After our trip out to Donkey Creek Farm I started procrastinating about the slide out bed we used to have in the Amarok. Did I need it… was it worth it….. should I put it back in? Well my body kind of made the decision for me after loading and unloading some heavy boxes from the bed reaching over the opened tailgate it kind of said “We ain’t doin’ that again big boy“.
I had to set about working out how to install the base of the slider in and around the Reese 5th wheel hitch and where it could be mounted. It also needed to be raised up 35mm so it would pass over the 5th wheel hitch cross rails and still allow me to pull the pins so the hitch could be lifted out if required.
I got lucky…. with only having to cut out the rear cross bar the slide bed would fit and the original mounting holes lined up with the holes I drilled in the truck bed when I first installed it. Next step was to fabricate some spacers to raise it to the correct height.
I just happened to have a couple of blocks of high density poly in black so cut 4 100mm long by 35mm wide slats to fit under the frame and drilled 10mm holes through them for the mounting bolts. A quick trip to Francis Kirk – my local engineering fastening company. (I’ve been going there since 1976 for all my fastenings) got me four M10 grade 8 bolts of the correct length… I even splashed out on coated ones and nylock nuts.
A test fit of the sliding frame allowed me to see where I needed to cut so it would clear the hitch. A bit of quick work with a four inch grinder and cutting wheel and it slid in without any problems. I needed to remove the original locking pin system and a couple of coats of black rust preventative paint on cut areas that I’d smoothed off with a fine grinding disc soon had the sliding tray ready to be fitted again.
I did a couple of other mods that allowed the ray to slide out further. Previously it only came out about an inch past the tail gate, now it comes out about 10 inches which will have a great advantage… more on that later.
It was now time to refit the decking and do some trimming as required so it would fit around the hitch.
I cut the sheet so that the section in the truck would remain in one piece and if I needed to the hitch could be lifted out and the cut section replaced giving me a full size sliding bed once again. I do like having options!
The trimming was actually quite easy. The board is Phenol faced marine ply and quite easy to trim. I gave all the edges, especially the new cut edges several coats of clear brush on wax and let it soak into the ply. I’ve found that this is usually better than any polyurathane edge sealant when it is in an area that is prone to dinks and abrasion. The wax penetrates quite a lot and soaks into the layers protecting them from water.
Everything was given a spray and rubdown with Boeshield as a protective against the elements and looks as good as the day I installed it.
Next little job is to find two waterproof boxes to mount on the sliding bed either side of the hitch for my recovery kit and straps. This is why I wanted to make the slide tray come out further than it originally dis so I would have better / easier access to the two “fingers” either side of the hitch.
I need some low profile narrow boxes 200mm wide, 200mm high and about 600mm long with a hinge lid. I did start looking around at what is out there but I suspect that they might need to be fabricated out of aluminium diamond tread plate.
A couple of bonus things…. there is enough space under the 5th wheel hitch to allow me to store two of the “Really Useful Box” company’s boxes under the hitch which will be fairly secure when the slide tray is stowed.
The second is there is now enough room under the sliding bed to be able to store some kit and it pulls out far enough for me to sit the Cadac on for a bit of tail gate BBQ’ing.
Well, I never expected so many questions as to the weight, size and towing our 5th wheel Dream Seeker. So here are the stats…. now these are for OUR Dream Seeker, and as each one is virtually custom made to the buyers specification, then there will be differences.
As our DreamSeeker is currently configured with an Avtex 4G/5G antenna on the roof it stands 2950mm tall (for bridge clearance my check is 3.2m minimum I would ever attempt and then only with a spotter).
From the rear bumper to the very front of the hitch, uncoupled, it is 7638mm long and 2292mm wide. Now that is not the whole story. The pin box (the bit that sticks out the front and connects to the 5th wheel hitch in the truck) can swing out of the way when on a pitch, so the actual length when pitched is 7517mm, so exactly the same as a 7.5m motorhome.
Now when we are hitched up to the truck, the effective length behind the vehicle becomes 6630mm, which is actually shorter than some twin axle bumper pull caravans.
The Weighty Stuff…
Our Dream Seeker runs on two 1500Kg rated axles and we have a MTPLM of 3750kg. So at max weight we would have 3000kg on the axles and 750kg on the hitch pushing down into the bed of the truck. The hitch in the truck is positioned directly over the rear axle so this mass bares directly onto the rear axle. Our Amarok is rated for 1000kg in the rear pickup bed so we are easily within limits.
Our Dream Seeker as bought was weighed and had 2210kg on the axles and 570kg on the pin hitch totalling 2780kg. If you subtract that from the MTPLM of 3750kg it gives us a user payload of 970kg.
The hitch is installed directly over the rear axle and has plates underneath connecting it directly to the chassis rails and suspension mounts. This Reese hitch is rated up to 800kg pin weight and 4300kg towing capacity.
Now here’s what confuses a lot of people… our Amarok is rated to tow 3200kg and we are hitching up a potential max of 3750kg…. 550kg more than we are rated to pull. Ahh pull… that’s the key word. The rating is based on the vehicle manufacturers tow bar pull capacity. With a 5th wheel hitch you are also carrying some of the weight so for every 1kg of weight that the truck carries on the pin hitch that is effectively deducted from what you are pulling. So at MTPLM of 3750kg I am carrying 750kg and pulling 3000kg (OK I know that we are moving a mass of 3750Kg but that is how the figures are assessed for 5th wheel towing… not a clue as how this calculation was decided on!)
GTW…. Gross Train Weight
On the face of it we are ok… however there is one last thing to take into consideration. GTW or Gross Train Weight. This is the absolute maximum weight the vehicle and trailer can weigh together in any combination of the mass being shared between the vehicle and trailer. Because we were approaching the GTM max for the Amarok if we had the trailer at MTPLM I wanted some extra safety margin and we opted to have the Amarok uprated to a GTM of 6400kg and the rear axle load rating increased to 2180kg. This was a fairly simple process that involved removing the hard rubber bump stops and inserting air bags, which are currently inflated to 7psi. They have increased the hight of the truck at the back be about 20mm but hitched up the truck and caravan are dead level. The only other thing is a new weight plate stuck to the door pillar of the Amarok. All the weight upgrade installation and paperwork were done by the wonderful guys at the 5th Wheel Company for us.
