Winter motorhome

Ahimsa08

Hi to anyone who can help..
I'm looking to buy a motorhome..
I've always wanted one but still have very little knowledge of them..
I'm a mature student and my plan is to live in it for the next few yrs from Sept tru to May... 3 to 4 nights a week..
Any advice.. needless to say I'm needing the cheapest I can get..
I'm not hugely fussy but would like one that has bed over cabin.. handyness sake.. one I can use without hook up to mains.. I don't mind making trip to UK, Germany or Belgium..
Would welcome any advice about any aspect from winter living to vrt..

Thanks all
Anne

*Kol*

Ahimsa08 wrote: »

Hi to anyone who can help..
I'm looking to buy a motorhome..
I've always wanted one but still have very little knowledge of them..
I'm a mature student and my plan is to live in it for the next few yrs from Sept tru to May... 3 to 4 nights a week..
Any advice.. needless to say I'm needing the cheapest I can get..
I'm not hugely fussy but would like one that has bed over cabin.. handyness sake.. one I can use without hook up to mains.. I don't mind making trip to UK, Germany or Belgium..
Would welcome any advice about any aspect from winter living to vrt..

Thanks all
Anne

I dont have any advice about living in a MH for the winter as I have never done this. However some questions would come to mind if i were contemplating it. Not in any particular order, just as they come into my head.

• Where are you going to park?
• How are you going to keep the battery charged if you are not going to be hooked up?
• I would imagine it could get fairly chilly and full of condensation in the middle of winter.
• Where will you empty the toilet cassette and waste water?
• How will you survive without 220v electricity 4 days a week for 9 months? Surely you have a laptop, phone, IPOd etc to be charged?

My thoughts only. Maybe you should open a separate thread for this question?

Ahimsa08

*Kol* wrote: »

I dont have any advice about living in a MH for the winter as I have never done this. However some questions would come to mind if i were contemplating it. Not in any particular order, just as they come into my head.

• Where are you going to park?
• How are you going to keep the battery charged if you are not going to be hooked up?
• I would imagine it could get fairly chilly and full of condensation in the middle of winter.
• Where will you empty the toilet cassette and waste water?
• How will you survive without 220v electricity 4 days a week for 9 months? Surely you have a laptop, phone, IPOd etc to be charged?

My thoughts only. Maybe you should open a separate thread for this question?

Hey Kol..

Cheers for de reply..
Good questions.
I'm advertising to park in a farmers field so I'll prob have 15min drive in and out to college every day as well as the 1-2hr trip down every Monday and same back every Thurs or Fri but to be honest I've no idea whether this will be enough to charge battery.. other option is small generator.. do most seem to have them????
I'm joined gym in college and go every morning so I shower there anyway..
I'm in college til 9pm every night (I know, I know shouldn't be advertising dat but hey it's true) so will only need elec for bout hour a day..
Loo.. not sure how often will need changing but again won't be there much at all...
Heat wise... some advertise double glazing, solar panals, gas fires.. all seems doable..
Hope so!

All my info's based on just lookin stuff up so would welcome any info for real..

Anne

*Kol*

Ahimsa08 wrote: »

Hey Kol..

Cheers for de reply..
Good questions.
I'm advertising to park in a farmers field so I'll prob have 15min drive in and out to college every day as well as the 1-2hr trip down every Monday and same back every Thurs or Fri but to be honest I've no idea whether this will be enough to charge battery.. other option is small generator.. do most seem to have them????

Could be if you don't plan on getting back till 9 every evening. A little generator would be handy. I dont know much about them. A good one is really expensive. I'm not sure how good or bad the cheap ones are.

Ahimsa08 wrote: »

Loo.. not sure how often will need changing but again won't be there much at all...

Depends how much you go! :P If left in the tank it will start to smell no matter how much chemicals you put in.

Ahimsa08 wrote: »

Heat wise... some advertise double glazing, solar panals, gas fires.. all seems doable.. ...Hope so!

You wouldn't leave the heat on all night tho. They do have double glazing but it would never be as good as a house. Hope it works out

Ahimsa08

Ok.. ok..
I know you're right.. it will be freezin..
But I sometimes think if you want something enough you'll figure a way out to make it happen..
For the moment I'm checking out every possibility but I may have to resign myself to the fact that it's not doable..
Anyhow onto more practical terms.. loo needs changin.. are we talking every day.. every second day?? I get that it depends on use of course... but ball park estimate???
Den de price of battery.. what's expensive??
Hope I'm not annoying wit all de Q's..

dowtchaboy

Would welcome any advice about any aspect from winter living to vrt..

Couple of notes - I've been looking at this myself as I intended to do this by leaving my van in Wales and flying over every week to go to a college there:

I suspect you should steer clear of home conversions - or at least check the insulation in them thoroughly. But I have never found Ireland, at least anywhere near the South coast, so cold that I could not use my camper during winter. You will need to be rigorous though in airing it where possible, haul out all bedding and so on when ya get home at the weekend and so on, as the moisture you drag in on your clothes and the condensation could build up.
Do be sure if you are getting a very old van, or a home conversion, that the gas fire vents to outside and uses a heat exchanger - this keeps gas, and the byproducts of combustion such as water, out of the van. Heating the van by lighting the rings is bad as your get water vapour condensation.

