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Hi me & the wife are looking in to saving & buying our first caravan & upgrading from tents as our son has special needs & we're looking for something we can attach to the car & get away for a break when he goes in to rest bite care & we don't get a great deal of time away to be putting up & taking down the tents.

I have been looking on the usual auction website & on here & am overwhelmed by the amount of makes & models but our problem is that we have a really small budget & not sure what make would be the best value for money when they get older?

Cheers

Ken 

As above .... make absolutely sure that it has no damp, no mildew and no 'hidden damp'.

I don't know what you mean by cheap .... I wouldn't want to venture into the sub £1,000 underworld.

Find out what weight you can tow - luckily older vans seem very light compared to modern equivalents.

Bailey Rangers are always a popular secondhand choice as they offer good value.

Cheers for the input so far, no Alex wouldn't be going with us as we'd just lke a break when he is in rest bite or is in Hospital as he has mental health problems & is on a permanent section3 & when he goes in to hospital we can't visit him for the first few day's as he's in for assessment & our budget is going to be around £500/800 as I had to give up work about 4 years ago to help the wife look after him so don't have much spare cash.

Our tow car is an Omega 2.5 petrol Estate towing capacities are 750kg unbraked & 1600kg braked.

http://www.caravanfinder.co.uk/caravan_search_results.html?Berth=All&minPrice=0&maxPrice=1000&Make=All&Type=All&MaxReturn=300&Location=All

I did a max price £1000 search. Hope it gives you some ideas - whether fleabay is better or worse I wouldn't like to guess!

I will give you the best advice you will ever get.

Last august we decided to upgrade from a tent to a caravan like you on a budget.

We looked at loads at around the £1000 area, and got put of my cosmetic wear on loads, dont let that put you off you can always redo it cheap just like buying an house you can redecorate it.

what is important is that you check their is no damp, invest in a damp meter.

check the heating and water works including hot water becuase on older caravans you need to buy copy parts to make things work and their is no guarntee it works, i tell you this for the following reasons -

we got a 1994 caravan for £1150 looked brilliant inside and out, but we soon found it had damp, we had to strip out and reseal and basically rebuild it, but not that much cost about £500, but it took 4 months of nights and weekends and very time consuming, then the carver water heater does not work, tried things to repair it, but cost money does not work, end of the day not that bad, we have a kettle and much easier to take the plates to the wash are anyway.

other thing to consider is awnings we looked on ebay at loads, but from mostly libary pictures it was too much of a gamble and in the end we purchased a secong hand one that is like brand new fro m a caravan shop for £250, then we needed to buy hard standing pegs, then the rest of the equipment so i think we have ended up spending in total £2500 and i am sure if i sold it all now i would get £2500, but thats not the point we were on a bduget and blew it so be carefull and cosnider everything

With a caravan like that above - I would just do the best thing and buy a Folding Camper.

£2500 can get you a very decent Camper .... so much less to go wrong and you can store in the back of the garage.