So there you are….
That’s it, on a pitch we are no longer than some motorhomes at 7.5 metres and when hitched up it is only 6.6 metres in additional length…. which is less than some single axle caravans!
As for drivability, well doing 60mph on the motorway and having big vans steam past at 70+ it doesn’t move or even impart any sideways forces I can feel when driving. Road bumps you can just about feel but no where as much as I could towing our single axle caravan.
On corners you just have to be mindful the the rear wheels of the trailer will scribe a smaller arc than the rear axle of the tow vehicle so for example a 90 degree left turn into a street means you need to move more to the right hand side of the lane before the left turn…. but all you class one HGV drivers know this and can definitely teach me a thing or two about 5th wheel driving.
And as for driving round tight spaces…. can you get your caravan 90 degrees to your car?
I’m still new to this and a blind side reverse does have your head swivelling a bit and I can now see why a lot of American 5th wheels have side mounted rear view cameras. I’m just getting used to the novelty of a rear view camera…. so all in good time.
Brakes…
The brakes are something else. They are Electric-Hydraulic units working on 4 massive drums. Once you get the feel of them and learn to keep an eye on the red LED in the truck that lets you know when the brakes are operating, then within a few miles it becomes instinctive. I can now judge how much pressure to apply to get the brakes to just let me bleed off a little speed or apply with some gusto then ease off so the LED goes out and we coast to a gentle stop without giving Sue whiplash at the moment we do stop. I have not tried an emergency stop and intend trying to drive so that I never have to.
While we are still on the subject of brakes…. yes it does have a handbrake that works on all four wheels and like on you over run break away cable we have something similar…. it’s a cable that is attached to a switch… pull it out and a separate 12 volt lead acid battery powers the hydraulic pump and applies pressure to all four drum brakes and maintains that pressure. The other end of this safety cable is clipped exactly as you do a normal break away cable to a secure part of the vehicle. In my case the floor mounting rails of the 5th wheel hitch.
PS…
I’m currently writing this sat in our Dream Seeker at the wonderful Donkey Creek Farm near Freckleton. It’s one of those sites that I don’t want to tell you about so I can just keep it to ourselves. (and no, before The Caravan Vlogger ask’s…. this isn’t a sponsored link!)
EOE (Errors and Omissions Excepted) As I said earlier these figures are based on OUR Dream Seeker and OUR Amarok do not take any of these figures to be a basis of working out any load capacity for any potential vehicle or caravan purchases. Speak to your vehicle dealer and caravan dealer.
It’s Wednesday 28th June, and we have an appointment in Rhuallt… we are going to the Fifth Wheel Company for the big handover when we collect our 5th wheel caravan. This not just a handover, it’s a Fifth Wheel Company handover. Which means 3 days of training, acclimatisation and adjustment to a 5th wheel caravan and the all important hitch installation in the VW Amarok which will be completed by the technical guys at the Fifth Wheel Company.
The previous week…
We had spent the previous week unloading our Swift Celebration 550 of its contents…. 12 years worth of touring “stuff” which initially didn’t seem like much, but stacked up it filled my workshop, I mean really filled my workshop. I had also tackled removing the sports bars from the Amarok, along with the bike carrier as well as the sliding bed and inbuilt tool box. I was now out of space in the workshop.
What followed was a cleaning frenzy.. Sue tackled every surface of the caravan, the loo, shower and sinks were cleaned and polished. The carpets were brought home cleaned and vacuumed to within an inch of their lives and returned to the caravan. We removed the Safefill gas cylinder and I started collecting all the original accessories for the caravan…. Alko Hitch Lock, Alko Wheel Lock, Alko Jack (still in its original protective wrapping) and I even had the original braided gas hoses along with the steady winder. As we were leaving the Fiamma sun canopy on it I found all the original bits to go with it. All the original paperwork from Glossop Caravans along with the Folder from Swift that came with the caravan contains all the manuals for the installed equipment was put in the front draws.
The big day…
Even though the pickup bed was completely empty we could not get everything in the truck that we needed to take over so we boxed up everything we thought we would need and loaded the boxes on the floor of the caravan. It was a lot of stuff. It filled the caravan floor forward of the axle and the truck bed.
Henry was put in his carrier and secured in the Amarok. He seems to have got quite used to the journeys now spending his time either looking out the window at passing cars or sleeping. The run over to Rhuallt from our storage site was a little over an hour as the traffic was light especially along the North Wales Expressway.
We pulled into the carpark and leaving Henry in his carrier… with both back windows three quarters down so he could see out and had a bit of a cross breeze went in to meet Simon again. In the reception area was a sign welcoming us by name to the Fifth Wheel Company (We didn’t get that when we picked up our other caravan) Simon showed us into the showroom where our caravan was parked up all shining and the lights on inside. Time for some paperwork to be exchanged along with the required number of beer tokens.
All change…
I pulled our old caravan… that technically was now not ours, up to the showroom roller door and we started the process of transferring all the boxes from our ‘technically not ours” old caravan to the 5th wheel caravan. The plan was to get everything out of one caravan into another then Simon would tow the 5th wheel caravan a couple of hundred metres along the road to Rhuallt Campsite which adjoins The White House Restaurant and Hotel where we could spend the rest of the day transferring everything over from the Amarok and putting everything away.
We parked up our old caravan next to a rather splendid Ineos caravan next to the factory and said our farewell’s to it. Even Henry watched it through the back window as I unhitched and pulled away. I think really he was thinking it was snack time and that is where his snacks usually materialised. 12 years of caravanning, and the reason this blog came into existence was ending but a new chapter was starting. One that had more wheels in it than you could shake a stick at!
