Camper in pecking order of expenses...

[Corradobrit]

Being in my mid fifties, the bank can soon bugger off!

I gave my bank lender the finger when I moved from San Francisco to Dallas.

 

[BoredArtist]

It's just a load of tin with wheels on it. In truth there's nothing you can buy that is of any value.

 

[Mountain Beach]

I had a California SE. Sold it about 5 years ago as was not using it enough and bought a cheaper car and tent for occasional trips. Spent the next 4 years wishing I’d kept it, thinking about buying another California and feeling trapped without one. Finally bought a T5.1 5-seater Beach last year, which is ideal for mountain biking trips, family life and trips away. Everything fits inside and it can be a posh van, family car and holiday accommodation all in the same week. I have thought about a bigger van/motorhome, but that would almost certainly just be for trips away and I like staying in holiday cottages and hotels too, so not sure I’d get the use. The Beach is great as a day van or as sleeping accommodation or as a bike store, so I feel fine using it to drive to a holiday cottage in.

 

[SpuffingtonMe]

Many thanks to all of you for the useful thoughts and opinions.

A few things chimed with me - not least the idea that the only thing that matters is ones health, with which I obviously fully agree. Then there's the slightly more intangible stuff, which I guess where we all differ and have varying appetites or sensitivites around.

As luck would have it, I had the opportunity for a cheeky day off yesterday (Wife is away with the two youngest and my eldest was in school), so I took myself off for a day at Thetford Forest. Parked up at 0845, changed in the van - knocked out a quick 50km (3 laps of the Red and 1 of the Blue run), had a hot shower, changed into clean clothes, cooked myself up some grub for lunch, read a book, had a think about this topic and headed home in time to meet my girl off the school bus.

What did that perspective give me? Well, back to this being a huge personal indulgence. But also just how important it is for both my physical & mental health. It acts as a catalyst to get me out. I love MTBing and love being in the van just as much. One serves the other. As I alluded to, getting rid of the van would prove a massive blow to me mentally and as much as car would facilitate taking a bike out (obviously!), would I do it as much? I don't know.

What's the result of all of this? Well, I think if anything, it's probably made me put more effort into properly considering adding the swivel bench seat to it. Although I miss the flexibility of doing big holidays as I'd like to for the meantime, the ability to take the whole family out, even if only as a day van is fairly priceless in terms of memories for the kids (and Mum & Dad also). The appeal of the Knaus was always that it's only marginally bigger than the Cali so I use it as a second car (our other is a Discovery 5) and rarely get squeezed out of parking spots (height aside, but even that's not as much of an issue where we go).

Although it's sometimes tight financially, I'm minded to believe that nothing is very often forever and just as quickly as my wife lost her job and we had baby no 3, she'll get another job and the baby won't be a baby for very long and everything will be right/different soon enough. I need to loose the selfish idea of travelling on huge trips like I see my retired family doing or YouTubers exploring the world for content purposes and accept that I have a wonderful asset to be enjoyed by all (or just me) for as long as I can afford it.

Longwinded post eh? Apologies. A bit of a brain-dump. But thank you again for your insights, it's been really helpful.

 

[Californication69]

Longwinded post eh? Apologies. A bit of a brain-dump. But thank you again for your insights, it's been really helpful.

And again, that is why this forum is like, a forum sponsored by Carlsberg (If I drank
Ive said it before and I’ll say it again.
It’s the best form of community.
Brain storming, spit balling.
A bit like Motorhome Fun, but we are way more cool

 

[The Tall Luthier]

You’re going to keep the van, that’s pretty clear from the first post. I’m always a big believer in making decisions after a nights sleep, your first response to a problem is usually the best.

There was a great thread a short while back called VanEnomics, showing how every sandwich you make saves you money over buying one, if in a car. Same for overnight stops.

If you want to ease the selfish guilt you’re feeling then just use the van more. Take the kids out camping on a school night, throw the family’s bikes in the back and try the green runs.

The more you use it, the better value it becomes.

 

[Anthony1]

Just throwing out a question to gauge opinions on how valuable the campers are to folk. I think I know the answer but sometimes it's just nice to metaphorically throw around an idea and garner opinion.

I currently own a Knaus BoxDrive600XL which I bought from new about 15months ago now. Have done nearly 9k miles in it and for the first year, lots of family trips. Then the family grew from 4 to 5 and in spite of flirting with the idea of changing out the passenger captain's chair for a (swivel) bench, I've not pulled the trigger for multiple reasons. So the van is rapidly becoming my toy (which in some ways it always was) as a day van for mountainbiking (or up to two nights) and potentially then little short overnights with 11yr old daughter and/or 4yr old son. A far cry from France, NC500 and Connemara.

Problem is, when I bought the van (on HP), my wife was working in a very good job. Four weeks later, she got made redundant out of the blue and 3months later she was pregnant. We're now over a year into a single income and although I'm making it all stick, some months are a bit tighter than others. So my thoughts have come to selling it. Problem is, it's a very good spec incl. 4x4 which is basically only factory order and therefore if not "one of a kind", certainly would require me to order from factory if I ever wanted to get back in one. I also feel like there'd be a huge hole in my life w/o a leisure vehicle. I've had motorhomes for >10yrs now and it was getting rid of my Concorde which had me selling a brand new X5 six months later to get into a Cali Ocean to offset the feeling of being trapped. So I know (and my wife knows) life for me will be verging depressing w/o a vehicle I can sleep in.

So I'm now torn. I know it's a question only I can answer for me and my finances.

However how many of you have tried to ride out rough patches in order to keep the van?

What would you sell before the van?

How long have long-term Cali owners gone w/o getting back into a leisure vehicle after selling?

We are on our third California. Always regretted selling the previous two, but I was working and didn't use them enough to warrant them sitting on the drive. Now retired and we use it a lot.
In the last few years, we have 'done' Nordkapp, the NC500 twice, The Outer Hebrides, Isle of Mull, Isle of Arran, Sicily, Gibraltar.
Countries visited: France/Spain/Portugal/Andorra/Germany/Holland/Denmark/Sweden/Norway/Finland/Austria/Switzerland. In six years driven about 64,000 miles.
My retirement income is about a quarter of when I was earning. No big pension for me. But I would rather die a pauper with lots of memories, than be the richest corpse in the cemetery.

 

[RockinNRollin]

But I would rather die a pauper with lots of memories, than be the biggest tax donor in the cemetery.

Fixed that for you . . .