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Hello. We are thinking of selling our beloved folding camper of 4 years and moving up to a caravan to avoid wet packing up and have a longer camping season.

We have 4 children aged 5-11 (and a dog!) to accomodate and would like to know if anyone has experience of caravanning with 4 children and which layout they found the best with regard to beds etc

Any advice would be most welcome before I spend a fortune on something I may regret :-)

Don't know what your budget is but we've got the 6 berth triple bunk Bailey Ranger 540/6 which is ideal for us.  My son likes to sleep out in the awning so we have the 2 girls on the top 2 bunks and dd's friend on the pull out bed and the dogs sleep on the floor/bottom bunk as that folds up against the side.  It really is a great 'van and very versatile.  We like that we can seperate ourselves from the kids at night.  Don't know what the price is for a 2nd hand one is as they only came out last year.  We got the GT model because we wanted an alko stabiliser and had a motor mover fitted too.  We started off with a 30 year old caravan just to see if we like caravanning then got a newer 20 year old Avondale Leda Malvern which had 2 long bench seats at the back which converted into bunks.  It was a lovely 'van and we were very happy with it.  My advise would be to take a look on ebay for the sort of layout you want and take a look around the dealers to see in the flesh what will suit you best.  When we were looking for our 6 berth i found narrowing my choice down by looking on ebay and then seeing them for real at the dealers the best way.

When it came to getting the Bailey we knew we wanted the 540/6 but when we saw the GT60 we knew that was the one.  I want a 'van that is versatile and adapts with us and the Bailey Ranger 540/6 is it.

You know i thought i recognised the name but assumed it was from other postings lol.  Yeah that was me.  I really ought to look at where people are from when answering posts lol.  I think the fold up top bunks take about 11 stone like the Rangers bunks.

If you buy from Amber Leisure they will throw in a starter pack but you have to ask for it! 

What dealers have you been too? 

We've just had to buy a newer car because there was something up with our old one.  My dh loves his Fords but we did consider other cars.  We realised when we were towing on our holiday that we'd need a newer car so dh got whatcar magazine and every time a car drove past us on holiday we reached for it to see what it had to say about it lol.  We both kept coming back to Fords mainly because of the service and road tax price being so much less than all the rest.  We got it from Fords in Letchworth and were very unimpressed with the customer service.  We were paying a lot of money for our new car but the bloke was always busy with other customers and we almost walked away when it came to picking the car up because he kept us waiting so long. 

Thanks for the tip Ashwell girl . We have looked at Galaxys but we like the sliding doors on the Peugeot/Citroen C8 . We have also looked at some of the smaller MPVs but with maybe getting a caravan too we need a decent tower now as well .

Nothing to do with towing, but if you see this in time, is Ashwell show worth a trip on Monday ??

Hi

We have an Avondale Argente 650-6, and have two kids of 8 and 10.  I love the layout because in the back there's a bench seat one side and a dinette the other. You can either set them up as single beds (our choice), or you can make a double with the pull out bit on the rear chest, or (when you have 4 kids) you make up the 2 single beds with 2 bunks over. And the best bit is that there's a solid wooden door between the back room and the kitchen/living area so the kids aren't disturbed at night (or the parents aren't disturbed in the morning...). 

There's one on ebay at the moment, identical to ours, but they seem to have put two mattresses in the back, in place of the seat cushions, if you want to have a look at the interior.  I must confess the build quality isn't brilliant (they like to use staples/pins that aren't very strong), but my OH is a bit handy at making the weak bits stronger.  And the fridge is only 77litre that got put in all berths from 2-6 (for some really STUPID reason).

It is a big van (twin axle) so you have to watch what you tow it with. Ours is sited so we don't have that problem.  It also has an external electric and gas point which comes in handy, removable carpets and a locker for the microwave.

I did a lot of homework before buying and based on the layout I LOVE MY VAN!!!

Best of luck with the searching, its really exciting looking for a new van

Two friends of mine both have that exact van, they're very happy with it. I really like the floor cupboard with the baskets in, the size of the fridge, and the fact that they have really high-opening overhead lockers (they find it easier than me to store Vodka in them!)

Congrats!