Learning to live in a Motor Home #1

I recently made a choice to completely change my life by selling up my home and begin a new life in a Motor Home. This choice was not sudden and had been brewing for some time, but it took significant effort and resolve to make it happen, and not be just a dream or unfulfilled ambition.

It has been a journey of discovery to even get to the point where I have turned the dream into a reality, where I am ready to go on the road, and I have learned much during that journey that I think others could also learn from.

This will be a regular blog as I continue to gain experience and learn from both my mistakes and from meeting others on the road, a community who have already gained much knowledge.

Part 1: The vision

Around the beginning of 2020 I had reached retirement age and I was looking for future purpose. These feelings were then accentuated by the lockdowns in respect of COVID. I had a nice house in a nice area, and I played golf regularly, but I was not content, nor did I understand what was important to me in terms of the relatively short remainder of my life.

So, the question was what to do? My answer was Radical Change – sell the house, cash up, de-clutter and buy (and live) in a Motor Home for a few years, see parts of New Zealand I hadn’t visited, and change my personal narrative. This itself was an incredibly big step because I had never ever stayed even one night of my life in either a Motor Home or a Caravan, and an old saying is “you don’t know what you don’t know”. But a vision is a vision and to achieve it requires some courage and commitment.

Part 2: Actualising the vision

My training and skills revolve around strategy, economics, negotiation and human behaviour so I developed a strategic plan which included selling the house to provide the funds to enable the journey. Unfortunately, like many retirement aged people in New Zealand I was in the position of being asset rich, cash poor and did not have the requisite funds for my plan unless I sold the house. This in itself was fraught, because of the New Zealand property market, but I was able to make the most of a temporary upturn in the market (that I had anticipated and planned for), although it took a couple of extra months than anticipated, gave a good result.

So, by 1 March 2024 I had cashed up, decluttered and moved to live with my brother Bruce (more on Bruce later but success in ventures like this usually require a Bruce) back in home town area of Canterbury after 35 years. I now had the time and space to plan the next stage which was the search for the appropriate capability to enable my vision.

Part 3: The search

During the period where my house was being sold and I was decluttering I had much time to search for appropriate vehicles. For example, to Motor Home or to Caravan? What investment was required? What was available? What brands were reviewed favourably and what were not? What forums were available and what did they say?

By the time my house sold I had researched and reviewed many, many options and created a short-list of motor home brands that I would consider. Note that I had decided not to consider Caravans at this stage.

My criteria for the short-list included:

·       At least 7m long

·       2021 or later (the year Fiat Ducato introduced the 9 speed auto)

·       Less than 30,000 km

·       Fixed island bed

·       Separate shower and toilet

·       Large garage

·       Solar

·       At least 200 AH of batteries

·       A good awning

·       A rear bike rack for my ebike

These criteria indicated a investment of between $180,000 and $210,000 was required, a large sum but would include some degree of warranty (very important to a non-mechanical klutz like me)

Part 4: The purchase

Taking my criteria, and carefully reviewing Trade Me, I started visiting Motor Home sales outlets, asking as many questions as I could. Note that I had my expert adviser “Bruce” with me – not that he is an expert on Motor Homes but more he had completed detailed research on the specifications of Motor Homes and undertaken comparative research including global reviews and forum based feedback. This type of research and analysis is critical to making reasoned decisions.

I gave all sales outlets an understanding of my criteria and of my potential budget range. My negotiation criteria also noted that the laws of supply and demand (economics) suggested that late autumn/ early winter was in many ways the optimum time to buy a motor home (after being a motorcyclist for 50 years I would suggest the same criteria applies.

I had a variety of experiences in my buying journey, with a couple of great pieces of advice about the differences between front drive/rear drive, manual/automatic, build quality including insulation and sundry other areas where I was being educated more and more.

My search, and my patience, was rewarded when I had a call from UCC, a Christchurch based sales and service provider, to say that if I was willing to wait a few weeks a model that I was interested would be available. It was within my price parameters and included a significant extra – a high quality self-levelling system. I have to give big ups to UCC for this and for subsequent service enhancement support, they were excellent.

So, in May 2024 I took possession of my Dethleff A-Class Motor Home, had a 3 hour explanation and demonstration, and then drove it some 35 km to my home base. To say it was interesting and challenging driving a nearly 8m Motor Home for the first time would be understating it. Once again big ups to UCC and in particular Ross Mangin for his thoroughness, his patience and his expertise – it is seldom that I have experienced this level of service when buying any product or service.