We followed Simon the short distance up the road and pulled into the carpark of the White House which leads through to the camp site. First snag… there was a conference on in the hotel and the car park was packed and Simon could not make it round the 90 degree bend due to two vehicles parked in areas that were not marked parking bays. A short delay, cars were moved and Simon finally got it on to the pitch. There are a number of pitches reserved for 5th Wheel caravan as this is where you can overnight when you bring your caravan for servicing. We went briefly through the unhitching process and then in a little more detail the actual setting up, connection and operating the slide out and a run through of powering up everything. He then left up to start putting everything away and said he would come back in a couple of hours to answer any questions we had and run through anything we were unsure of.
The pitches were obviously designed for 5th wheel units. With power, water and drains set up for dumping grey water tanks. We filled up the 230 litre fresh water tank and turned on the water heater. Our unit is not a new caravan, but it has gone through a full factory refurbishment that included a brand new Truma Combi 4E with iNet controller, brand new Thetford N4000 fridge, new twin 11 litre GasLow refillable bottles and a full reseal as well as lots of other details. It was also fitted with a SOG fan system on the Thetford toilet. It came with a Samsung TV and LG Sound bar installed. The brake system is electric over hydraulic and I was later to find out just how good this was.
Storage… OMG the storage!
We eventually got everything stowed away… everything we had brought with us… and we had not really filled any storage compartment or cupboard. In fact we has storage cupboards and compartments that were still empty. Then we found more storage under the seats in the slide out… and even more behind the wardrobe. It also has a huge under floor locker (As we are now currently set up our available user payload is around 960kg.
Simon called back to see how we were getting on and if we had any questions. I’d noticed a couple of things and he headed off to the factory and returned within 20 minutes with replacements. I will probably repeat this several times but I can’t get over just how good the service and all our dealings have been with everyone from the Fifth Wheel Company. It is exceptional to say the least.
Simon left us to enjoy the rest of the day in our caravan. Tomorrow (Thursday) we have the day to ourselves… which would include a run out to to do a bit of shopping. Friday Simon was going to collect the Amarok and take it down to the factory to have the Reese hitch installed, the electrical conversion and additional systems installed for the electric over hydraulic brake system and air assist bags installed on the suspension which would allow the Amarok to be plated to a GTM of 6400kg.
Henry just checking in with Sue and making sure She knew where the cat biscuits were stored.
During the course of Thursday we had new neighbours arrive in their Celtic Rambler… Gary and Helen, who were also newish to Fifth Wheel life having taken delivery of their unit last November but it was really great to chat to them as they had some really helpful tips about things they discovered since starting out with a 5th wheel. It was also great that Gary spent a little time going through some of the things he had come across hitching and unhitching…. useful information if we ever come up against similar situations.
Friday morning and Simon appeared early to collect our Amarok. As it drove off we set about re-organising stuff we had previously put away as talking the evening before we realised the whole way we had caravanned before would change. I took the opportunity to do a test dump of the grey tank using our colapz waste pipes from the previous caravan and swopped fittings on our blue water hose so I could connect to the tank filler.
That afternoon Simon returned with one of the company vehicles and we went through hitching up and unhitching a couple of times until we had… saying mastered it would be wrong…. become familiar with the sequence might be a better way of putting it. I think we will be using the checklist for a while longer! There are quite a few more steps to hitching, but I’ll swear it is easier than hooking up a caravan on a tow ball. Sue called the list out as I went round going through the process. I guess if I can remember the Emergency checklists for aircraft I’ve flown then this will become as easy as that.
Simon returned late in the afternoon with our Amarok…. all converted, new weight plate fitted and the truck bed was looking really clean. They had managed to install all the connectors in the side of the bed rather than in a box ad it looked really neat.
We still had lots of room in the bed of the truck and one of my future projects is to re-install the slide out tray back in. It will need shortening but I think it will be achievable.
OK, I know you are going to ask….. why is there a 13 pin plug hanging out next to the two sockets? Well part of the installation was to move the connections for the tow bar mounted socket over to the pickup bed so that is the primary connection for the 5th Wheel. The 13 pin plug is effectively a short extension down to the tow bar so I retain all the functions at the ball hitch for towing our trailer. All I have to do is plug it in to the thirteen pin socket in the pickup bed. I have now put a green cap on it and it is secured in a clip.
The installation has also allowed me to continue using our Roll-N-Lock bed cover and as an added bonus, If I want to fit the bike rack on then I can do easily within a few minutes. Obviously we can’t tow the 5th wheel with the bike rack on.
Wagons roll…
Saturday morning arrived…. put the awning away (something that took about 1 minute seriously!) dump the grey and fresh water, turn the gas off. Sue stowed all loose items, bought the slide in, stowed the waste pipe, and dropped the tailgate.
Reversed and aligned up on the hitch adjusted the hitch height using the electrical landing legs, reversed on with a small ‘clunk’ as the jaws closed going the pin. Quick pull test, and as I hooked up the 13 pin plug and the break services plug Sue raised the landing legs. Henry stowed in his carrier… looking quite satisfied with the trip in general as he seems to have found a few new spots to snooze in we were ready to pull out. From the point of us saying “Right shall we make a move” I guess it took less than 30 minutes before we were ready to pull out. It really was easy to break camp.
Final walk round and photo
Pulling out of the site onto the road wasn’t difficult. I need to adjust my mirrors slightly as I’d like to see a bit more of the 5th wheels tyres on the road, especially for cornering. The first real test was approaching a small roundabout a few hundred metres up the road…. I didn’t think we were slowing enough and I was going to overshoot onto the roundabout, so I pressed the brake peele a bit harder… then the trailer decided that meant it must be a sign more brakes were required and it obliged… wow those brakes do work well. I don’t think there is a delay as such, you just have to give them a clear sign of what you want them to do. So a little feathering of the foot brake to shed a few miles per hour you don’t really feel them, but add a bit more pressure than that then they come on enthusiastically for a millisecond until they judge just how much you want to slow down by then match you somehow. You feel them come on then ease up to match you. Never had that on a trailer before.
The trip home was rather uneventful…. except for the looks that you get… I don’t think we would have got more looks if we had been driving a bright pink soft top Ferrari with a giraffe in the back seat.
