Advice - before we spend our life savings!

[welshcat]

Hi all

Brand new onto the website - but already finding it very useful

My partner and I are seriously considering blowing our life savings on a California (I'm 40 this year - so I guess its my mid life crisis!)
We previously owned a transporter that we had converted, however sold it after a year as I was constantly irritated by things that didnt quite fit/work/move properly etc, plus no elavating roof, so chronic back/neck pain!!

We have two small children - 3 and 1 - and are keen mountain bikers, so looking for something that we can either do the family camping thing with all 4 of us or just us adults with our bikes.
Is the california a realistic vehicle to use with 2 small children with all the paraphenalia that comes with them! i.e. child seats, millions of clothes, toys etc

Our initial thoughts are to have a california with awning for weekend trips, then with a small trailer (for all the additional stuff) for longer weekends/weeks with the kids.

Does anyone here manage fine with the space as a family? Or will we be wasting our money?
Any valuable tips or campervanning with children?

Finally, if we do bite the bullet - where is the best place to buy one? thinking of getting a 3-4 year old one in about October/November time...

Many thanks in advance

Cat

 

[Stu]

Cat,

We are quite new to the whole thing ourselves, we previously used a tent to camp in.

We have two adults and a just under 2 year old boy. Space is finite for sure but with an awning or small pop up tent you can recover a lot of this space when parked up.

I think you'll love it.

 

[Carrg]

Hi Welshcat,

I've only just joined this forum also, a former camper looking to get our first Cali.
Great info and advise from all. Esp Stu who has helped no end.
We have 4 and 7yr old girls. After looking at them room is tight but thats the idea.
We think it will be just fine however we have looked at drive away awnings for the longer breaks.

Are you living in Wales??

 

[calikev]

I manage easily with two teenagers in mine it's about taking just what you need and nothing else

 

[nickstjt]

Hi,
I would recommend hiring one for a weekend or a week (we hired one from Oli at BMVS who was very helpful and it was really well kitted out). Actually, there was more kit than we probably needed - it was stocked for every eventuality - so worthwhile taking it home to re-pack and work out if you really would need all the cables, mattress topper (comfy, but takes a lot of space), portable DVD/TV etc. I think you can only find out by trying it for yourself. It may seem like a lot of money to spend, but I think it is worth the investment.
--Nick

 

[KernowLad]

Sounds like we are very similar - me aged 37, wife 34, kids aged 1 and 3, very into MTBIng (and surfing). Bought ours in January and done about a dozen nights in it. We often don't sleep that well but we still love it!

Shout if you have any specific questions - a few extras really help out.

Ours was bought with a fair chunk of a future house deposit... :lol: :lol:

 

[gatvol]

Just the misses and I in ours. We are 40.

With that sized family I could not imagine being in the camper without extensive alcohol being involved.

Each to their own - and the cali does make a good platform to attach a tent to it

 

[KernowLad]

Any excess clobber (bulky baby seat, box of outdoor kit, the dog, etc) goes in a pop up tent. It's fine after that.

 

[welshcat]

ta for input all....
yes alcohol will be involved although not too much when you have to be up at 6am...oh joy!

in south wales - where would be a good place to check out the california and the california beach - to decide which would suit us best. any dealers fairly close that we can have a good nose at?

cat

 

[Carrg]

Where in S Wales. PM me if you want.

 

[Art Vandelay]

Hi Y'all,

Newbie here too, hoping to purchase a California in the next few weeks.
We have a one year old child and am looking for advice based on your experience with kids and Cali's.

We've read that the Brandrup iExtend mattress can be used as a small baby bed and positioned behind the back seats, meaning mum & dad sleep up top. Not sure about that but am wondering about your experiences. I know it depends on the child but what sleeping config works best? Parent 1 and baby sleeping below with parent 2 up top? Or Parent 1 & baby up top? Or even, baby alone below and mum & dad up top?

What about eating? Obviously, at home we have a highchair for our 1 year old, but how do you get around having a wriggling food flinger in a California?

Hope you don't mind me piggybacking on this thread. It didn't seem right to start a new one.

Thanks in advance

 

[welshcat]

Hi all

I was thinking of starting a new thread regarding children and california's anyway to get some handy hints. So, Art, you may want to copy and paste your query on that - might get more responses....

living in Rhymney Valley!

 

[KernowLad]

Typed a long post but somehow lost it!!!!

