Newbie to Caravans

average_runner

Hi All,

So last year was our first year camping with the kids and we loved it. We did the 3 bank hol wekeends and obviously the weather helped.

But I am a realistic, in that I know we probably won't get lucky like that for a long time so was thinking about buying a caravan.

We live in Dublin in case location is important.

I have a few questions:

• Would you advise to buy a new caravan or second hand?
• If second hand, what should we look out for and how old would you go?
• Is it hard to drive with a caravan, should i do a course?
• Any good storage areas as we will hope to travel to Kilkenny and Wicklow mainly next year?
• Any other tips?

I know there is alot of questions there, but any advice would be great.
Thanks

Alkers

Have you got somewhere to keep a caravan?
Towing is handy enough once you have a decent car, it can be tricky getting the hang of reversing but most caravans can be moved by hand with two people if needed. What car have you?
I would definitely go second hand before forking out for a new caravan before you know how much use you're likely to get out of it. The price of a new caravan would cover a lot of annual holidays!

average_runner

Simona1986 wrote: »

Have you got somewhere to keep a caravan?
Towing is handy enough once you have a decent car, it can be tricky getting the hang of reversing but most caravans can be moved by hand with two people if needed. What car have you?
I would definitely go second hand before forking out for a new caravan before you know how much use you're likely to get out of it. The price of a new caravan would cover a lot of annual holidays!

From April to Oct we will keep it in our drive way and then locate storage for the other months.

We drive a KIA Sportage.

Thanks

Alkers

Without knowing the year and model of your sportage, assuming it's at most 2,000kg - this leaves you with 1,500kg for a max gross caravan weight under your licence (assuming you've a . However, the towing capacity of the sportage may in fact be less than this.

As a first step, find out the kerb weight and towing capacity for your car, available from here: http://www.uktow.com/towing%20capacity.asp?make=Kia&model1=Sportage but check against your user manual also.

This will determine the max weight of caravan that you can tow legally with your licence and tow vehicle. Once you know this you can start looking at the various options available.

If it was me I would look to spend about €5k which seems to be the sweet spot in terms of value/condition. Anything less than this can be a bit of a gamble. If you buy something now in the off season and it isn't a lemon you should make most of your money back in a year or two if you sell during the summer as most of the depreciation will have taken place already. If you get the bug you can always upgrade to a newer caravan in a year or two.

Do your research for storage fees also, can be dear enough, especially considering the value of the caravan.

There are other options compared to a caravan also - trailer tents, folding campers, campervans etc.

We have a Mazda Bongo that we use for weekends away and also a Conway Cruiser we use if staying places a little longer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDCvBR8M-5U

We changed to the folding camper from the caravan because the caravan was a pain to have stored, used so much fuel when towing etc. Trailer tents are a lot cheaper again but they're a lot more hassle setting up and in some cases you're still sleeping on the ground as in a tent.