Caravan vs Motorhome – the battle rages on!

It has been a while since I updated the status of our search for the perfect road trip vehicle. But that doesn’t mean that nothing has been happening. On the contrary, so much has happened that we have almost come full circle in our decision. After Tina and I chatted long and hard about the Imagine Comfortvan, our conclusion was that the interior space was just too small for what we want to do. I could not imagine spending a year on the road living out of this van. For shorter trips into the bush, it would certainly be my first choice due to ease of set-up and break down and also the weight.

So, what to do. I then began the task of researching the prospect of transforming a medium sized caravan into a gravel-roader. This would entail buying a donor vehicle and beefing up the suspension, bracing all of the interior furniture and replacing the cupboard hinges and fastenings. With this in mind, we set off for Campworld in Brackenfell one Saturday morning  to see what stock they had and to discuss the pros and cons with the “knowledgeable” staff. All we really got was some clueless salesman trying to sell us an Xplorer?

While were were wondering around the yard, Tina spots a couple of motorhomes and decides to “just have a look”. Well, she certainly “had a look”… all over her face. She had found the answer. Pure luxury with all the bells and whistles to boot. It was a brand new WJ Pacer Motorhome. BUT the price. R 750K standard with no extras. I politely turned Tina around and steered her across the lot in the direction of some old tired looking vans in the hope that she would change her mind. Not a chance. All I heard about was how the interior was so perfect and the dogs would be in their element. “And me?” I thought. Forking out that sort of cash for a camper van. “No way boet!” I thought.

For days after this encounter it nagged at me. Maybe the motorhome concept was after all the best option. Convenience, space, on-board ablutions, comfort and space… everything that we had identified as important for our road trip. So I began hunting through Gumtree and the other classifieds sites. I found loads of ‘older’ models. Some that we looked at had all the facilities we needed. But the problem facing most of these sellers was that their vehicles were not selling? Which got me thinking about how long it would take us to sell once we returned from our road trip… being stuck with a motorhome that I couldn’t get rid of was not a prospect I relished. So I started combing the classifieds for newer models. But every option that came up was either miles away in Gauteng or Durban or the newer ones were snapped up as soon as they hit the market. I was even prepared to jump on a plane at short notice with my cheque book and go buy one. Anywhere?

I started contacting the rental companies like Bobo and Helderberg Campers in the hope of getting hold of an ex-rental fleet motorhome. Bobo did have a few coming off the fleet but only at the end of November. Didn’t suit us as we planned to get going by October. Then Helderberg said that they had an Avalon 4 berth motorhome coming available by the end of August. Thing were looking up. Tina and I headed out to Somerset West last week and met with Neil, the owner, who offered to show us around. We didn’t get further than the workshop where the new members of their fleet were in production. It was a brace of Vista 6 motorhomes under construction. I helped Tina up into the interior to have a look around. WOW. What a feeling of space. Neil explained that the new fleet would be built on the Fiat Ducato chassis which is purpose built for the motorhome industry in Europe, the home of motorhomes. I was already impressed by the quality of the build and the parts being used. The door hinges for example were robust, able to withstand the rigors of a road trip and dont’t rattle off. The list goes on, but I was impressed. Even though the price tag was similar to the WJ Pacer at R720K for a standard model, I was fast changing my mind about the price and value.

Tina and I chatted to Neil and his chief coach builder, Greg, for quite some time asking endless questions about the quality of the products and materials they used and also about Neil’s vast motorhome travelling experience. When Tina pointed out that she didn’t like the bed design much, he mentioned that his son John did all the designs and would be happy to sit down with us and work on some ideas. We left Neil with the promise that we would be back.

So our journey had led us to this family run business called Vista Motorhomes. We both felt that we had found what we were comfortable with, but I needed to make one last observation. More about that next.