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Hi All, Last Sunday took a trip to see a folding caravan 700 mile round trip, got all the details and Vin number, checked this out with CRiS, paid the fee, all checked out legal and above board, spoke to owner on phone who seamed quite genuine, though a bit clueless about his van, turns out that any work needed was done by a mobile engineer, damp tests, chassis service, fitted Mover, had new carpet made with the bonded edges, and all the relevant paper work to back it up. Great!!, armed with damp meter, set off 2300 on the Sunday night, had a few stops, a sleep, arrived at his city 0900, School run, so had breakfast close to his location, arrived at his house at 1000, found van clean except for algae on seals and in the recesses of the lights, mover fitted on the front of wheels at a 20deg angle (not good for van with all the equipment a the front of van, extra nose weight), he opened up the van and left me to it, Didn’t need my damp meter, could smell damp or just musty from being folded up while hot,(condensation) checked out floor, a bit soft, turned out to be the under floor heating unit cover(he did not know if it was working as he never used it in the four years he had van) (water heater AC only turned out to be Gas and AC), no water in heater, so could not test if heater or under floor heating where working, could not find any trace of damp, lifted up carpet, and the original carpet underneath, sat on the cushion to check out the bed lockers, got up only to find my trousers were very damp, stepped back to re place the carpet, and the heel of my foot sank a little into the floor, right next to the fold down wardrobe, the poor block was genuinely shocked to learn this and showed me all the test reports, which verified all that he had said to me over the phone, after that long journey I spent a good hour checking the van out, before declining it, wanted to be 100% sure it was soft floor and not just my numb legs from the journey. I thanked him for his time and patience, and informed him I was declining the van for two reasons, buying a van is like buying a house it has to feel right, and it dot not, and with the soft floor issue, I said the van is not the one for me.

 No matter how good a van is described or checks out you can still get caught out.

Quote: Originally posted by jhsw on 27/11/2011

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Hi All, Last Sunday took a trip to see a folding caravan 700 mile round trip, got all the details and Vin number, checked this out with CRiS, paid the fee, all checked out legal and above board, spoke to owner on phone who seamed quite genuine, though a bit clueless about his van, turns out that any work needed was done by a mobile engineer, damp tests, chassis service, fitted Mover, had new carpet made with the bonded edges, and all the relevant paper work to back it up. Great!!, armed with damp meter, set off 2300 on the Sunday night, had a few stops, a sleep, arrived at his city 0900, School run, so had breakfast close to his location, arrived at his house at 1000, found van clean except for algae on seals and in the recesses of the lights, mover fitted on the front of wheels at a 20deg angle (not good for van with all the equipment a the front of van, extra nose weight), he opened up the van and left me to it, Didn’t need my damp meter, could smell damp or just musty from being folded up while hot,(condensation) checked out floor, a bit soft, turned out to be the under floor heating unit cover(he did not know if it was working as he never used it in the four years he had van) (water heater AC only turned out to be Gas and AC), no water in heater, so could not test if heater or under floor heating where working, could not find any trace of damp, lifted up carpet, and the original carpet underneath, sat on the cushion to check out the bed lockers, got up only to find my trousers were very damp, stepped back to re place the carpet, and the heel of my foot sank a little into the floor, right next to the fold down wardrobe, the poor block was genuinely shocked to learn this and showed me all the test reports, which verified all that he had said to me over the phone, after that long journey I spent a good hour checking the van out, before declining it, wanted to be 100% sure it was soft floor and not just my numb legs from the journey. I thanked him for his time and patience, and informed him I was declining the van for two reasons, buying a van is like buying a house it has to feel right, and it dot not, and with the soft floor issue, I said the van is not the one for me.

 No matter how good a van is described or checks out you can still get caught out.

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Hi millermicm, All info given was from the blokes paper work, did not know it was serviced by a mobile caravan engineer, until I arrived at his home, all the conversations lead me to believe it was done at the manufacturers work shop, that was a failing on my part,( phone number of service engineer or work shop will be asked for in the future) face to face, it was the total lack of knowledge about his van, or how things on his van worked, struck me as very odd that he had no idea about nose weight or max load of his van, had thought that he had bought a van, hooked it on and off he went, oblivious to every thing about a van except the towing speed, would not have saved on the fuel as I also had my eye on other vans along the route, though his was furthest away, it was a trip I was going to do anyway, saw his add at last minute made the checks, planed  that into my schedule, and rest is history. If it had been right van the trip would have been worth it. These vans are very hard to come by in my neck of the woods, and there are none within 100 miles, they all seam to be around Kent, Essex, and Midlands, and only two dealers that I have seen advertising them, that is Gobur in Norfolk, and Campersandleisure Ltd in Dorset, a good few hundred miles away.