looking for a motorhome, need an advice

mikhael

Hi, I am new in that section.

I tell you, what do I want, and hope, you can advice me.
First of all, I come to the stage, when I do not need to get to the office to make my income.
I have an internet based shop, which I can run from anywhere, do repair jobs on the laptop and computers, and data recovery. All of my equipment, including data recovery equipment, designed for mobile work.
Which means, I can do all of the works from the van or motorhome, except cases, when hard disk has to be disassembled. For the cases, like this I have a lab at home with small clean room. Pretty often I have travel to different parts of Ireland to do my work and stay there for 2-3 days.
Also, i have a family, with two boys aged 5 and 7.
What do i want.
I want to buy a motorhome, so I could do majority of all the works from there, and at the same time to be at home. I think, for the customer it is a kind of advantage, as well, as he would be able to see me out of his office window and, at the same time, I am not hanging in his office and do not distract his receptionist with small talks.
Now, here are some questions.
Which type of motorhome should i have a look for?
The vehicle has to be serviced easy enough, with parts available locally. it has to have 4 sleeping spaces, or at least, three, as i mean to use it as a family motorhome, as well.
Where can i keep the motorhome safely?
This is a major question.
I live in dublin-8, it would be nice to find some kind of non-expensive parking in dublin, so I could drive to there on my car, leave the car on the parking and drive away on the motorhome. when coming back, leave the motorhome on the parking and drive away on the car.
Is it possible to buy, register and insure the motorhome on the company name?
I mean, I have a vehicle, registered as commercial and purchased on the company name.
as I know, to buy a camper, I need to have an everyday car. Would be commercial vehicle considered, as a first car, if I buy a motorhome for a company?
I will come to insurance company and revenue with that question, as well, but your opinion wanted.
Can I put a commercial advertising on the motorhome
Like a website address, phone number, short description of business

Thanks, very much, in advance for your patience

dowtchaboy

You need to be careful about using it for business. Most of the information you will find here is about leisure use. I know my insurance is quite specific about it not covering business use, or for carrying anything commercial though to be honest nobody really cares or checks that. You probably can get commercial insurance - it will be a lot more than €330. I do not know if the special road tax rate of about €85 applies to commercial use - I suspect it does not. I have seen one campervan used quite obviously for business - Cully & Sully who do upmarket TV dinners have a cheekily painted campervan I've seen around when they are doing demonstrations in supermarkets etc.

Security: really camper vans are not secure - it is really very easy for someone to break in if they really want to - you have light aluminium or plastic walls, plastic windows, light locks - so I doubt you will be able to get much insurance coverage for tools and contents

Good to have: Extra leisure battery, solar charger, a really good shower (important - the rest of us are on holiday so we can be a little unkempt and even whiff a bit!!).

A good directional WiFi antenna -I have a few ideas here as I was thinking of something similar to yourself a while back - if the van you buy happens to have a rotatable sat dish (NOT a diamond plate) you can probably use a BiQuad antenna at the focal point, turn the dish "upside down" (few people seeing this will realise the significance) and pick up WiFi from quite a distance away.

Make of camper? I could not advise you. There are lots of good value campers coming on the market especially LeftHandDrive - and from your name and 'accent' I am guessing that this would not be a problem for you! Maybe a "low-profile" van would be less obvious - that is one of the ones that has storage but not sleeping above the cab. Some of the Hymers and others have interesting devices where the bed swings down from above the cab over the seats.

Good luck with it! As I said I had ideas myself for a business that did not require "bricks & mortar" office - I always fancied myself "working" in a camper, on the Internet while camped above Fanore or Ballyferriter, and nobody knowing where I was...!

mikhael

Thanks for your reply and info provided. I do not care about RHD or LHD, I manage well on both sides. I would be happy to re-register motorhome or campervan, as commercial vehicle, but could not find any info on that. I will go to revenue tomorrow and will check it out with them. I considered conversion of a normal van to the camper in accordance to my needs, but as stated above, I want to be able to use it as family camper, as well.
So I would need at least 4 seats with the seat belts. And, as you said already, there are plenty of good value campers on the market, so why not buy it instead of build?
I think, I would be able to convince the revenue man to re-register camper to workshop, but it still does not take off the major problem - safe parking. I wrote for the quote with Elephant storage company, but not sure it will works at all. There is another possibility, the places, where people keep their boats, but again, I'm not sure about it.

mikhael

I've got a quote from Elephant, it is 40+VAT per week for motorhome secure parking, not garaged, thought

mikhael

well, its summer, most of you, guys, on the road
but i hope there are some people still read the forum and could answer my question

there is an advertising at donedeal http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/caravans/947186
that van has a uk reg. would it be possible to register it in ireland, as a campervan?

paddyb

yes its possible but you will have to pay vrt.
€50 if its over 3 tonnes or about 13% of the open market price if its under. Open market price is calculated by the revenue so it may be a higher value than you paid for the van.
There are a few other requirements, the main one is the height inside - i think it has to be 1.8m

mikhael

paddyb wrote: »

There are a few other requirements, the main one is the height inside - i think it has to be 1.8m

thats what i worry about.
i don't think, there is 1.80 of height.
so, if there is not, i will not be able to register it, as a camper?

paddyb

I dont think so. I would ask the seller why they have not registered it yet as if you are caught with uk reg it could be taken off you.

mikhael

thanks, paddyb
the owner (woman) says that she has no money to spend for registering it in ireland, but insist that van can be registered, as a camper

mikhael

Guys, what would you say about that?
Does it cost the price asked?
http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/caravans/897506

BTW
I did check with VRO on re-registration of motorhome to the mobile office or mobile workshop, it is possible, for the price, off course. They will need to weight the vehicle and make a pictures after conversion to mobile office. They did not give me any price yet.
After re-registration the tax will be paid, as for mobile workshop or mobile office, and vehicle can be used at city, as normal commercial vehicle.

mikhael

guys?

killalanerr

its very hard to give an opinion on a van you havent seen ,what some think is a grate deal others would not go near with a big pole,

as some one who has just bought a m/h recently the advice i would give is calculate your budget look at lots of vans in this range and consider buying in uk or Germany

martyc5674

That van may be a really clean van...and it does look it but unfortunately the asking price is unrealistic to me.
If thats ~ your budget you should pick up something more modern very easily.