People often come to Escape Campers having owned one campervan they bought elsewhere or converted themselves and been unsatisfied. They want to make sure they’re going to have the best possible time with their professionally converted campervan, and we think over the years we’ve probably heard it all.
So with that in mind, built on everything we’ve heard from customers, we’ve built a checklist on everything you should consider before you buy your campervan.
How Reliable is the Vehicle?
Every vehicle can break down, and there’s no way around that – but you can definitely make sure it’s less common by choosing a reliable vehicle. At Escape Campers, we convert the Ford Transit, the Volkswagen Transporter, and the Renault Trafic into campervans to ensure our customers are in vehicles which are reliable even after long periods of hard driving.
Your vehicle should have a reputation for reliability and for great mileage. Not only that, but a make and model known for being long-lasting is the best way to get your money’s worth out of your investment.
Will It Sleep Enough Passengers?
One person on their own has very different minimum space requirements to a family of four or five, let alone if you also have pets. Make sure there’s enough sleeping space for everyone to be comfortable, not just now but over the lifespan of the camper – so if your youngest neatly fits in a small space right now, remember they’re going to get taller.
Then check again, this time imagining your campervan fully loaded. If this is your first time buying a campervan, you may have wondered why pop top roofs are so popular – they give you room to move about even at the start of a trip, where you’re probably as your most packed. Will you still be fine, or would you have put some of your luggage on a sleeping berth?
Does it Fit in Your Budget?
Some of the biggest horror stories we’ve heard are from people who decided their budget was more flexible than it really was based on what they saw. We actually have a contact with an experienced campervan finance team to help customers afford our vehicles, in order to make it easier for everyone to own a top-quality campervan.
Does it Have Everything You’ll Want?
Some campervan users stick to places where they can stop in at a pub or restaurant for every meal, but most of our customers do at least some of the cooking themselves. Our Trafic and Transporter conversions come with double gas hobs, with a microwave also built into our Volkswagen campervan. For those really looking to enjoy their cooking in the wild, our Ford campervan comes with an induction hob and air fryer!
Make sure you have privacy – you’ll want it at night – and especially if you see a lot of summer trips in your future, reflective windscreen coatings and window blinds are both great for light management.
One question we hear more and more often these days is how much charging capacity our campervans have for your devices. Especially if your kids enjoy screen time during the drives, you can end up with a lot of gadgets which need recharging every day (and on that note, we recently compiled a list of useful apps for campervan drivers). A single USB port may not cut it (and you might want a solar system to help offset the demands you’ll be placing on the vehicle battery).
That gives you some idea of the things which are easily overlooked when buying your first campervan. Here’s another crucial one – how’s the heating? Find out how powerful it is, what powers it, and make sure it will live up to your standards. You’ll thank us on your first cold rainy overnight stay.
How’s the lighting? You’re going to spend portions of your evening inside, and good internal lighting can be key to making the most of your evening. It’s much easier to have this built in than to try to rig it up after the fact.
Can you make yourself a brew? Imagine discovering too late after setting out into the Lake District that you’ve got no hot water capacity. That doesn’t just affect your tea and coffee; it makes washing up and even some basic washing much harder. But the absence of an easy way to make a cuppa is easy to overlook if you don’t stop and check.
Buying Used
At Escape Campers all of our campervans are sold new, having been converted out of brand new stock. But if you do buy used, as well as the above checks, you should also look at:
- The quality of seals around windows and doors
- Any signs of water damage in general
- Any rust on the underbody
- Quality of the tyres – tread depth, cracked side walls, etc.
- Whether there are any chips or cracks in the windows and sunroof
- Any oil leaks appearing when it’s parked, or when you park up again after a test drive
- When the brake pads were last replaced
The Caravan and Motorhome Club also recommend you check any used campervan you might buy isn’t stolen and that there’s no outstanding finance to pay on the vehicle, both of which definitely feel to us like there’s a story behind them!
If that’s something you wouldn’t feel comfortable or qualified to check, we really do recommend buying new so you can put those questions out of your mind. Why not get in touch, and we can discuss your requirements?
