Hi moving up from tent to caravan and have seen the hobby 450 easy which seems quite good, anybody any thoughts on this van or recommend somthing of a similar size, the price we are looking at is approx £5000.
First, make sure it's a "wet" (plumbed for sink. toilet, shower) van before you buy it.
Second, ignore all the comments you'll probably get on here about Gypsies, door on wrong side, being refused access to sites because it's a Hobby, blah, blah, blah.
Make all the standard checks as you would for any other second-hand van and you'll end up with a quality piece of kit.
I was very tempted to buy a Hobby a few weeks ago, but as Taxater mentioned, a "wet" one is hard to come by. Also as an imported caravan, they are not normally CRiS registered unless a previous owner has registered it and as such are harder to check up on. Unfortunately, maybe because of this they are also among the most stolen.
Another minor issue is that the sides are usually textured rather than flat. Our previous caravan had a similar texture and was a nightmare to clean the green bits out of the hollows in the texture. A friend told me he had the same issue with a Hobby he used to own and this was one of the main reasons he changed it.
The OH didn't like the blue stripe on the side either so that ruled it out of the equation.
We've got the 495 and love it! Ours doesn't have a shower but has toilet and sinks and that suits us. Never had a problem cleaning it, mind you my husband does it so prob best ask him...
Cleaning the sides is easy, cleanit with a brush or a sponge in water, then polish it and use a piece of old carpet to clean the polish off. The carpet goes down into the dimples a treat.
------------- Bill
For a licence dated 1997 or later you must add together the plated max weight of the caravan and trailer, if the total is 3500 or less you can tow it. You may even tow a caravan with a MAM greater than the cars unladen mass the restriction was removed in 2013
Thanks All, but have chickened out as first timers can't be diong with the hassle real or otherwise, so we are looking at other models now but thats a nightmare as well, can't wait till were set up somewhere nice and peaceful in a lovely snug van.......ahhh
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