A Huge Thanks…
I’m going to say it again. A huge thanks To Simon, George who we initially dealt with and to all the staff at the 5th Wheel Company. This not sponsored, we didn’t get or receive any special discounts and although Simon was aware I wrote a blog, I really don’t think this influenced the way we were received or treated. We spoke to Gary and Helen (our neighbours) and they said the same. The service and level of commitment to the product and their customers is second to none, especially in this industry.
I think one or two of you might have already guessed… we have bought ourselves a 5th wheel caravan. (Was it the pickup that gave it away?) So here it is…
Why a 5th wheel?
We decided that as we have now both fully retired that we would like to change the style of caravanning from a few days in one place then returning home to more of a few days somewhere…. then a wander somewhere else for a while then maybe move on again over a period of a couple of weeks before returning home. We can (and have) done this with our old caravan but packing up and then pitching again was becoming a chore for multiple stops. So we started looking at motorhomes as these had the advantage of more payload and a bit more elbow room. Something else we wanted to do was store our e-bikes inside rather than secure them outside when on site.
However when the cost of a suitable motorhome started to creep well above £100K…. we dismissed all the UK built motorhomes as most are just a caravan dropped on a chassis with an engine. So A-class it was. We looked at Carthago and really liked the c-line but my wallet went into cardiac arrest. We could cut costs a little if we cut some of our requirements and on top of that adding a vehicle that we could tow. It meant we were looking at the thick end of £150K. On top of this would be the cost of a towed vehicle and the decision to either flat tow or trailer. I believe that flat tow can be a bit of an issue in some European countries, but that might be hearsay. The yearly cost of two services, MOT’s, Insurance was also a big factor.
We started looking again at caravans with a new vision. The problem was for me, writing this blog for over 12 years now, I was a little nervous of investing in the mainstream UK offerings. It also left us with the original reason for changing over to a motorhome – the convenience of it all, that was still in our minds.
We had known about the 5th Wheel Company in North Wales for a long time, in fact a few years ago we sat in both a Celtic Rambler and a Dream Seeker at the Yorkshire Caravan Show and I had a bit of an affair moment with them. However back then we were still towing with our Land Rover Freelander (which we still own and is still going strong!) and the cost of a pickup and a 5th wheel was just not within our budget. But my brief dalliance with the 5th wheel remained in the back of my mind.
Just before we went to Sutton-on-Sea we had talked about maybe a 5th wheel instead of a motorhome. It has the load capacity (with this one we have about 950Kg available) plenty of elbow room, storage and it only requires servicing… no MOT or vehicle insurance only caravan insurance, this time we already have a pickup so no need to change vehicles. It is fitted with a 250 litre fresh water tank, grey tank, still uses a Thetford Cassette for the loo (so no issues trying to dump a black tank) so is exactly the same as a motorhome in a lot of ways. Plus it has a slide out for that all important elbow room (I’ll refrain from saying ‘enough room to swing a cat’ as Henry might be lurking around)… I’m getting ahead of myself.
I dropped an email to 5th Wheel Company asking if they could put us on a list just in case they had any pre loved units come in for resale. A few days later George from 5th Wheel emailed me back that they just happened to have both a Celtic Rambler and a Dream Seeker coming in and sent me the details they day we departed for Sutton-on-Sea.
Long story short… we received an email while we were in Sutton-on-Sea from George at the 5th Wheel Company letting us know they were having two opening days and asking if we would like to come along. The first one was Friday the day after we were due to return home from Hanworth Country Park.
5th Wheel Company Open Day
Friday was warm and clear blue skies and the run out from Manchester to Rhuallt was rather pleasant with light traffic. We were a bit early so stopped for a coffee at a service statin that overlooks the North Wales Expressway and parked looking at all the caravans and motorhomes passing by in both directions. I’ve aways wondered why so many caravans and motorhomes only seem to have one bike… there seemed to be a lot more with one bike that two and of course there were camper vans that looked like support vehicles for the Tour de France with six or seven on the roof or hung off the back.
When we arrived we were met by George and shown into the main showroom and offered coffee’s. We chatted to the couple manning the coffee table and discovered they had just sold their 5th wheel and bought an Inos caravan. Sorry I can’t recall their names. We had a look round the Dream Seeker and then the Celtic Rambler. For us, the Dream Seeker seemed the right ‘fit’. Although the Celtic Rambler has a larger bedroom we actually preferred the layout of the main living space.
The previous owners had opted for a few extras, a twin 11 kg Gaslow system with external filling point, twin 110Ah batteries and a 15 foot Carefree awning as well as a leather upgrade, Nature Pure water tap and a few other bits were included. Simon came over and introduced himself and we started chatting, answering my growing list of questions. He asked if we would like a test drive of a unit that had outside. It was a customers unit that they had permission to use. We hopped in and Simon took us out for a short run and then we swopped over and I had chance to get the feel of pulling just over 4 tonnes of Celtic Rambler. The unit was fully loaded with the customers belongings so it was a good test of reality. My honest opinion was to be a bit underwhelmed… I don’t know what I expected but it was such a non event towing it round small welsh backroads, through a couple of small villages and honestly the roundabouts, I didn’t even feel I was towing. OK the performance reflected that there was 4 tones back there but handling was no problem and even accelerating onto the Expressway, put your foot down it still went. Probably a bit better than some of the large motorhomes.
We got back and went and sat in the Dream Seeker again…. with another coffee. We spoke to Simon about figures, weight’s, costs etc and had another wander round.
The Drive Home…
The drive home was a little busier and full of conversations about what to do. Late afternoon and I think the whole of the North West was descending on North Wales. The queue round Shotton and back to the M56… and on the M56 was horrendous. Thankfully we were heading in the opposite direction.
That evening I emailed Simon to ask if he could just check the door opening size of the garage, Sue wasn’t convinced we could get out bikes in, I kind of thought we could but best to make sure.
Saturday morning Simon emailed me back a photo of the door with all the sizes on it.
I emailed him back simply saying…. “Put a Sold sign on it”.