Battery - I use a DC-DC converter (mine was €16 from ALDI but I recommend you spend a bit more for a higher spec one) as it is more efficient than getting an inverter (12VDC to AC) and sticking a AC to DC power brick on it. I find that my laptop, if it was fully charged in the first place, can go on for 6 hours or more with the DC-DC unit keeping it topped up - that's with internet useage or watching a DVD - you may get more if you throttle it down, set minimum battery useage configuration in the power options and are say just typing in text. This DC_DC unit has a USB outlet too for charging iPods, phones etc.
Leaving the laptop or phones connected when driving also charges up their batteries.
If you do most of your work in college and you don't play music too loud or too long I think you will be OK. Oh - you may well benefit by getting a brand new leisure battery - there are 2 batteries in a camper - one for starting the engine and doing all the driving functions, and one for the camper part called a leisure or deep-cycle battery. Oh - get yourself a spare fanbelt - I reckon the extra loading that occurs in camper having 2 batteries to charge causes these belts to go faster than usual.
I would not go for a generator unless you really have to - they are relatively cheap (B&Q had one recently and ALDI had one a few months ago) - but they are noisy, attract attention (you do want to keep a low profile, don't you?) and smelly to haul around. Get your camper cables, and a very long one or a mains extension lead, make up converter bits for plugging into mains at home, and who knows where else?

You might need to change some of the lights, especially if the previous owners put in halogen spots - flourescents or the new LED lights are low power drain, though for reading it might be worth keeping one incandescent type.

Insurance - do NOT use the words LIVING when talking to the insurance people - your policy specifically forbids living fulltime in the van - exactly what constitutes fulltime is not clear so don't bring it up! Also - one of the insurance providers requires you to be insured on another vehicle - however you can be a NAMED driver on someone else's policy. That might be important when you and your partner are making car insurance decisions.

Loo - maybe I am a very clean-living fragrant person (!) but I reckon with just one person in the van, and using College facilities as much as possible, you could get through your 3/4 days at college without needing to unload the loo (but ya gotta remember to do it when you get home!).

Cold - one thought - what the Americans call a comforter (a light duvet basically) works a treat if you are sitting up reading or watching TV/DVD on your laptop.
Good luck - I think you could make this work for you.
db.

peasant

In my opinion, there is only one reasonably cheap way of doing this:

The farmer that is supposed to rent you the space in his field will also have to rent you access to electricity (and his cesspit for emptying your loo.:D)

That way you can have heat and light without having to spend a fortune on all sorts of little helpers.

Another thing to consider is that farmers fields during winter time will become bottomless muddy pits and there is no way you will be driving in and out of it every day. You will have to have some sort of hard stand.

As for the motorhome: I'd advise to spend as little as you can on a working, but old motorhome. Living in it for a few years will take its toll and it will be very tired afterwards. So don't spend too much, you probably won't be able to sell it on when you're done with it.

peasant

Here is a possible candidate for you;

http://home.mobile.de/home/showDetails.html?id=64151538&__lp=1&scopeId=AV&sortOption.sortBy=makeModelDescriptionSortField&sortOption.sortOrder=ASCENDING&makeModelVariant1.searchInFreetext=false&makeModelVariant2.searchInFreetext=false&makeModelVariant3.searchInFreetext=false&siteId=GERMANY&damageUnrepaired=ALSO_DAMAGE_UNREPAIRED&customerIdsAsString=453847&lang=de&pageNumber=1&partnerHead=true&showZip=false&showModels=false&hideVehicleType=false

It's ancient, but a good make with a glassfibre body (so no rot) and a Mercedes engine ...it should be servicable for a few more years. Four grand plus another 1- 2 k in VRT ...not bad.

BrenCooney

hi Anne,
I lived in my camper for the guts of 4 months (Beginning of Sept to start of Jan) while waiting for a house sale and purchase to go through after taking on a new job. I put in a small LCD TV, Sat dish, small portable DVD player and got wireless for the laptop and bobs your uncle or aunt. I also got a small electric heater which could be set to low or high output. I would agree with peasant in that having an electrical hookup would be esential. With it I weathered heavy frost and storm force winds (parked 500 m from coast without much shelter) without a problem. Just leave the roof vents open a touch during the day to veltilate the living area and condensation should not be a problem. With daily house cleaning the place was kept clean and very livable and the few visitors I had thought this was a brilliant idea (freedon to watch what you want, when you want). I even managed to cook dinner every evening and with a large glass of wine on hand the evenings quickly passed flicking the box, reading and star gazing with a pair of binoculars.
Without electricity however it would have been purgatory.

hope this helps:).

BrenC