Recently back from a glorious couple of weeks in Dorset and the Cotswolds only slightly marred by our caravan which seems to be on a self destruct mission so after a few minutes deliberation over our last supper we decided to trade in our old van. Is 10 years really old I don’t think so but apparently it is and it has become a liability especially with the crazy prices of caravan spares.
So off we went to look at lovely new ones errr 18 k for this 22k for that and look a beautiful one only 25k gulp. Err it’s a bed on wheels mate ! So after much deliberation over a nice cuppa we decided to look at trailer tents. Basically a trailer and tent from 5k to err 20 k very nice too.
After much deliberation over a kitkat we decided to look at tents and to cut a long story short we are campers again. So after 30 years of towing caravans we have returned to our routes haha let’s hope it works for us !!
My caravan is 14 years old and the interior looks as good as the day it came out of the factory plus it does what any modern caravan does. Maybe it is a bed on wheels but yourself having a caravan at 10 years old has still got to be better than lugging heavy camping equipment about and taking longer to set up and I bet you end up with some kind of trailer anyway.
My caravan was a Bailey. Many faults main ones being all 3 front windows de-laminated and letting in water to ruin front pot shelf. Water heater U. S. most of the furniture plastic facing have shrunk considerably I could go on and on
10 years, old??? That's barely run in! Ours is 26 years old and still going strong. Has everything a modern van has with the possible exception of air-con. Doesn't leak either.
Thank you Fiona. I think we have used the shower once in all the years caravaning. Obviously we use the toilet but have a thetford porta potty for the tent. I’m under no illusion we probably will miss certain aspects of the caravan but on a personal level I feel caravan manufacturers and dealers are very blasé about the build quality of there products.
Across the range, new caravans seem to be getting less reliable as the years progress. Our van is in its 7th year, and we will never buy new again. It did go back under warranty for water ingress - the other faults I dealt with myself, applied better quality to prevent repetitive problems. Latest fault is that one of the concertina blind-cum-net assemblies has shot its day. It will be resolved by a cassette where the net and the blind are independent of each other.
Remaining blinds will be dealt with as they fail - not bothered about differences from one window to another.
Bertie.