On Sunday we left Cherry Tree Springs as close to the departure time as we could as the GPS gave us a travelling time of about an hour… which would have put us arriving before the arrival time at Hanworth Country Park. We headed west towards Lincoln following the GPS. I’d flown over Lincolnshire many times in the past… one glorious sunny Saturday actually flying over most of the old WW2 airfields, or where they once were trying to spot the outlines of now long forgotten runways. I’d never driven much around Lincolnshire, except for a stint while working on the AWACS project, Alpha Dispersal at RAF Waddington or “Waddo” back in the late 90’s.
The weather was good, traffic light and apart from me missing a turn after a late call from the GPS a great drive. We got to see some really lovely parts of Lincolnshire. I do really like trips where you have two or more stops as you drive through parts of the country you would normally mis in a ‘home to site and back’ trip. (keep this in mind for later!)
Hanworth Country Park
Hanworth Country Park in Potterhanworth is a bit more than just a park. Created by two chaps, one a farmer who’s family had owned the farm since 1931 and the other a builder who shared the vision of what Hanworth Country Park could become set about transforming the land and are still at it today. It’s not just park with caravan pitches… it has glamping pods, luxury lodges, leisure lodges, shepards huts and lakes… lots of lakes… it has to be on any fisherman’s list of places to fish. (I don’t fish… so may be talking out of my Bass)
It’s also got a rather fine cafe. Well when I say cafe…. “Brewers” is a bit more than just a cafe you would expect to find at a country park…. in fact it seems to be a go-to place for locals too!
Check-in at reception was quick, easy and the staff were welcoming. You get all the information you need in an arrival pack. We booked a full service pitch, which was firm… very firm… I had to use rock pegs to secure the sun shade. Phone signal on O2 was a tad weak, I had to tweak our router to only connect at G3…. but it was fast enough for internet and tv streaming of iPlayer and Netflix.
Monday we did a few odd jobs and caught up on things while our friends that we had arranged to meet up with traveled down from Edinburgh. We got the text message they had arrived at the Petwood Hotel where they were staying. So we set off to drive over and spend the evening with them. Henry wasn’t best pleased as I think he was expecting an evening curled up on Sue’s lap receiving belly rubs… Henry is our cat by the way!
Petwood Hotel
Petwood Hotel is rather a special place for any one with a remote interest in aviation. During WW2 it was the officers mess for 617 Sqdn, probably better known as “The Dambusters” . It’s amazing to think that Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC DSO DFC may have thrown a ball across this lawn for his dog (who I’m not allowed to call by name) to fetch while having a pint with his fellow officers.
Wandering around the hotel there is an amazing collection of photos and historical items from that period. I did take photos of many of them, but not wanting to breach copyright, they will remain for my own collection.
A splendid evening with friends was had along with an excellent meal and a great catchup as it has been over 12 months since we last saw them.
Tuesday…. we take on Lincoln
There is a great resource in Lincolnshire called the Water Rail Way. It’s the route of the original Lincoln to Boston rail line that has been turned into a cycle way. From the site you have to navigate to “5 Mile Bridge” which unsurprisingly is 5 miles from Lincoln.
The route however from the site to 5 Mile Bridge is a little wiggly….
The distance we cycled was around 18.7km and took us 1h 22m… but that did include a couple of stops to check directions and a bit of a back track when I got it wrong. We eventually got to 5 Mile Bridge…
The MiRider bikes are really outstanding bits of kit!
… and turned left to cycle the remaining 5 miles into Lincoln. Sue was rather pleased with her performance as it was the first long ride since being diagnosed with a heart condition. The Water Rail Way was a wide tarmac track that generally was in a good state of repair and easy to ride. The total climb for the trips was only around 20 metres. On the stretch into Lincoln however, there is no where to stop for refreshments…. so pack water, and if it is a hot day make sure you have enough for the whole trip.
Hmm… that’s not Blackpool Tower…
The section into Lincoln gats a bit confusing as you approach and it’s handy if you have had a look at the map and got a bit of an idea where to go as it involves going through a car park and crossing over a rather humpy bridge…. well it does the way we went.
We found somewhere to sit outside and have coffee and as a treat, squishes before heading back. No, we didn’t tackle “Steep Hill” (I challenge anyone to tackle Steep Hill and not say part way up “Bloody Hell this is steep”) on this trip, however we decided we will be back and I think I have found an easier cycling route from the site to the Water Rail Way that reduces the distance by about 7km in each direction. The total cycling for the day was 36.1 km or 22.4 miles.
Wednesday was a bit of a relax (read: a bit tender) so we only managed a cycle round the grounds of Hanworth Country Park and a strawberry cornetto from the cafe…
Told you there were a lot of lakes….
We Interrupt You Scheduled Programming with some Breaking News…
I know you have only been reading down to this point to find out what the breaking news is…. so here goes….
We are selling our caravan! Yep it’s as good as sold all bar the paperwork… is that someone cheering I can hear….. Graham is that you… the Caravan Vlogger…. I guessed as much.
Yep soon it will be off to a new owner to hopefully allow them to enjoy caravanning as much as we have done over the last 12 years. Are we giving up caravanning… ah that is the question. Lets just say the day after we came back from Hanworth Country Park we headed over to North Wales…. to Rhuallt to be exact to see George and Simon….. and see the next stage in our adventures.
We have just got back from a ten day trip to two awesome sites. The first part of our ten day outing was back to Sutton-on-Sea on the east coast, located half way between Mablethorpe and Skegness. The weather on the east coast was not playing ball and we had some grey skies while the west enjoyed some glorious sunshine. Coming from Manchester it’s always a bit of a downer when the weather is better at home than where you are.
Sutton-on-Sea
After looking at prices for the C & M club site for serviced pitches…30th May to 3 June it came in at a whopping £231.00 ! So a quick search via the usual web sites came up with Cherry Tree Springs, for the same period on a serviced pitch came in at £147.50 a big saving of £83.50.
Cherry Tree Springs is a quiet site, only about half a mile from the C & M club site and Sutton-on-Sea is just as easily accessible. The staff are super friendly and the grounds people were always happy to stop for a brief chat and help out with local questions and advice on best places.
