Author Archives: Simon Barlow

Oswestry….. arrival

11 Saturday Feb 2012

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Arrived at Oswestry C & CC site at 12:20 yesterday after an 80 mile drive, which considering it was a Friday only took 1:40.  Leaving home, there was just the odd snowflake, but most of the way here was dry and clear. Only when we got to the outskirts of Wrexham did we get light drizzle.

The warden here is very friendly and virtually gave us our choice of pitches, I think there are only eight or ten caravans and motorhomes on site at the moment. We decided on the far end of the site and the warden walked down with us to guide us on to the pitch.

All set up

Setting up only takes us about 20 minutes, and the kettle normally goes on… or the beer and wine are opened, depending on the weather. This time was a little different. Sue filled the Aquaroll while I powered up the van’s electrics and handled the pink stuff and wastehog at the other end of the van. Returning the watering can to the front locker, I also turned on the Safefill gas bottle and went to turn the electrics on, shut the taps, fire up the heater and turn the water pump on. I always use a gas ring on the hob to purge any air out of the gas line… the ring lit… and the heater soon followed. Now for the water. I shut the drain tap and pressed the pump ‘on’ button…. nothing. Hmm. Frozen up. Bugger. I could hear the relay clicking to activate the pump, but I couldn’t hear it run. I know we were below freezing in Manchester a few nights ago, and I thought I’d got all the water out of the system anyway. Apparently not. Continue reading →

Help Guide updates..

07 Tuesday Feb 2012

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Ever wondered about “reverse polarity” and inverters? They are often misunderstood and sometimes seem like a technical nightmare from a science fiction film! Well, I’ve just finished a couple of guides on inverters and reversed polarity that hopefully makes things a little clearer. You can find them on the “HELP GUIDES” page.

Just starting to think about getting the caravan ready for our up and coming trip to Oswestry this weekend, and looking forward a bit we have received our Red Pennant paperwork today for the French trip in October. I’ve booked one site to stop at on the drive down to La Tournerie Ferme in the Dordogne and for the return trip, but I still need to find a nice site near Limoges. The 300 plus page Michelin French road Atlas arrived from Amazon a couple of days ago, so I guess I’ll take that with us this weekend so I can do a little light reading in the evening. Anyone know what the weather is down there in October?

S

Swift Group factory tour…

06 Monday Feb 2012

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Just received an email from Swift letting us know that we are invited onto the next factory tour on Thursday 29th March. Really looking forward to seeing where and how our caravan was built. I now have to try to remember some of those “I wonder why they did that?” type questions to ask them.

I know one I do want to ask…. “Why do UK built vans have such short ‘A’ frame draw bars when compared to our continental cousins?” As van’s get heavier, the nose weight increases and the list of suitable tow cars decreases… a longer ‘A’ Frame would help mitigate this and provide a more stable tow. I might have an answer at the end of March!

Apparently cameras are not permitted on the tour, so unfortunately I don’t think I will be able to give you any sneak previews of the 2013 models. I might however have seen someone who is working on the 2013 models!.. That will be about as exclusive as it gets for me I think.

S

Our first project finished..

03 Friday Feb 2012

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Sue and I went down to the storage place this morning to do a little work on the caravan. We had wanted to install an electrically heated towel rail in the caravan since we were at Chirk last December, as the towels didn’t dry too well just hung over the washroom door. Plus it looked a little unsightly.  I had ordered one via the internet and it had arrived a couple of days earlier. I’d got all the fittings ready in the work shop, so it was just a matter of getting down there and doing it. I took a camera with us and I’ve written it up as a project… so if you want to know more, it’s all here on the Installing an electric towel rail page.

On each trip, we find out a better or improved way of doing something, and the last trip out we decided that the cleaning stuff being in one of the top lockers was a waste of good space. Continue reading →

Our 2012 season starts

02 Thursday Feb 2012

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Well, at last our 2012 season is underway. Since we got back from Wrexham on the 11th December, Sue has been on call to the hospital with the exception of 6 days since then. The first chance we have to get away is next weekend, which is half term and usually busy. Not a problem I thought, logging on to the Camping & Caravanning Club web site… I can search on available pitches. Unfortunately, the booking system was taken back into the stone age late last year and the ability to do almost anything with the booking system is a nightmare. All is not lost I thought. I logged in to the Caravan Clubs booking system. Well, that insisted on listing sites that were still closed, even though I’d put in our travelling dates. Two hours later, and after several phone calls to different sites, I managed to get us booked in at the C & CC Oswestry. So next weekend, we are starting our 2012 season at last!