Basically get seat covers, keep little uns well away from the hob rings and we have our two (1 and 3) upstairs but often end up swapping! Be patient and consider a small, easy to pitch tent to stick bulky baby items in!

 

[Rallyraid]

Hi welsh at and carry, just spent ''my life savings' last week on a 2008 Cali.
Having previously had a T25 westy, space in the 'living area' is a bit tight but the
boot space is fantastic. I've got a drive away utility tent which I use for weekends away and a larger awning for longer stays. As others have said as long as you have some kind of awning/ tent to store bits and pieces then you'll have no worries with the kids.

I'm in South Wales too, so feel free if you need to check out my van for size. :grin:

 

[sebking]

Wish we'd got a van years ago. also wish I'd got a Landy too along time ago, would have saved a whole line of adequate but not fun cars. Now have both with hindsight could have saved a stack of cash and had more fun so just do it before another year goes by.

 

[John]

Here's the link to the Children and California's handy hints thread.

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1743

John

 

[echappell]

Hi Cat

We traded in our family car purchased our first California in February. We also have two small children, 2 boys aged 3 and 5 and had never actually been camping with our kids! Although the weather has been pretty bad, we love the spontaneity of it and have managed to get away 5 or 6 times so far. The longest period has been for a week to the New Forest, when we used our large drive away awning. I think the awning is a must for anything longer than 2 or 3 nights, it gives the children extra space to play in the bad weather and is useful for getting dressed in. We have also purchased a storage tent for long weekends. I wouldn't hesitate to use the Cali for longer trips and hope to take it to France next year for a couple of weeks.

If we go away for a 1 or 2 nights, we can manage without an extra awning or tent, but the car seats are a bit of a pain at night time and we have to put them on the driver's seat or the passenger's seat. We have enough room though and we are still working out ways to use the cupboard and draw space to it's best ability.

The VW bike rack is very easy to use and we keep it permanently on the back of our Cali.

Seat covers are a must with the kids, we got ours quite cheaply from ebay and have been very pleased with them.. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-California ... 500wt_1358

Good luck! I think it's one of the best things we have done. As we weren't campers before, we definitely wouldn't have been going away so much and our boys love it.

 

[Rob H]

You must try before you buy, a rented week, ... could save a lot of heartache, Cali has some great features, if you and kids to tight a fit, consider buying a VW T5, LWB window van and get it converted to exactly what you need as a growing family.

Good luck.

Rob H

 

[welshcat]

Thanks for the offer, Rallyraid, may take you up on that in the autumn! is it a cali? or cali beach?

 

[Rallyraid]

It's a standard Cali se 2008 model.

 

[norfolkcali]

Four of us fit in our Cali, two normal(ish) sized adults and boys of 8 and 4. We have a tent for a lot of the stuff but have managed on the odd occasion with everything in the van (most notably on a very wet stopover in Groningen when the tent poles snapped). We have two Britax cruiser type car seats which can be stowed in the front foot wells with the seats turned around. Boys sleep upstairs but we very often have a 2am switchover. Upper bed weight limit is supposedly 120kg (correct me if I'm wrong) so two adults is probably above that.
We were worried about wet days, going away in the October half term when its dark at 5.30pm but our two have been happy to play upstairs with Lego, books etc while we cook downstairs. Mattress cover for the upstairs is a good idea too.
We all love our van and the adventures we are having...

 

[KernowLad]

Where did you get your upper mattress cover? We've got ones for the seats and lower rear one but could do with one for the top too!

 

[norfolkcali]

It's just a bog standard washable waterproof double-size domestic mattress cover, rubber-backed with a towelling top, elasticated all the way round. Think our was about £12 from The Range. Nothing special or bespoke...

 

[Stu]

Upper bed weight limit is supposedly 120kg (correct me if I'm wrong) so two adults is probably above that.

I don't think I've ever seen a figure for the upper bed, it was a discussion topic a couple of weeks ago with the general consensus being that many of use were of the more comfortable size and we'd not broken anything yet.

 

[KernowLad]

It's just a bog standard washable waterproof double-size domestic mattress cover, rubber-backed with a towelling top, elasticated all the way round. Think our was about £12 from The Range. Nothing special or bespoke...

Cheers.

Not sure if I'd feel comfortable spending less than £50 though on anything to do with a Cali ... :lol: :lol: