Roger nagged me to post something, so here's something to get you thinking

It's the second day back home following a 19 day tour of southern England.

19 days during which I towed for about 600 miles and toured solo for another couple of hundred. We pitched and de-pitched five times at five different sites, each time erecting the full Isabella. Every time we travelled in the car or arrived on site I had to collapse and re-erect two heavy dog crates. Then there's dragging the Aquaroll, grey water tank and Thetford cassette about on a regular basis and every morning rolling up and stowing the Duvalays and pillows. Every time we moved on I had to carefully load the van and car with the folding chairs, sacks of dog food etc.

I had it in mind, while away, to swap the current van over the closed season for something slightly bigger, which unfortunately also meant a bigger car and an extension on the awning. A probable overall cost of between £10K and £15K.

Now I'm starting to think of getting out of caravanning completely and list the advantages as follows:
Less storage of gear
Less humping stuff around
No awning erection etc
Less cleaning and polishing
Less worry
Less money tied up in a box on wheels
Quicker departures on hols/breaks
More choice of type of holiday/break

I've found the ideal car for accommodating our two beardies in crates and luggage space to spare, but it will only tow a max of 1100kg, so no use with the van I had in mind.

So what's the right thing to do?

You're dead right Andy from one point of view or all the list items you mentioned. It will be a decision we all have to make sometime. I'm not there yet, several personal/medical issues are ongoing, but not ready yet and neither is Carole. We were supposed to be away in the Eriba this week. then hopefully another spell away and can't and it's probably going to be wintered away in a short time until neaxt March, but we still want to use it. Good luck mate.

sorry to read your so disillusioned andy
there must be some positives to the experience?
great views, friendly people, interesting people, happy dogs, breakfast at your time, exercise via the awning and water moving. (I lost 2 kg with my walking movements in a week)
when returned home was told I was glowing, not been near selafield either..
is it possible to not put up the awning? or perhaps get a easier one?
you could always have a troll 1000kg at certain age.
for got to add in the cc mag a gent and gentlelady were selling their caravan had a holiday booked in a cottage or a holiday home in france, the caravan didn't sell before they left, but they realised they missed things that the caravan gave ,hence they decided not to sell and continue caravaning in there 80's..

you could always go seasonal, a lot of people do, and spend weekends at the caravan without the towing, some leave awnings up, but there is the water and electric to sort, and the cost of being a seasonal..



If it helps, aways seem to do all the packing prep, but not for much longer, oh is in training,

Love holidays in the caravan but...........all the things you say! We found we were wearing ourselves out so that's why we decided to upgrade to a Troll next year. Will manage with a porch awning, or a caravanstore canopy in good weather, we use Fiamma blue and grey water containers (fill and empty more often but less to lug about), we leave the bed up whenever possible and try not to drive too far in one day (sharing driving) and stay in one place for long enough to unwind (meet more interesting people that way anyway). Most of the caravan gear is either on it or kept in it. The dogs travel in a divided crate in the back of the car but luckily we don't need the crate outside. (They sleep under the bed and the table). Must admit the 'van doesn't get polished too often!
Don't give up!

You can shoot me down in flames if you like but we don't carry waste or fresh water containers as we always use the site facilities or boil water to wash up in a bowl. We use 3ltr water bottles from squash for our onboard water, I empty the thetford daily or every other day, we use a fiamma caravanstore and have 2 dukdalf chairs, and we swapped the standard troll free standing table for 2 lightweight aluminium ones which Morrisons had for £10 each last year (the 2 fit in the same space as the original). Our floor space in the caravan is completely free of clutter or junk. We I think are the exception as we travel light and know what we need (use) and don't carry clutter.

I understand the dog situation, we don't have one now :-( but we did for years, and I understand the need to carry additional items to cater for a dog or dogs.

I would suggest to anyone (even ourselves) to go through your caravan regularly and check each item, some of which I almost guarantee you won't remember when you last used it!

But think long and hard before changing your holiday mode, as it can often lead to more expense and hassle. Think positive and remember those good times and make a list of good and bad things for both.

Lastly, your caravan is your domain or "dung heap" a hotel room, cottage or whatever else you think might be the answer is not! At least you can alter your caravan and / or holidays accordingly.

Best wishes and I hope you make a choice that suites you.

Thank you for all your tips and suggestions, I guess I really brought the problems of the last holiday on myself.

We couldn't book 'til late and I wanted a slow meander down to Salisbury in order to be there for a few days around the wedding we attended. We didn't want to stay in the New Forest because of the risk of the dog disease round there, especially as we had a five month old pup with us..

We had intended to go straight to Notgrove, but the Bank Holiday Friday and Saturday were already full, so I decided on a few days at Malvern on the way. So that was one additional awning erection etc.

