Hi,

For a new Troll, what would the annual running costs be realistically? What do I need to factor in?

Thanks in advance for the replies.

There are running costs and what I term finance costs and these are best looked at over a 3 year average ownership period to give you an average single year cost by dividing the totals by 3.

Finance
Original cost minus residual value after 3 years
Extras, accessories etc
Lost interest on funds employed
Interest paid if borrowing

Running costs
Servicing, replacements and repairs
Insurance
Storage
Share of rescue insurance

As an example my Rimini
Current value £11,000
Value in 3 years £8,000
Depreciation £3,000
Lost interest £300
Insurance £1,000
Servicing etc £700
Storage £1,100
Rescue insurance £100
Full cost £6,200 (£2,067 per year)
Running costs £2,900 (£967 per year)
Finance costs £3,300 (£1,100 per year)

Average nights away = 35, so full cost per night = £59
Plus average nightly pitch fee of £25
Total cost per average night = £84

New Eriba initial prices can vary by about £5,000 depending on whether it's a basic or highly specced van.

That variance diminishes somewhat over three years but you could reckon on a residual value of about £18,000, maybe £17,000, maybe £19,000. As an average new price would be about £23,000 that's depreciation of around £5,000 over the three years from new.

Servicing is more expensive if you want the Hymer damp sticker as mine is just using a mobile AWS guy. Reckon on £1,200 over 3 years

The other costs will be similar to mine.

Of course if stored at home, storage cost disappears.

That is briiliant. Thank you for the breakdown. As a camper it is a whole new world.
In many ways it is similar money to buying and running a new car. Probably holds its value better than a car though.

An RV of around 80%, which is what £24K down to £18k equals, compares to an average car where the RV is about 40% to 50% after 3 years. Mind up to 20% of the car's 60% drop can be initial discount, but yes, even a new Eriba depreciates much slower than a car.

It seems to get even better in later years when Eriba values can stand still, or sometimes even increase in value year on year.

You could also make a case for additional fuel used whilst towing, though it wouldn't alter the figures much.

Additional fuel could be a significant extra cost - say minimum of 10p/mile.
Also don't forget Caravan Club membership .
Your talking of hotel cost including full English per night.

£5.50 per gal @ 40mpg = 13.7p per mile

£5.50 per gal @30mpg = 18.3p per mile

£5.50 per gal @ 20mpg = 27.5p per mile

My experience pulling a Troll moved my 1.6 diesel consumption from 38mpg to 32mpg

So from 14.5p per mile to 17.2p per mile, a difference of 2.7p per mile.

As towing was about 1,800 miles per year, an additional cost of under £50

My Nissan Pulsar drops from 65 mpg to 40 mpg towing a tiny t@b

According to Honest John's Real MPG site 1.5 Pulsar owners report 60mpg as their average, whilst 1.2 Pulsars are reported as averaging 43mpg.

My 2 litre V70 went from 36mpg solo to 26mpg when pulling our 1500kg WWB.

I suspect that the lighter the towcar, the greater the effect of anything hooked the back and if the car is tuned for economy a large additional weight will have more impact on mpg.

The alternative is to stay at home so if you offset this against all the nice people you meet and places you see it is worth every penny

we bought our Pan for £4,500 in 2012 now worth around £6,500? profit £2000
lost interest if we'd put into savings account £100?
servicing: running gear every couple of years £300,
gas service every couple of years £200
new tyres once every 3 years ( I worry about tyres) £200
Insurance £130 x 5 £650
one year storage costs £420 (only in paid storage for that time)
Auto Lesiure cover £200
Sun awning £185
other bits and pieces £300?
caravan club membership £38 x5 £190
costs £2,745
presumed profit on van £2,000
net £745 dr
nights away vary per year but probably around 150 over the 5 years
£745 /150 nights = £4.96 plus pitch fee of around £18 = around £23 per night
(lots of £12 CLs but also more expensive pitches but not usually more than £25 per night so average £18)

Lots of these figures are guess work and I cannot even begin to work out the cost of towing but it was really good writing it down and realising that we made a reaonable investment and have 5 years of fun with our dear 'Ronnie'.

Your £6,500 valuation sounds optimistic as Eriba Caravan Sales have a Pan at £5,495. As a dealer they have a legal ongoing responsibility for that van, a private seller doesn't, so can expect to sell at £500 to £1,000 less than a dealer. £6,500 may be what AL would ask but their prices are £1,000 to £2,000 more than ECS.

If the alternative is hotel accommodation, then you not only have the nightly cost of that, also every meal, cup of tea/coffee, snack, glass of beer/wine etc. has to be paid for. We tour each summer for 3-4 months at a time and could never justify doing that in hotels.

We will lose a bit of money (not that much) when we sell our 2014 Triton to take our new Troll in May, but when I think where we have been in it in the 4 years we've had it and the experiences we've had, it's been pretty good value. We've bought the Troll to enable us to tour even longer each year, so it should prove to be even better value!
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