Buying used caravan and servicing

We brought our present van 150 miles from home.  We had some warranty work carried out by local dealers to where we lived.  If we had to returned the van to the dealer we combined the trip with visiting family or POI’s

I've seen lots of posts mentioning this. How about visiting a local dealer and finding out if they will source the particular van you want. They might even tow it down for you and then you'd expect them to do the service work in subsequent years. Surely worth enquiring?

Perhaps part of the answer rests with what sort of warranty the used van carries. If it is the balance of a 'from new' warranty, then all the aforementioned points are valid.

If, however, it is the dealer's own warranty provided specifically for his used sales, then it depends on the terms of that warranty as to where any work, or servicing, can be carried out. 

It's also worth checking out mobile servicing technicians as they don’t generally turn work away.

Make sure any mobile service is NCC (or is it NCA) approved as this should preserve a warranty.  The mobile  service I use gives excellent service but I am not near you.  Ensure you transfer any remaining manufacturers warranty over to yourself - I particularly have in mind water ingress warranty.  Some manufacturers charge a small fee but it could be a very worthwhile investment.  The caravan would have had to have been serviced annually by a NCC approved workshop for you to continue with a warranty.  

Thanks for advice... I've found a van I want in Wales a  2018 compass I live in London-  so rang round to local caravan dealers, even compass approved one's,  to see if they would service and do warranty work- they would all service but not do any warranty work, as we will not have bought the van from them.

I've not bought the van in Wales as it's too far to take for warranty  even if staying in a site, for warranty work it's too hard to manage. Anyone know how to get round this? I don't want to buy brand new, but within warranty would be nice, the model lay ours in looking for don't seem to be easy to find locally. If I go far I can't get warranty work done locally. Tricky? I've also struggled to.find local NCC mobile engineers... 

We were lucky we found a nearby Swift dealership who would undertake  our warranty work and guess what we bought our present van off them. 

This is a difficult one. I tend to agree with Tinwheeler regarding the use of a mobile and checking the Ts & Cs of the warranty.

I discovered that Glossop caravans had a large network of servicing agents and reciporocal agreements with dealers in my area, many miles away, for warranty work for new vans. Might be worth exploring if there is something similar for used vans. It is painful, but, like you I wouldn't want to tow my van many miles to get the inevitable work done.

thanks for the tips- is there an easy way of finding mobile engineers, is here a listing web site or similar?

Google is your friend👍🏻

If you buy secondhand make sure the manufacturers warranty including extended damp warranty can be transferred to you. It’s a valuable asset. We traded our caravan in three years ago and the dealer did not explain to the ultimate buyer about the manufacturers warranty. My name was still on it and it cost the buyer £6000 for a damp repair.

I have no problem with my AutoSleepers motorhome (purchased from new) using a different dealer/service engineer but from experience it is extra work for them chasing the manufacturer for approvals and parts for warranty work and some won’t do it.

Try phoning some of the bigger dealers outside of London but also ask them if they know of any mobile service engineers.