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 Topic: Caravan recommendations under 1250kg
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01/6/2018 at 2:23pm
Location: Midlands
Outfit: 2019 VW Arteon + 2002 Avondale Dart
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This is just my opinion, but with your young children I wouldn't touch a 4-berth fixed bed with the proverbial barge pole. They sell themselves as 4-berths because the front seats can be made up into a double bed, but - leaving aside the fact that as a child, I would have happily murdered my younger sister before having to share a double bed with her - it means that after you have put the kids to bed, there is nothing you can do except go to bed yourselves also. The fixed beds in most caravans are way, way smaller than domestic double beds and Rose and I, who are used to a king size bed at home (and admittedly, neither of us are exactly small) couldn't hope to sleep comfortably on one.
Look instead for a van with bunk beds (either fixed or with a small dinette area that can be made into them) and a large lounge area at the front and you'll have plenty of space to relax in the evenings. Making the seats up into a double bed really isn't that hard. Buy yourself a good quality mattress topper (£100 at most) and you'll have a large comfortable bed for the night.
The other point to make is that you'll be asking a lot of a small car with a 1.6 diesel to cope with the extra 1200kg or so of caravan for long distances across France and Germany. The manufacturer's towing limit is the MAXIMUM your car can legally tow, is determined using trailers and not high-sided caravans and is based more on what it can move from a standing hill start than what will be comfortable at motorway speeds. Put simply, it will feel underpowered.
If you can upgrade to either a large estate car with a 2.0 diesel offering 140/150bhp or so (we've towed to Switzerland and around Ireland using a VW Passat and it's brilliant) or small SUV such as Tiguan or Kuga if that's your preference, it will tow far more comfortably, will easily cope with weights of up to about 1400kg and legally tow a lot more.
Sorry that I've given you the answer that is going to cost the most money, but isn't that always the way ... ?!
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