Buying Advice

Buying a Used Motorhome: A Simple Checklist

7 min read

The mechanical and habitation points worth working through before you commit.

Start with the base vehicle, not the interior

A motorhome is a van first and a home second, and the van is the expensive half to put right. Check the recorded mileage against the service book and MOT history, look for a cambelt change if the engine needs one, and take a torch to the chassis, sills and suspension turrets for corrosion or fresh underseal hiding it. Fiat, Peugeot, Ford and Mercedes bases all have well-documented quirks by generation, so it is worth a few minutes reading about the exact year in front of you. Tyres are the one item people forget: motorhome tyres often time out long before they wear out, and anything over five years old should be treated as a cost you are about to carry.

Drive it properly before you talk money

Ten minutes around a car park tells you almost nothing. Get it onto a dual carriageway, up a hill and through a few roundabouts. Listen for a whine that changes with speed, feel whether the brakes pull, and see whether the gearbox engages cleanly when cold and again when warm. Check the handbrake holds on a slope with the full weight behind it. If the seller will not allow a proper road test, treat that as the answer to the question.

Damp is still the biggest risk in the habitation area

The living area is built from bonded panels, and water is what destroys them. Press gently around window frames, in the corners of lockers, under the bed boxes and along the floor by the door and washroom. Anything soft, spongy or discoloured means water has been in. Look up at rooflights and the awning rail from the inside, and look for streak marks in the overcab bed. A recent habitation service certificate with damp readings is worth far more than a verbal reassurance, and a professional pre-purchase damp check is cheap next to the cost of a delaminated wall.

Test every system, cold

Ask the seller not to run anything before you arrive. Then work through it methodically: fill the fresh tank and run each tap, light the hob and the oven, run the space heating and the water heater on both gas and mains, check the fridge on all three power sources, run the 12V lights and the pump off the leisure battery alone, and confirm the mains hook-up trips the RCD when it should. Open the toilet cassette and look at it. Anything that does not work is either a bargaining point or a warning about how the vehicle has been looked after.

Check the numbers that decide whether you can legally use it

Two figures matter more than the layout: the payload and your driving licence. Subtract the mass in running order from the maximum technically permissible laden mass and you have what you may load — water, gas, awning, bikes, passengers and everything in the lockers. Many older six-berths have almost nothing left once a family is aboard. Then check your licence: if you passed your car test after 1 January 1997 you are limited to 3,500kg unless you have C1 entitlement. Confirm both before you fall in love with a layout.

Paperwork, then price

You want the V5C in the seller's name at the address you are standing at, service and habitation records, receipts for major work, both sets of keys, the handbooks and any warranty or gas-safety documentation. Run an HPI-style history check for outstanding finance, insurance write-offs and a mileage anomaly — it costs very little and it is the single most useful thing you can buy before handing over money. Once all of that is clear, price becomes a straightforward conversation.

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