RV'ing the UK way.

Our week was soon up and we got a taxi to Euston Station then a high sped train to Liverpool. Time to see our relatives and find a motorhome to live in!

So then exactly how do you go about finding a motorhome in England when you don’t live there!

Our search began in the US with the usual online places: Ebay, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist. They all have country specific sites although Ebay isn’t easy to switch to another country (In my experience).

From that we got ideas on prices, models, floor plans. The kind of thing you would look for in a US motorhome search.

Friends in UK suggested Autotrader, which is a vehicle specific website and which has a vast array of vehicles for sale thru dealers and privately. That was a good source for figuring out a budget figure we could live with and based on that we used a thing called “Wise” to transfer dollars into a British Pounds account ready for an eventually purchase.

We did find a dealer within reasonable distance of our old home town of Birkenhead where my 2 sisters, our daughter and grandkids and Barb’s Sister and Brother lived.

Barbara's sister Hilary checks out the dealer's rigs.

Searching the dealer web page we found a unit that fit our budget and looked OK in the pictures. The dealer however said they highly recommended having somebody look at it in person, so we asked Barb’s brother if he could go see it.

It turned out that the pictures were better than the reality and we were impressed that the dealer had stepped up and suggested an in person viewing as we may have bought it sight unseen.

While Barb’s brother was there he walked around a few other units and suggested we talk to the dealer about one of them in particular. Things seemed to be going well until we asked about a buy back agreement, and then it became obvious that they didn’t want it back!

So what is a buy back agreement and why did we want one?

A buy back agreement is where you purchase a unit and then work out with the dealer what he would buy it back for in say 5 months time.

What’s good about it is that if you only want a MH for the summer then compared to renting one it’s a steal. Renting may cost over $150 A DAY! If you buy one privately you have to sell it before you leave and how long that might take is anyone’s guess.

Last time we bought a rig in UK about 5 years ago we ended up $3000 out of pocket for 3 ½ months of touring thru Europe. That was cheaper by far than renting a car and staying in hotels or renting a MH. That dealer was the one who suggested the buy back agreement and gave us a buy back price there and then.

After the disappointment with the dealer we just decided to “Wing it” as we always do. We would fly in, have a week in London then head for Birkenhead and stay with my sister Jackie until we found something we liked.

We searched Ebay, Autotrader and Facebook Marketplace daily in London without too much luck. When we got to Birkenhead we went to see local dealers and kept up the online search at the same time.

Another dealer's row of Motorhomes for sale

The dealers had what we considered high priced, beat up units in stock. Any in our price range were not what we would consider due to age, mileage and condition.

Out of the blue we saw a 2006 Swift Lifestyle unit with only 25,000 miles on it within 50 miles of home. We happened to be at a dealer when we saw it and I called straight away.

From the original online listing of the Swift

It was a private deal, the owners had tried it for a year and didn’t like the MH lifestyle so they were selling it complete with all the accessories. Perfect for us.

Inspecting the Swift with Peter and Carole the sellers

Getting into all the nooks and crannies

We checked online for history, went and saw it and loved it, Just what we wanted and within out budget.

It took about a week for the exchange of money and paperwork then we were the proud owners of our own motor home UK Style. We found an insurance broker that could get us full coverage insurance and accept out US drivers license. They also got us breakdown coverage in UK and Europe thru the ROYAL Automobile Club (None of your common automible clubs thank you!). We paid the annual road tax in UK online. The rig was already safety inspected thru next April so that didn’t need any effort from us.

We moved in to it at a local campground after several shopping trips for all the little things that we wanted and to stock up the fridge and larder. Luckily we had given the stuff we bought for the other rig 5 years ago to our daughter and she still had it all! That saved us some more money and speeded things up.

Very pleasant first nights camping at Arrow Brook Farm

Next we had to get used to camping in the European manner which is quite different from the US.

Lets look at setting up to camp.

In the US “Full Hookup” means a 50 amp electric service that runs everything including AC’s etc., Water which gets connected to the unit all the time you are there and sewer which is connected by hose and lets you dump both the inbuilt black and grey tanks without moving the rig off the site.

UK and European rigs don’t have all that!

You get a 10amp electric supply.

The pedestal in UK. 4 outlets 10 amp each one for each of 4 rigs,

That’s it!

The site is usually grass, water is at a spigot somewhere on the campground where you fill up your fresh water tank then run on it.

Water hook up. Fill your onboard tank and go park!

There is no sewer connection at the site, you have to empty a “Cassette” every day or so into a receptacle somewhere else on the campground.

Full hookups! The Gas cylinder is under the back flap and the cassette just off to the right.

The dreaded "Cassette" you pull the whole thing out and walk it to the dump station.

To drain the gray tank (There is no black tank) you drive to a location on the campground with a drain trough and open the drain valve over the trough.

Another camper dumps his cassette which os twice the size of ours!

That’s it! No full hookups!

After 4 days we have a better handle on how things work we think! It appears that the fresh water tank may be enough to last a week. The cassette in the toilet may last 5 days but only if we use the campground facilities for the majority of out needs.

