Category Archives: Blog updates

Caravan Chronicles 2014 in review

30 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by in Blog updates, General, Web sites, Year In Review

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Well the official figures are out. The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for Caravan Chronicles and it’s been a bumper year for the UK’s most popular caravanning blog. Thank you to everyone that has followed, commented and blogged. Sue and I are looking forward to 2015 when hopefully we can bring you even more.

Happy New Year to everyone.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 330,000 times in 2014. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 14 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

A Bit Of An Update…

20 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by in Blog updates, Cleaning, General, Maintenance, Reviews

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Back in February I wrote a post “Testing Testing…“ about trying out some OLPRO products. One in particular was their “Inside & Out” which I tried on the Freelander with great success, however I haven’t had chance to try it on the caravan… mainly due to the weather and I did promise back then to do an update.

So the day after we returned from our North Wales trip (A Pitch With A View…) The weather was co-operating so we loaded up the trailer with 3 x 25 litre containers of water, a hand pressure spray, a set of steps, long-handled soft washing brush and set off for the caravan storage compound.

Right.. where do we start? (Sue is wearing one of my mahoosive old polo shirts)

Right.. where do we start? (Sue is wearing one of my mahoosive old polo shirts)

Continue reading →

Testing Testing…..

05 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by in Blog updates, Cleaning, Maintenance, Reviews

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I do like things that do more than one job. I like multi tools for example and I especially like things that do more than one job well. I’m also into things that save space and weight in the caravan, and I have been looking round for ‘stuff’ that does both.

You know those days when you have a cup of coffee in one hand, mouse in the other and you are looking out of the office window at the rain wishing you were staring out of the caravan window instead? Thoughts turn to Googling and by one of those tricks that Google has of finding things you never knew you wanted and completely off the subject I was Googling in the first place found me reading about OLPRO. Continue reading →

Happy Birthday Caravan Chronicles…

11 Saturday Jan 2014

Posted by in Blog updates, Facebook, General

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Today it’s Caravan Chronicles 2nd birthday!

The first post “Hello World!” was published back on 11 January 2012 and started the ball caravan rolling. Back then we had a total of 695 views for the whole of January. So far in the first 11 days of January we have had over 3750 views taking our total to over 138,000!

In that time our caravan has travelled over 6700 miles on 30 trips and been on site for 82 nights.

What else has happened.. well we started a Twitter feed (@caravanchron) a few months ago and a few days ago we started our Facebook page – both of which are slowly growing.

So what are we going to do for 2014 – our third year? Well there are a few features planned…

  • An article on upgrading your caravan road lights to LED bulbs and the different types of bulb available (still looking for a company to help out with this)
  • Report on different aftermarket caravan stability systems (and possibly a DIY installation feature).
  • Report on what actually goes on when you have your caravan serviced by a main dealer.

Thanks to everyone that has followed, tweeted, liked, re-blogged or posted one of the 400 or so comments on Caravan Chronicles, I hope I can make the next 12 months as entertaining and informative as the last two years have been.

Simon

Old School Navigation…

10 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by in Blog updates, General, Navigation, Tips

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Back in the day, practical things used to be taught. One of the things I learnt was how to navigate using my wristwatch. The first time I piloted a single engine aircraft across the Atlantic even though we had accurate GPS navigation on board, I still used it as a gross error check. So what use is it when out in the caravan, motorhome or even tenting? Continue reading →

Caravan Chronicles now on Facebook too!

07 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by in Blog updates, Facebook, General, Web sites

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A number of people emailed me and asked why Caravan Chronicles wasn’t on Facebook? Well after some procrastination as of this morning Caravan Chronicles has a Facebook page… https://www.facebook.com/caravanchronicles

Facebook

So if you have an urge to click “like” on Facebook… just make sure is Caravan Chronicles!

S

PS… Not a clue how this is going to work out, so you might have to be patient!

Caravan Chronicles 2013 in review

31 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by in Blog updates, General, Reviews, Web sites

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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for Caravan Chronicles – one of the fastest growing blogs in caravanning & travel in 2013.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 98,000 times in 2013. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 4 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Aww shucks, we never made it…!

18 Wednesday Dec 2013

Posted by in Blog updates, Camping & Caravan Show, Christmas Markets, General, Projects, Travelling in the UK, Trips

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For all that were waiting for our blogs and tweets from Cheltenham Christmas Markets last week, well we never made it. Unfortunately some work we were having done at Caravan Chronicles Towers over ran and the day we were due to set off, they were just erecting scaffolding on two sides of the house!

I emailed Scott & Jo Sanderson from Briarfields to let them know we would not be able to make it, offered my apologies and hoped to see them next year (Cheltenham is one of our favourite places to visit and shop). So we missed out on the Christmas Market for this year… Ho Humbug. On the up side, we do have some bottles of mulled wine that need testing!

Anyway, what it did mean was I could spend some time planning for next year. I have a two or three projects planned for the DIY enthusiasts amongst you and maybe a couple of new things too. I’m also hoping to be able to do a bit more of an in-depth review of the Manchester Caravan & Motorhome Show at Event City in January as well.

I also managed to finish a little piece about ISO 11446 after Roger contacted me via email with a question. Roger had his vehicle fitted with 13 pin electrics at the main dealer and after a fridge defrosting towing session found out that the fridge connection was missing from the factory fitted 13 Pin towing electrics. This is not uncommon, especially on cars of German manufacture. The OEM wiring kits from the factory don’t always include leisure battery and/or fridge circuits, these have to be added by the main dealer in the UK.

So if you are having a new tow bar and electrics fitted from a main dealer or specialist tow bar company, always check that the electrical installation is to ISO 11446 to make sure you get all the right connections made, and if you want to know what it is, here is my simple guide: ISO 11446 – 13 Pin Trailer Connections 

S

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Not long now…

06 Friday Dec 2013

Posted by in Blog updates, Christmas Markets, Events, General, Projects, Travelling in the UK, Trips, Uncategorized, Weekend Break

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Well not long till we set off for Cheltenham Christmas Market ! We looked for a campsite close to Cheltenham and found one just 2.5 miles from the centre. Briarfield Touring Campsite  (@BriarfieldsUK on twitter) is open all year and offers 72 hard standing pitches with all the usual facilities and free WiFi. There is a regular (every 10 minutes) bus service into Cheltenham so it means we don’t have the hassle of driving in and parking. So with the free WiFi hopefully we will be blogging and tweeting from Cheltenham in a few days time!

There is still time…

If you want to have a quick getaway and visit one of the many Christmas markets in the UK check out www.christmasmarkets.com to find out where they are and the dates. It not too late to gat a quick couple of days away in your caravan or motorhome and there is nothing like wandering round a Christmas Market drinking some mulled wine to get you in the festive spirit!

Replacing the road lights on your caravan with LED bulbs

I was hoping to have this article published by now as a number of people have emailed and asked me about it…. what are the benefits?… Is it legal?… Any problems?… Would it solve one manufacturers brake light problem? I did intend to get it on-line so that the ‘all season’ caravanners (like ourselves) could take advantage for the dark mornings and evenings.

Well unfortunately the company that was going to supply me with a selection of bulbs to use on long-term test and so I could photograph the ‘before and after’ of replacing the bulbs has pulled out. I was trying to do a deal with them so that you could order a full set of LED replacement bulbs for your caravan at a big discounted price from a UK supplier rather than chance you luck on one of the well-known auction sites and have the bulbs of varying standards coming from the far east.

So for the moment its on hold until I can find another UK supplier.

S