Caravan is a huge investment. It is something that would act as your temporary home. So, you need to be as picky in choosing a caravan manufacturer as you would be while looking for a new home. Since the caravan is a long-term investment as well, you need to be cautious while choosing the right caravan manufacturer. But before that, you need to decide how you want your dream caravan to be like. There are various aspects to pre-plan:
- Budget: This is the top most priority. You need to decide how much you can spend on a caravan and then choose a caravan type accordingly.
- Size: The number of people you plan to go caravanning with is the deciding factor of size. If it is a family caravan you need then it would be larger than the one you would buy if you want to go caravanning alone.
- Weight: This is also another deciding factor for a caravan. The amount of weight your towing vehicle can tow is what mainly governs this factor. Also, if you are planning to buy a new towing vehicle, you may want to check which one fits your budget.
- Floor Plan: If you are getting a custom designed caravan, you can ask the caravan manufacturers to design it just the way you like it. For that, you need to do your research and come up with a proper floor plan. You can explore all types of floor plan and the only limiting factors would be your budget and the caravan weight.
- Materials and facilities: You have to decide upon all the basic things like the amount of seating area and the number of beds and the orientation, benches, upholstery, interior colours, etc.
- Outdoor attachments: You will need many attachments for outdoor living like external BBQ, external kitchen, external shower, awnings and annexes.
- Storage: As you would be travelling, you will need a lot of storage space. Decide how much internal storage and tunnel boot you would need and get storage boxes as well, in case you run out of space.
- Lighting, Appliances and Gadgets: Interior and exterior lighting, energy efficiency and electricity supply for all appliances you may need like TV, radio, Wi-Fi, mobile chargers, etc. You have to get power systems as well.
- Heating and cooling: You cannot travel comfortably if there are no heating and cooling facilities in the caravan. So, you need to get air conditioning for peaceful nights and refrigerators for getting keeping vegetables fresh and your beer chilled.
After you are done with all the above planning, the next step is to choose the right caravan manufacturer to help you design the caravan just the way you imagined it. Here is how you go about it:
- The most important factor to consider is whether a particular caravan manufacturer can offer a wide range of caravan types.
- Ensure that the caravan manufacturer provides products which are up-to-date with the modern technologies and tools and incorporated with modern features.
- Get quotes from more than one caravan manufacturer to ensure you are not being overpriced.
- Ensure that the caravan manufacture has a good reputation for after sales services. A caravan is a huge investment and if you are not assured to get proper after sale services and repairs, then you should switch to a different caravan manufacturer.
- Never go for a caravan manufacturer who does not provide an excellent guarantee facilities. Only the manufacturers who are not confident about their product quality do not offer guarantee.
- Do not get lured by extremely low prices. No caravan manufacturer would sell a product at extremely low prices as manufacturing a caravan costa a lot of money and if the pricing is too low, it may be because there are defects or complications in the caravan that cannot be spotted by a common eye. So, the moment you feel the prices are too good to be true, steer away from that manufacturer.
All these points are more than enough to help you find the right caravan manufacturer. Also, keep in mind that it is not always true that the big-name manufactures are not always the best choice.
The upsides of going with a big-name caravan manufacturer are that you can be assured of quality and services and you get a better resale value. But the cons are that they are less flexible in terms of design.
So, weigh your pros and cons according to your needs and then go forward with your plans.