General advice

adyver

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Having recently retired I am considering investing around 55k in a Motorhome. I have no experience of motorhomes so hoping for some pointers.
Is a van with a fixed bed a better option than turning the lounge area into a bed every night. Is there a reasonable choice of 4 berth vans which can be driven on a car licence. Is 55k sufficient to get a decent a fairly new motorhome. I have heard that there are a lot of scammers advertising Motorhomes for sale privately, what should I be looking out for?
TIA
 
Welcome to Motorhomers, adyver.

Many people have experienced your concerns, and for me there is only one piece of advice I can give. For you the right thing to do is to hire a motorhome for about a week. Take notes each and every day of what you liked, and what you did not, and use them as your bible.

The reason is that everyone is different and will offer advice based on what type of layout they prefer. For a week's hire you can avoid all that expensive pain.

I hope you choose to become a full member, as there is so much talent and experience here.
 
HurricaneSmith said:
Welcome to Motorhomers, adyver.

Many people have experienced your concerns, and for me there is only one piece of advice I can give. For you the right thing to do is to hire a motorhome for about a week. Take notes each and every day of what you liked, and what you did not, and use them as your bible.

The reason is that everyone is different and will offer advice based on what type of layout they prefer. For a week's hire you can avoid all that expensive pain.

I hope you choose to become a full member, as there is so much talent and experience here.
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I think this is the best advice you could get .
 
yes hire one as it can be a costly mistake if you buy the wrong one like we did tried to down size ( big to small ) & didn't work for us we tour for 3 months at a time .so we had a van conversion for 10 months couldn't wait to get rid which we did costing us £10,000 trade-in for our Elsie so so be very sure its the one YOU want not what ours have as they will use it different than you or they might takes kids or dogs with them but for £55000 you will find a go m/h . we have had 7 m/h's going back to the nineties BUT have all ways bought from a dealer as we are experience in motorhomes but would never dream of buy private ( unless you know them ) with all that money you might live to regret it . but a dealer you will get 12 months guarantee .cheyenne

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Do decide how you need the van ?
Just for weekends and summer holidays ?
That and the odd weekend meet up , as you can find on here . A great place to meet experienced motor home owners.
Might be worth turning up in your car to one near you.
We all like talking about our hobby/ obsession.

Only on campsites?.

The odd wildcamping adventure, where you leave nothing behind you but your tyre prints and happy memories.?

Pub Stopover's ?
If so , don't go too big .

Do you fancy abroad, for the winters ?
You'll find plenty of cheap stopovers, legal and pleasant, if you avoid the bleeding obvious.
We know of couples who manage very well in a panel Van conversion, home built our shop bought.
Do you fancy living off grid.. then you might need a bigger van with Solar, power,
You'll get all the advice, on here... Or our cheeky sister site... www.wildcamping.co.uk.
Take your time .
Visit dealers..
But talk to as many motorhome owners that you'll meet there.
If it seems unbelievably cheap...
There's always a very good reason.
Tally Ho !
Good hunting !
 
We bought our first Motorhome in April 2021 for a very similar price to your budget. The best advice I read was to sit in the proposed purchase and perform a dummy run/envisaging exercise on how we would carry out the daily activities of living; and then decide which of the inevitable compromises we could live with. We have spent a considerable sum upgrading since the purchase, using each long trip to identify the improvements to make the Motorhome work for us [Lithium Battery, B2B, Permanent Trickle Feed from Leisure Battery to Vehicle Battery, Inverter, Extra Mains Sockets, including a double in the 'garage' area' for charging the ebike batteries and for Summer Cooking on the Remoska/Slow Cooker] Winter Tyres fitted for Winter Sun Trips to Spain, Refillable Gas Bottles etc

Steve
 
I spent years researching before buying, and we did hire for a week to check what we thought we wanted was actually what we wanted. Of course how you use a van will mean that the right van for any individual will be different. Certainly I feel the initial research was worthwhile as we’ve still got the same van 11 years later and no plans to change it.
 
