Well here I find myself , a now ex folding camper owner, hoping we have have as a family made the right decision to switch!
Planning on going pretty much year round (main reason for change) and we think we want fixed bunk and side dinette layout. Decent work surface and storage whilst away is other main requirement.
Max weight of approx 1500kg (ideally less) and budget of around £7k or so max as we are dipping toe in.
So far on shortlist
Avondale Dart 556
Sprite Major 6
Lunar Zenith 6
plus some rarer Abbey, Ace's that re few and far between.
Discounted the fixed bunk Baileys as they all seem to be pretty short bunks so wouldn't last us
Have been poring over Caravan Finder and Autotrader and Ebay and getting idea of what we could get for our budget and seems to be upto newest of around 2007/8ish which is fine.
Question is for those who have had this type of layout what are advantages disadvantages you have found for some of these vans. Ignoring damp as this seems to be rather common among many British vans it seems (I would rather go German but OH doesn't like the interiors!)
The LZ6 2008-9 for us with two kids was a nice van. The only draw back was the thickness of the bunk bed mattresses, and front two bench to double bed mattresses/seats. A bit too thin and not sprung. Mattress toppers helped, though saying that still not a patch on a good quality sleeping surface.
welcome to the other side of the line ,i remember you well from the f.c side .you have made the right choice especially with our new year long winter weather pattern .have fun
Have you taken a look at Adria? We got one last year as our first van after tenting. What attracted us to this was it was lightweight. ( 1300kg for a 6 birth) and that the bunks were bigger than comparable uk vans. Ours is the altea 542dt. Very happy so far.
we have the avondale dart 556-6 and love it, got all we need and very functional for our family of 5. i think there are higher levels of trim, but we have been very happy with ours. also it's lightweight and have towed ours with both our zafira's.
------------- 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
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Topic: first family caravan
