We are
looking to upgrade from our tent outfit to a caravan, but as we have no
experience of caravans and neither do any of our friends or family, I would
appreciate the thoughts of ‘people in the know’ J
We have a
limited budget of £2000 – mainly because we don’t want to get finance until we
have tried caravanning out and know that it is for us.We are also limited in weight, as our towing
car will be a Ford C-Max (2012) 1.6 TDI.I have
seen this advert for a lightweight van which sounds ideal; however, I just
wanted to check from experienced caravanners whether those items listed under ‘Bad
Points’ are deal breakers, or whether they are just routine maintenance issues
that are likely to crop up with this age of van.
You can often revive leaking window seals by opening up windows & spraying rubber seals with silicone spray & plumping them up. The caravan is claimed to be damp free so if it is it looks ok. Try to knock the price down a bit, obviously. Depending on age of tyres you might have to budget for a new set before you use it, because its good to replace tyres after 5yrs regardless of wear.
With regards checking for damp - I'm assuming what we are looking for is damp patches/mold spores/any cracks in the plastic and feel for anything that has a slight 'give'?
Would love to take someone experienced along with us to view, but unfortunately we don't know anyone who has a caravan.
Oops, only just noticed the post about weight. OH checked his car docs and googled the van specs and thought it would be within range. Will get him to recheck!
Yes you haven't really got enough loading margin to keep 'van under 1200kg. Older caravans state unladen weight meaning completely empty weight so add gas bottles, battery to that & you will soon be up there. Save some money & go for an older ABI Maurauder. Something like this near you so you can go & check it first. These are normally about a tonne-1100kg all up. Check for damp obviously.
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Topic: First van - advice please
