Getting into the festive spirit…

06 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by in Christmas Markets, General, Mini Break, Travelling In Europe, Travelling in the UK, Trips, Weekend Break

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What!… It’s only August! 

One of the great things you can do in the run up to Christmas to get you into the swing of things is stay a couple of nights at a site that’s within striking distance of one of the many Christmas Markets held all over the country (and Europe for that matter) Staying local also allows you to sample some of the mulled wine and cider that’s on offer.

Last year we had booked to visit Cheltenham’s famous Christmas Market, but unfortunately due to the builders not removing scaffolding from around the house in time we had to cancel. However to make up for it we decided to do two markets this year! We have booked into Briarfields an independent site just outside Cheltenham with a good bus service right into the centre of the town. From Briarfields we then head back north to Oxford to the Camping & Caravan Club’s site for a few days so we can ‘do’ Oxford’s Christmas Market too!

christmas-marketsIf you fancy the idea of visiting one of the UK’s many Christmas Markets we use this handy website that lists all the dates and opening times… http://www.christmasmarkets.com/UK.html and currently they list over 150 markets in the UK and over 250 markets all over Europe.

If you have never caravanned  ‘out of season’ don’t worry. Caravan’s are great in winter… when it’s nice and toasty inside with some mulled wine… who cares what the weather is doing!

So it may only be August, but find yourselves a Christmas Market, find a site and get booked in and even better invite some caravan or motor home friends to join you.

A very early Merry Christmas.

Simon & Sue

Car Trailer Mod…

25 Friday Jul 2014

Posted by in Car Trailer, Electrical, Gadgets, General, Modifications, Motor Home, Projects, Technical

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I received an email from a gentleman who is a motor home owner and tows a car trailer that wanted a bit of help. Here’s what I received:

Dear Caravan Chronicles
I hope you can help. I have a motorhome which I use to pull a car trailer to classic car racing events. My trailer currently has a Warn winch to help load and unload my sports car but I have recently had a caravan motor mover fitted to help with manoeuvring the trailer with the car loaded. The trailer has one 110Ah battery fitted for the winch, which I have to charge by plugging in the trailer to a mains socket in the motorhome. I asked the company installing the mover if they could install a second 110 Ah battery for the mover and make it so I could charge both batteries while towing. Unfortunately they said it could not be done. I also asked if they could make it so I could link the two batteries if required with a switch, which they also said couldn’t be done. They did advise me to talk to the people that fitted the tow bar. To cut a long story short they also said what I wanted could not be done. Can you come up with something that would work?
Many thanks XXXXXXXX
 

After a couple of email exchanges to confirm a few things, here’s what I came up with:

Continue reading →

Annual Service – “Dealer or No Dealer?”…

10 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by in Caravan Servicing, General, Maintenance

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I had booked our caravan in for its annual service for Tuesday 8th at Glossop Caravans, the local main dealer that we bought our caravan from 3 years ago. Now, by chance after a couple of comments on Twitter and a brief conversation via email with Jonathan Robe, Glossop Caravan’s IT Manager, it was arranged for me to spend some time and follow our caravan through its annual service to see what goes on behind the scenes at a major dealer’s service centre. Continue reading →

Lets be Practical…

05 Saturday Jul 2014

Posted by in General, Maintenance, Modifications, Projects, Technical

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Some of the most popular articles on Caravan Chronicles are the “practical” type posts. Anything from the electrical stuff through to little modifications and projects I’ve done. A while ago I had the chance to look through some of the caravanning magazines from the late 50’s through to the late 60’s and they were full of projects. Installing a new roof light, repairing door hinges, updating handles and magnetic catches… in fact all sorts. One interesting early article was about upgrading your caravans road lights to install indicators using the ‘new’ 7 pin plug! Continue reading →

Are We Back In Wales Now?…

14 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by in General, Mini Break, Travelling in the UK, Weekend Break

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We had another chance for a few days away mid week again and decided to visit another Tranquil Touring Park site in Wales. Daisy Bank Touring Caravan Park is located almost on the Wales England border in Montgomery, Powys.

Monday 9th June

I’d uploaded POI’s for the site and some of the attractions around the area and checked the route. It should only take just over two hours to drive the 95 miles from home to the site so it was an easy start to the day. Thankfully the light rain had stopped while we loaded up the Freelander. We pulled out of the storage compound just before 10:25 and headed for the motorway to take us west towards Chester. It was a busy day for caravans and motorhomes… every other vehicle passing us in the opposite direction on the M56 seemed to be one or the other. By the time we reached Preston Brook the on again off again rain had stopped, and looking west the clouds were clearing and blue was becoming the prominent colour. Continue reading →

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 →

A Pitch With A View…

19 Monday May 2014

Posted by in General, Mini Break, Travelling in the UK, Weekend Break

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We had chance to get away for a few days and decided to visit North Wales. We chose Tyddyn Du Touring Park, one of the Tranquil Touring Parks

Monday 12th May

The site we had chosen didn’t allow arrivals before 2:00PM, so it was an unusually lazy start to the day. Loading up the Freelander in the Manchester drizzle wasn’t much fun, but the forecast for the rest of the week said it was going to improve. We left home and arrived at the caravan storage unit still in the grey drizzle, and got a bit damp transferring our bits and pieces over to the caravan, but by the time we were hitching up the rain eased off. We pulled out of the compound at 1:30 and the sat-nav predicted our arrival to be around 3:15 and 87 miles down the road. Continue reading →

Time With Friends… Pt 2

16 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by in Travelling in the UK, Trips, Weekend Break

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Previously: Time With Friends… Pt 1

Wednesday 9th April

We left Morn Hill around 10:40 and set off for The Old Oaks, F & R following in their motor home. Somewhere along the route we caught up with a police escorted wide load and for around 40 minutes remained at a slow steady speed which didn’t do much for our MPG!. However just before we reached Longleat, the load headed off in a different direction and we could continue at our normal pace. Passing Stonehenge I noticed that F & R were not behind us anymore… As we were coming through Pilton on the A361 I said to Sue “that looks like F & R’s motor home in front”. We followed it through West Pennard and debated on whether it was F & R a few cars in front of us. When they slowed and turned right into Wick Lane, it could have only been them… unless someone else had hired a motor home from the same company and were also staying at The Old Oaks. (I never did find out exactly where we lost them and which route they took).  It was exactly 13:00 when we pulled in so the 81 mile journey took us 2 hours 20 minutes averaging a little over 34 MPH Continue reading →

Time With Friends… Pt 1

15 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by in Travelling in the UK, Trips

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Spending time with friends, especially good friends is always a pleasure. Since we had ‘retired’ from flying, it had been too long since we had managed to spend time with F & R although we did keep in touch by phone and email. They had fancied the idea of a motor home and wanted to give it a try, so a plan was hatched to spend a week at two different locations. We would take the caravan and they would hire a motor home.

As F & R would be hiring a motor home from www.landcruise.uk.com in Chichester, West Sussex we thought it would be best to choose a location not too far away for the first part of the adventure. I chose Morn Hill Caravan Club at Winchester as they accepted non-members and none of us had ever been to Winchester. Continue reading →