I know that within this forum there are those who hold, how shall we say it, certain prejudices against certain types of caravans and certainly some motorhomes. Terms like WWB’s and Elvis’ can be herd echoing about the forum. And for some strange reason I have found myself giving brain time to the future of touring caravans and motorhomes.

I think it is fare to say that my generation (those of us born in the 50 early 60’s) benefit from certain advantages that our children for instance will not have. For example since I obtained my driving licence weight restrictions on vehicles and trailers have been increased for those obtaining licences in more recent years. Surly as time goes on and our children or grandchildren enter the world of touring with a beloved caravan or motorhome such restriction will apply and of course manufactures will have to bear this in mind for the production of units of the future? I would anticipate that those monstrous units that we some time see struggling to get in to campsite will become a thing of the past, unless HGV drivers all decide to become caravanners or motorhome owners.

More importantly my generation is probably the last to benefit from those glorious final salary or occupational, generous pension schemes that not only gave the opportunity to retire at an early age on a decent income but also came with large cash commutations which enable the purchase of that large caravan or motorhome. Well of course it makes sense one has to keep busy in retirement, what better way to do so than to hit the open road and explore!

I certainly was lucky even among my generation enabling myself to be free of all ‘shackles’ by the tender age of 52, even though my state pension age has been put back to 67! I know for certain my children are going to be tied to the ‘old company store’ probably well into their 70’s!
Why is this? Despite the fact that the state pension age is being pushed further and further back, the days of the glorious final salary and occupational pensions are over, but the ‘old shackles’ are going on later in life. By the time I was 30 I was married, mortgaged and a father of 3. I think the average age now for a woman having her first baby is about 28 and the average of all women is over 30. Apparently the average age of parenting seems to be increased by a year a decade. What has this to do with my thoughts, I here you ask….. Well looking at the ‘old shackles’ concept when I hit 52 it was the year that I got my occupational pension and the year that my youngest two also finished at university, so that was another tie gone!

But probably most important of all is that fact that we live in the age of technology, just look how things have change over our life time. I just have to mention the old ‘C’ word, can you imagine living your live today with out the advantage of a computer? Like it or not they affect everything we do! (If it wasn’t for them you would not be reading this missive and my thoughts on the matter!)

So what is going to change in the next 30 years? I for one believe that transport as we know it now will be totally and radically changed. The driverless car will be with us very soon, as will be electric powered vehicles. All ready people like Amazon are experimenting with drone deliveries. Are we going to be towing touring caravans in 30 years? Will we even have our own personal form of transport? Perhaps all our favourite Eribas will have been bought up and set in glorious permanent sited parks and we will just call up a driverless mode of transport on our communication device (or Coms App) and enjoy a hassle free trip to such a location, to sit and watch the sunsets, while reminiscing with old friends over a drink remembering what the old days were like, and how it has all changed for better or worse and speculating what the future brings!

So as we would say answers on a post card please, but then again is that showing our age the fact that we can remember a thing called pen and paper?
I am sure many will have a view and some are sure to reply; perhaps a subject for discussion at the summer meet.

Clippie

Really interesting question.

Im just 27, so i quess im good to answer from other side of spectrum.

About driverless vehicles occupying the roads soon, and even about the electric cars, id say their closer on the dreams of believers versus reality.
And its just being magnified by the constant hype of medias all over the World.
Dont get me wrong- technology and progress are good, but its not as good and dependable as they want you to belive.
Engines burning fuels, be they fossil or bio- have their Place secured for long. Not everyone lives on big cities, nor even want.

About retirment, it differs from where you live. In my opinion, even they have raised the pension ages here as well ( mine being 68 at this moment, subject to raise on following years), we have more money than previous generations. Both from parents inheritent, but also from salaries.
Ive noted one strange thing myself. They speak about depression, low rate of workers/ per inhabitants, opposed to when my parents were younger.
But, theres certain thing changed on youths, seems like not too many arent interested about doing work. They might do the minimum to keep alive, and have alot of free-time. Having free-time is currently the hot thing, not money.
And this leads to what ive found; those willing to do, and capable for the job, can work almost as long days and really well paid by hour, as they want. For a crafty guy, only worlds your limit. Especially if its on some area which requires physical work; that appeals really badly to us youth.
Im married, mortgaged, have 1 kid so far, and i have everything paid when i hit 40. Then ill relax and work just for living, at will.

