Hello! We are buying our 1st Touring Caravan. Could you advise about paperwork? Is there any MOT? V5? Which club should we join ? Wheel clamp/lock? Thanks
There will be some essentials you need to buy, number plate, electric hookup cable, towing mirrors, water tanks, gas bottle etc but if buying from a dealer or second hand privately some of these items may be come with the purchase.
Main thing is to make sure your car can safely tow the caravan you are thinking of buying and you have somewhere to store it. Insurance is not compulsory but its wise to have it in case the caravan gets stolen or damaged.
There is a register CRIS for caravans but this is voluntary and not all caravans are registered. If a caravan has been recently serviced there will be a damp report - its ESSENTIAL you see it.
BTW caravanning isn't cheap if you have a newish caravan (depreciation) and have to store on a storage compound (£400 upwards per hear). BUT you do get to stay in some fabulously scenic sites and that for me is what makes caravanning/camping so special
Quote: Originally posted by moimeme on 16/3/2024
Hello! We are buying our 1st Touring Caravan. Could you advise about paperwork? Is there any MOT? V5? Which club should we join ? Wheel clamp/lock? Thanks
No MOT or V5 for caravans. As for clubs, that is purely a personal preference. We are members of the Camping and caravan Club, but I think that is mainly because we joined at an exhibition and we came across their stand first. It is not essential to belong to any club if you don't want to. Most insurers will insist on a wheel clamp and hitch lock as minimum. In my opinion it is not worth paying over the odds for these as they are ony really a deterrant to the casual thief. A "professional" caravan thief can get through any of them, so if they really want your caravan they will have it. I think they mainly target new/expensive ones though, although not always. Unless you are buying new, condition is eveything, and you can get just as much fun out of an older one than you can out of a new one. Ours is 32 years old. Whatever caravan you get, enjoy it!
Quote: Originally posted by trog100 on 17/3/2024
my caravan is now 30 years old i have had it ten years now.. to be honest caravan design hasnt changed much over the years..
this all comes down to how much spare money you have laying around but i cant see much sense in buying a new one..
my advice is to buy used.. just make sure you get a damp free one..
trog
I totally agree with all of that, but I would just like to add that there has been very little of any significance added to new caravans since the mid 1980s. Our caravan has everything that most new ones have apart from a microwave and air-conditioning, and many brand new ones don't have those either. Absolutely be very thorough in checking for damp, but from what I have heard older caravans were often better built than many newer ones. I have heard through this website that even some less than 5 year old caravans have serious damp problems, whereas I only discovered damp in mine when it was 30 years old, and I have now fixed that for less than £200 by doing it myself. A younger person could probably have done it in half the time it took me.
I would ask if buying privately if they have a Cris certificate and check it is registered in their name. This will give you some peace of mind it is not stolen. Beware of scammers, do not part with money untill you collect it and satisfied with what you are buying
Make sure you buy a damp meter and know how to use it. We are members of both clubs because we prefer the privately owned 5 van sites, Certificated Locations (CLs) and Certificated Sites(CSs). Affiliated to the Caravan Club and Camping and Caravanning Club respectively. If you go down this route, you can specify what facilities you need from the site search on here or from the Club website. They vary a great deal in quality, so check the reviews.
Hi, the seller is saying he doesn’t have any paperwork. Only both keys. Should I still buy it?
Quote: Originally posted by Colin21 on 17/3/2024
Quote: Originally posted by moimeme on 16/3/2024
Hello! We are buying our 1st Touring Caravan. Could you advise about paperwork? Is there any MOT? V5? Which club should we join ? Wheel clamp/lock? Thanks
No MOT or V5 for caravans. As for clubs, that is purely a personal preference. We are members of the Camping and caravan Club, but I think that is mainly because we joined at an exhibition and we came across their stand first. It is not essential to belong to any club if you don't want to. Most insurers will insist on a wheel clamp and hitch lock as minimum. In my opinion it is not worth paying over the odds for these as they are ony really a deterrant to the casual thief. A "professional" caravan thief can get through any of them, so if they really want your caravan they will have it. I think they mainly target new/expensive ones though, although not always. Unless you are buying new, condition is eveything, and you can get just as much fun out of an older one than you can out of a new one. Ours is 32 years old. Whatever caravan you get, enjoy it!
You don't say anything about the make, model, age or asking price of the van! Buying ANY s/h van has a number of risks, some mentioned above, damp, stolen, outstanding finance (effectively stolen, as technically still owned by finance company!), unroadworthy, unsafe gas/electrics being a few.
Absolutely NO paperwork of any kind rings alarm bells with me! Having the keys means nothing, replacement keys are easily obtained! Genuine owners usually have some paperwork, invoice/bill of sale from when they purchased as a minimum! Most genuine sellers have a 'history' of bills, especially when things like tyres and rubber gas hose should be no more than 5 years old! Sounds like a private sale, and that's very much Caveat Emptor! You purchase entirely at your own risk and with little or no legal comeback if it's not as you expect, even misrepresentation of goods will be down to you to take out a private legal case to reclaim losses! Personally I'd walk away! Plenty of vans available with less risks. If a dealer, then you have some legal comeback under sales of goods laws, but not always easy to exercise if a dodgy dealer, and the caravan industry is far from immune from them!
You can do a little to minimise your exposure to risk, if it's a post 1992 van (assuming a van originally sold on UK market - foreign vans may not have been!) it will at new have been registered in the CRIS scheme, worth checking the VIN number (to be found on window stickers and plate/label on body/chassis (often by the door, on A-Frame or in gas locker) - make sure they ALL tally, and if defaced/missing, run away!) to see if logged as stolen, insurance write off or under uncleared finance arrangement on the CRIS register, not fool proof, but some way to assurance. Secondly, get it checked over by a qualified caravan engineer for roadworthiness and habitation safety! Some expense involved for a van you may well want to walk away from, BUT much cheaper than buying a complete lemon that could be a total loss of your investment! Caravan spares and repairs are pretty expensive, you don't want big bills as soon as you acquire it!
If it's an absolute 'bargain price', WHY! Too good to be true prices are something to be extremely cautious about, marketplace is sufficiently buoyant at the start of the season for sellers to demand and get 'market prices' on anything worth having! If anything, there are as many vans out there worth walking away from as are worth buying, and that extends from nearly new to vintage models. When I was looking for a up to 3 years old van, probably the majority I looked at were not good buys, and that was from dealers, it is a minefield for the unwary.
If you are buying privately I would at least expect to see a receipt for when the caravan was bought, and a few bills. I have those for mine.
My previous caravan cost me £500 and I still got a bit of paperwork with that. Maybe if I was buying from someone I had known well for years I'd be a bit less cautious, but buying from a complete stranger with no paperwork at all, I'd be very wary, especially if I was paying more than I could afford to lose. For me that isn't a lot!
Which club to join is a personal choice, the value for money you seem to get nowadays isn't very good, the only reason I'm in the CAMC is because we use Red Pennant for holiday and breakdown insurance
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Newbie in Touring Caravan
via mobile 16/3/2024 at 10:37pm
It is not essential to belong to any club if you don't want to. Most insurers will insist on a wheel clamp and hitch lock as minimum. In my opinion it is not worth paying over the odds for these as they are ony really a deterrant to the casual thief. A "professional" caravan thief can get through any of them, so if they really want your caravan they will have it. I think they mainly target new/expensive ones though, although not always. Unless you are buying new, condition is eveything, and you can get just as much fun out of an older one than you can out of a new one. Ours is 32 years old. Whatever caravan you get, enjoy it! 