The facilities block was spotless and cleaning was at a sensible time too (yep been caught out on leaving day… just when the block was closed for cleaning!) The pitches were good firm hard standing and level. Th access roads were a tad narrow but we have been on a lot narrower sites.
I think that Cherry Tree Springs is one of those sites you don’t really want to tell people about when you discover it… you want to keep it all for yourself… so please don’t tell anyone else. We don’t want it booked up when we go back in autumn.
There is also a great dog walk that is off road and takes you right down to the beach in about 15 minutes. Ask at reception for a map.
We cycled up to Mablethorpe for morning coffee each day it was a round trip of about an hour on our MiRider e-bikes and really didn’t need any battery assist… apart from one day when it was a good 20 knot headwind heading into Mablethorp. A couple of times we had a cycle round either Sutton or Mablethorpe for an explore.
I’ve zoomed in a bit so you can see the route we took out of Cherry Tree Springs to get to the beach front. If you head right out of the site onto Huttoft Road, you are only on it for about 300 yards, then right turn into Bluestone Way follow that to the end on you will see a passage between two houses that takes you through to Walkington Way and some immaculate bungalows. At the end turn left onto Roman Bank and another 200 yards you will see a steep ramp curving round up to your right. Ride up this and you are on the “prom” with all the beach huts. Keep peddling north for Sutton and Mablethorpe
MiRiders in Mablethorpe
Saturday Night…. Film and Pizza Night!
Our Saturday nights are always film and pizza nights and have been for quite a few years. After having a mooch on line for a suitable purveyor of round Italian delight, we came up blank. Well there were quite a few but the reviews were… well we wouldn’t be ordering.
Helpful staff to the rescue… I asked in reception if they could recommend anywhere for pizza… (up to this point it looked like I would be driving to Pizza Hut in Skegness) The young lady came up trumps and gave a local company called “Pizza Square” (21 Hight Street, Sutton-on-Sea) a huge recommendation. I’d seen the reviews for a company at the same address that were really bad, however there had been a change of ownership and a new name and a growing reputation for providing excellent pizzas.
Square Pizzas…. best thing since sliced bread!
OK, here is the thing… pizzas are round, yep everyone agrees with that. BUT you are missing the four corners which if you think about it a 12 inch round pizza is actually missing a lot of real estate when you cut the corners off over a 12 inch square pizza. We ordered two 12 inch pizzas…. and we had slices left for the following day… and a couple the day after as well. Just glad we didn’t order a garlic bread (yep 12 inch square again) to go with it. It was delivered within 25 min right to the site and the friendly driver even had change which is unusual as in Manchester like many other cities, they don’t carry cash anymore.
Of course, pizza… or any food really is only as good as the last person to order it thinks. I would however say, check with the staff where ever you are staying and if they say it’s OK, then all you can do is give it a try. If it’s not up to scratch, let the staff know where you are staying and maybe the next person to ask them for recommendations might be directed somewhere else. For us though, Square Pizza gets our thumbs up. Ask in reception… they have some menus!
Sunday arrived and it was time to move on. Just before we left some friends who live in the Isle of Wight were actually up in Edinburgh and travelling back home via Lincoln as they were attending an IFFR (International Fellowship of Flying Rotarians) get-together and staying at the Petwood Hotel, which was 617 Dambusters Officers Mess during the war. We arranged to meet up with them while they were there and found a great site nearby… Hanworth Country Park located between Lincoln and Woodhall Spa.
But I guess that is for part two… along with the breaking news!
We or more probably me don’t normally do site reviews. That said we recently came back from a few days away at Donkey Creek Farm in Freckleton, and we liked it that much I had to put pen to paper…. or in more modern parlance lay fingers on keys.
The site is located on Naze Lane East just south of Freckleton and is just the other side of Naze Lane from the eastern end of BAE Warton’s runway. Don’t let this put you off though. At weekends you may get the odd light aircraft doing low approach and go-rounds but in the main it’s quiet. Weekdays, there are a couple of BAE’s scheduled staff planes in the morning and evening and the occasional fast jet. Having spent 7 years working there in the 90’s I don’t notice it.
The site is well laid out and only a few years old so most of the pitches are fully serviced and the facilities first class in every respect. The last time I was impressed this much was when we went to The Old Oaks site at Glastonbury, which at the time I said was the one to beat.
The pitch are level and firm under the gravel, all service roads are tarmac. Our pitch backed onto the small pond which was home to a pair of ducks and twelve ducklings which mother took for a walk umpteen times per day. She seemed to be getting the ducklings used to standing in front of caravan doors as they would all gather outside the door at the slightest sign of activity from within.
We also had a family of coots as frequent visitors who had also made the pond their home….
As I mentioned earlier, you do get the occasional fast jet through the weekday…
They don’t seem to bother the wildlife and they didn’t bother us…. apart from me scrambling to find my camera…. a retired pilot is still a person with jet A1 running through their veins.
Cycling is quite easy and on the first day we cycled into Lytham for morning coffee. The route from Donkey Creek Farm is an easy ride and from the farm to the Lytham Windmill is exactly 5 miles…
We found a suitable cafe called “Central Beach” on the corner of Bath Street and the main shopping street Clifton Street. We sat and did a bit of people watching while having a coffee and toasted teacake.
The total round trip only took us 1h and 17m of cycling, a distance of 17.4 km which is a little under 11 miles.
Day two was interrupted by the need to visit a local caravan accessories shop (fell over at the cost of everything!!!) and the odd light shower passing through, but day three was blue skies and worth a bother outing on the bikes…. so we went back into Lytham, a little further this time past Fairhaven Lake to the beach cafe.
An easy ride again totalling 1h 43m of peddling and a distance of 27.16 km (16.8 miles). These are a lot shorter distances than we are used to, but a few months ago Sue was diagnosed with a heart condition…. ironic really considering the job She spent most of her working life doing! So we are building up slowly, on the flat with plenty of options to stop for a rest…
We indulged in a strawberry Cornetto at the beach cafe before heading back to Donkey Creek Farm. The next day we were supposed to be heading home, however the weather was kind, the site superb, the ducklings cute and even Henry was relaxing to the point he didn’t want to get up in the mornings.
