Much as we wish we had a drive big enough we are very lucky with our storage. It's about six miles away and stores about 40 vans behind the house of a lovely retired couple who are ex caravaners. For £300 per year we get unlimited access, our own key and they even provide several electrical hookups so we can put the fridge on the night before we go away, there's caravan washing facilities and even a customer toilet! Our biggest mistake with our first caravan was buying a two birth! Within a year it was swapped for a four birth with a proper bed. This is probably quite a common mistake. Best bit of advice we'd give anyone is just use it and enjoy it!😊

Some good advice.. I can't believe the storage prices people are paying generally over £600. When we moved top of the list was driven/lawn to store caravan on. So moving 5 years ago I have saved £3000 so far😊

We bought our first caravan just over a month ago from Highbridge, it came with a six-month warranty. We are paying £45 per month for storage in Berkshire.

Bought our van February, £11995, 18 months warranty, storage under cover £540 .

Good video. When we decided we would like to consider caravanning, the first thing we did was to decide on a budget, and that had to include a car as our existing one was not suitable - it's very easy to get swept away in the excitement of it all and overspend if you are not careful - layout of the caravan was very important to us as well. Then we researched storage, ( inc if we could keep it at home) insurance and security, servicing costs. What would we need to spend on items for the caravan ( aqua roll, waste master etc). We also decided to get a Sat Nav in which we could put the dimensions of the car and caravan, therefore ensuring that we don't end up going down unsuitable roads. Until I towed the caravan the 85 miles from the dealers back home, I had never towed anything before - I did do a Caravan and motorhome club caravan driving course first which was invaluable. For our first trip, we decided to stay very local for a weekend, at a site we know, and on roads that I'm familiar with - not far from home so if we had any issues, or even forgotten something, we could easily get back. Things we've discovered since owning the caravan: It's very easy to take far too much stuff with you, and we have now pared it right down. Channels like yours and some caravan forums are fantastic for ideas and suggestions for all things caravan related. Everywhere we've been, folk have been very friendly, and will always help others if they get in a pickle. We love it!! Steve n Jeanette

We pay special offer £45 per month then in December it will increase to £90, Dorset area, Gold CASSOA. We were quoted nearly 2k at another that isn't CASSOA rated.

You see so many people saying just tow and go in their ads how many folk jump in and buy without doing some research about weights etc police wont accept that as an excuse would be costly

We pay £500 per year for covered storage in Gloucestershire

We bought our first caravan last year from a dealer. 2017 Bailey and we got a 3 year warranty including water ingress. We purposefully store it about an hours drive from us; Partly due to local storage costs which were extortionate and also easier access to places we want to go. We have it stored in a gold CASSOA site, which appears to be good.£600 a year.

We're in our 4th year of caravanning. Our set up is OK, but would like to change if we can

We did 3yrs of “thinking of getting a caravan” and 6 months of “getting a caravan”. We did have a caravan over 10yrs ago, but a lot has changed since. First thing we did was buy a note book. We put together a list of must haves and likes to have. This note book also had a shopping list of bits we needed. In the must have list, it had “must fit on the drive” so I did a scaled drawing of the drive and a scaled drawing of a caravan that you could fold out for different sized caravans, as a visual. We had our budget and started to look at caravans online. Which is a bit of a mine field! We had 3 caravans in mind, so we held out for the October NEC show, we had waited 3yrs, what’s another 5months. We went to the show and didn’t like any of the caravans we had in mind, but did find another that we did, but this was just over our budget and only just, but we agreed prior, that we wouldn’t go a penny over! So unfortunately we walked away from the show with nothing. The NEC is a 5hr drive and we wasn’t going to settle, as it had taken all that time to get to and back from the show. But we had a more detailed caravan in mind now, a new one being out of budget then lead us down the second hand route, the day after the NEC visit, my father in-law (seasoned caravaner and joined us at the show) found a caravan an hours drive away well below budget and 2yrs old and hardly used. We are now the caravans new owners!! It’s worth going over kill on the planning and research as it could save a lot of money.

I bought second user last year from a dealer. I got 6 months warranty. My storage. Cost is £390 a year.

Great selection of advice Dave. We also made the mistake of a wrong layout recently and will be rectifying that next week at a cost which could have been avoided if we had thought a bit more and walked away. Thanks as always for the videos. David & Rachel (Colchester) - £650 annual Platinum Secure Storage.