Again because of the wedding we couldn't get to our real destination on the IoW 'til we'd actually been away for 11 days, so I visit to the island was somewhat truncated as we needed to get home. Maybe I should have stayed longer on the IoW and not staged for three days at Old Oaks. Certainly longer at fewer destinations would have been more restful.

As to the awning, we've had Omnistors and Caravanstores on Trolls plus Fiamma wind-out ones on motorhomes and the problem has always been that you risk the dogs wiping out the awning legs with their tie-out cable/chain. As it was the full awning was vital in keeping the pup under control and to avoid damage to the van interior she also slept out there in her crate.

The recommendation for Fiamma water containers is appreciated as I've often wondered about getting them instead of the Aquaroll and Wastemaster, maybe I should investigate further.

The other issue is the car.

Mrs SDA has ambitions to show the new pup and from past experience I know that this means dragging around our grooming trolley. At present we're able to fit one dog in a crate in the boot with bits of gear on either side and the other dog goes in a crate on the folded back seat of the car. This leaves no room for an item as large as the trolley. When we showed in the past we had our Transit based campervan with a purpose-built crate between the wheel arches. We still have the crate, but at 4ft 3ins it's too wide for a car. We reckon two 22ins crates side by side would do but I've found v v few cars with 44ins plus space in the boot. We have to have automatic and a decent automatic at that (none of your jerky old automated manuals) and whilst the Ford Galymaxs are wide enough it would be older than three years and I'm not keen on a Powershift box with no warranty. A VW Sharan isn't wide enough by half an inch, though strangely the tiny Hyundai ix20/Kia Venga is. I'd love a new Tourneo Connect bu tFords only make a petrol automatic which is very expensive to buy and tax plus probably averages 30mpg and won't tow more than 1100kg. I've just checked out the last generation Santa Fe and they're 45ins plus, so would be suitable.

There is a range of dog crates from Italy where the largest would fit across our current car's boot but it's impossible to tell if the rest would fit inside the door. It's angled but is it angled enough. The suppliers are happy to send one, but if it won't fit I have to pay return carriage of about £20. Paying £20 for nothing seems a bit expensive to me. A crate like that would allow both dogs in the boot, leaving the rear seat for trolley, awning etc.

So do I abandon vanning , do I go for a different car, do I tell Mrs SDA we're not showing? I am, as the man said, in turmoil.

Thats far to much stress for me! I'm out

why not try a transit? large enough for dog crate, and associated items but big enough to tow, also could become an emergency kennel when awning not available, the new ones look quite sporty
which caravan were you thinking?

Apparently there's even a Caddy Camper factory supplied fitted out with furniture and kitchen, although I think the bed makes up by spreading cushions over the worktops. The Caddy is good and you can have it as a van or fitted out as a car and it comes with a proper auto box if you want. It's also the only van fitted out as a car that will pull more than 1200kg, it's rated up to 1500kg.

The van I was looking to swap to is another Lunar Quasar, but a 524 with side dinette and bunk and rear shower room. It's only 18ins or so longer than our 464 but has a much bigger washroom with wardrobes inside. The front lounge benches are 6ft 1ins as opposed to our current 5ft 6ins and I can just about use them as singles. The dinette bed is 6ft for visitors as compared to our current dinette across the rear of the van at 6ft 8ins. Everything else is pretty much the same, but the impression of space created by having wardrobes and washroom up the back is much greater, especially now we're back to two dogs.

Weightwise a 524 has an MTPLM of 1300kg which is exactly the tow limit for my car. My current van has had the MTPLM upgraded to 1295kg, so almost the same. Trouble is the 524 can be upgraded to 1550kg if necessary and my car won't touch that, hence the need for change.

Incidentally in the width measurement stakes the Sharan lost out bigtime because of those big steel pins that stick out on either side of the luggage space, what were the designers thinking of?.

Oh and whilst I'd love another Tranny and I think the new Custom looks grand, Ford seem to not realise there's a market for automatic vans and only make manual. Considering VW have been selling loads of auto vans for years you'd think the penny might drop.

how about a crew cab pickup with hard top in rear
nissian navaro
Toyota hi lux
Bedford rascal ooops too small
how about a dodge ram (other half drooling)

sounds a nice layout of caravan
I will let you sort out the weights and measures
it does sound like you would miss caravanning.

A lot of them seem to be wheelchair conversions and I'm not sure if they can be easily converted back.

The cheapest autos without a wheelchair conversion appears to be about £18/19K which is more than I want to pay. A brand new petrol automatic Tourneo Connect in Titanium trim is only £17,000 at the cheapest UK dealer. Paying £2K more for a two year old VW with 10 to 15K miles seems daft.