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Hi there
My wife and I (Rudi&Cherryl) have been living in Australia for the last 23 years and travelled all over with our off-road Caravan and four wheel drive. We are now planning to tour Europe for a couple of years and looking for a motorhome. Unfortunatly we both know very little about the market in the UK und require some advice with the purchase. Cherryl is English and I am German but our home is down under and as we like to bring the vehicle back to Australia after our travels we need the following to satisfy the Australian roads department
Price 28.000 pounds max for a good used car
Right hand drive
3500 kg max.
7.00 meters long max
3.00 meters wide max
the overhang in the back must not be more than 60% of the distance between the front and the rear axle
No problem so far but.....
the habitation door of the vehicle must be on the LEFT side.
From all the research I have done this exludes most makes in Europe,
We travelled 2 years ago for 3 months in Europe and had an Alcoven model but climbing up a ladder and sleeping on top was not for us
We therefore looking for something like a A class motorhome and while I see a large number of Hymer's in the UK for sale all seem to have the door on the ( for us) wrong side. I belive that the Hymer Lionheart would be suitable but unfortunaly nobody seem to have one for sale.
Hi and welcome to the forum by chance we are touring Australia at the moment and are in Maryborough Qld at the minute, there are many models to suit you available in England all though we are in Europe the European is usually used to describe campers made in the rest of Europe specifically not England.
All campers manufactured in England have the habitation door on thr left as you require, Take look on Ebay.co.uk under caravans and Motorhomes at makes such as Autotrail, Lunar, Eldiss, , Autosleeper Autocruise, To name but a few.
Having been and travelled Australia several times i can tell you that any European campers that you bring back to Australia will not stand up to the rigours of unsealed roads, you will see what i mean as soon as you compare them with Australian built, they are very lightweight by comparison, the caravans even more so. best wishes and good luck.
I hope you enjoy your travels in Queensland. Mind you it rains cats and dogs this week so it is not very nice.
We are also in Queensland on Russel Island and have just returned from a 6 month trip from Brisbane to Western Australia and back. total km travelled was over 18000km on very bad roads including the Gibb river road. We have a Kedron off-road caravan towed by a 6 cyl diesel landcruiser and know that europaen motorhomes are not suitable for the Australian outback. However we have been touring the outback for a number of years now and want to stay on the black stuff in future.
The vehicle makes you mentioned in your post mean very little to me and I would be grateful for any info about the quality and if this vehicles are build in the UK or somewhere else. Do some of them belong to the big players like hymer ?
If you close to our Island during your travel let me know and we might be able to organize a barbie and a couple of stubbis
Regards
I obviously don't know why you particularly after a LH door as in terms of using one there is little or no difference - but where it does make a big difference is the range and build quality of Euro vans which generally
a lot better than the UK built ones.
At the end of the day you need to come over and look and see what you get for your money.
Is there not a strict rule about how clean things have to be to import into Australia.
Vehicles are very strict, a friend of mine recently emigrated to Aus and had a container outside his home he was packing, he even had to scrub his balls (golf)
Loddy
______________________________________________________________ We are put on this earth not to weather the storm
but to learn to dance in the rain
The reason I am looking for a Vehicle with the habitation door on the left is that this is one of the requirements to have the vehicle licensed in Australia.
If we decide against bringing the car back down under because of a lesser build quality we will buy in Germany and sell it again after our travel.
The advantage of taking the Car with us is the fact that Motorhomes over here are a lot more expensive than in Europe
If you're looking for an "A" class M/H with a door on the L/H side you're unlikely to find one. There are no UK makers AFAIK that make an "A" class M/H currently and they're the only ones which will have a L/H habitation door, all continental ones have the door on the R/H side. There have been a couple of UK "A" class 'vans made in the past few years (Autotrail Grand Frontier comes to mind), they have a L/H door but they're few and far between. They also have had some bad press regarding build quality etc.
http://www.freebornmotorhome.co.uk/used-motorhomes/autotrail/grande-frontier/a-class/K99RWC http://www.southdownsmotorcaravans.co.uk/stock/1063/pixindex.html
As for shipping the 'van back to Australia, I think that would be fraught with difficulty. Australian import regulations are notoriously stringent for used vehicles so it would involve an awful lot of paperwork and probably a high cost. That's one reason why M/Hs are expensive in Australia.
My advice would be to buy from a dealer who would be prepared to sell you a 'van with an agreed buy-back after a year (or two), I understand that several German dealers will do this. You'll also have problems obtaining insurance in the UK unless you have a permanent UK address, insurance would probably be easier if buying and re-selling in Germany. Also prices are slightly lower (and choice much wider) in Germany.
______________________________________________________________ If you lend someone £20 and never see that person again, it was probably well worth it.
It seems like the best thing to do is to buy in germany and than resell, unless of course I get my hand on a Hymer Lionheart.
Anybody knows one for sale???
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France
