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 Topic: What caravan for beginner
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26/1/2020 at 7:09pm
Location: East Herts
Outfit: 1992 Elddis Wisp 450CT + X Trail
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First thing to do is determine what your car can legally tow, and that information should be in your handbook.
Fixed beds are nice I'm sure, but they do take up a lot of space.
Don't rule out older vans if you are new to it, as you might find out it's not for you. The more recent the van, the more it will be affected by depreciation. We paid £500 for our last one, kept and used it for 4 years, then sold it for £550. Our current one cost us £1,100, and we could probably sell it for the same or even slightly more. So basically, the newer and more expensive, the more you lose when you come to sell. We started caravanning in the 1970s, so we are not new to it, but we did have a big gap with no caravan until 2013.
Try to keep well within you car's weight limits, as this will make things easier and safer for you. I can't answer your question about licences, as I don't know the weight of you car or the caravan you mention, but if the combined weight exceeds 3,500kg you will need to take another test.
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Best Regards,
Colin
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27/1/2020 at 6:01pm
Location: Midlands
Outfit: 2019 VW Arteon + 2002 Avondale Dart
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You need to start with what your car is capable of towing, and what your driving licence allows you to tow. Rob has touched on this but there is a lot of advice out there that ranges from confusing to just plain wrong.
Firstly, be aware that there are no towing laws that specifically relate to "caravans". They come under "trailers". A Category B "peasant's" licence allows you to tow any type of trailer provided that the maximum permissible weights - note: NOT the actual weights - of car and trailer combined do not exceed 3500kg.
If the Hyundai 1800 is the big people carrier that I think it is, that almost certainly has a high maximum permissible weight (at a guess, approaching 2500kg) simply to allow it to carry that many people and their stuff. This will therefore be restrictive in your choice of caravan and you may struggle to find a fixed bed model that's light enough. The (expensive) solution is to take the 'Category B+E' extended test that increases your licence entitlements to a maximum permissible combined weight of 7000kg, which is more than most caravanners will ever need.
The next thing to consider is the manufacturer's towing limit of your vehicle, which should be on the V5. This is the maximum that you can legally tow, and is based largely on the weight of a trailer that the car can physically move from a standstill on repeated hill starts and have nothing to do with what it will actually handle comfortably on roads or motorways.
The caravanning industry recognises this, and also that caravans, being both long and high-sided are inherently less stable than most other types of trailer. They therefore recommend that the actual towed weight of the caravan - not necessarily the maximum permitted weight although this will probably be close in reality - are kept to less than the kerb weight of the car, even if the towing limit is higher. (If you can't find a figure for kerb weight, mass in service is close enough.) A common recommendation for novice caravanners is an 85% ratio, which is sensible in priciple but extremely crude. It's certainly not the case that 84% equates to guaranteed stability, whilst a ratio of 86%, or even 90%+ doesn't mean that problems are inevitable.
Finally, without wishing to pour cold water on your current thinking, Rose and I - both of who, admittedly, are not exactly small - have so far failed to find a fixed bed that is anything like big enough for us. Most, if not all are notably smaller than a standard domestic double. However, to convert a big front lounge area to a king size bed is the work of less than 10 minutes. We added a £100 mattress topper and I often sleep better on that than I do at home.
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