Hello! Looking to buy a T6 Ocean and get out on the road....

[GeorgeandAnne]

Hello from the Midlands! Thanks for allowing us to join. My wife, daughter and I have been hankering after owning our own Cali after hiring one local to us a few times over the past few years and loving it. Back then we were hiring a 2017 T6 Ocean along with a Vango Airway Kela IV awning - it was great and really worked for us.

On one particular trip to the Peak District in Derbyshire (UK) we inadvertently managed to put it through its paces over a weekend. Arrived on the Friday in the dark, we had to pitch and cook dinner whilst still trying to remember how everything worked. We woke up on Saturday to brilliant sunshine and some amazing views of the peaks. By Saturday evening the weather has turned cold, so we bunkered down in the van and fired up the webasto heater and had a cosy night in the Cali.

Sunday morning we awoke to find snowfall! So much so that my daughter was able to build a snowman and pelt me with numerous snowballs in the morning. By the time we left that afternoon the sun had come out and melted all the snow . . . well almost all See pictures from that trip attached. Both the Cali and Vango were great despite the adverse weather and we felt such at home in it that we've just been waiting for the right time to buy our own.

Fast forward to now. We've been scouring the dealerships for a T6 California Ocean for the last few weeks. We test drove 2 yesterday and are close to pulling the trigger on buying one of them (2019 T6 199PS in Indium Grey). Hopefully we will be joining the ranks of California owners very soon.

In the meantime we would be so grateful for any advice you can offer for both purchasing a new van from dealerships and any essential equipment you think we may need when first starting out. I have read on other threads on here of a purchase/new owners checklist, but I cannot find it. Can anyone please direct me to it please if it's still available?

Apologies for the long post and thanks for reading if you've made it this far! We're all very excited to get going with owning our own California (in case you can't tell), but we're keen to not make some beginner mistakes, so any advice is most welcome.

 

[kurienp]

Hello from the Midlands! Thanks for allowing us to join. My wife, daughter and I have been hankering after owning our own Cali after hiring one local to us a few times over the past few years and loving it. Back then we were hiring a 2017 T6 Ocean along with a Vango Airway Kela IV awning - it was great and really worked for us.

On one particular trip to the Peak District in Derbyshire (UK) we inadvertently managed to put it through its paces over a weekend. Arrived on the Friday in the dark, we had to pitch and cook dinner whilst still trying to remember how everything worked. We woke up on Saturday to brilliant sunshine and some amazing views of the peaks. By Saturday evening the weather has turned cold, so we bunkered down in the van and fired up the webasto heater and had a cosy night in the Cali.

Sunday morning we awoke to find snowfall! So much so that my daughter was able to build a snowman and pelt me with numerous snowballs in the morning. By the time we left that afternoon the sun had come out and melted all the snow . . . well almost all See pictures from that trip attached. Both the Cali and Vango were great despite the adverse weather and we felt such at home in it that we've just been waiting for the right time to buy our own.

Fast forward to now. We've been scouring the dealerships for a T6 California Ocean for the last few weeks. We test drove 2 yesterday and are close to pulling the trigger on buying one of them (2019 T6 199PS in Indium Grey). Hopefully we will be joining the ranks of California owners very soon.

In the meantime we would be so grateful for any advice you can offer for both purchasing a new van from dealerships and any essential equipment you think we may need when first starting out. I have read on other threads on here of a purchase/new owners checklist, but I cannot find it. Can anyone please direct me to it please if it's still available?

Apologies for the long post and thanks for reading if you've made it this far! We're all very excited to get going with owning our own California (in case you can't tell), but we're keen to not make some beginner mistakes, so any advice is most welcome.

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Welcome on board @GeorgeandAnne . Those are some really nice pics and can see that you've already tried the Cali life. With your existing experience, I am sure you will figure out things quite easily. The only advice I will give at this time is - when in a Cali remember - "less is better".

Enjoy the adventures and do share pics when the Cali arrives. Wishing you the best of adventures.