Thou has't touched on a whole heap of future issues there Clipster.

One thing that's always exercised me has been how folk are supposed to work into their 70's, whilst ageism, though illegal, is still rampant in business. I speak from personal experience, having climbed the slippery pole to senior manager by age 42 I chose redundancy at age 48, rather than a reduction in responsibility and a job that didn't appeal in a cost cutting exercise. After two years trying to get a comparable, or better job I had to settle for a temp. role in a call centre. Two years on and the call centre closed, but I was offered a job as a redeployment consultant in HR. I carried on with that for another six years but at age 58 I told them where to put their job. Financially we just about manage a comfortable life but that's mainly funded by the final salary pension from the 10 years as a senior manager. The pensions from before and after that are miniscule in comparison.

I'm now in my 12th year of retirement and wouldn't have missed it for the world, but if I'd had a potential 15 further years of work ahead of me at the time I packed in, I' m not sure what I'd have done.

Some deep thinking going on here.
The thing that seems unworkable to me is that working into your 70's may be possible for those in offices but for those who work manually it becomes extremely difficult. My hubby Neil finished work at 61, we sold our garage business, although Neil was in the office some of the time running the business he was still putting in many hours in the workshop. By the time we finished it was becoming harder particularly in the cold winters. There is no way he could have worked until he was 70, just not physically possible.
We have had to cut our cloth accordingly, no final salary pension scheme (great if you can get it, no axe to grind here), but sometimes you feel life is too short to work forever.
What the future holds, heck who knows, we're just living for today.

Yes, different situations on different people.

Here in Finland, few years back when they reformed our pension-system, they also added there new pension, for those whos spend their almost entire working career ( 38 years minimum) on mentally or physically worning job, and have suffered some decrease on their physical or mental health, which can be connected to job they did. They can request that special pension, and if approved, they can start their pension at age of 63 ( for comparison, by looking from table, my lowest possible change to drop for part-time pension is 67 years and 6 months, and to full pension on 70 years and 6 months…)

Im asfalt worker myself, which is highly regarded job here in Finland. But - noone want to do this job, were thinning out as old people are leaving to pension. This job just does not appeal to youth - physically hard, noisy, dirty, and "sh*tty" job. Loooong days at work ( last week was 75 hours/ 5 shifts, best being 163hours at 8 shifts), and occasional night-work. But they pay really stupid amounts of money from this ( earning more than a doctor at best), and roughly from christmas to start of april im just at home when snow is on the ground. So long vacation too.

And here comes the point why im now saving up to Eriba- might aswell spend a month or two of that winter on somewhere warm, like Croatia, Greece etc, touring the europe. Instead of sitting at sofa and looking how it snows again outside, got to go for snowworks..

The asphalt guys are working like the clappers round our way at present and seem to be working on half the roads in Wales too. It did get me wondering what the guys actually do in the winter.

As I say my worry is that with such a long working life ahead, in future, where a jobs going to come from for those kicked out by corporate businesses at 50, with a further 20 years or more available before retirement. I doubt corporates will suddenly start keeping people on for longer as they want cheaper, fresh meat. So folk will have to plan to downgrade in late middle age and try and find an employer willing to take on a 50 year old, probably on much poorer terms than before.

As for the future in other areas, I can't really see what's going to be 'the next big thing's, as lots of tech's have developed so fast in the last few decades that they seem left marching about on a pin head with only very marginal improvements available. That's why sales of smartphones have stabilised or gone down as folk can't see any reason to upgrade.