The grey tank we have no idea how long it may last but assume it will be about the same as the fresh water based on our US rig when we dry camp.

We have struggled the first couple of days getting to know how things work, luckily all the original manuals that came with the rig when it was new are still here! Here are the things we had difficulty with:

Bear in mind that Peter and Carole the previous owners did take time to run us thru everything but it just doesn’t sink in all at once!

We couldn’t get the main electrical hook up to work. We plugged it in to the pedestal and the rig and nothing inside had power. I tried re-plugging it in, turning breakers on and off on the pedestal and rig, resetting GFI breakers, flipping switches here there and everywhere. Finally after an hour or so of frustration I looked into the rig end of the power cord and noticed the sockets were quite far up into the plug body. I bent the flap that covers the plug end and shoved it hard into the receptacle in the rig and HEY POWER!

The gas appliances wouldn’t work! I checked the cylinder was turned on, searched high and low for any solenoid connections in the system. Nothing. The rig comes with 2 portable bottles and Peter had mentioned that he thought the smaller bottle might be almost empty. Of course although I had bought an adjustable wrench (Spanner in English) it was just a fraction too small for the nut on the bottle! A trip to the hardware store, swap the bottle and YEAH gas to cook with!

The last thing is ongoing. We can’t get the cassette out of the toilet! It sounds easy, close the flap on the toilet, lift the yellow catch under the cassette and pull. Somehow we get the flap the wrong way or something else is wrong and we can’t get it to come out. I am reluctant to apply too much force incase I break something. We will get it eventually!

We did it, got the cassette out! Life is good. Let’s hit the road. 

Over the pond

 

We managed to fit in some dinners out with friends in between all of that so life is still good!

That was the theory anyway and for the most part it was true. British Airways have always been a good airline to fly. We were happy with the seats, food, free drinks and entertainment, so the hour the flight was late leaving and the 30 minutes we sat in London before they got us to the gate were easily forgiven.

We decided to ride the underground across the city to the hotel we had reserved in Greenwich. The theory was better than the actual trip which lasted a jet lagged 5 hours.

Jet lag probably accounted for us getting the wrong trains, miss reading the underground map and having to get on and off trains that were not going to where we thought they were going and finally us arriving at Greenwich station, only to find out that the hotel was actually in Woolwich in the borough of Greenwich, not Greenwich in the borough of Greenwich!

Perhaps it was because of the super long day we had that we really didn’t suffer too badly from jet lag and we set off the following morning to explore London.

If you are planning to visit London here are a few tips.

1. Use the Tube (Underground Trains ((Subway)) its the best thing for getting around. DON”T repeat DON”T rent a car, the streets are narrow, the traffic is horrendous and there are no places to park.

2. When you decide to use the Tube find a store or a station that sells Oyster cards. These are a prepaid card for the system and you pay with your credit card. You just tap it on the pad at the station turnstile then again at your final destination and it gets deducted from the card. It works on the Uber boats too (More on this later).

3, Get the London Pass online. It seems expensive at first but it gets you discount entrance to most museums (But not all) and onto the Uber Boats and "On and Off" tour busses

, We paid 111 pounds (about $160) for a 3 day pass EACH. It more than paid for itself and got us straight in to several places that had a line for regular ticket purchases. I highly recommend it, get it online and you just show the pass on your phone.

4, If you are moving east/west thru the city get down to the river and ride the Uber boats! High speed vessels get you to all the big riverside attractions in no time, and the views along the way are great! Use either your Oyster card or London Pass but if you use your London pass it’s included with your buy in. The Oyster card will deduct the fare from the amount on the card so if you have both use the London pass.

One Uber boat from another!

Clean and comfortable. The best way to travel.

Our hotel was in Woolwich near the Royal Arsenal and right on the River Thames. We soon found our way around and where the pubs were! Once we discovered the Uber boats we rode them every day.

Seein the sights from the river was great. This is the Tower of London.

Barbara has been making a list of places to see for the last year! We looked at the list and decided to start in St Paul's Cathedral which is a short walk up from the river.

St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's is a famous landmark and has a distinct silhouette, many historic figures are buried inside. It takes hours and hours to see them. The London pass got us in free and to the head of the ticket line.

Tower Bridge and the "Shard" to the left.

Over the next 3 days we visited Churchill’s War Rooms, The London Eye, The Greenwich Maritime Museum, British Museum and Westminster Abbey, riding the boat backwards and forwards each day and squeezing in lunches at various pubs around the city.

The London Eye

From the bottom

At the top!

The Woolwich Arsenal was also interesting with history going back to Henry the 8^th and beyond. During the first and second World Wars it was the largest manufacturer of explosives in the country. Now its all upscale housing. Quite amazing thinking about it.

The Royal Arsenal Woolwich. Guns and upscale housing.

Our week was soon up and we got a taxi to Euston Station then a high sped train to Liverpool. Time to see our relatives and find a motorhome to live in!

