Key questions 10 things to consider before you buy
Whether you’re a newbie or an old hand, before you purchase a caravan you need to ask yourself these 10 key questions, to work out which outfit will be the right one for you
1 Will you need to change your car?
First and foremost – and especially if you are new to towing a caravan – you should follow the 85% guideline (see p133).
This states that when fully laden, the caravan should not weigh more than 85% of the car’s kerbweight – so you need to find out the latter figure before you can start to consider which caravan to buy.
If you find a caravan that fits this rule with your existing car, all you have to do is fit a towbar (if it doesn’t have one already).
2 What are you going to use the van for?
This is much more than just a question of deciding how many people are going to be sleeping in it, and going from there.
For example, it might surprise you to know that some caravanners don’t view being in a caravan as going on holiday: they just use it to get away somewhere local for perhaps one night, or as a base for their hobbies, such as hillwalking or fishing.
If that’s you, then you might only need a very basic caravan, fitted with minimal washing and cooking facilities, and possibly not even a fixed bed.
Putting the bed together will feel like less of a chore if it’s just for one night, and the space and weight savings you will achieve by opting for such a layout mean that you can probably get away with a much more economical tow car, too.
However, if you are planning to use your tourer for what most people would probably think you use it for – as a base for regular family holidays – then you would probably require a larger model, perhaps one that does have a fixed bed.
There is also a growing trend among caravanners to opt for a seasonal pitch – somewhere they take their caravan at the start of the season and then leave it there, coming back for occasional weekends.
If that is your plan, you can afford to max out on space and weight (within permissible limits), because you will only be towing the caravan twice – at the beginning and then at the end of the season.
3 Where will you be travelling?
If you think that you are likely to be using your caravan for travel abroad most of the time, it might well make sense to go for a Continental model which still has the door on the Continental side (A).
Most Continental caravan manufacturers that maintain a significant UK presence have now switched to offering their caravan doors on the ‘correct’ UK
(near) side, but some still have doors fitted the Continental way.
4 When will you be touring?
Caravans are generally better insulated than motorhomes, so they potentially make better vehicles for winter touring. Most new caravans now come with Grade 3 insulation, which is designed to show they are suitable for this purpose.
As for heating: most caravanners doing all-year-round touring opt for the Alde wet heating system. As well as providing uniform heat, this also removes the need for any cumbersome ducting trailed around the van, where it can sometimes obstruct parts of the otherwise useful storage areas.
5 How do you like to sleep?
One popular layout, particularly for seasonal tourers, is an island bed (B) in the rear of the van (usually with the washroom behind it), with the kitchen in the middle before you get to the front lounge.
Such a floorplan is particularly appealing because couples can use it for touring mostly by themselves, yet still have enough space when they bring along occasional guests or have children to stay for a short while.
Bear in mind that you will probably hold on to your caravan for several years, so if you have a growing family, their needs will change. If you opt for bunk beds, make sure they are large enough for teenagers (assuming they still want to be in them).
6 Will you be doing much cooking?
The caravanner in the glossy brochure may be chopping up a fancy Waldorf salad, but in real life, you are more likely to be putting together simple meals on tour.
In our experience, cooking in a caravan (C) often involves reheating stuff that is already cooked. So a spacious fridge and a microwave are two extras that you might not want to go without.
7 Do you really need a fancy washroom?
As with kitchens, washrooms in general are rarely going to match the den of pampering you probably have at home.
Still, campsite toilet blocks are so variable that your van’s washroom could be better than what is on offer on the outside (D).
But even if you don’t use the washroom very often, it can still serve as a useful place to hang wet coats, or leave your awning if it hasn’t dried by the time you need to head home (if weight restrictions allow).
Caravanners tend to spend more time levelling the van when they arrive on site, so showers in vans tend not to have the double drains found in motorhome showers, which are designed to allow water to drain even when the vehicle is not level. Some more expensive vans do have them, however.
8 What about the awning?
Awnings (E) really can make all the difference to your holiday, providing you with double the living space or more.
They also offer you a bigger area for mealtimes, so you can take your foldaway table outside and leave the caravan’s front lounge up as a bed or an area for watching TV. The awning also provides relatively secure storage for bikes and barbecues.
With an inner tent, they can give you additional sleeping spaces, relieving you of the thorny problem of working out who is going to sleep where inside the caravan.
Bear in mind, however, that there might be times when you can’t rely on the awning for accommodation – if the site warden asks you to take it down in bad weather, or you have an early ferry to catch, so you want to take it down the night before you leave. In such circumstances, you would need to work out who will be sleeping where.
9 Will you be taking bulky luggage?
You really want to keep what you carry in the caravan itself down to an absolute minimum, to stay within both the van’s payload and the 85% rule.
However, particularly given the extra carrying space available, you are more than likely to want to take some lightweight outdoor furniture with you, and possibly a barbecue as well.
If so, make sure that there is somewhere you can stow these items inside the caravan. You could leave them loose down the aisle, but things do tend to move about en route, and they could cause damage.
You might also like to have external locker doors, so you can easily retrieve these items once you arrive on site.
Another question to consider is bikes. Again, it’s probably not a good idea to store these inside the caravan, down the aisle.
The most secure place for them is on a bike rack, set somewhere on the back of the car or on the A-frame.
10 Do you need to think about any extras?
A motorised caravan mover can be a real godsend to help you shift your tourer onto the pitch if you think you are going to struggle by just using brute force, or your own reversing skills.
A self-levelling system will also remove a great deal of the potential hassle when it comes to trying to level your caravan, and means that you don’t have to use up valuable storage space with levelling blocks (although you might still want to bring the blocks with you, to rest the steadies on if the pitch turns out to be soggy).
Both of these do add to the cost of the caravan if you are on a budget. Caravan levelling systems are also heavy.