We didn't do anything sensible when we bought our geriatric tin tent. We'd tented and caravanned since we got married and when it became too much of a problem to position the caravan we sold it. Then realising that we missed the freedom, the thought of a motorhome hit us. Being low on funds we scoured local dealers and the internet to find one the we liked, then this wreck hit us, it had all the things that we loved about our caravan plus an engine, wow, no contest, we negotiated and bought it. It's now 25 years old and stuff has started to fail, but we discuss them and decide whether we need them or can manage without them. For us it works and we both love the old tin tent, it's not a gin palace nor is it state of the art, but bloomin' 'eck it's our little piece of heaven. And on the odd occasion the there is a problem that really needs sorting there are so many friends here with the knowledge and skills to sort it out for us and anyone else in the poo too
 
Ours is
1 rear french double bed
2 self contained shower in bathroom
3 nice dining/lounge lo area at the front.Light and airy
4 can make up a bed in the dining area

We live in it for 5 months in the summer.
Under3500kg
Suits us
 
You mention a car licence, I guess you mean a category B one therefore you are restricted to a maximum loaded weight of 3500 Kg.
Your second mention was 4 berth, there are very few true 4 berth vans that are genuinely viable at 3500 Kg there are many thousand registered as such but are unusable for 4 people, most up to and around 7 metre vans (motorhomes) will have an unladen weight of just above 3000 Kg, by the time you add accessories, clothes, food water, fuel, gas etc. etc. then 4 people you are very likely to be overweight!
For me a fixed bed is a must, ideally decent toilet / shower and a not too cramped seating / lounging area.
 
I couldn't dream of a £55k budget, and newer isn't always better, anything after 06/07 is pretty much a new van to us, Fiat/Peugeot/Citroen as the base, decide if you want front or rear lounge we like both for different reasons, overcab beds are okay for younger fitter people, if all fogeys then you need a longer van and that adds weight.

My advice is to visit a big dealer with plenty of varied stock, and go sit in a few but stay in them for about 20-30 minutes to discuss how it would be used, (ask the salesperson to leave you alone, or they will try to talk you into the wrong van) and what you like or don't like, where you would put things. I'm not sure being in the wrong van on hire for a week will help except lighten your wallet.

I used to buy a van, do it up repair stuff, use it for a few months, then sell it on at a profit to pay for the hobby, I always bought off eBay there are scams but they are obvious usually, you can't buy a £50k van for £15k or a £25k van for £10k common sense, compare prices.
 
We back-packed, camped, had a trailer-tent and caravans (with 4 kids), so we knew what we liked and didn't like. We certainly didn't want the fuss of making beds every night and unmaking them every morning. Eventually we found an Aclass (drop-down bed over the driver) which is getting a bit difficult to climb into now we are in our 70s with arthritis. We visited Brownhills last week and only saw one MH which we would have bought BUT I couldn't drive it on my licence (4200kg) AND it was too expensive, although the prices didn't prevent us going into £100k+ vans just to check them out.

YOU want 4 beds so I'm guessing reasonably young with "kids". As has been said, visit dealers and try things out, especially getting the family to sit around imagining that it's raining incessantly. Don't rush it unless you are quickly aware that it's not for you or the kids are getting uppity. Sit on the toilet and make sure there is enough space: stand in the shower and see if you can reach every part of your body (consider where you will hang your dry clothes!).
Is there enough workspace for preparing food, assuming you intend cooking? What about cooking space? Can everyone access the toilet if someone stands at the cooker? (Someone on one of my social media threads has been complaining about their oven which is at head height: dangerous in my view!)

Gordon
 
We spent months looking at all the different makes and layouts. Went on forum discussing the different merits and spent ages visiting dealers. Eventually, armed with a list we searched for our ideal van. Visited a dealers and fell for the bling of a van that had none of the items on our list! Despite the dealer being insistent it was the wrong van, we bought it! We left with the words “See you soon when you come back for the van you need, not the van you want!” Fast forward four months when we drove back to swap the van! Fortunately because we were buying a bigger new van, they gave us what we’d paid for it. 13 years later we’re in the same van! So remember. Don’t be like Annsman! Buy what you need not what you want! 😉😄👍
 
I will delay my input until the first post newbie replies to and thanks everybody else for their info. Perhaps you lot have already scared him/her… off 😉
 
CriftinsCampers said:
I will delay my input until the first post newbie replies to and thanks everybody else for their info. Perhaps you lot have already scared him/her… off 😉
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I hope the OP has not been scared off by the honest replies by ['us lot'].We probably did jump in with our Eldiss 5.99 mtr 2 Berth, we would have liked a fixed Island bed but funds wouldn't stretch to the lovely Burstner we saw last wk, but making our bed at night/morning takes a minute & is not a problem for us 2 ,so we'll enjoy what we have for the time being & see what comes up.
 
A lot of vans lounges provide two single beds when not pulled together.
 
We don't have to make ours up John, just put the back cushions out of the way in the cab, the beds are just over two feet wide, our super king bed at home is 6 foot wide so plenty of room

Two sheets and two single duvets live in one of the top lockers at the back, pillows seem to live in the corners for lounging in the evening usually.

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