Very interesting thread, and I've been through all the emotions expressed here. A friend had one that he made himself and it was lovely, very good insulation made it cool in the sun of the Swiss Alps and warm in the ice of a Bristol winter. Then he sold it and bought a VW boxy thing, also very useful. But although I'd like one, in the end I keep coming back to the number of tents I could buy and the number of trips I could do, plus the number of nights in nice hotels I could have when the weather was foul on aforesaid trips. And now I look back on, for example, seven weeks in Patagonia with a tent and a bike, and seven weeks in Norway going to Nord Kapp with a tent and a bike. But I also remember how far away those nice hotels were when the heavens opened. And each trip cost about £2,500. And I still don't own a campervan.