 

[Ladymuck]

Hi, where abouts in the Peaks were you ? Looks familiar, wasn't Commend End farm campsite was it ??
Good luck in your search, if you become a VIP member for £15 you can access a checklist which will be really useful to check against items and get the dealer to order in anything missing or fix anything not working, there's lots to check !

 

[GeorgeandAnne]

Thanks @kurienp for the warm welcome. Looking forward to contributing to the forum and learning from the heaps of experience on here.

I think you've given me sage advice there. Am trying to make sure we concentrate on getting the right van first of all, and not race ahead looking for accessories. Things like that will come naturally later as we get out there in it and learn what we need. Thanks again.

 

[Perfectos]

GeorgeandAnne ,

great first post, the Cali bug bites deep, there is no cure for that itch once you’ve been bitten.

get the Van, use it and work out what you need (not want) for the way you use the van.

the collection check list in in the VIP forum, subscription required to access the info, pm people etc.

if you intend to use the forum, it’s worth while subscribing (various options available from one year to lifetime membership)

fret not about newbie mistakes, we’ve all made a few, some admit it some don’t.

your in the right place to limit those possibilities, but in the end it’s your van you do with it what you will to suit the way you and yours use it.

let’s see some photos when the eagle has landed

 

[reserves]

Best of luck with your search.

A fair bit of stress will be removed as the T6 will be under warranty (if it’s less than 3 years old) so interior and engine etc. Will be covered.

Its not a great time to be buying a Cali as there’s a lot of demand and loads of delays on the new ones but they are great fun

 

[GeorgeandAnne]

Hi, where abouts in the Peaks were you ? Looks familiar, wasn't Commend End farm campsite was it ??
Good luck in your search, if you become a VIP member for £15 you can access a checklist which will be really useful to check against items and get the dealer to order in anything missing or fix anything not working, there's lots to check !

Hi @Ladymuck. Thank you for the reply and advice - we've signed up for a VIP membership so I will go off and look for that checklist, as it sounds exactly what we need

We were a bit further round the east side of the Peaks at Sandyford Farm:

Matlock - Sandyford Farm - The Camping and Caravanning Club

www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.co.uk

It was only a small site, but the owners were great and very friendly, facilities were fine and the views were amazing. Was about a 10 min drive down into Matlock to stock up for supplies, but once back on site you felt ages from anywhere.

I will have to have a look at Common End Farm site. From the photos on their website it looks really good. Any recommended sites you have around the Peak District would be most welcome as we love that area and are only around 2 hours away.

 

[GeorgeandAnne]

GeorgeandAnne ,

great first post, the Cali bug bites deep, there is no cure for that itch once you’ve been bitten.

get the Van, use it and work out what you need (not want) for the way you use the van.

the collection check list in in the VIP forum, subscription required to access the info, pm people etc.

if you intend to use the forum, it’s worth while subscribing (various options available from one year to lifetime membership)

fret not about newbie mistakes, we’ve all made a few, some admit it some don’t.

your in the right place to limit those possibilities, but in the end it’s your van you do with it what you will to suit the way you and yours use it.

let’s see some photos when the eagle has landed

Thanks for the welcome @Perfectos and for the reply. We're hired larger motor homes once or twice, but it just didn't feel as right as the Cali does for us. Even during the Ocean test drives we had a few days ago, it felt good to be sitting back in one and felt like the right choice.

We've now subscribed so will check out the VIP forum - thanks for the tip there.

We appreciate the kind words about everyone making mistakes. As I'm sure with most first time campervan owners, we've never owned a vehicle as expensive as the one we're about to, so it's all a bit nerve-wracking. However you're right, we need to work out how best to use it and that will take some right and wrong choices along the way, I'm sure.

Photos will be forthcoming once we get one of these vans across the line, rest assured

 

[GeorgeandAnne]

Best of luck with your search.

A fair bit of stress will be removed as the T6 will be under warranty (if it’s less than 3 years old) so interior and engine etc. Will be covered.

