Well with the weather taking a turn for the worse with rain rain and more rain .. pretty much confirmed were fighting a loosing battle trying to sort out the front end of our van ..After all our married life living in rented accomadation we made the decision to purchase a caravan to live in for a while .. we new with our budget we would have to settle for an older caravan but rome wasnt built in a day and we set our self a goal purchase an older van for now and save save save till eventually we could buy the van of our dreams . We made the biggest mistake from the start by telling the seller we knew nothing about caravans when we went to view you couldnt see the front end inside for all the equipment piled up there all on the seats etc .. ( we now no why ) he tapped about abit at the walls etc tellin us no damp and we just took his word .. Now we have no choice but to continue living in the van and sleeping over wet and damp floors .. were heatrbroken that our dream has been shattered theres only so much we can do repair wise and its beginiing to look more like were just throwing even more money down the drain .. and with no finances yet to purchase another van we have no other choice..
My advice to anybody thats new to caravaning and thinking about buying 1 please please check check and double check if it takes you a day to go over the van to make sure everythings ok and nobody else has to go through what we have then so be it .. and if the seller gets aggitated or moans then just walk away ..
Sorry to hear of your bad luck. So many scammers and cheats about that no one can be trusted. It is worth doing lots of research and taking advice on sites like this before taking the plunge hope all works out well for you. Good luck.
So sorry to hear this. Some people are just heartless and cruel! I hope you manage to get things sorted. I'm sure that there's loads of people on here that can give you advice. Sorry I can't as I am a newbie caravanner myself and still learning. Good luck.
Yep, it certainly sounds like you have made a whopper.
------------- XVI yes?
As well is two words!
How does a sage know everything about everything? or does he? or does he just think he does?
Remember, if you buy something you bought it, not brought it.
Hi, sorry to hear your van has turned out to be such a disappointment. Have you had a caravan engineer out to assess the problem and see what they suggest as a solution? And can you get a tarp over the worst affected areas to stop more water coming in? There's lots of help to be found here if you are looking at ways of fixing the problem Wizards Caravan Repair
hi thanks for your replys ... felt down this morn when i seen there was some damp come again but im not going to give up on little betty ( the caravan lol ) yet ... since we got her this site has been our saviour helped me out with a few things so its onwards and upwards .. 1 good thing is that over the last couple of months i have learnt so much about caravans most important thing is to invest in a damp meter and thoroughly check everything when weve saved enough money to purchase our next van ..
The problem is people buy a caravan with no knowledge, then find sites like this when they have problems and so miss all the good advice on damp checks etc until it's too late,I am speaking from a point that was us, we trusted the seller of our first van, was assured no damp or leaks and everything was working, not tillwe used it did we realise the damp, appliances not working and not even a pump in the toilet, took us some time to realise why the toilet would not flush, it was because of sites like this we sorted her out but wish we had found the site before our first purchase
------------- Live life to the full you are a long time dead
Have you sealed it up now, there are some good sealents out there that you can use in wet weather etc, I had the same, all front was damp, first thing I did was seal everything up. Main ones are awning rail and window rubbers.
I bought 5 tubes of the sikaflex marine sealant, tena a tube and covered everything I could, no more damp coming in but still have to repair rotten walls.
I'm leaving it till the winter when we are not using the van and I can put it in my unit to repair.
It makes my blood boil at the dishonesty of some people,
Not sure if you have any rights but someone on here will.
Best of luck with drying out your van
we bought our first van without checking for damp and we were heartbroken, we called the seller (bought it privately from caravan finder) and they paid us half of the repair bill quote, orignially £1200, but my hubby and a mate did it them selves for less than £100 and it's wonderful, would never ever know! so we had a bonus of £500!
worth a call to the seller??
------------- April-Norfolk 7nts, Oxford 2nts, Defford 2nts
May-Symm Yat 3nts
June-Defford 2 nts,Pembridge 2nts
July-Tabacconist 2nts, France 19nts
Aug -Bosworth 2nts, Winchcombe 3nts
Oct -costwolds 6nts
thanks guys ... were going to get some sealant and give that a go .. its got to last us now till at least the start of the winter was hoping for a bit longer to give us the chance to save enough to buy a newer van . we purchased her of ebay i did report the chap to them but they said they had already had reports about the seller and had now removed them from selling .. just a shame for us it werent done sooner .. the 1 good thing thats come out of it is 3 months ago i didnt no anything about caravans now with the help of the kind and helpfull people on this site im beginning to learn more and more as the days go on ... as the saying goes .. we live and learn and what dont kill us makes us stronger .. once again thankyou ...
Apart from the van , what are the pros and cons of living in a caravan for a year or so, what happens if you have nobody to collect your mail / have a permanent address? how does that work with things like driving license etc..? i am genuinely interested as thinking of doing this in a few years time -
all our mail goes to the mother-in-laws car insurance banks etc . the site we are on is not residential and as far as im aware although the caravan can be pitched here all year there is a 28 day rule for us . where as every 28days you have to leave site for i think atleast 48hrs but i wouldnt be sure on that and im not really sure who goes round and checks this rule .. but it suits us because we get the chance to go away for couple of days prior to doing this the wife found a site of a chap that was doing a blog on there own experience of living in a caravan " our life in a caravan living in a caravan full time " apart from the set back with the van which we can only really blame ourselves i wouldnt look back , before we were just paying out dead end money in rent for houses now at least we have money for ourselves at the end of each month and although the van has its issues its ours and nobody can take it of us .... good luck ...
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Topic: Destroyed the dream...