I parked up the Dethleff and started using it on a daily basis, not living in it but getting used to it. Using Road Cones, we marked out a course in a large paddock and I practised turning, driving, parking and then daily living. I also took it for long drives on narrow country roads to get used to the dimensions.

The major things to get used to are power, heating and water. The Truma system is complicated, and it has caused me some anxiety just getting used to it – once again a thank you to Ross Mangin (UCC) for his availability on the phone and his patience with me – I get upset asking dumb questions but unless you ask them you will not learn.

Note 1: The Truma system is really smart, and it has a capability of reacting to freezing temperatures by voiding the water jacket around the heating system. The severity of frosts in Christchurch meant that until I learned about what to do, I lost my water reservoir and spilled water everywhere. The answer is to leave the heating system on overnight (minimum 7-10 degrees) to stop this happening.

Note 2: I have good solar capability (220w) but a few days of limited sun and no driving means depletion of the house batteries. The answer is, where possible, to hook up to an external power supply.

Note 3: Take a lot of time to understand the overhang on your Motor Home. I have around 3.5m of overhang and it is really easy to cut corners on roundabouts. A Motor Home is not a car, or a SUV and it requires more attention and practice.

Part 5: Equipping the Motor Home

My timing was impeccable (not planned just lucky) in that the weekend before I picked up the Dethleff, the annual Christchurch Caravan and Motor Home show was on, and I was able to go and have a good look around. Significant discounts were also available especially through the RV Super Centre.

The Dethleff had met nearly all my criteria, but I wanted more (and I had budgeted for the extras). It didn’t have an inverter, the TV was not a smart TV which meant I couldn’t use my Mobile Hotspot, it didn’t have a bike rack and I wanted a small washing machine installed so I didn’t have to go to campgrounds or to Laundromats.  These items were all purchased at the RV Super Centre (15% show discount applied) and arrangements were made with UCC for installation.

All the installation was completed, and I then had a nearly finalised Motor Home. But once again, more was needed to make sure I was ready for the road. In my mind there was no point in not getting all that I wanted from the start. The extras included :

·       Installation of a slide capability for the washing machine, in the garage, to enable me to work it quickly and effectively.

·       Installation of slide unit in the kitchen to enable effective use of space in the cupboards.

·       Installation of a slide capability in the garage to enable me to quickly access and use my hobby / craft tools.

This is where the “everyone needs a Bruce” gets really focussed. Its not just the measuring, specification, installation, it’s the advice and discussions about how to best achieve the outcomes I was looking for.

My advocation to anyone taking a journey similar to mine is to seek advice and support, not just do it yourself. I also suggest people take the time to think about what you are trying to achieve, about what is important to your day-to-day life and to test and train yourself in as much as possible so that you are self-sufficient.

Provisioning: Getting set up for daily living is also demanding, requiring significant thought and planning. By getting set up I mean all the things needed to exist like bedding, kitchenware, cleaning, storage, food. You also need to adjust your thinking because it isn’t like living in a house with lots of PowerPoints and ‘things’ to plug in to those PowerPoints. For example, electric jugs and coffee machines and electric toasters are luxuries in respect that they drain the house batteries too quickly – so the alternative relies on kettles, percolators and gas toast frames. Storage is limited and requires much thought and planning, and significant rationalisation and decluttering.

It would not be wise to underestimate the effort required to get ‘set-up’ and in my case it has resulted in a number of mistakes and miscalculations.

Part 6: The journey begins           

It has been a few weeks since I took possession of the Dethleff and all the extras and modifications are nearly complete. My plan now is to start my real journey on Winter Solstice – Friday 21 June 2024.

I have packed (and unpacked and repacked) and have what I think are the essentials for day to day living. My first foray is going to be a revisit to my childhood stomping ground, New Brighton. I cant go to the house where was brought up because it, and the entire suburb, disappeared during the Christchurch earthquake. So I am going to visit the New Brighton Pier, use the hot pools, visit the New Brighton library and find a place to sample a sausage roll (the start of my alternative blog about sausage rolls in New Zealand. I will then drive to the village of Akaroa and spend my first couple of nights in the Motor Home (I do need to name it so any suggestions would be welcome)