Our Nuevo

We bought our motorhome in 2013. It is a 2007 Autosleeper Nuevo.

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.