Where to spend the winter?

Also if you are fulltiming then you need the right insurance (which can be expensive) I am not sure but I think there is some sort of EU ruling that you have to register in a country if you are staying for more than three months. I don't know how they can know how long you have been in any one country though as there are very few border controls in most of the EU.
 
hi you dont need a green card for europe .but some insurers dont cover fully comp for you to be out of uk for a long spell. they do have to give you the minimum ins cover for all countries in the eu for all year. becareful taking your vehicle out for over 12 months . you really need to keep it mot and taxed to be legal and thats where the problems start . anyway lots of people have trailers its the only way for the older generation to get round the life style of a traveller. they need medicals at 70. make sure you have a licence to allow a trailer. no problems with a trailer i use a little one .ha ha . well a baby one .
every thing depends on who you insure with though , safeguard ,comfort and saga i believe dont limit your stay . have fun fire away with questions .there are alot of us to answer and confuse you even more . cheers alan.,

I can confirm that Comfort give full 12 month cover UK and Europe. They are also the only company that offers Full Time use cover. We are with them. Their insurance can also offer UK & Europe RAC commercial recovery for vehicles over 3500kg.

We tow a trailer to carry the Smart Car.

You need to return to the UK to get your MOT (no way around that). VED and insurance can be done abroad by post or on line, but you will need to get the VED disk forwarded to you to comply with UK law, particularly on entry to the UK. You also need a UK contact address for insurance, licence etc if you are considering full time.

John
 
Thanks for the info. On Sunday I took out insurance with Sure Term online but when I spoke to them today they said the max of one EU trip is 60 days. So I think I will give them a call and use my 14 day cooling off period and cancell in order to maybe use Comfort as I have heard many good things about them.

We plan to visit the UK to get a MOT done or just trade in the Motorhome because its just a starter to get us used to fulltiming. I would like to get a 6 berth with 2 fixed beds so I dont have to make them up every night of my life:D I also love the garage that comes with the models that have a fixed bed at the back. I think about 28foot would do us.

Do you have any problems getting these around little villages?
Also are you warm at night, in Spain in winter for example? My mom is having kittens over us being freezing cold. I think my little Hymer is lovely and snug.

Toni
 
If you are full timing you will find the insurance to be expensive, I'm with Saga who give me a full years EU insurance BUT his isn't the same as full timing, you need to be aware there are differences.
Spain in winter can be pleasantly warm most days & sometimes almost as hot as our summers especially along the south coast. It can also be freezing cold depending where you go. Some areas of Spain get a lot of snow.
 
Ok I didnt realise there was a difference.

We will be leaving the UK on 25th Oct and house sitting in france for 5 months. After that we will be going around Europe for a year or so. I am sure we will pop back into the UK to visit relatives at least 2 times a year so does this count as full timing or can I just get 12 months EU cover?

I suppose I should give a few insurers a call and see what they make of it.

Do you stay warm in your motorhome in the winter in Spain then? I know ours is winterised but have not had the pleasure of taking it out in this cold weather yet. Hopefully we will next weekend and it will be our first time ever!! Until now we have just driven it back from pick uo and it was really toasty but I suspect this is different to sleeping in it.

I am so wet behind the ears with this whole thing. I cant wait to get started and experience it for real.

Toni
 
Ok I didnt realise there was a difference.

We will be leaving the UK on 25th Oct and house sitting in france for 5 months. After that we will be going around Europe for a year or so. I am sure we will pop back into the UK to visit relatives at least 2 times a year so does this count as full timing or can I just get 12 months EU cover?

I suppose I should give a few insurers a call and see what they make of it.

Do you stay warm in your motorhome in the winter in Spain then? I know ours is winterised but have not had the pleasure of taking it out in this cold weather yet. Hopefully we will next weekend and it will be our first time ever!! Until now we have just driven it back from pick uo and it was really toasty but I suspect this is different to sleeping in it.

I am so wet behind the ears with this whole thing. I cant wait to get started and experience it for real.

Toni

Hi Toni

You will be classed as Full Timing if you do not have a UK address at which you are on the Electoral Register and are Paying Council Tax. This is different from having an accomodation address for insurance and other documents such as passport, driving licence, etc.

Comfort are the only Company that offer true Full Time cover at present. If you have a UK vehicle in another country for more than 6 months, it should be declared as exported and then registered in that country. This does not stop you moving around from country to country only being in one for an extended period.

Comfort give cover for 6 months in any one country in Europe during a 12 month period.

We were warm enough in the UK last winter in freezing conditions, so for us Spain will be no problem.

John
 
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Hi Thanks for the wealth of info:)

I have contacted the insurance company today and explained what we are doing. They added on 12 month cover for an extra £97. Its not Full Timing cover as we are living in a house in France for 5 months and comming back to the UK for the MOT and to visit family so they were happy with this.

Do you manage wild camping with just your leisure battery or do you need to use a generator? We have a Generator but I was going to leave it here as its bulky.

Do you know where I can find out what my payload is? From what I can see my notor home is similar in size to the Hymer Swing and the payload on that is 580KG. Is this good?

cheers

Toni
 
You guys have been so helpfull. I had no idea when I packed up the family and decided to go travelling that I would have to take in so much info.

I never even thought about the fact that we would not be paying council tax.

