Hello everyone, we are new here and just wanted to say hi and thanks for adding us to the forum. We are looking to start nomading in a year or two and want to start the ball rolling by buying a caravan that will be mainly static to begin with while we get used to it all. We are looking for tips as to which caravan to buy please. There is so much choice as you all know, and we don't know where to start! Thank you in advance for any tips you can give. Cheers

Basically the "Weight Specs" of your Tug (seek experienced advice) will command the weight range of caravans you can choose from. The weight range will govern what facilities/fittings you can have in the van and what load (equipment, clothes, food, water etc.) you will be able to carry in the van. 

Tread carefully as "all is not what it seems" when it comes to caravan weights. 

After you have taken on knowledgeable advice, calculated and decided .......then -

WEIGH before you PAY.

Flobberdobbs wrote:

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 We are looking to start nomading in a year or two and want to start the ball rolling by buying a caravan that will be mainly static to begin with while we get used to it all. We are looking for tips as to which caravan to buy please. 

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Hi & welcome.   Dreams developed & decision made with regard to future lifestyle. Exciting stuff & I well understand the desire to 'concretise' this by buying a van. 

However I would urge caution. Take your time. Look lots, talk to folk with experience, both vanners & motorhomers,  & then look more. 

If you are not planning to travel for another year or two you have plenty of time to choose what is 'right' for you. There are many aspects to travelling which should ideally impact upon your choice. 

Buying (or building) a first travel outfit & ensuring it will suit you is not an easy task to get right. Many don't, and end up changing or putting up with something which doesn't suit as well as they had thought it would.  Understanding why certain features & configurations suit different folk & how that will apply to you is the primary task, difficult because everyone has their own views, and for the inexperienced traveller to apply those views to themselves involves untested assumptions. 

Often folk think they know what they want, but find their assumptions about which they were so certain were wrong after making a commitment. What are essentials to some are a waste of space to others. Even the amount of space required. Eg. it os not uncommon for folk to convince themselves (often with the aid of salesmen) that the longer the trip the larger the van or vehicle they need. Experience generally suggests the opposite, instead suggesting that the smallest you can manage with is better. 

Apart from talking to a wide variety of travellers as to what suits them & why (whilst retaining the awareness of the the very common 'recommendations' based upon confirmation of the advisor's own choice) the best way to determine what is best for you is often bypassed by many. That is is get some travelling experience yourself without committing a large amount of money to do so.

Buying a cheap used van/motorhome/campervan in good condition & doing a few trips in it cannot be beaten in terms of clarifying what you want or don't want. Both from hands on experience, & from observing & talking to others 'out there'. If you get something in reasonable condition you will be able to sell it for much the same as you paid for it & then be in a far better position to know what you want for the longer term.

The alternative is to take a chance on an expensive mistake & either lose money on it to change to what you subsequently realise what youwant or put up with it.

There is no right or wrong. Only what is right for you.

I have been around RV's & nomads for more than a couple of decades, & there is an old saying which still holds true, more commonly applied to folk who build their own rigs, but applies just as well to those who buy ready made. "Few get it right first time around, many get it right by their 3rd" .

I appreciate that the advice I am offering may seem like it is making something which you want to be straightforward seem more difficult, but I doubt that anyone who has been nomadding for any length of time will disagree with it.

And anyway, I'm guessing that in a year or two's time there will be a much greater choice in the market, at better prices than now, from all those who chose Australian nomadding because of covid & whom it hasn't really suited.

Thank you very much to you all for some brilliant advice/ tips/ suggestions etc. we appreciate it very much.