Kitchen Garden Forum

Feeling that I have at least one last adventure in me at the ripe old age of 71 I researched the possibility of buying a motorhome.With my wife being disabled and wheelchair bound I need a motorhome to suit her needs.What a rip off this market seems to be.The cost of a m/h is horrendous.
Looking at non-converted motorhomes a 30 year old rust bucket will set you back £5000+,20 year old £15-20000,10 years or younger£30-50000+ and new ones stupid money and to convert it for a disabled person £20000 plus.Do you buy from a dealer or private advantages and disadvantages in both methods.What extras do you want fitted to your m/h? A solar panel to charge your habitation battery or batteries if you have two.Satnav upgrade to truck mode,satellite arial,television but all this adds to the payload.
Ah,the payload;the difference between the weight of the m/h and the loaded weight i.e if the m/h is rated at 3500kg and weighs 3000kg then only 500kg of equipment,food,clothes,wife etc can be loaded.Then there is the m/h insurance where they want to know everthing but give back very little if you claim,will only cover you for 90 days abroad unless an exhorbitant premium is paid if going for longer and extra for certain countries.Do stop at camping sites etc or wildcamp.
Storage is another problem, on your drive,on the street,in a field or a storage facility,should it be powered by Fiat,Ford,Peugeot,Mercedes be it a van conversion,A class.low profile,coachbuilt.How many berths?Fixed beds,dropdown beds put and take down beds.A minefield but if I could afford one I would be gone tomorrow on that one last adventure.But....
if I win the lottery on Saturday I can buy my boat.Now one engine or two,diesel or petrol,how big and where to berth......................

Spooky ,I've just been through the same mill myself ,at present my wife is not allowed to fly we have a small place in Spain it's half way up a mountain well away from holiday makers we need to get there even if it's just to sell it ,I thought a motor home would be ideal a slow trip through France we could even take the dog we inherited after our daughter passed away but the prices are astronomical in the end we bought a touring caravan but even they are way over priced

Me too, I decided against it, but a pal in the village has just bought one, going halves with his sister and her hubby, so all the bills are halved they don't go together, so you could say they are both getting full use of it. You can hire one, but the cost of that is silly money too. We now bed and breakfast as we go on long journeys or use travel lodges, it's cheaper.

Tigerburnie ,if it was just myself and my wife we would do the same but we have Ben our sheep dog ,there is not many places that would allow dogs especially ones that continuously leave hair everywhere that apart he is a great dog on top of that I'm not keen on kennels and both my other daughters work long hours and have dogs of their own

Yes a motor home seems an ideal way of touring around the country but there are disadvantages apart from cost. We have friends who've had one for several years. However they live in a very well heeled area and their neighbours object to the sight of the monster permanently parked on their driveway so on both sides of their house massively tall hedges have been planted to grow up to hide the sight of it. So now they and their motor home are totally hedged in and their front garden looks very dark and shaded.