I have made PDF of all the content and it can be accessed from my site:-
We knew little about motorhomes although I had had two Mazda Bongos
before. A really nice one, written of by a guy jumping the lights, and a
pretty awful one which was all I could afford after the derisory payment
from the insurance company. I traded it in against the Nuevo.
There are only three of us, and one is a dog. The motorhome, hereafter
referred to as "the van", will theoretically sleep 4 humans. The extra two
would really have to be children to fit into the Luton area above the cab and
not mind sleeping together. We find that area invaluable for stowing our
instruments (Guitars mandolins, banjos, ukuleles and others) and folding
chairs and all sorts of light weight bulky stuff.
Although six years old the van had only 10,500 miles on the clock when we got
it, this is not unusual for motorhomes. They tend to be based on commercial
vehicles which are designed for much higher mileages.
A few weeks after we got the Van we got it under sealed. This was 9
years ago (at the time of writing) and I had forgotten about it until the
mechanic at our garage remarked that our van was the best condition, and the
highest mileage of all the motorhomes he services. As I remember the
cost was around £900, but well spent I think.
After six years we had added about 80,000 miles to the clock and spent
hundreds of nights in the van, from the depths of winter to the elevated
temperature of recent summers. Activity was curtailed over the Covid
years.
We almost never use campsites, we stay in remote locations, lay-bys, public
car parks (when allowed), pub car parks and sometimes in residential
roads.
When we got the van we were delighted with it (we still are BTW) but found
that the weak point was the habitation electrics. Now I am a retired
electronic engineer so I saw this as a challenge, so much of the content
here is about modifications to the electrical system in the van.
But some of the content is simply sharing the way we manage our particular way
of van life. Much of this information was written a few years ago, and some
has been updated of late.
I am a member of quite a few online motorhome forums, (but I do not post
much). It seems that many motorhomes cannot conceive of operating
without at least 2 110 AH leisure batteries and a roof full of solar panels
and a 2Kw inverter. I guess this is to power the satellite TV, microwave
oven, hair dryer, electric kettles and toaster.
We prefer the simple, though comfortable, life. We don't tend to watch TV in
the van (although we can watch it on a laptop if we have a wi-fi connection or
a fast 4G connection.
We are not full time motorhome dwellers. The most we have spent
continually in the van is about eight weeks - non of it on a campsite or with
a hook up.
The van is not pristine. The roof gets cleaned every two years or so and
it's a hard job. The outside is not too clean, and shows quite a few
scrapes from walls and hedges. But it gets regularly serviced by a wonderful
local garage.
We love it.