Is it very hard to buy a 2nd hand SMALL caravan?

I have never realised it is sooooooooo hard to find an used small caravan! I never thought we will become a caravan owner either! This has to trace back to where Saturn & Titan has arrived.

When we have Sing & Seagull ONLY, we were happy to buy a 4-seater brand new convertible, were we mad? Well, not really. I thought we are still "young", we should enjoy some open top riding. I hardly seen one in Malaysia, so owning a convertible must be very lucky for me.

We have some good times riding with the roof down with Sing & Seagull. Seagull did not mind the NO ROOF riding but not Sing. He is a funny boy, he does not like anything blowing into his face. We are very lucky both of them are such a good well behaved boys. Eventhough we have them on the car harness but they have never stand up while we were driving.

When we got Saturn & Titan, Colin still think that we are able to carry all of them in the convertible. Well, those who knows me, my dogs always come first, so I definitley would not allow that to happen, 4 dogs cramp at the back of the car. I knew Shelties are small but no way! Sing is a very fussy traveller, he does not like any human being or dog to be near to him. He was sick in the car since he was a puppy and he finally realised that if you leave him alone and he will lie down until we reached the destination, he would be fine. Since then, he would not like anyone near him.

Well, we did put all of them at the back of the car for a while when we hunt for an estate. Sing and Saturn were on the seat where poor Seagull and Titan on the floor. Then, Colin suggested we should have a caravan to go holiday instead to put up a small tent. His idea was to put the dogs in the caravan while travelling and of course I told him off of his crazy idea but that was how we now become a caravan family.

We got the current caravan from ebay, only £400. We know nothing much about caravanning then and Colin thought it was a good price. Well, after we commit to buy the caravan then only we realised ontop of the £400, we have to fit a towbar, stabiliser ...etc before we can bring the caravan back. Gosh! More money!

Anyway, this is a very old caravan, we don't know the history about it, no books, no records, nothing, what we have is just the caravan. The guy was very nice and of course I struggle to cope with the caravan when I first saw it, don't know how to shut the door, guess what? Everytime we came back into the caravan, I have to push shut the door from outside and then jump through the window!! Luckily there were not many people at the campsite, nobody really see what I was doing. We then told that the caravan is not level, this is why the door won't shut easily from inside. We used the caravan for a few trips so far, the latest one to Lake District, I was lucky to get the door shut that time, HOORAY!

As we guess this caravan is more than 20 years old, it should pass it sell-by-date. The inside is fine and we love the space and the dogs seems to adapt it well, unfortunately the jockey wheel is playing up. The trip to Snowdonia was such a pain. We got lost and we didn't realised we need more than 10 hours to get there. By the time we found the campsite, it was nearly midnight. It was pitch dark and we hardly see anything. Both the car and the caravan were stuck in the muddy field before we can move the caravan into position. We did struggled so hard and there was noone to help. It was still pouring down and Colin said we have to leave the car and caravan in the middle of the field and go to bed.

I don't know how we finished that night but I knew I was grumpy and worried. The next morning, a nice neighbour used his 4x4 to move the caravan for us and we then realised the jockey wheel has broken down. We tried to find someone out there to fix it and luckily there was a guy willing to come to the campsite to have a look. I don't know how he did and what he did but within minutes, he fix the jockey wheel and we have to pay £25 for that small job in Wales(???).

I thought we are ok after all but I was wrong. The jockey wheel fell into pieces again when we got home. I tried to fix it myself and it works for a while but it did'nt last long. I am suffering from bad back, so I cannot risk my back to LIFT the caravan everytime we go caravanning, it is too much for me. I have persuaded Colin to get another caravan, I don't need a brand new caravan but at least not an old tatty thing.

Colin reminded me I actually started looking for a caravan since October but I don't remember that. I knew I am desperate for one now, we have to get ready before the agiltiy season begin in April. I have booked to camp at the Easter Show, so we must get a caravan before April.

I have been looking for a small caravan but all the new caravans (less than 5 years old) are quite big, well I mean the shipping length. I need one that fit into our garden, so it has to be short, not longer than 17'.

Wish me luck!!