Motorhome buying advice

JimmyVik

Having looked at mobiles in parks with eyewatering costs we have started looking at motorhomes.
Totally new to this though.


We were thinking of a 4 berth in the region of €30k. Something like this for example.


https://www.motorhomedepot.com/vehicle/2008-itineo-lb690


Do you need anything above a normal drivers license for these?
The other thing is where to keep it.
Has anyone ever got one of these and stored it somewhere else when not using it. The kind of place you just drive to. Leave your car there and take the motorhome out? What would you end up paying per year for that kind of stuff and is it easy to find?

spaceHopper

Under 3.5 ton fully loaded is permitted on a B license so for the most part you are ok but don't take that for granted check the weight and leave margin for the 4 people and gear. You will never be check here but you could be in France... You could always get a C license.
Insurance is via broker group schemes like Dolmen I pay 400 for open drive. I makes no difference if it worth 1 euro or 100000 it's the same.
Road tax is 108 a year.
DOE test every year is under 98
You can get storage some indoors some in a yard and it const wards of 60 a month.
You need to your layout and what you want. The one you linked is an A-Class and if the windscreen ever breaks they are expensive and hard to get.

Be extremely careful of scams and also people selling stolen campers
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058088314

Top Dog

JimmyVik wrote: »

We were thinking of a 4 berth in the region of €30k. Something like this for example.


https://www.motorhomedepot.com/vehicle/2008-itineo-lb690

That one is priced in sterling, located in Antrim and mentions a valid MOT - all of which would suggest that it's either UK or Northern registered. That means that on top of currency conversion you'll also have to allow for VRT cost too.

CJhaughey

Those Itineos with the drop down bed are a bit of a disaster, they are very poorly built, I would advise staying away from them.
In general A-class are very space efficient but once they get to be a few years old parts can be a nightmare, windscreens can be unobtanium and super expensive when available.

CelticRambler

JimmyVik wrote: »

Having looked at mobiles in parks with eyewatering costs we have started looking at motorhomes.
Totally new to this though.


<snip>

Do you need anything above a normal drivers license for these?
The other thing is where to keep it.

There are an awful lot of "other things" that you need to think about besides licence and storage. The golden rule is: "try before you buy" because if you're the kind of person who likes to rent a mobile in a caravan park for a week or two, that's an entirely different type of holiday to touring in a MH. Apart from the difference between a touring holiday versus a stop-and-stay trip, if you're used to jumping in the car and doing lots of little excursions every day, you need to bear in mind that with a MH you'll need to pack up your entire accommodation every time you want to do that.

In addition, while it might be perfectly legal to drive a vehicle such as the one in your link on a B licence, that doesn't mean it's as easy as driving a car. Only a couple of weeks ago, I saw a guy take the rear corner off his shiny new A-class by not reversing far enough out of the bay before swinging into the road and so pivoting the overhang into a lamp-post (which probably wouldn't have been visible on a reversing camera due to the way he manoeuvred). One of my cousins also managed to take the roof off an overcab on his first day out (with a rented vehicle) because he'd never had to pay attention to "low bridge" warnings before, so didn't ...

Get yourself and the family out to a few dealers' forecourts or (when they start again) a motorhome fair, get inside several different models and role-play various aspects of an imaginary holiday (cooking meals, getting the children ready for bed, setting up on site, packing up ... )

And read back through all the similar queries on this forum about this particular leap into the unknown.

Buford T Justice

spaceHopper wrote: »

Under 3.5 ton fully loaded is permitted on a B license so for the most part you are ok but don't take that for granted check the weight and leave margin for the 4 people and gear. You will never be check here but you could be in France... You could always get a C license.

Just to point out that a C licence is of no benefit to you if the van is rated at 3.5 tonne. That's the limit for a B licence yes, but if the van is rated to 3.5 and you're heavier than that it doesn't matter - you're overweight which is an offence.

JimmyVik

Thanks guys.
Great advice.
We will keep looking.
I guess we need to go see a few alright.