Its not a great time to be buying a Cali as there’s a lot of demand and loads of delays on the new ones but they are great fun

Thank you @reserves for the best wishes on our search. We feel like we're so close, but this is the stressful part (for us at least) where you're dealing with potential hidden issues and dealership shenanigans, so we having to try to not be distracted by how close we are and take our eye off the ball.

Yes, you're right on the warranty front. We were looking at a few older models with a higher spec, but having 1-2 years warranty left will hopefully help us fix any issues that we find early on.

You're right about the timing demand is high and it's generally a seller's market out there. The prices, on average, seem a few thousand higher than when we had previously come close to buying one a few years ago. But I guess that's life. We feel like if we don't do it now we'll never find out if it's right for us, and we've never been great at timing when it comes to making large purchases with regards to the market anyway, so that's feel strangely familiar

 

[Ladymuck]

Hi @Ladymuck. Thank you for the reply and advice - we've signed up for a VIP membership so I will go off and look for that checklist, as it sounds exactly what we need

We were a bit further round the east side of the Peaks at Sandyford Farm:

Matlock - Sandyford Farm - The Camping and Caravanning Club

www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.co.uk

It was only a small site, but the owners were great and very friendly, facilities were fine and the views were amazing. Was about a 10 min drive down into Matlock to stock up for supplies, but once back on site you felt ages from anywhere.

I will have to have a look at Common End Farm site. From the photos on their website it looks really good. Any recommended sites you have around the Peak District would be most welcome as we love that area and are only around 2 hours away.

We live on very edge of the Peak District so I'll check out that campsite thank you.
Common End Farm is lovely if you like quiet basic campsites, there's a lovely atmosphere and the facilities were spotless. It's a beautiful 5k walk to Dovedale and also have a great pub 5-10 mins walk down the road.

There is a more comprehensive checklist that I don't think has got uploaded yet, I'll pm it to you when I get a mo.

 

[alan middleton]

Hello from the Midlands! Thanks for allowing us to join. My wife, daughter and I have been hankering after owning our own Cali after hiring one local to us a few times over the past few years and loving it. Back then we were hiring a 2017 T6 Ocean along with a Vango Airway Kela IV awning - it was great and really worked for us.

On one particular trip to the Peak District in Derbyshire (UK) we inadvertently managed to put it through its paces over a weekend. Arrived on the Friday in the dark, we had to pitch and cook dinner whilst still trying to remember how everything worked. We woke up on Saturday to brilliant sunshine and some amazing views of the peaks. By Saturday evening the weather has turned cold, so we bunkered down in the van and fired up the webasto heater and had a cosy night in the Cali.

Sunday morning we awoke to find snowfall! So much so that my daughter was able to build a snowman and pelt me with numerous snowballs in the morning. By the time we left that afternoon the sun had come out and melted all the snow . . . well almost all See pictures from that trip attached. Both the Cali and Vango were great despite the adverse weather and we felt such at home in it that we've just been waiting for the right time to buy our own.

Fast forward to now. We've been scouring the dealerships for a T6 California Ocean for the last few weeks. We test drove 2 yesterday and are close to pulling the trigger on buying one of them (2019 T6 199PS in Indium Grey). Hopefully we will be joining the ranks of California owners very soon.

In the meantime we would be so grateful for any advice you can offer for both purchasing a new van from dealerships and any essential equipment you think we may need when first starting out. I have read on other threads on here of a purchase/new owners checklist, but I cannot find it. Can anyone please direct me to it please if it's still available?

Apologies for the long post and thanks for reading if you've made it this far! We're all very excited to get going with owning our own California (in case you can't tell), but we're keen to not make some beginner mistakes, so any advice is most welcome.

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Welcome.wise decision! Keep us updated on whether you did it!

don’t be too hasty to get loads of accessories. We all like different things for different reasons, so I recommend deciding as you go. Perhaps consider the things you really liked about the ones you hired. Then check in on here what others have bought.

you will always find helpful folk replying to your questions on here. From sunshades to coffee machines to awnings to tyres to solar panels. Just ask

welcome again