Thinking about buying a touring caravan

u2fanatic

Hi all,
I am married with 2 kids.. considering buying a touring caravan but have no clue of what owning a caravan involves e.g general cost to buy a good second hand one, what type of one should I buy,do I need a specific type/size of car to tow one, do I need a different type of license... I had to google what "berth" meant..thats how green I am.. can anyone help me or at least point me in the direction of a helpful website

autumnalcore

You can check the towing capacity of your car here: https://towcar.info/GB/index.php

As long as the caravan is within the towing capacity of the car and the total combined weight is under 3500kg you can tow on a B licence.

I would advise you to go see as many caravans at dealers as you can to get an idea of what you want there are tons of layouts that you may love or hate.

If you're as green as you say you have an awful lot of learning to do before making any purchase or you need to enlist the help of a person with lots of experience especially if buying privately - hidden damp can make a van worthless and you need to be wary of stolen caravans, e.g. if the id plate is missing - alarm bells. Newer vans would often be CRIS registered https://www.cris.co.uk/home/ for peace of mind but older ones probably not.

Also think about the size and where you're going to store it the 90+% of the year its not in use. And security, caravans are targets for theft and also theft of parts.

If you've never been caravanning then I would advise renting one also you or your partner may decide you hate it.

[edit] Most of the hire places in the north seem to be gone to the wall

https://www.facebook.com/All-Ireland-touring-caravan-Sales-1702725219946225/
http://www.wexfordcaravans.ie/

bridster007

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=104157920

It's well covered in this thread.