Any Motorhome Owners? Running Costs?

[sam7]

Husband retired 6 months ago and is a bit bored, so we are considering if getting a campervan/motorhome might be an idea. Does anyone have one and can give me a vague idea of the annual running costs? Anything we need to consider or look out for

[dizzymcfarlane]

Am sitting in ours at moment. We have a motorhome. We like having our own facilities, especially during the night if you are ‘of an age’ 😉….
The usual costs, insurance, road fund, gas. A vehicle habitation unit check is recommended each year, just to make sure all is good and ours was just done - £250. We are finding the biggest cost is site fees. We are on holiday just now, the cheapest site has been £27 and the most expensive was £48…… Feel free to ask anything else or send me a message. We love ours.

[Tigger71]

Sold ours just before pandemic because kids were getting older and all weekend activities meant it wasnt getting enough use unfortunately- but before that loved it.

- Check insurance costs - depends on vehicle and location could be anything from 400-800 or more
- Road tax depending on size and engine between £165-345 (check gov.uk)
- Storage fees - unless you can store it at your property. I was surprised how expensive it was - six years ago we paid around £500 year just to have it stored at a farm (secure storage). It was also difficult to find storage and we needed to shop around.
- Membership in Caravan clubs (we had both the two big ones) to get discounted site fees
-Site fees - anything from 15-50 and up per night if you want it hooked up on electricity
- yearly habitation service costs - between 200-500 depending on age and type of motorhome
- petrol
- gas

And its amazing how much stuff you end up buying for it
Camping chairs, windbreaker, portable bbq, kitchen stuff, reversable camera, bike storage thingy, awning, flashlights, boardgames, firstaid kits, fire safety stuff, security alarm, safety box, blankets, storage boxes for the ”garage” - the list just went on !

Before buying - I would recommend renting if you havent done that before. we did this before we bought ours and it was great because it helped us understnd what we liked/didnt like with the layout in the one we rented and helped us narrow down the model we bought. Living in it for a week before buying was also a test we actually would like this sort of holiday as we had never tried it before. But if you are seasoned campers or caravaners that is obviously not needed.

[dee slack]

we don't own one but have hired a MH a couple of times and sort of thought about buying one so not sure if these are valid points to consider, but if it's a newer model Adblue (we had to buy and get reimbursed by the hire company) and also breakdown cover and if you have a MH then the toilet chemicals as well?

[COL41]

We have a campervan which we also use as second car so usual tax/fuel/mot etc
Would definitely agree re site costs as speaking to people who’ve owned longer than us-these have really gone up in recent years.
We belong to caravan and motorhome club and tend to only stay on their sites as all of similar quality.
Think we tend to pay around £32 a night for two of us to stay on a site with electric hook up.
I know people that have had motorhomes and changed to car and caravan as found motorhome too restrictive with parking/country roads etc.
But also know people who have changed to motorhome as hated towing a caravan.
We have talked about changing in the future but would want to do some serious research before paying out for a motorhome, as see too many sat on driveways and only used a couple of weeks a year which is a lot of money wasted IMO

[jdouds]

I suppose a simple question really. How much is the purchase price. £49/50/60,000. How many times do you need to use it to make it worth while. Are you better using Airbnb hotels for trips away etc.