Winter checks

[Mortblanc]

Yes we have slightly different terms but not that much.

The "Caravan" thing would put most yanks off since we do not use that term normally for anything except a line of some sort.

Over here we use the blanket term of "recreational vehicle", or RV, to cover all of the genre.

Motorhomes are the big boys, lots of them around and clogging the roadways in the summer. You guys often call things motor homes that we would class as camper vans. Unless it is built on a full sized lorry or bus chassis we do not consider it a motor home.

Renting them rather than buying them has become the current trend due to the expense of upkeep and the initial cost which starts at around $100K US. for one with a good engine and solid floor. You can get them cheaper but they will need intense attention and expensive alterations as a rule.

Camper vans are something that went out of vogue in the 1970s-1980s due to rising gas prices. There are only a couple of firms in the US that do the conversions these days, which is probably why there are so many You-tube videos about doing them yourself. Then there is the cost of a camper van which will begin at $50K-$60K, new, for the vehicle and another $40K-$50K for the custom alterations. Drive it off the lot and it is worth $15K instantly since their depreciation is astounding!

I always found them too big as a daily driver and too small to be comfortable as a camper. I have always thought that in a SHTF situation most are big enough to get you into trouble but not big or tough enough to get you out of that trouble.

The average "caravan" over here is probably larger than what is normally on your roads due to the average size of the vehicles used to pull them. We do not see as many of the small teardrop or 2-3 meter campers being pulled by small cars as we have 8-10 meter units pulled by C20 and C30 trucks.

I have noticed that in GB people will pull caravans using small vehicles that would have them arrested and taken off the road over here! Our vehicles do not get class 2 rating to pull full frontal trailers (more than 1.5M tall) over 500K until they are into vehicles such as the Land Rover class or American Cherokee size. Even those are limited to 2000K pull weight.

My late wife used to tow a small utility trailer loaded with 1/2 ton of camping gear behind a Ford Escort 2L estate. Although the engine held up well she blew three clutches in her first 100K miles. She finally stepped up to a Ford F150. It was really a futile effort since she only increased her load weight to the legal limit. Truck with 8 foot bed completely full pulling a 4M long box trailer completely full.

I told her that seeing her whole camp loaded in that rig was what gave me my first heart attack! She had over 200K in cast iron cookware!