Why do I need a new van?

My original plan was to travel for a year or so and then settle down and pretend to be normal again. At some stage early in that year I realised that twelve months was not going to be anywhere near long enough -- I was enjoying life on the road, I realised that I wouldn't see everything I wanted to see in twelve months, so I intended continuing well after that time.

The slide-on campervan I had was OK for a short time, but there is no way it was going to be suitable for several years of travel, for a number of reasons:

• The van is very old and requires constant maintenance.
• I do a lot of work on my computer -- and if I'm travelling for a number of years I'm going to have to earn some money and the computer will be required for that -- so I need significantly more comfortable working conditions, in particular a more suitable chair and working table.
• The van is really too small -- especially for cooking.
• It takes too long to take it off the truck and put it back on.
• I need air conditioning.
• A shower and toilet would be useful.
• A bigger fresh water tank, bigger fridge and more solar power would be nice.

Some of these things could be fixed, but I couldn't make it any bigger or any newer! So I decided a new van would be a better option. 

I again went through the process of investigating the different types of homes-on-wheels and came to the same conclusion -- my needs were basically the same as I had earlier determined and a slide-on campervan is the best option for me. Again, I tried to find a second-hand one, but again I had difficulty finding anything on the Internet or in the various magazines, and whenever I did find one suitable it had already been sold.

So I eventually decided on a new van.