So we decided to stay another day, the pitch was available and that gave us the chance to cycle into Lytham one again this time for a lazy lunch at “The One” in Clifton Square. Again sat outside people watching.
Why did we choose Donkey Creek Farm?
We normally kick off our season with a trip to Southport C & M Club site, but when booking for four nights on a serviced pitch had a bit of a shock… £175.20. That seemed a bit steep so I started looking round on Pitchup.com for sites within a 25 mile radius and scrolling through recognised the name Donkey Creek Farm from YouTubers “The Caravan Addies” and “The Caravan Nut“. (Go on tell me I’m name dropping!) Checking the prices for the same 4 nights on a fully serviced pitch was £136.00 a saving of £39.20. Which was a bit of a jaw dropper…. realising just how expensive the C & M Club has become.
I’ve just booked our next trip to Sutton-on-Sea on the east coast…. and this time for 5 nights on a fully serviced pitch I’ve saved £83.50 based on the same dates for a fully serviced pitch on the Sutton C & M Club site. I’ll let you know how we get on soon!
Something that may be happening later this year…
As you may know, since we started caravanning we always try to cycle Blackpool Illuminations. Usually in October and we have done it from 5 different sites. However I was thinking of maybe doing it from Donkey Creek Farm this year.
Set of around lunchtime from Donkey Creek Farm and cycle to Squires Gate or The Pleasure Beach for a coffee. Cycling along the prom past the Tower continueing to Bispham for an afternoon snack somewhere. Around 5 easy cycle along the prom up to Redbank Road ready for the illuminations to come on and start the trip back through Blackpool. We have cycled from Squires Gate to Lytham in the dark and it’s OK as most is on a cycle path… and having cycled Lythan to Donkey Creek Farm several times, cycling that route should not be a problem as it is on a separate cycle path apart form about a mile stretch around the entrance to BAE Warton where it’s a cycle lane on the road but the road is well lit.
We normally do it before the clocks change in the Autumn so it means setting off around 7 from Red Bank Road, I recon it will be about a 2 hour ride back and overall about a 28 mile round trip with 2 or 3 breaks
I’m not going to say it’s an organised ride…. but I’ll work out a bit of detail and a date we are going to do it. It will be mid week and an option of two or three days to allow for weather. Anyone is welcome to join.
We have just been for a short stay at Donkey Creek Farm in Freckleton, near Warton…. just up the road from Lytham…. that’s near Blackpool. OK you get the idea. We can’t recommend this site highly enough, in fact in a break of usualness I’m going to write a little review.
OK back to the main event. We pitched, set up shop and sat down to the usual post pitch brew…. “Ah I thought… I’ll just pop to the loo before sitting down”…. Pushed the blue button on the Thetford toilet and….. nothing, nada, not the slightest hint of a flush pump running. OK we had this once before and it was the fuse that had corroded, probably since it was located in one of the dumbest places possible…. but I won’t go into that. Nope not the fuse, terminal looked clean (probably because I’d given them a coat of protective terminal gel. Phooey it had to be the circuit board.
Using my trusty Swiss Army knife I peeled back the big Thetford sticker on top of the loo… and retrieved the circuit board. It wasn’t looking too clever.
The circuit board was connected to the loo’s wiring via an edge connector… OK for some applications. However on removing the edge connector the copper circuit board tracks had simply corroded away tot he point there was not much copper left on the circuit board.
The other issue was the edge connector was an IDC type (Insulation Displacement Contact) which basically means the wire is squeezed into a knife like ‘V’ in the terminal cutting into the insulation to make the contact.
The upshot of this was the circuit board had corroded, the contact surfaces where the connector contacted the circuit board pads had corroded and the cables had corrosion on their conductors. (in fact I had to cut the cables back by about 60mm to get to good un-corroded conductors)
Going Full MacGyver….
I did have a spare circuit board…. back in the Bat Cave at home….. wouldn’t do much good though as the edge connector was toast. With a Swiss Army penknife…. and my trusty tool bag… Time to do a “MacGyver” and get this thing flushing. I just happened to have a strip of 6 amp terminal block… well doesn’t everyone have a spare strip of terminal block? I cut the connector free from the wiring loom one lead at a time and transferred this across to the terminal block. Once all 6 were moved across it was a simple matter of finding Positive and Negative, jumping the Negative to the Negative side of the flush pump and providing a short fly lead that when simply touched onto the correct terminal on the terminal strip would run the pump.
The rest of the stay went well…. got some cycling in to Lytham for morning coffee’s… watched a few planes and watched the wildlife.
Back In The Bat Cave…
Back home it was time to fashion a contrivance that would not suffer the same fate…. heading into the Bat Cave I had an idea…
The terminal strip offered a way to still make the circuit board removable and replaceable but without the drawbacks of the edge connector.
I did try to source an edge connector but as per usual it was something that was a bit of a bugger to locate… unless I wanted 50 of the things shipped direct from China.
Here is what I cam up with. I’d directly solder short leads onto the circuit board and protect them with a coating of track varnish… something used to coat bare circuit board tracks on prototype boards to stop them from corroding. The short leads would be crimped with a boot lace ferrule after dipping the stripped ends of the cable in a protective anti-oxidising grease.
The finished article prior to coating the soldered terminals with a protective circuit board varnish, and finally assembled back into the circuit board holder…
Installation…
Installation was fairly quick and easy, the wires from he loom that I’d previously terminated on the terminal strip while away in the caravan were removed in turn, cut back to make sure there wasn’t any corrosion in the conductors, dipped in anti-oxidising grease before having a boot lace ferrule crimped on and being fastened into the new terminal strip.
The whole lot fitted neatly into the space below the circuit board and hopefully my little fix will keep the loo flushing successfully for the foreseeable future.
