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.