Of course Eriba Tourings will stay the same maybe changing exterior and interior court schemes and maybe peripheral changes like a shaped PV panel filling the top of the pop-top as standard, maybe more advanced ATC systems and a more intuitive and bette looking hitch mechanism. Electric step, instead of Arkwright's till.

Well my dear Eribarists, some interesting debates and views. I suppose because we are all ‘Eribarists’ (to a lesser or grater extent) we are the lucky ones. We are of the nature to get out there and do things, as opposed to sitting around and bemoaning our fate and, as they say, ‘waiting for God’.

However with regards to technology and specifically in answer to Ccouples comment I would like to tell you a story:

At the end of the second world war, to young demoed servicemen found them selves on the opposite side of a discussion about the future. Both at the conclusion of the war continued their education the one at Cambridge where he read history and the other at Oxford where he read physics. Both were firm friends whilst at school and their friendship continued for the rest of their lives. The Cambridge man entered the world of business and became a successful MD of a manufacturing firm and the Oxford man became a university lecturer in his subject of physics.

Now what was the discussion about? Whether man would ever enter space. Now we all now the outcome of that discussion. However at the time, in the later half of the 1940’s, it was a big debate. The history student siding with the side that stated of course we will, while the physics student was full of the arguments why it would not be possible to do so. We don’t have the technology to produce enough power to break free of the earth’s gravitational pull being the major card in his argument.

It is interesting to know that manned space flight took place in 1961, and of course man landed on the moon in 1969. So the dreams of the history student eventually won the day against the reasoned and sound technological reasoning of the physics student!

It shows that reasoning with today’s knowledge, belief systems, and understanding does not all ways work (and rarely triumphs)…… so be ready to be surprised! How do I know this story and what is it provenance I hear you ask. Simple the History student was my father and ‘ science fiction’, back in the day, was his thing!

Other comments that seem to be a theme surround the concept of retirement and when we will be available to take it, as well as to be able to afford it! Well it is interesting that to my mind this is a catch 22 situation. We are told we are having to work longer to pay our way, however in order to do this we block jobs for the next generation to come through. How can we reconcile these to concepts, because it looks like we must!

Maybe we should book the far end gazebo at the Eribafolk meet in a couple of weeks time and continue the debate, such intellectual discussion and debate can only be an attribute to all Eriba owners!!

Clippie

Is the far end of the gazebo where they store the booze?

When you're young, you have energy and optimism in your corner!
I will never be able to afford to retire. Its a question of choices. I chose to leave a good job in england and move here 30 years ago. I enjoy teaching adults but it's not a full time job, has long enforced periods of rest.....unpaid....but it gives me freedom. I'm a little miracle having survived 3 bouts of cancer and see living life day to day well much more important than worrying about a future I may have or not. Yann is semi retired...we found our 20 year old betty and are enjoying long summer's with her. We dont need a big budget for that. The most expensive part of our holidays is the petrol. And, we got to meet lots of you lovely peeps!

How about a Touring built with a carbon fibre chassis and carbon fibre body frame, instead of tubular steel?

Quote: Clippie wrote in post #8

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Now what was the discussion about? Whether man would ever enter space. Now we all now the outcome of that discussion. However at the time, in the later half of the 1940’s, it was a big debate. The history student siding with the side that stated of course we will, while the physics student was full of the arguments why it would not be possible to do so. We don’t have the technology to produce enough power to break free of the earth’s gravitational pull being the major card in his argument.

Clippie

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So it has been a while since I introduced this thread and I appreciate the many and various opinions. Today I read an interesting news article which I thought was relevant to this post, but first off a reply to Ccouples post

Zitat

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And you cant really compare the mission to the moon to trying to electrify our cars, way different things strive those nations back then, "money no objection".

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I was not comparing the mission to the moon (or rather the ability for us to leave the Earth's atmosphere) to the electrification of the car, my point was what we once thought to be scientifically impossible, has become possible.

I think if you read the article produced by The Evening Standard it sheds an interesting light on matters, and as not as far fetched as some would have us believe.

https://www.standard.co.uk/tech/flying-c...l-a3931281.html

Clippie