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Bit of a daft question here, I've been watching a caravan on ebay, thing is what I know about caravans would fit on the back of a postage stamp with room left over! I'm thinking of going down the route of a caravan on a seasonal pitch.

Does anyone know of someone that can check a caravan out?

You can find a mobile caravan engineer on http://www.mobilecaravanengineers.co.uk/

They will check one over for a fee, will damp test it, check things are working etc. but will not give you an indication of the price as that is between you and the seller.

You may not know much about caravan's but in asking if there is someone who can check it out for you is a very good move :)

You can go and look at a caravan and think its lovely and buy it and then find no end of problems :(

Getting it checked out by a professional who will give you a report on its condition will give you peace of mind that you are buying something worth the money :)

Click Here and then scroll down seven posts to one of my earlier ones which sets out the key legal matters to consider when buying a van. It's not just about looks and damp, there are, potentially, other pitfalls. Best to be aware of them.

Decide not to buy the first one you see. Try thinking, I won't buy until I've seen at least five or six. That way you will start to get a real feel for just what you want from a caravan in terms of layout, size, weight etc etc.

Phil

Thanks for all the advice.

Having spent an awful amount of time on the net reading about caravans I'm starting to think that buying from a dealer is actually the safest option. It seems all too easy to sell a stolen caravan to someone like me that hasn't got a clue!

We've seen a dealer not too far away that gives a 6 month warrenty with the caravans so thats something.

We emailed the link to get someone out to view a caravan for us, they emailed back asking what area it was in so I told them and havent heard from them since.

We've found a site with seasonal pitches, i explained about buying a tourer to go onsite, they emailed back saying they know of two tourers onsite that are going to be sold. She has said she would find out the details for us if we were interested, and needless to say we are. but again we are stuck in not being able to get it properly checked out.

What area are you looking in?

If you find a caravan already on a site you will need to contact an engineer in that area. Is there a caravan dealers in the area of the site that has the tourers on? If so try contacting them to see if they will go out to the site to do a check? 

If its been on a site all year (maybe longer) and never moved then make sure that the tyres and braking system in particular are checked over. At the end of the season you may have to move the van and the tyres may have developed flat spots.

Phil