Looking ahead, we are also starting our continental adventures. After spending so many years flying the plane all over Europe, it is strange to now have to plan taking the caravan. It was so easy… fill in a flight plan a couple of hours before we wanted to go, load the plane, fill up and go. A couple of hours later we could be in France, Holland wherever. Taking the caravan is a little different, and rather than have an exploratory few days… we are driving down to the Dordogne for five days! Continue reading →

Motorway Services for caravanners

22 Sunday Jan 2012

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I came across a fantastic site from a fellow Caravan Talk member called Shirker.co.uk that has the low down on Motorway Services for caravanners. All the motorways are listed along with some of the major A roads. You can select a motorway or A road and browse the services along it quite easily.

Having read through the details for the services I know, the information is accurate and well presented. The only thing I could see as an improvement would be a “print” button for each of the services as the directions given are far more informative than the actual signs at the services. It would save me having to do a screen grab.

All in all well worth bookmarking…. Shirker.co.uk

S

PS… I should have mentioned the rest of his blog is hilarious !!!

EDIT: 4th June 2013

I believe shirker.co.uk has sold the website with the motorway services information to one of the caravanning magazines, therefore I have removed the links to the site. I have kept the post though just for reference.

Caravan & Motorhome Exhibition 2012 – Manchester

19 Thursday Jan 2012

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Well Sue and I made our first visit to the Caravan and Mortorhome Exhibition to-day. It was in fact our first visit to any caravan type exhibition, so we didn’t know what to expect. We only live a few miles outside Manchester and knew when we were on the M60 at 10:45 this morning it was going to be busy.  There were already delays three junctions away. However, we are made of sterner stuff in Manchester and we pressed on. We eventually arrived and parked in one of the Trafford Centre car parks, a short walk… no more than five minutes from the ‘Event City’ halls. The queue to get in only took about 10 minutes and I think the delay was due to the fact everyone was in the same queue… if they had split off everyone that had pre bought their tickets it would have been a little quicker. Once inside… it was warm! top tip – wear light layers and take some water! Continue reading →

Updates to the blog

16 Monday Jan 2012

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Hi

Over the last couple of days I have posted some new pages. Equipment reviews now has  a piece about our Avtex TV and I have just finished one about our Safefill refillable gas cylinder.

Back in May/June last year while I was researching everything we would need to go with our new caravan, I collected a lot of ‘bookmarks’ for websites that we thought were useful and would need in the future, or that we eventually bought stuff from. So to help anyone else looking for information, I’ve started a links page, with links to the sites we used. There are over fifty links on the page, and I’ve tried to organise them in to some sort of order. If nothing else, at least I know where to look for stuff again! It also makes it easier if someone asks me about something… I can just point them at the links page.

I have also posted another help guide…. this time on understanding the dynamics of towing. It basically gives an insite into whats going on with the white box on wheels behind you. I’m part way through writing one about simple electrical fault finding on a caravan’s electrical system. Hopefully that will be ready in a few days. Someone has asked me if I can write something about modifying or altering wiring and making terminations… I’ll see what I can do in the near future.

I have a link at the top of the page “Site Reviews” I’m still not sure if this is something that I want to get into really as there are so many places on the internet that offer site reviews… do we need another one? Still thinking about that one.

S

Wrexham Christmas Market

14 Saturday Jan 2012

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October came and passed, because of Sue’s on-call commitments to the hospital and the fact that everyone seemed to want heart surgery there was little chance at getting away.  However, December looked promising. Sue’s colleague was due to have major knee surgery in December, so getting away before then would be ideal, after her colleague’s surgery Sue would be on call until at least the end of January. The prospect of mulled wine and a Christmas market seemed good.  A brief search on the internet reveled that Lincoln Christmas Market was one of the top events this time of year. Going on to the C & CC’s on line booking system was a nightmare, some idiot decided that it needed improving and instantly took it back several steps in my opinion… and that of many others looking at the complaints and postings on some of the forums. Just as I thought it was sorted, Sue announced we would have to move it back a week due to work commitments changing.

Right, so Lincoln was out… where else. We had been in touch with Pete & Julie as we were hoping to meet up again with them…. and they suggested York. Back on to the C & CC website… better still ring the sites. After ringing a few, some would be closed, some were fully booked and some were advising that the same time last year they were either flooded or knee deep in snow. York was off.

A very quiet campsite in the morning winter sun

Continue reading →