Advice please - Buying a motorhome for the first time

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Husband is 50 this year and I’ve always said I would pay for a ‘big trip’ - this would work out at about £6.5k. We love static caravans with the dog, and I flippantly said the other day “you could have a motorhome for your birthday instead”, to which he immediately said ‘yes’ and would also put money towards. I would put extra money in too on top of birthday present money - prob about £15k combined.

Never used a motorhome! Not sure if being swept away with a pipe dream or if just to go for it! Renting one looks like it would cost £1k and that seems a lot considering our overall budget for the van. But also I get renting one to test out seems wise.

We have a drive but wouldn’t want to MH on it all the time - local storage is about £50 a month. Aware need to factor in servicing, MOT, tax, maintenance etc. Towing a caravan is not an option.

Any advice? Words of encouragement and words of caution?! It feels great to be able to get away with the dog and two of us, and we could still do our ‘big trip’ (was going to Italy) but on a different way!

Definitely try before you buy. It’s something people either love or loathe and many people I’ve talked to thought they would feel differently. Could you book a few days off midweek rather than trying to hire on a peak long weekend?

When you buy, insist on a hab check or at an absolute minimum look it over with a damp meter. We were incredibly naive buying ours and incredibly lucky, but I’ve heard so many stories.

Ours has been the best investment ever. I love how the holiday begins the moment we step inside and doesn’t end until it’s back in its shed. Even the best hotels compare unfavourably after a while 😂 to our little home away from home.

I would get on youtube and have a look at some middle age youtubers. Lifes too short, mike and trish oot an about and bob earnshaw are good. Have a look at their back catalouge. All have changed vans and its interesting to hear them talk about what they like and dont like about various vans.

I have a friend who is currently living in his. (He also has his sibling if he's in need of a fixed address.) He has to move pitch every 21 days or so, and in summer usually needs to book well in advance to stay near his workplace. He is planning to buy a house at some point, so is just getting used to places - it's an area well away from where he lives. If he's got time off work, he just goes off to the coast or wherever he fancies. He's got WiFi set up with a dongle, so can work from it.

Good campsites have good shower/toilet/laundrette facilities, but he canrun his van for some time if he goes "wild". He's got a fridge, cooker, shower and so on, though if it's fine, he usually cooks outside. He's apparently getting a new mattress, too, which can only be an improvement.

He has spent a lot of time fixing its leaks, and it cost a bit to get through its last MOT. (But then, so did my car.)

He is very tall, well over 6', so that limits the MHs available for him, because he doesn't want to be bent in two all the time, but people who are of a more average stature will be fine.

It's fine for a weekend, but would probably drive me mad for longer term, and I've done plenty of camping, including long term.

Great advice.
We often do one night away locally and feel refreshed after it. Friday we parked for free, ate great food in pub a short walk away and cooked breakfast out side then just drove home.
You really do need to understand what goes wrong so you can look at the potential issues before you part with any money.

Maybe look at a campervan , van conversion, this can be cheaper yet just as good if not better , have alook at quirky campers website

Check the price of the ferry to France ( or anywhere else you said you wanted to go to if a ferry is involved) to see if the length weight or height make much if a difference to price as it can rise quite sharply for a foot longer etc

And same with your parking spot in storage etc. see if size matters!

Following with interest.

We have just bought a Motorhome. We rented a few and also visited the show at the NEC last year plus visited a few dealerships. It’s taken us a year to research and buy. We are both newly retired and expect to be away for half the year minimum so wanted something decent and very much liveable in even if the weather is shit. We spent 68k on a perfect condition second hand really good German MH, it has a 3 year warranty, very low mileage it was 5k or 7k, I can’t remember. Insurance is £550 per year and storage is £550 per year. We are away for our first week right now, cheapest overnight pitch has been a tenner and then £20, most expensive will be £25. You can pay £40 in some areas. There is also total wild camp stuff, easy in Scotland and overseas but hard in England and Wales. We have budgeted for 20k PA all in but this includes overseas ferry fares a couple of times at 500 and 1200 a pop, thanks to Brexit for that and lots of visiting places and dinners out. Plus a chunk in case we need a new tire or something not covered by warranty, buying stuff like a TV, gas BBQ, reclining chairs, tables, bedding, leads, the ramps were £50 alone.

It’s great I’m sat on a. Hillside with an amazing view, the farmer has chickens near the van. I have slightly freaked out at the thought of the cost because we have gone higher end but I prefer it to my house.

@StanfreyPock thats why we went German, still some rattling but very minimal compared to ones we tried. Chausson was the worst, such a beautiful van but all style.

Ours is German and much quieter than the last few we have had. Research is key also look for the extras used, ramps, loungers, hook up lead, have all been bought used or end of season sale when the shops reduce the loungers, its a big saving.
Have a look at the stuff and think do I really need this???
If I kept one thing out of all the stuff.
We have a Coleman petrol powered two burner stove ( 1 litre of petrol lasts ages), it works no matter how cold or windy it is , boils the kettle far quicker than a gas stove and we cook outside when ever we can, with that a big pot and a cast iron frying pan we manage most things, so I will now sell the trendy but slow and cumbersome Cadac people rave about.
The Coleman is £200 new but can be had for about £50 used ours was £10 form a local Car boot years ago
TV many of the cheap supermarket TV's are also 12v but are a fraction of the price of a proper 12v TV, though I don't think we have used ours?

We don't find rattling a problem whether they be European or UK built coachbuilts.
Packing is the key, we don't even go over the top but just make sure two items that have the ability to make a noise if in contact with each other aren't touching.
The main culprit is usually the grill and we have always wrapped it in tea towels.
There should be no noise from the vehicle itself,that would indicate something is not secure or things are moving that should not be.

With your budget you are only going to get a very old piece of crap and trouble. Honestly, you will be wasting your money.
I have had 2 motor homes - at the time a 5 year old French one , very nice but not a brilliant finish cost £37000. Traded in for an A class Hymer that was 3 years old at the time and got it for a brilliant £50000, the original owners had paid £86000 for it and got themselves a divorce and business problems. Had it for 6 years used it loads and even lived in it for 5 months. Sold it for £40000. The German van was top quality and wore very well-no problems/rattles/mechanical faults.
With your budget I would just rent a van when you want to travel.

We bought a brand new ford transit conversion almost 20 years ago, we’d wanted to spend about £15k but the vans in that range were horrible.

A brand new one was £30 so we took the plunge. We loved it up until the kids came along, although it isn’t all plain sailing as others have said. The worst bit is packing everything up to go anywhere - campsites down tend to be more than a pub/shop if you’re lucky.

We sold it for 26k a few years later and I see they still sell for about £20k - not bad for such an old vehicle!

We also had a Mazda bongo but quickly realised that none of us like sleeping in a pop top roof! Great day van, though.

When we retire I’ve convinced DH that a small 2 berth caravan (which have about the same space as a camper but with more flexibility) would be a better idea.

We love ours. Now had it for 3 years. We decided we definitely needed a large garage for water sports equipment and stuff for kids. This determined our options for beds etc. I also knew I wanted fixed beds as did not want to be making up a bed and seats every morning and every evening. We have a traverse bed and a bed above the cab. If we didn’t have the children we would have opted for a low profile.

In terms of weight we decided to go for the lighter weight as in terms of resale, younger families will not have the heavier weight allowance.

We have never looked back, which has somewhat surprised me. In the winter months we do a weekend here and there and almost every second weekend and school holiday in spring/summer we try to get away (annual leave allowing).

Good Luck