Fantastic information Dave and very helpfull reguardless of wether it is first or tenth caravan. One thing I would add is check that the type of site you like allows the type of caravan you want, my favorite site does not allow twin axle or fith wheels and sign written vehicles ( for you business owners)

Great advice as always. We pay around £600 per year, split into 6 month payments. One thing to watch with storage is access times to get your caravan in & out of storage, some storage places we looked at were quite restrictive which would add complication when planning trips (e.g. not before 8:00am and back by dusk! - early in winter times) we have 24hrs access. Keep it up Dave.

We brought ours back in November but went for an older one just to see if we like it didn’t want to spend 15k-20k and it was just a phase 😅 so far we love it. Don’t for get to look at break weight for the tow car as well. We pay £800 year for a platinum storage yard not a cheap old game thou this caravanning we probably spent other £1500 getting other bits awning etc great video keep up the good work 👍

We pay £840 for storage , last year we bought a 2015 Bailey and we got a year's warranty from a dealer

Hi Dave: Excellent as ever. We store our van on a secure site in Manchester. It has 2 locked gates, CCTV but not CASSOA. If I pay for 12 months in one go it is £800. Slightly more if you pay monthly. That's about the going rate around here if you want to come and go whenever you require. Keep up the good work. Paul & JM.

Brilliant video!

Very good advice given, i hope it helps others, like you we have made similar mistakes in the past👍

Great advice Dave. We can always rely on you. Pity we’re so impulsive, but always learning as we go. 👍🤣😂

We pay £470 per year storage for a 7.5 metre caravan. We bought a 2011 sterling Eccles Quartz 4 berth fixed island bed, second hand, we were like you and didn't know whether we would like it and didn't want to splash much cash, on what was our first caravan. It came with a full one year warranty from the dealer. It has developed water ingress after circa 10 months over the winter, which we found on our first outing this year. No worries said the dealer, took it in and is sealing it and repairing water damage as we speak ( leakage from awning rail fixing area from original construction ) and the repair comes with a year's warranty as well. The caravan originally came with a motor mover, solar panel and a starter kit with water, waste barrels and an inflatable awning.

While talking of weights etc. GTW is very important! Possibly more so than mptlm. Deduct the weight of the car from the gross train weight and that is the max caravan weight you can tow. It can be less than the mptlm or whatever the arrangement of letters is?

We made the mistake of buying the first caravan we saw. Being that we rarely socialise it was hard for us to go and look in the first place, but we managed to find the place and he had set it up for us to take a look at. At first glance it looked clean and tidy although the fire had been clearly taken apart and had not been put back completely. Then there was the tap on the sink; it leaked badly but he said it was an easy fix. We had a quick look at the bathroom, again it was clean and tidy so we did not take too much time in it. What we had failed to notice was that he had covered the shower basin cleverly using a white, rubber mat. Under which, I might add was a gaping hole where the plug hole should have been! He said that he had hardly used the bathroom as he always used those on site instead. Then came the motor movers or lack thereof; this wasn't a deal breaker for us but we should have made sure he supplied them as he had removed them because they made a noise - apparently. I think he just wanted to make more money selling the whole kit and caboodle. He showed us the TV working and radio, then made the bed quickly in order to show how experienced he was using his caravan. With all the negative things about it, the interior was relatively clean apart from the roof vents that he had screwed into place, because the brackets had broken, no doubt because of age/heavy handedness. I could see that my wife was happy with it, so I asked him the lowest he would take £4250, and with a little pushing I managed £4k cash. The Elddis Avante 2006 we have is now mostly done. It has taken a further £600's to put most things right and I am in the process of painting a motor mover that we bought from Ebay, before I fit it. All in all it has been one heck of an experience for us and knowing what I now know, I would have given this a wide berth as the owner was just out to make some money from unsuspecting muppets - like us. We have seen similar caravans going for less in excellent condition, which kinda pisses me off really, but the outside is almost unmarked - thankfully, and my polishing skills have not been wasted, as she now sits shining like a diamond, all ready for the road. A great many man/woman hours have gone into refurbishing it, and rather selling it off, we are resolved to using it for this year at least.

Hi guys... great video and very informative as always... we pay storage at Bridlington CAMC site just round the corner from us which is CASsOA and it's £540 per year... can't store at home because of the deeds 😊... cheers Dave and Jane 👍

Great advice as usual Dave.We have all been guilty of letting the heart rule the head, when making a big purchase. So top tips there mate.

Prior to getting a caravan last year we had a folding camper for 3yrs which we loved. Apart from weather watching when packing away! However we could store it on our driveway. I decided to get a caravan so we could go away more of the year and have a bit more space. First year storage was £650 in Hampshire/Berkshire area. I had to get a new storage site, which is now £400 per year. Love the ease of going away on the caravan as I can set up on my own. Anthony

As always, great vid - layout layout layout

Hi Dave and Helen, yet another great and informative vlog. We bought our caravan from new (Swift Elite twin axle - dealer special). We've been very pleased with it for the last two and a half years. We keep it locally in storage and pay £300 p.a. Looking forward to many more adventures. Cheers Terry

Great advice and definitely know what your tow car can pull. We've got a shogun but still checked the weight of our caravan when we changed it. Layout important. Great video. Xx

Great video Dave, really informative.