Another Little Job…
A while ago I swopped out the two LED spotlights above the bed (reading lights) for two that were a little less bright and that had USB sockets in their base. This left me with two ‘spare’ LED spotlights that matched those in the lounge area.
We have always thought that the location of these existing spots are great for reading, but not if you are having a meal. The lights provide a saintly halo behind your head but you plate of nom nom’s in front of you in shadow.
So I installed one of the lights right slap bang in the middle of the front overhead lockers points down at the table. So now when we are having a TV dinner with the lights low I can still see what I’m stabbing my fork into. It’s also handy of you want to do one of those artistic foodie shots…. here’s what we are having tonight.
That’s it for the moment…. unless you want to see a picture of a vary lazy cat who didn’t want to get up. Everything is better with a cat… especially if it is Henry.
A while ago I upgraded the lights on our caravan by changing the functions round and added two new LED reversing lights which I can’t understand why I hadn’t done this years ago. In daylight they are bright… and at night they are really bright… retina burning bright according to reports. Reversing into a dark pitch is a lot easier and safety wise having an additional set of tail and brake lights with two large bright rear fog lights instead of the single factory 21 watt light mounted almost as low as you can get on the rear of the caravan is a vast improvement in my mind. You can read about my changes here… “Put Yer Lights On Mate…“
Following that article I had lots of people contact me letting me know they liked what I had done and considering upgrading themselves. Not a clue if anyone did, but that’s how these things go. I did have another email from a gentleman which was a bit different. Now I’ve edited it a bit as it was originally two emails and included a company name and some specific details which I’m sure they would not wish me to publish to the world…. here’s the gist of it though:
“Hi Simon, been reading your blog for a while and I read your post about upgrading your caravan lights. I was wondering if you might be able to help with something we would like to do with our trailers or could put us in touch with someone who can? We have around eight trailers that are used on various locations separately or as a group and are towed by a variety of vehicles, mostly our own but occasionally by contractors. Most of our trailers have additional side lighting powered off the trailers own batteries which are charged from the vehicle or while on site from generators. A lot of our set up and tear down is done at night and we have had issues at dark locations where the vehicles reversing lights don’t really help. Is there any way we could get the side work lighting to come on when the vehicle reverses but could be controlled from the vehicle without any additional switches or alterations to the vehicles but could be turned on and off as reversing on a public road with them on might not be legal”
From an exchange of emails, I do know what the company does and some of the sorts of places it works. They don’t always have access to mains power when setting up or tearing down and would like something that can easily be installed in a trailer without too much alteration to the electrical services. Nothing could be installed in any of the tow vehicles as the vehicles were not always their own and I first suggested a cheap(ish) remote switch that could be used by the driver to turn them on and off as required. I was told this was not an option as the remote switches would likely get lost/damaged or need batteries or be with the wrong crew, some sites they could not use any radio equipment.
Time to put my thinking cat on…
Polo…. always a great thinking cat, sadly no longer with us.
I had a bit of an idea forming. Something I’d seen on a Class A American RV (Prevost I think) was a set of spotlights set in the side panel of the RV pointing backwards and located near the front wheel. These lit up down the side of the RV and the ground to the side when reversing…. I’d thought about adding a couple of simple cheap LED lights to the underside of the caravan between the wheel and front of the caravan angled outwards by about 60 degrees mounted under the floor… so when I reversed they lit up the caravan wheel and the ground it was going over so I could see it clearly at night in my mirrors. I had pondered how to switch this on and off using the Amarok but not add any more wiring between the caravan and vehicle. So I’d already come up with a solution.
Here is what I came up with…
It’s a simple two relay set up. The two triggers for this to work are the vehicle reversing lights and the rear fog lights. The top relay in the box is activated by the vehicle being in reverse with the reversing lights on. The lower relay is activated by turning the vehicles rear fog lights on. Only when these two conditions are met, is there a circuit across the two relays switches made thus activating the work lights on the trailer.
Quite simply when reversing to turn on the work light simply turn on the rear fog lights and the work lights will come on.
Cables 1, 2 & 3 connect to the road lights. Cables 4 & 5 are for the switched load. The cost was around £15 for the components for each unit and that included Bosch relays & sockets, the die-cast box and fuse holder. I guess putting it in a plastic case and using cheaper eBay sourced relays could halve that cost.
I did also think that as an upgrade or option the relay operated by the reversing lights could be a timer relay. Set it to say 15 seconds, then when reversing you turn on the work lights and they will remain on of 15 seconds after reversing as long as the rear fog lights are on. This would give you time to reverse, pull forward and reverse again. Each time you select reverse the timer would reset and as soon as you disengaged reverse the timer would start its countdown again.
High level work lights could be a boon to reversing into dark pitches or storage sites. Image take from the internet, copyright not mine.
It was as simple as I could get it using existing signals from the vehicle that already pass through to the trailer. I guess it could be used to turn anything on using any combination of lights operating from the vehicle.
The wiring between the road lights and work lights is kept separate as I wasn’t 100% sure how the trailers power system worked and how it was connected to the road lights (if at all) The two relays were installed in a die cast box with a grommet for the 5 cables. All the trailers were fitted with one of these and apparently they have all been working fine for several months.
Why did I opt for reversing lights and fog lights?
I wanted something that would not be used generally through the day so reversing on a public road during daylight or even at night the work lights would not illuminate. Running during the day with lights on and your fog lights will not operate the working lights… and if you are running in weather that requires headlights and rear fog light… then I guess having the working lights come on while you reverse in those inclement weather conditions just makes you more visible to everyone around. So apart from that I don’t think that you will cause a danger on the road with this set-up.
So…. I think I might just have to install one of these on my caravan…. just in case!
Low level scene lights down the side of the trailer can be just as effective as high level work lights. Image taken from the internet, copyright not mine.
Its a fairly simple DIY job to build a box and install it without too much messing about with the original wiring. Now someone asked me about getting the orange side marker lights to flash in time with the indicators…. and remain as side markers when the indicators weren’t being used. Is this something I need to put my thinking cat on for? Let me know in the comments.
Caravan Chronicles 