5-berth motorhome/campervan options
Discussion
Thanks for all your feedback, chaps.
We’ve finally hit on a decision……its been a lengthy discussion at home of late over late night feeds with the newborn Son. We’ve mulled over all kinds of different solutions and vans but for the moment decided to stick. I spent the weekend detailing the van to celebrate its upcoming 1st Birthday and 1st service (sitting in MAN Service Centre in Newmarket this morning!) and again fell in love with the van. There’s just so little else out there which floats my boat (chassis is particularly important and enjoyable to drive) and offers the same great mixture of day-to-day useability (our second car), ease of parking on the drive and spontaneous/easy get-aways (although the latter is tempered with having a 2wk old Son - leaving the house at all spontaneously is a little challenging at the moment!).
That said, my Wife is very concerned about the lack of space in the current van and our ability to properly enjoy getting away like we did on previous holidays, taking the stuff with us we need and not getting under each others toes. I think we were very spoilt with the 9m Concorde early on in our relationship! Downsizing has been a struggle ever since!
So the decision process is as follows:
Next 6months:
- try out the van in a number of scenarios as a kind of caravan; a couple of day van outings alongside the family Disco. Try eating out in it (with baby) and then try an overnight at a site we know well locally with all 5 of us on board and see how we get on with that.
Winter 2024:
- if we can see ourselves using it as a 5, then I’ll invest c. £5-6k in getting a double-swivel cab seat in place of the passenger captains chair and get all the seats retrimmed to match.
- then use the vehicle for 2-3 overnights max on each trip for five of us and continue using as my solo (or me plus older kids) adventure wagon for a few years until the youngest is 3-4yrs old.
If it DOESN’T work with 5 of us, then I’ll probably still keep it for another couple of years but just keep it for solo & old kids weekends away and not bother spending the money on the seats & retrim because we’ll still be able to do local trips with both van & Discovery if we want to have a base for the day. Wasteful in terms of fuel/hassle but we’re not going to spend £5k on doing that, so money saved.
2027 or 2028:
My daughter will be knocking on 14/15 by this stage so less likely to want to join us and the boys minimum 3 & 6 so optimum age for wanting to do bigger holidays and us wanting to do it with them. Mortgage will be almost paid off at this stage, so potentially go for a large A-Class then.
Looking at a factory build Cathargo 5 seat/5 belt on a Mercedes. We’ll see.
At the very least, we’ll take in a good couple of Motorhome shows/exhibitions to see what’s out there and make a decision.
I’m happy with where we’ve landed. I love the van - it holds a lot of significance for me in terms of what I have achieved in buying a new one, what was going on at the point in my live when I bought it and just how well it works for a multiple of uses. Buying a bigger van now would just result in more outgoings both in terms of storage costs (6.5m is probably the limit for my driveway), bigger monthlies, potential warranty costs and needing a second car and everything which goes with running that. I did consider selling up and indulging in a 992 CarreraS for a year or two, but my Wife reminded me that camping/outdoors has become more important to me recently than petrolhedonism. Sadly, I think she might be right!
Thanks for all your thoughts and assistance (plus reading my verbal diarrhoea!)
Here’s a gratuitous pic or two from the most recent detailing session:
We’ve finally hit on a decision……its been a lengthy discussion at home of late over late night feeds with the newborn Son. We’ve mulled over all kinds of different solutions and vans but for the moment decided to stick. I spent the weekend detailing the van to celebrate its upcoming 1st Birthday and 1st service (sitting in MAN Service Centre in Newmarket this morning!) and again fell in love with the van. There’s just so little else out there which floats my boat (chassis is particularly important and enjoyable to drive) and offers the same great mixture of day-to-day useability (our second car), ease of parking on the drive and spontaneous/easy get-aways (although the latter is tempered with having a 2wk old Son - leaving the house at all spontaneously is a little challenging at the moment!).
That said, my Wife is very concerned about the lack of space in the current van and our ability to properly enjoy getting away like we did on previous holidays, taking the stuff with us we need and not getting under each others toes. I think we were very spoilt with the 9m Concorde early on in our relationship! Downsizing has been a struggle ever since!
So the decision process is as follows:
Next 6months:
- try out the van in a number of scenarios as a kind of caravan; a couple of day van outings alongside the family Disco. Try eating out in it (with baby) and then try an overnight at a site we know well locally with all 5 of us on board and see how we get on with that.
Winter 2024:
- if we can see ourselves using it as a 5, then I’ll invest c. £5-6k in getting a double-swivel cab seat in place of the passenger captains chair and get all the seats retrimmed to match.
- then use the vehicle for 2-3 overnights max on each trip for five of us and continue using as my solo (or me plus older kids) adventure wagon for a few years until the youngest is 3-4yrs old.
If it DOESN’T work with 5 of us, then I’ll probably still keep it for another couple of years but just keep it for solo & old kids weekends away and not bother spending the money on the seats & retrim because we’ll still be able to do local trips with both van & Discovery if we want to have a base for the day. Wasteful in terms of fuel/hassle but we’re not going to spend £5k on doing that, so money saved.
2027 or 2028:
My daughter will be knocking on 14/15 by this stage so less likely to want to join us and the boys minimum 3 & 6 so optimum age for wanting to do bigger holidays and us wanting to do it with them. Mortgage will be almost paid off at this stage, so potentially go for a large A-Class then.
Looking at a factory build Cathargo 5 seat/5 belt on a Mercedes. We’ll see.
At the very least, we’ll take in a good couple of Motorhome shows/exhibitions to see what’s out there and make a decision.
I’m happy with where we’ve landed. I love the van - it holds a lot of significance for me in terms of what I have achieved in buying a new one, what was going on at the point in my live when I bought it and just how well it works for a multiple of uses. Buying a bigger van now would just result in more outgoings both in terms of storage costs (6.5m is probably the limit for my driveway), bigger monthlies, potential warranty costs and needing a second car and everything which goes with running that. I did consider selling up and indulging in a 992 CarreraS for a year or two, but my Wife reminded me that camping/outdoors has become more important to me recently than petrolhedonism. Sadly, I think she might be right!
Thanks for all your thoughts and assistance (plus reading my verbal diarrhoea!)
Here’s a gratuitous pic or two from the most recent detailing session:
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