I love our caravan

I too would love to own a static van on a nice site somewhere.
We have looked on line at the second hand ones recently, there are a couple around £5-£6000 (obviously very old) then of course there are annual site fees etc., but am I right in thinking that most sites won't allow you to keep them on there after they become a certain age?

Any crunch sound behind makes your heart sink. We thought we'd remembered everything on our first trip away. Coming home we thought the road was particularly noisy then came the crunch. We'd left the jockey wheel down. Cost £30 for the replacement part. Now we check and double check.

It always amuses me to see caravans advertised as having x number of "births", rather than "berths", makes me imagine loads of babies being born in them!

DW and I have had caravans since the mid-eighties and now that we are both retired we spend more time in our caravan than ever - in fact we have just returned from a 28-day trip to Southern Germany and the Austrian Tirol ("Sound of Music" country).

Our latest caravan has a large shower cublcle which DW is able to use despite her disabilities, and with double-glazing and central heating we can go out whatever the weather so there is no "closed" season.

I frequently hear people saying that they would love a caravan but don't think they would be able to tow it, but the reality is that towing is just another skill that has to be learned. Remember when you first started driving (however long ago that was), you didn't just get in the car and drive away - you had lessons in how to do it right. Towing is no different. Any good school of motoring will give towing lessons.

Oh heck Dumpling hope not much damage done, I'm sure it will be fine if it just dropped to the ground,,like you say you will never do it again, maybe one person does all the couplings then the other goes and checks it.I think the front bit the A thingy is pretty robust.

Having become an orphan and come into a bit of dosh we upgraded this year to a new - properly new(!) - 'van. A Swift Eccles Sport. Not top of the range - but it has hot and cold water, good sized loo/shower, heating, good sized fridge, microwave ....... etc. AND a worktop! It's four berth so a bit bigger than the old little one which I found claustrophic in the dark evenings early/late in the year. And, I'm afraid VQ that we have also invested in a TV for those dark evenings.

However - coming away from our last break to Flamborough Head on Friday - we dropped it! We both thought the other had checked the green bit was showing on the hitch - but neither of us had - and it wasn't! An enormous crump as we were leaving and there sat the poor van all left behind! It doesn't seem to have done any damage though other than pulling out that emergency red brake line (it worked!) and loosening the connection for the lights. Booking it in today for a check over. We won't make that mistake again!

German shep aww lovely..as well.
not sure about another bike , may have to wait a while, could do with 4 wheels at the mo rather than 2 lol.

yes whos knows you may see my flying round the country in a little camper van lol adios

Hya Bikergran,aye still got my bike,if I sell my other 2 Vans I could buy a new bike !!! That's a shame you had to sell your bike,will you get another one?.
My Van is a Coachman Mirage,big enough for me and a friend and Zeta my German Shepherd,maybe one day you will get to hire a Motor Home,hope you do ��

what make of van is it....I would love a camper van or motor home, they hire them out at the end of the road from us, think about £80 a day but they are the latest models all singing and dancing.

Couple of pedal bikes on the back and away you go, lovely

Scooter58 love your caravan,,,,, so are you selling the other two

you still got your bike? had to sell mine last week

Thank you Grannyknot,I love it,never ever thought I would own one of my own,Numberplease,had a wee look at your van on your profile page,it's lovely,shame you had to let it go.

I miss ours number we had some super holidays and lots of spur of the moment weekends in Derbyshire, we were walkers then. Then we had a static in North Wales until DH developed his memory problems ,but very happy times.

Our van that we sold a few months ago is on my profile page. It was made in 1993, but was still in fairly good nick, I do wish we hadn`t had to get rid of it, I miss it.

scooter that's a lovely wee van [jealous]

Just in case we didn`t see it the first time?

Think I have managed to upload a photo of my wee van and awning,maybe more than once lol

oooh I really want one .....I would love a campervan ..stop at side of road cup of tea..cook meal...move on....a caravan to stay on a site and while away many happy hours....or a motorhome would be my ultimate dream..might have been a romany in a past life

I have just laughed so much that I spluttered and choked and husband came to see whether I was okay :

I've happily been indulging my fantasy and browsing caravan sites and someone is selling a caravan "with interrogated decking"

I use a slow cooker. Chuck the raw food in. Go out for the day. Come back to a meal.

Cooking is no problem . Lots of BBQs, grills and simple one pot meals. Fish and chips, take aways, the odd meal out.

Cooking wasn`t too much of a chore for me, when on holiday I only used frozen and tinned food, and we had a halogen oven, so cooking times were cut even more, so really no problem. I still have the link to our favourite site in Scotland in my favourites, keep looking at it, although it also makes me sad that we won`t be going there anymore.
www.muasdaleholidays.com

Thanks kitty I will

I want one more than ever since reading this thread.

aww I loved our little caravan,we got it a bit late as didn't get that many chances to go away but e njoyed the times we did, it reminded me of playing in a wendy house, and the food always tasted better, and sat in the awning ain the evening with gals of happy memories

Sounds brilliant, Scooter. When we were looking at caravans the salesman at one store insisted on showing us new vans we couldn't possibly afford. I'm not sure if he thought he could persuade us and sign us up for a credit deal but that's not what we wanted even if we'd have been accepted.

We ended up buying a 2004 van that must have been state of the art when it was new and like a lot of vans we looked at it had hardly been used. I doubt it will be so pristine when we finish with it simply because it will be well used.

Now we craving an inflatable awning. We have a small awning with carbon rods but we want something a bit bigger without being too big and even easier to put up. Also we want to be able to add an annex at a later date when the children become too big for the bunk beds. I think I've found the one for us but now we have to find around £600 so could be a dream for a while longer lol.

I have wanted a caravan for years,had great caravan holidays as a child and have craved a caravan ever since.I dont drive a car,only a motorbike and I had nowhere to store a van.Last year my friend offered me storage if I bought a van and another friend offered to tow it.I bought a small 2 berth and awning last summer,total cost only £750 and managed to get away twice and loved every minute of it.Hoping to get away a few times this summer,thank goodness for good friends.