The famous London Double Decker busses

Euston Station big and busy 16 tracks

Something I've never seen before, the station has a piano player to sooth the commuters!

Run down to our UK trip

 When we get to UK they will probably be in contact again as they want to film us buying a motorhome over there and living in it, to contrast the differences.

Our whole plan changed as soon as we were back in Sundance. We instantly went from “Relaxed Mexico Campers” to “Oh my goodness only a month until we go to UK!!!”.

But first we had to get the rig back out of storage and go back to Yuma! I know, we just came from there right? Well when we were looking around one of our favorite places - The Arizona Marketplace, we found a couple of RV upholstery stores.

One of them had done the sofa in the Rexhall 8 years ago and although they did an excellent job of the sofa, they also killed the batteries in the coach and then fried the alternator trying to get the engine running,

The other one, Action RV Upholstery, were working right there in the marketplace and their work looked excellent. We talked to them and took pictures of the vinyl on the loveseat, sofa and headboard that is falling apart in the rig.

A little explanation. The manufacturer of the vinyl covering used on RV furniture had a bad year which resulted in the vinyl surface peeling off, Of course this happened after all the warranties etc had expired! Ours was one of that batch so the alternatives were - replace the furniture or reupholster. We had a few quotes locally but they were extortionate.

Total failure of the vinyl on the loveseat.

Anyways we sent them pictures and dimensions and they gave us a really attractive quote. They basically are looking for work after the snowbirds left April 1^st and we were there looking so it worked out.

We took the coach to them in Yuma and left it with them, it will take a couple of weeks then we’ll take the Edge back there and pick it up. Should look spiffy when its done!

We had a celebratory “Happy Hour” when we got back to Sundance to say Hi to all our friends and celebrate several birthdays various people are having around here.

We squeezed in a few dinners out with friends who are leaving the area and at the Elks. Our social lives are so busy!

Meanwhile the trip to UK was only 4 weeks away and there was a LOT of stuff to do related to our plan to buy a motorhome there. We had to get our finances together, join camping clubs, find rv dealers and explain what we wanted to do, call our daughter and set things up with her. Just a million details to get checked off the growing list. Plus sort out our wardrobes for the UK climate.

One helpful thing was T Mobile’s “Stateside International Plan” which for $15 a month gets us International calls free instead of $3 a minute. It paid for itself the first time we used it and we can cancel anytime.

We found what we hoped was going to be a suitable motorhome in Cheshire, not far from where our daughter and our sisters and brother lived. After several calls we thought we were on the home stretch and asked Barb’s brother and Sister in Law if they could go see it before we laid out any money. Luckily they kindly did so and came back with a poor report. They had looked at another at the same dealer that might work for us and we made more approaches about a buy back deal. Unfortunately their offer was totally inadequate and we decided to just wing it when we get to UK.

Barbara's sister Hilary checking out the potential UK motorhome

More plans were in the works for storing the rig indoors in Tucson. We normally store it here at the park but that is in the winter when temperatures are mild and the sun not to fierce. This year it will be full Arizona summer with temperatures up to 125F and boiling desert sun. For the sake of the paint and interior of the rig we decided to try an indoor storage warehouse we had seen in Tucson.

The upholsterers called, all finished and a week ahead of schedule! We made another fast trip to Yuma to pick it up and it was very nice. The color we chose was Elk Buckskin Brown which matched the driver seats very well. We hadn’t noticed the sample having an antique leather look but when we saw it on the furniture it looked nice. And anything to do with Elks is good by us.

The newly upholstered loveseat in ELK BUCKSKIN material

While driving around Yuma we had notice a very large self storage building that advertised indoor RV storage. We tried their website which wasn’t very helpful. We were on the verge of calling the Tucson place to make our reservation when out of the blue we got an email from the Yuma place saying one of the owners had a unit that would suit our coach and for the months we wanted, better yet it was half the price of the Tucson place! We took him up on the offer and added ANOTHER trip to Yuma to the list. 

If you are counting this will be the FOURTH time in Yuma in 4 weeks!

Model airplanes were back on my things to do list. Apart from flying them I have to put them somewhere that won’t subject them to extreme temperatures so I had to get sorting out the ones that could survive in the shed and those that could be put in the trailer I share with some friends. Flying, fixing and running engines filled lots of mornings too.

Then another friend asked if I could do some work on his model to get it flying and after I did it he surprised me by giving me an old and fairly beaten up P51 Mustang model as a thank you! It had been hanging on his wall for at least 10 years! It was big too and would take a lot of space in storage, but I can never turn away a project so into the trailer it went!

Not much to look at now bit it will fly again!

Things kept getting added to lists of things to do then getting crossed off as they were done. We got our second Covid booster shots. That laid us low for a day but we feel a little more at ease having had them.

Money transfers, cash for the trip, credit card companies notified, suitcases procured, seats booked for the flight, travel to the airport, phones, GPS units…… Oh it kept rolling along, but at least it kept rolling somehow.

It’s going to be so relaxing to actually get on the plane and go!

We managed to fit in some dinners out with friends in between all of that so life is still good! Not long now......