I will have to consider this one as we were just planning on using my husbans dads address for mail.
 
thats a difficult one to answer i used to use a vw far too small and overloaded all the time .now i have about 4 ton payload either in/on the truck or in the trailer . but i manage . soon lose lots payload with extra beer wine and food you want but cant get abroad or bring home whats expensive here. i also carry half ton of diesel . m,bikes etc but you cant have too much space or payload. brown sauce .ploughmans pickle, porridge oats , mixed dried fruit,english mustard . bacon ,chedder cheese , bacon joints , baked beans ,tea, all take up space and payload. you can keep cheese and bacon outside a fridge if its all cryovac packed. i take about 5kilo of cheese for the winter and loads of bacon. its a learning curve but next time you will know what to take that you missed . cheers alan.
anything you really like ask us we can say if you can get it abroad or take it.
 
Don't rely on the specs for your payload, the only way is to get the van weighted then see what you have on your MGW plate, when you weigh the van it should have everything that you are taking including you & the family I personally think that 580kg can soon disappear. If you are overloaded the penalties in the EU can be high & in the event of a serious accident the insurance might only cover you third party. You can always check if you can uprate the payload (on many vans its just a paper exercise) as many of the motorhomes are plated at 3.5t so more people can use them at the expense of payload. If you passed your test before 1997 then you can drive up to 7.5t on your license, also if you tax your vehicle when it is over 3.5t it's slightly cheaper.

Have you got a solar panel(s) fitted if so then depending on your battery power & usage you can probably manage, we almost always wildcamp & don't have any problems with power. A generator even a small one will take a chunk out of your payload :rolleyes: (prefer to stock up with wine/beer instead of genny + petrol :))
 
the tax differance is about 40 quid . the max fine in uk for overloading is 5,000quid . but you may never get that much .but can be stopped from carrying on your journey till you lose the extra weight. can cause a problem as the wife and kids keep climbing back in . best give them a fiver and say go and get some chips then disappear. ha ha . but it can be difficult. when i had my vw i was half a ton over leaving uk . with full water fuel and wine almost a ton over weight . we were travelling round africa, so carried alot you possibly havent got on board . my view is a camper for long terming really needs to be of atleast 5 ton gvw . the 508 merc did set the pace years ago. now a daf 7.5 truck can be bought cheap and make lovely campers . but suck it and see .surfboards wet suits etc all take up room. cheers alan.
 
Thanks for the info. On Sunday I took out insurance with Sure Term online but when I spoke to them today they said the max of one EU trip is 60 days.Toni
My Churchill Certificate is valid all year. I think thats just third party though, if you want Comp you have to pay extra and the max is 90 days.
 
Spain in winter can be pleasantly warm most days & sometimes almost as hot as our summers especially along the south coast.

I was on the Costa Del Sol last winter and found it made an enourmous difference which way the wind was blowing. Around mid day if the wind was blowing North up from the Sahara it could be 24 degrees. But if it was blowing south over the snow capped mountains it was not much above freezing.
 
all insurance took out in eu as to cover the minimumin each country for the life of the policy ,its eu law . uk insurers try to tell you its not true but it is . they are abit like crooks . also most foreign companies do a round the med cover you are lucky to find a uk company that does it.
 
It's not all plusses if you upplate over 3.5 tonnes there are more restrictions imposed particularly in France eg entry to towns, some aires and parking areas. Also some garages stick rigidly to under 3.5 tonnes MOT and the like.
I'm not suggesting that everybody sticks to these laws/rules but why give yourself potential trouble if you don't need to.
 
all insurance took out in eu as to cover the minimumin each country for the life of the policy ,its eu law . uk insurers try to tell you its not true but it is . they are abit like crooks . also most foreign companies do a round the med cover you are lucky to find a uk company that does it.

Quite so, which is why when I go to Maroc I note it's virtually only Brits (and Moroccans)queuing up getting Assurance Frontiere at the port. Other Europeans get automatic cover for countries bordering the Med. Most years my insurers refuse cover for Maroc let alone the other African countries on the Med.
Just too foreign for them could be a risk, I suppose they're not in the insurance business to take risks.
 
try saga you can get maroc and recovery all built in . and a very good policy to go with it . good price as well.
 
try saga you can get maroc and recovery all built in . and a very good policy to go with it . good price as well.

Thanks, but I'm too old, the van that is.
What I have experienced over the years is; that what the insurance company promises at renewal time ie Green Card for Maroc, is not necessarily available at the time when I apply.When you have a 1990 vehicle and it's selfbuilt and over 3.5 tonnes you don't have too many insurance companies rushing to give you cover even for these hallowed shores.
Some bods I know will be a bit disengenuous with the truth concerning the insurance co. so as to get round these problems.
I always tell the insurance company the truth re. age of vehicle etc it's not worth spending £300 or so on a premium only to find I'm not covered.
 
Scooting back to payload. I am confused. My vehicle reg doc (the bit you get from the people you bought it from as I am waiting for the rest in the post) says Revenue weight 1550.0kg unladen.

Will my full VRG show the payload?
 
The V5 should show the MGW (max gross weight) which for the Hymer Swing I would think was 3500 kg (PLG private light goods) or 3850 kgs. (PHG private heavy goods) I think the unladen weight is the empty weight of the vehicle but I can't see it being 1550 kgs that is more like the weight of a car.
The payload of your van is the MGW minus the amount it actually weighs, many manufacturers have a definition of how this is made up, I think there are EU regulations to cover it. From memory it is something like = weight includes the driver (weighing 70 kgs) , water & fuel about three quarters full. Anything fitted to the standard van such as satellite, awning etc. comes off your payload also the rest of your family (580 kgs not looking that big now :eek:) All you need to remember is the MGW of the vehicle when everybody is in & all your gear must not be exceeded, if you do you risk being heavily fined if stopped & worse in the event of an accident your insurance can be void (except for the third party cover)

Not wanting to be alarmist about it all but you should be made aware of the risks if you are touring the EU, in all my years & trips I have never been stopped but I have passed about 3 vans I saw being weighed :rolleyes:
 

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