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Well by a stroke of luck, and a bolt out of the blue today, I have been offered the chance to upgrade our caravan, thanks to my dear old Dad who has realised that a fixed bed and separate shower layout would be much better for my needs, as my mobility is slowly declining, and I really do need the extra space that a fixed bed would give me for a snooze during the day, without having to make up the bed everytime, plus a lightweight wheelchair would be easier to stow under a fixed double if needed.

My dream caravan, after owning one about 10years ago would be a nice Coachman, but all of the fixed bed models are far to heavy for our car to tow, and we cannot afford to upgrade the car as well, and anyway, we are quite happy with it both solo and as a towcar.

So, after trawling the net this morning we are now looking at possibly buying a new lightweight caravan, fixed double bed, max length around 22ft, duel fuel heating, separate shower, prefarably under 1200kg (we curently tow 1150kg no problem)  so the Venus, Eldiss Explore, Sprites, ect are what we are looking at for the moment, but not the Bailey Orion as OH likes a van with a decent sized front locker.

so does anyone own such a model, and how do you find it?

Julia

Thankyou both of you, we have taken a look at the Adria, but OH prefares something a little more tradional, hes not really a minimalist Ikea style person, and likes the look of real wood 'vaneers' and carpet under his feet.

We are off to Robinsons of Chesterfield tomorrow to have a look at the Venus, we are not in any hurry to change, and can afford to wait until the end of the season and the sales.

Venus, Have you had any faults or problems with your caravan? Would you recomend one to a friend?

Thanks,

Julia  

Well we took a trip upto Robinsons this morning, dropped our caravan off for a service, and had a quick look around their yard, we couldnt stay as long as we would have liked to have done as it was pouring down with rain and both of us have dreadful colds, but it gave us a bit of an idea of what we would be looking for.

Sadly no larger Venus models in stock, and quite a nice selection of midrange caravans that were simply too heavy for our car. Over the next few weeks, we plan to take a trip down to our local Eldis dealer, and have a look inside a 4 berth Explore.

We are in no big hurry to trade up, and having bought 2 of or previous caravans from new out of the end of season sales, we may well do the same again, and start some serious shopping from September onwards. We bought our Coachman on a cold foggy day in November, and towed it home in the snow just before Christmas, saving us a large chunk of money off the asking price for doing so, likewise our very first brand new caravan was a September sales purchase, so we may well do the same again.

Julia  

Its the new ones Angel, although my OH now prefares the Elddis Explore 530, just a pity that they are as rare as Rocking Horse poo around the dealers at the moment, looks like we may have to wait for next years models coming into stock in the autumn.

Julia