Europe Tour with a Class B. Buy or Rent?

This may be an option.

While staying at Liberty Harbor, I met a couple from Germany. Their travel plans was to come to the States and buy a B. They would then tour the States and Canada for several months. After their tour they would ship the B from Nova Scotia to Germany. They stated that they could sell the B for more that it cost in the US. They had been doing this several times, ever other year.

I failed to mention that the couple would book passage on the freighter that was transporting the B

Good point. You very well could buy here and ship over and sell for a profit.

Chris Bryant wrote:
Good point. You very well could buy here and ship over and sell for a profit.

Buying in Europe and bringing here would probably have emissions issues.

Dave

We followed the blog of a couple who shipped over to Europe. There are still some hassles to deal with:
- You can register in your home state.
- This was some years ago but I believe it was only about $3k to ship.
- Insurance needed a little research.
- They did have a Mercedes style Class C, so parts and repairs were less of an issue.
- If you buy in Europe, Registration is an issue. There are some work arounds but not real clean.


See the link below to their blog.
http://www.theroadgoeseveron.com/shipping-an-rv-to-europe

Have you researched camping in Europe? Have you seen campgrounds in Europe? Unless you approach your dream with eyes wide open, you will be very very surprised!!!! European campgrounds are nothing like in North America, and there are not as many scattered around.

DownTheAvenue wrote:
Have you researched camping in Europe? Have you seen campgrounds in Europe? Unless you approach your dream with eyes wide open, you will be very very surprised!!!! European campgrounds are nothing like in North America, and there are not as many scattered around.

They are very different but there are tons of campgrounds including major cities where you can connect into the transit system.

Totally forgot. Google Schengen Visa.

The RV is the easy part.
- Pay 20% VAT and it can stay indefinitely. But as non-EU resident, you can get 18 months Temporary Import Relief and that can be reset by leaving the European Customs Area for a day. Morocco, Switzerland, Norway, Baltics, Turkey. You can also extend the Temporary Import by putting the RV in bond (basically an official seals it and until they unseal, you get more time added to the clock.

Visas are a bigger issue. For a typical USA resident, you get an automatic schengen visa good for any 90 days out of the last 180. So 6 months continuous is problematic. UK, Ireland, Morocco, Some of the Balkan states or into the old former Russian states but there is no 1 day out and the clock resets.

If you google Schengen visa and cruising, you will find a lot of discussion regarding this in relation to boats but it works pretty much the same way for RVs.

PS: If you do buy in Europe, require written receipt of VAT paid status. If you can't prove the VAT was paid, you may be on the hook for 20%+ of the RV value. Most RVs should already be VAT paid (it's a one time tax not at every sale) but they may have lost it or it may have come from outside the customs zone.

What about the electrics? Fittings, 240,etc?

Propane fittings are different also, I think.

buta4 wrote:
What about the electrics? Fittings, 240,etc?

Propane fittings are different also, I think.

Get a big 240v battery charger and an inverter. Realistically most places you can't run air/con due to limited power. Most Euro RVs don't even have it.

You can get adapters but there isn't a single EU standard so you will need to get different tanks in some countries. Another hassle but doable.

rv2go wrote:
This may be an option.

While staying at Liberty Harbor, I met a couple from Germany. Their travel plans was to come to the States and buy a B. They would then tour the States and Canada for several months. After their tour they would ship the B from Nova Scotia to Germany. They stated that they could sell the B for more that it cost in the US. They had been doing this several times, ever other year.

I failed to mention that the couple would book passage on the freighter that was transporting the B

Here Rentals are the way to go. Electrics and compliance are already the same as here.
Seeing B's in Europe and the US use the same European chassis( with the exception of Ford Econoline based units) I would be surprised they would be more expensive