a fire in a nearby pub) and in the winter we use the van to enjoy getting outdoors on day trips - it's wonderful to end a windy, squally walk by getting into a dry van, heating up a bowl of soup and reading a book.

We're very lucky in being able to keep the van in our garage.

But yes, it was a big expense.

We’ve been there and done it all, it is great when you get your first Motorhome you have to pay £20,000 + for a good one otherwise you will have issues with it and you don’t want that as it will cost a small fortune . We went away weekends but the most annoying thing is the prices you pay for to go on to a site
We worked it out over the that’s everything MOT TAX INSURANCE MAINTENANCE FUEL MEMBERSHIPS PRE BOOKING costing around £4000 + a year

We got a high spec VW California Beach as DH wanted to treat himself and it'd been on his wish list for a while. It generally just sits in the drive. It isn't that practical day-to-day as it doesn't fit into all car parks. If we're going to go somewhere for a day trip or staying in a hotel, we often take my car as a good car is quieter, faster and much more comfy.

We'll use the camper van only if we need to carry a lot of hobby kit as you can just chuck in bikes, stand up paddle boards etc. It's also useful if you go down to the beach and then fancy a quick nap during the day. Or if you want to go on holiday in it. Or you're doing a house refurb and need to use it as an actual van. Or want to pick up a family of 4 + tons of luggage from the airport. Or you go to a stag do and instead of sleeping in a bunk, you get the double pop up bed in the camper van.

DH says he feels great driving it and thinks it's really cool.

Overall, it's a bit of an expensive toy that can come handy on occasion and be fun if you have the outdoorsy lifestyle. Having said that, if we were on an average household income, I think I would have vetoed the purchase as it is a bit of a redundant luxury.

IME the reality doesn't quite match the romantic dream when you have a family of 4 (or more of course). We had one and I was excited at first, but as PPs have said it is so cramped. Switching from driving around mode to set-up-as-a-home mode is a faff and then you are constantly climbing over each other, losing/standing on valuables and moving piles of stuff from place to place so you can cook, eat, go to bed etc. You ideally need an extra little tent to store all your crap in - things like kids car seats, food supplies, spare clothes etc.

The pros are your bedding stays dry and if it's really cold and wet, you can at least stay cosy and have a good sleep.

It's slightly better in nice weather, but if it's raining or cold it's grim. In a big family tent, you can spread out, read, play a game or whatever - in a campervan you are just squished up together bickering.

Admittedly my campervan years coincided with my relationship hitting the skids and feeling permanently pissed off by exp which really didn't help. These days I'm back to tent camping and love it so much more!

I agree renting one whenever you fancy it would be more sensible.

I would consider one though for a couple or a small single parent family maybe. I can imagine it being fun when you're retired.

needsahouseboy had a look at the campal site, cant work out what happens to the back seats of the car when the unit is fully extended ?

Get rid of the car. Buy a van. Camp in the van. That's what we do. It's brilliant!

We hankered for a campervan too. We hired one to try it out and decided to give ourselves a budget for great camping gear that was a fraction of the cost of a campervan, and if we feel like it was the wrong decision it's only cost us £1,000, not £15,000.

DH had a lightbulb moment on a campsite with our spacious tent, looking at a family slightly cramped in their campervan, and felt we would have regretted a campervan. Like a PP I felt there was a lot of moving things around to go from day mode to night mode and vice versa.

If we had gone ahead, it would have been a Mazda Bongo Friendee or similar and a drive away awning.

We used to have a very lovely VW Cali as well. Absolutely gorgeous but we just didn’t use it enough to justify the cost. We thought we could just go off in it whenever we wanted but the reality was that all the good campsites got booked up months in advance. They also closed over winter which we hadn’t realised.

It was a pain to pack up and put the roof down if we wanted to drive anywhere. And if sleeping in the roof we’d still get woken up by noisy kids at 5am every morning.

I sound very grumpy but we will get another one once the kids have grown up and it’s just dh and I

for those that go off on a whim.do you know where your going.do you always go far?how do you know where you can stop off

The other thing about sleeping in the roof is that while it's exciting, it's a royal PITA when your child wants a wee in the middle of the night!

I've been looking to buy one too.
From what I have seen selling,a campervan already converted is expensive.
I'd go with buying a van then converting it in stages to make it more affordable,you'll then have what you want it be.
As for costs,well just your normal insurance,tax and mot,same procedure as a car but with the benefits of being able to travel where you like and parking up for the night very cheaply depending on mpg.