have spent the day with our inlaws who are looking for a new van, and they fancy a hobby 540ul, which is lovely, the finish,quality and price appear too good to be true, we the younger by a couple of generations have bought a Avondale Eagle L 2005, which we love and which we paid a fortune for, any tips or advice before they part with their hard earned cash for the hobby, i am worried about safety pipework, upholstery, electrics, insurance etc, but dont get me wrong what we saw in the hobby today really surprised me and in some ways put our very expensive much loved van to shame as in value and quality. Love to hear from people who own new hobbys regarding experiences.
It might be an idea if you direct that question to the Hobby Owners Club as it is more of a specialised subject. Much as some of us might love one, most of us have to survive on peons wages I'm afraid and can but dream!
It would seem that from comments in the various caravan forums and the reliability survey by the Caravan Club that Hobby vans are very well made. In Germany they come with a lot less standard equipment but this is often added for the UK market. I am not really familiar with their models but I am aware they make caravans in two widths, 2.3 metres wides which can be towed by a normal car and 2.5 metres wide which require a vehicle of over 3500kgs to tow legally in the UK. So don't think you have to worry about quality.
The things to look for when buying a foreign 'van are mainly the width as you can only tow legally here with a normal car 2.30m wide vans and majority of the range of vans are 2.50 m wide which you can tow with a vehicle with a gross weight in excess of 3500kgs (ie 3501kgs or more).
The 540UL is 2.3 m wide and has a gross weight of 1500kgs
so can be towed with a normal car.
As someone remarked they are not specifically equipped for the UK market as they are sold on the Continent and are fitted out for the European market ... door on wrong side (unless you tour abroad where it is surprisingly on the right side), usually no battery or charging system - loose fit carpets - no Status TV aerial - no radio - micro-wave rather than an oven, plugs (use converters or change them over to UK type) all can be fitted after purchase if needed with the saving that buying in Europe gives you
Then you have the lack of fire retardant upholstery (always makes me laugh that one, when you consider that you are surrounded by wood and light aluminium sheet - duvets, blankets and such like) a good working smoke alarm is much more use and a lot cheaper.
I am in the process of selling my ABI and renewing it with what, I don't know yet - but I am seriously considering a number of foreign 'vans from the value for money angle and the fact I don't really want to pay for things that I don't want or need (eg. car radio/DVD costing whatever when I can get a superior quality compact hi-fi from Comet for less than a quarter of the price, tv aerial (rather have satellite especially with forthcoming switch offs), shower (just a personal thing), to name a few) but I do want an upmarket 'van.
I think this moderating thing is getting really stupid, all i did was to mention another caravanning website and my postings got deleted, i hope i dont meet any of the so called moderators of this site on a real campsite, why dont you people grow up i would expect this from kids, not from experienced caravanners, this world is full of knowledge and if you lot dont want to learn from a vast amount experienced people in this vanning world then its a sad thing.
i did go onto the website you suggested, and thank you,and have emailed them a couple of questions, if you can get past the exterior of a hobby what a delight inside, everything solid and modern which is a refreshing change, also agree i posted a review of a site we stayed on last August bank holiday which was a disgrace and low and behold negative review not printed, although all positive have so far been printed. a campsite overlooking Pooley Bridge overpriced overbooked complained got nowhere £25-£30 a night facilities dirty and poor.
anyway disregard above, getting away from subject,we would very much like anybodies experience in buying a new hobby van, problems, pitfalls or positive feedback, thanks again, Angie
I think the hobby is a great caravan but having already had a caravan stolen it would make me a nervous wreck to own one as they do seem to be prefered by caravan thieves .I have heard that this does reflect on the price of insurance also .But if that doesn't bother you well you have got one hellova caravan for the money.
As I understand it though, it's legal to tow a caravan or trailer with a width of up to 2.3 metres on UK roads. A lot of the Hobbies are 2.5 metres wide and you should tow with a commercial vehicle weighing over 3500kgs.
we looked into buying a hobby as they are gorgeous and spacious but a lot of sites we normally go to dont accept them and they reckon they are popular to theives,but you could always check with an insurance company
our inlaws are about to order their hobby, quoted from uk dealer £12,500, shopped around on the internet and have found someone who will import the same model spec etc., uk mods., and will deliver to m25 for £10,000, still concerned for them, any advice or has someone dealt with similar methods?
We have owned a hobby 450 uf for 12 months and it has been excellent so far.It tows like a dream and has amazing build quality.The interior is very functional and easy to keep clean which it needs to be with two kids.It is more basic than the English vans but I think it is more appealing to the younger generation.Our van has a fixed bed which is far more comfortable than the bed at home and a u shaped lounge ensures there is plenty of seating area.The only compromise is in the washroom which is small but as we use fully serviced sites it is no problem .Insurance is fine just go through cc club.As far as not being allowed on some sites we have never had any probs
hi ,i think the hobby's are really nice ,we are looking for a van and i keep coming back to them. they look so big. the only thing that bothers me is weather they are excepted on all sites.and my other half said that the traveling people use them a lot. which does not bother me but he thinks they would be more open to being stolen ,iknow i should not say that but just want onest post from you guys out .what do you think? sparkle.
the reason travellers use them are obvious, its because they live 24/7 in them, so they have to be solid and reliable, we looked on the hobby owners website as recomended by someone above and one post says that in a secure compound of the caravans the 3 stolen were all hobbys! And the reason they look big is the width on some are to wide to be towed with average cars legally.
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: hobby caravans
