New member saying hello

Hi, I am Barnli and with my husband we are now starting our search for our first Autosleeper. As we want to buy a 90's model we have joined the forum to see what things we need to think about, what the common faults engine or otherwise are. So for now we are joining to research and ask any questions along the way from those more experienced.
thanks

Hi and welcome to the forum from Bridlington 
Boaby

Hi Barnli and welcome to the forum from an overcast Leicestershire

Welcome from N.E Wales      , ask away.

Hi everyone and thanks for your welcomes. We were previously caravan owners and we have decided to come over to the dark side!
Really we were wondering if we go and see a motorhome what are we looking for when we check the van and the paperwork. We are hoping to be able to look at vans about 1994/5 something like the Executive model. I know that is probably a big question but does anyone have a checklist of things to think about?
thanks
Barnli

Welcome to the forum.  

The base vehicles of that era all had reasonable engines the Talbot/Peugeot 2.5 diesels, Ford 2.5 and later 2.4 diesels and the  VW  1.9,2.4 and later 2.5 diesels will all give good service
It's down to you on size and layout but you are in an period of monocoque or panel van conversions so water ingress should not be an issue.
Take your time looking and don't buy in a rush.
Be very wary of buying from online auction sites, have look in the forums for sale sections generally our members look after their vans

That is very helpful. Like you say, we are planning to spend a 2 to 3 months looking to get the right one.
thanks

Hello and welcome, if you were a caravanner you should have a good idea of the layout that suits you , i found that helped when i was looking, I went for a VWBASE vehicle also a monocoque, excuse spelling tablet has its own idea, 

Good luck in your search, from Kessingland

Hello & welcome from S/Yorks. 

Hi Barnli, welcome to the  forum!
We bought our AS Clubman 6 years ago, having looked at literally hundreds of different offerings from different manufacturers. Most were rejected on gronds of poor quality, poor design or outrageous cost, but within seconds of stepping into the Clubman we knew that was the one for us. They are very well designed, soundly built and based on a reliable chassis (VW T4). We were very surprised at our decision because the Clubman was very much smaller than we thought we wanted. In hindsight, it was a sound decision because we have so far used it for up to 5 weeks at a time touring Europe, and the van will get almost anywhere a car will.
I would suggest that you view as many vans as you possibly can to get a feel for what you're looking for- most dealers have a huge selection.
Ultimately, I don't think you'll go far wrong with any Autosleeper, and they hold their price well in the unlikely event that you'll ever want to sell it.

Rich

Thanks again for all your help. We do want a smallish van and that is what attracted us to Autosleepers. Where would we go to see some at a dealers so we can view a few at once like you say? Anyone know of somewhere Yorkshire way?

Welcome from Bonnie Scotland and another AS Clubman GL Owner.

Welcome to the forum, we bought our 95 van from a guy on ebay at a good price and were lucky as it was and is faultless structurally and mechanically. The only issues we have encountered were finding a sump gasket for the autobox, but once we got one that stopped the very slight leak. The other problem is our immobilizer which at 20 years of age has become a bit unreliable. We looked at several older motorhomes and newer ones too, but we needed an automatic and that limited our choice. 
Pitfalls are often rust, especially if around the join between cab and bodywork. Ford base vans parts easily available as seems the case with VWs. Fords can be prone to rust but ours is fortunately not got any problems on that front. Basically anything older can be a rust bucket if it was not well looked after and that is probably the biggest issue. We saw one same age and model as ours at a dealer for 6k more riddled with rust so buying from a dealer is not always a guarantee of a better van. Keep an eye on the forum, some people sell them on here and generally they are much loved. Monocoque bodies are the best as long as they have not been damaged structurally in an accident are pretty solid and rot/leak proof. The only problem with the older vans like ours in diesel is that low emission zones are a no go area, especially london unless you get a very expensive exhaust filtering modification. We got severely fined as did not realize this. 
Hope that list of bits we have encountered helps, good luck finding a van from Brighton. 

I have been asked to continue this thread elsewhere by the moderator as this section is just for Hellos. Once I go out and start looking at vans I will start a new thread for advice or join in with another ongoing thread.
Thanks again for everyones help and advice it is really informative.