Great advise in this vlog 👍

Great advice Dave and totally get the know your weights and not just your kerb weight as my 2year old Toyota Rav 4 plug in hybrid weighs 2000kgs but as it’s a Hybrid the maximum tow weight capacity is a mere 1500kgs, certainly shocked and limited our first caravan purchase…. Ours was 5 years old and from a local dealer, would have come with 6 months warranty but we extended this to 2years for not a huge amount of money really, gives a bit of peace of mind. Great tips and advice Tris and Nikki

Hi there Dave, Lots of sound advice there 👍 for new comers to the touring world. As you say mistakes can be made by not doing research first. It’s good to visit shows and see the different layouts to decide which will work best for you… All the best, Rob & Gail 😀

Very sound advice 👍

Nicely done Dave 👍

Perfect down to earth,

Good job dave we had our yearly service this year and you seen our van oh no 45% damp rear off side top corner he said because caravan in such good condition for its age which is 2010 I would recommend fix it all good now it was awning rail on off side he had it a week stripped dried put back all good now 😊

North Wales £500 p.a, indoors. Excellent security.

Hi Dave, enjoyed your video, really good tips and advice there for would be caravaners, think we can easily let our heart rule our head at times, thank you for sharing x Julie and Tony x

Hi D & H, some great information there, a couple I didn't follow out, however I've been very lucky. We pay £40 a month for secure storage, which just happens to be our favourite site, personally we don't go for club houses or shower blocks, we tend to like small, quiet sites, ours is about half way between Canterbury and Folkestone, great stop over point for going to or coming from both, channel crossings, and then there's always the cost at £22 p/n including hook up, all the best, and safe travels, Neil

Great video Dave. We'd like to dive in on the storage question as being ripped off by some is easy done. We had our caravan at a Caravan and Motorhome Club Site which was CASSOA Gold, had limited access and very lax security which in County Durham is best part of £600 a year. We swapped to a CASSOA Platinum site a few miles away, security is fantastic, fob, camera and lock coded access. It's like having the caravan in a bank vault and it's over £200 a year cheaper. Buyer beware, do the homework and don't think the clubs are gonna be doing the best deals. Storage with a registered company to the best standard does make a difference to caravan insurance and for us it was cheaper than keeping the caravan at home but a lot less convenient.

We bought a new Bailey Unicorn Madrid last week. The most noticeable thing for me was there was no new caravan smell like you get in a new car, the seats weren't covered in plastic sheet, nor the carpets, it never seemed like it was brand new and to top it all off the PDI man scuffed our wheels when doing the torque-up. I lost £4K in value in a year of owning the previous one so wasn't happy about that especially as it was spotless. No battery was included nor gas bottle but they did swap over our old battery and motor mover which they also refurbished. We intend to keep this caravan for a long time :D Just started a new channel: Caravan Hepcats, first video is rubbish but it'll get better...hopefully. Take care both :)

Good video DAVE👍

Hi Dave, towards the end you touched on the per night cost, perhaps while travel is more difficult another chat video subject could be the comparative cost of a long weekend? In round numbers since September last year Taylor (Swift 580) has saved us £900 - £1100 in Hotel bills, something like £75 - £80 per night in restaurant bills. Breakfast and lunch is arguable depending on your preferences, but at least a meal deal? Perhaps you could do a 3 way comparison? Helen could do a weekend in a lovely Spa Hotel with meals, Champagne and treatments, while you do a spit and sawdust B+B, compared to nice moderate weekend in the 'van? I'm sure Helen would be game for that? 🤣🤣🤣

Hi David good advice we bought a used caravan last year with a French bed and had the same issues as yourself and we upgraded in February this year to a island bed and what a difference it’s made we both now lie in bed in the morning We store the caravan in Worcester and we pay £560 per annum but the storage yard is fantastic and great people When we bought the used caravan we had 12 months warranty Thanks Lee

We made sure that our missives allowed parking a caravan on the drive. We used to store on camp but would no longer have that option. We went through 8 caravans and changed every three years or so. We settled on a Bessacarr 495 two birth kept that for 10 yrs and got one with a big motor mover 😉😉 Bought 2 new caravans, never again. PDI was a waste of time and the van very quickly was falling apart. One new car never again, it was the cost of depreciation and servicing by dealer. We will not even look at a new Motorhome. All good advice, which to be honest we ignored this but we only slapped a Deposit on Desmond then went away to think about it. All great advice Dave thanks for passing your tips on. We both agree it is the best thing we have done and enjoy it to this day nearly 40 yrs on.

Hi Helen and Dave We store our caravan in attleborough it cost us £350 pounds per year Great video Kevin and sandie

Hi Dave I pay £40 per month storage. It’s a twin axle and I found that lots of places in my area West Yorkshire don’t take twin axles so I was lucky to find somewhere. Great video

Good advice indeed. Just to add our storage is £280 for 12 months at Skegness Storage (find it easier to visit the coast without putting extra stress on the tow car) however we are looking at moving to Peterborough to be more easier to get to Norfolk and seen storage around the same cost (gold cossoa too) so there are some fair priced storage out there if people are willing to shop around. Loving the videos still and thank you!

Sleep on it dave😂try and tell my mrs that joking aside great informative video by the way we stayed at the grange a couple of weeks ago fantastic food and drove past your house would’ve stopped if I’d seen you all the best martin

Hi Dave and Helen, Fantastic vlog and very helpful, We have had 4 vans in 16 yrs but this has been our choice with family and kids but always enjoyed every one 😊. We are loving our latest van a 4 berth but just for us two with a fixed bed lovely. The sleep on it theory is great unless you go back the next day and it's gone 😢, but we always say then it was not meant to be. Our current storage fees are £550 for a gold cossoa site 😢. We have booked Incleboro for September, wondering if we could call in for a van clean 😂. Take care and enjoy your next trip away. Paul and Joanne 👍 😊

Another great vlog with more good advice we're over here in North Shropshire our storage costs for a very good cassoa gold site are £240 per year so very good value we're coming to Deers Glade again in August for the carnival can't wait for the fun to begin

We got a two year warranty on our second hand van from Raymond James Caravans

Well done Dave a really useful video and great advice it's all too easy to purchase and think later same with cars motorhomes all sorts I have always made a list of what I want what I can afford and tried to go into things the right way sometimes it takes discipline 😂 hope you and Helen are keeping well Daniel

First consideration for me, as a dog owner, is a stable type door. Eliminates lots of brands straight away

Current storage cost in Cassoa Gold facility £500pa

Hello Dave, great video, I totally agree with you, don’t let your heart rule your head, and sleep on it is the right thing to do, I would say tow car is the most important things, we had a vw golf diesel at first but once we started to fill the caravan it struggled to go uphill, then a Mercedes 220 diesel witch was prefect but started to have mechanical problems, mainly oil leaks, then with the help from yourself we now have a Kia shortage diesel that tows a dream, so like I said really think about your tow car, cheers Dave until your next video, 👍👍.

I really do wish that people would stop calling this 85% thing a rule. It isn't a rule it is guidance. My vehicle is legally allowed to tow 3500kg but only weighs around 2250kg which is way beyond this 85% "rule". I wouldn't recommend a total beginner to tow at that ratio until they have a bit of experience or at least done a lot of research.

Brilliant video we currently are paying £800 per year but we want a caravan no space to keep it so storage is the only way for us

60 pounds a month. For our storage site.

Hi Dave, we keep ours in a CaSSOA gold standard site, cost is £240 per 6 months. We are based in Bolton area Great channel by the way, very informative.

Hi Dave. Great video. However I would add one more. You should make sure you have the correct Driving License. Anyone who passed their test after 1998 will not have a towing entitlement. That’s B+E. You can tow but only up to a maximum of 750kg. So you may have to pass another driving test. Worth considering. My wife says that she loves your parrot. 👍

Hello just bought a 2014 Swift challenger 580 from dealer and got 6 months warranty

Good information there Dave. Just to add just some of the observations from my own experiences: I would say that kerb weights and the 85% guidance is a bit of a mess, especially when looking at insurance, there is little common agreement as I can vouch for from my own experience. 🙁 My advice is always read the small print in insurance ( including looking for changes at renewal time☹️☹️☹️) and warranty documents and use a credit card to pay a deposit, as along with taking out finance there is a level of protection available should there be issues getting warranty work done, or the dealer goes bust. Also, the selling dealer is also the only one who is obliged to do warranty work, very unlike it is with car main dealers. Ultimately, caravanning is - and is meant to be enjoyable, avoiding some of the pitfalls from the outset can help ensure it stays that way.

Hi dave Most cvan dealers around here wont give you anything for free you dont even get a gas bottle with a new van which i think is ridiculous

Nearly 800 and that's on a secure club site

what app do you use for the car towing on the map ?