Tag Archives: Caravanning

A Bit Of A Tour…

21 Friday Jun 2024

Posted by in 5th Wheel, Fifth Wheel Company, Glastonbury, Rhuallt, The Old Oaks

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Well not really a tour, only two locations. The first leg was down from Manchester to Glastonbury and a stay at The Old Oaks. We first went there in 2012 and had five or six more visits in the next four years. So it had been quite a while really.

We were located in the Upper Oaks area on a premium pitch which was easily big enough for our 5th Wheel. The site was as pristine as you can get really and I was particualarly interested to see that the lawns were now cut with an electric rechargeable mower working 24 x 7. We kind of got attached to the one trimming the central area and I named him “Earl”. It became a bit mesmerising watching Earl trim the grass and we felt sorry for him when he was out there in the pouring rain working trimming away while everyone else was huddled in their caravan or awning. I really think he needed a cat companion sat on him keeping him company.

While we were there we had a few jobs to do in the caravan. We replaced the bathroom taps, kitchen taps and water filter tap. I’ve still got to install the new drinking water filter and connect the filter tap. We also cleaned the awning rails, which still need a bit of work on them with a tooth brush in the rails. Sue valiantly attacked the locker handles with something called “The Pink Stuff” which was recommended to us by The Caravan Nut…. and fine stuff it is too. It has almost brought the handles up to new condition. Another session and we should almost be there with them.

This is my spot…. find your own doughnut!

The big one was replacing the runners on the shower doors. I’d ordered a set from Amazon and they needed fitting. I never knew that shower doors were going to be so heavy! We removed the bi-fold doors and got the bottom runners replaced then came the task of re-installing the doors… you have to lift the things into the correct position then install the top runners… between the two of us we seemed to make it hard work, but got there in the end. The original runners had cracked as there didn’t seem to be a way of securing the doors while in transit. The method was to secure the doors in an open position… and now knowing the weight of the doors came to the conclusion that this was not going to work. The doors needed to be secured in the closed position so the weight was evenly distributed and the doors were held securely by the frame of the shower. A simple solution was to use a child proof door securing strap. These came with two buttons you secure with 3M VHB pads and one step secures the door in the closed position easily…. even with my weight pushing on it.

In the mean time we have been making the inside ‘ours’ if you know what I mean. The installation of some pictures and side lights makes it more like home.

The side lights are ones we found at IKEA. I shortened the mains leads to about 8 inches to reduce the amount of spaghetti cabling and used command strips to hold each light firmly in place. Each light has a dimmer and I selected warm tungsten effect LED bulbs to give that cosy feeling when watching TV and the rain hammering down outside.

We also supplemented the coat rail with a hat rack (again using command strips) to house my mahoosive collection of 6 baseball caps. This was finished off with a wall clock almost matching the wall colour with a style that we were looking for. The clock was a B & M special I think. Again held up with command strips. So far we have not had anything fall off using these strips.

Henry Fluffybutt III enjoying a belly rub

Sitting back enjoying the few days work it took…. and a big belly rub for Henry for putting up with all the too and fro while we did the work. You can see one of the side lamps next to Sue… turned up to full, this provide an excellent reading light as well and generating mood lighting at a lower level at night. All the sockets I installed have twin USB charging ports and I installed a 4 port charging station near the TV… just in case!

Stop No. 2…

From Glastonbury we headed back north, this time to Rhuallt in North Wales. Home of The 5th Wheel Company. When we bought our 5th Wheel they replaced the water heater/warm air boiler and the Thetford fridge. We had been developing a problem with the fridge door….. to the point when we closed the door you had to give it a gentle kick at the bottom to make sure the door closed properly. I sent some photos of the corners of the door as it looked as though it was racking and the corner joints were pulling apart. Simon at the 5th Wheel Company sent the photos off to Thetford and they agreed to replace the door without any hesitation. So we had scheduled a day to visit to get the door replaced… as we also had a few days to spare we turned it into a three day stopover. I do have to say the service from everyone at The 5th Wheel Company always exceeds expectations.

On Saturday, the trip from Glastonbury to North Wales was sunshine one minute and torrential can’t see a thing in front OMG it cannot rain any heavier nightmare. It didn’t help that a large proportion of the drivers on the motorway required driving lessons… the well known makes were doing their own thing as usual.

All set up at Rhuallt

As we passed Chester it was nothing but clear blue sky, a welcome change from the grey on and off again drizzle at Glastonbury.

The sunshine also gave us a chance to go over the 5th Wheel with an combined exterior cleaner and silicon polish… which really only took us a couple of hours. A few weeks ago we did a deep clean on the exterior that took us nearly two days. Mind you it was down to scrubbing all the locker frames with a tooth brush and most of the running rails. We gave it the first silicone polish back then and that causes the water to bead off really easy and also helps prevent black streaks which are caused by dirty water running off the roof. Yep, we still have to tackle the roof…. it’s a bit of a large task though.

Homeward Bound…

We left Rhuallt a bit later than we expected and headed home. The following day I had an appointment at The Christie for bloods and ti see my oncologist. Heading out of North Wales we decided to call into Chester Services… Flippin huge mistake. Chester Services has to be one of the worst services in the UK. Considering three days before we called into Gloucester Services on the M5 which is probably the best services in the whole of the UK…. maybe Tebay is close but as they are both owned by the same group… I’ll say Gloucester tops the list.

We entered Chester Services and missed the small “Caravans” sign and ended up back on the roundabout for a second attempt (things you do for a Costa Coffee) taking a bit slower and being a bit more vigilant we noticed the red – white text, the sign that said ‘HGV Caravans” So we followed it. It took us straight to the lorry park. I pulled in behind a refrigerated trailer and turned off the engine. We sat there for a minute or two trying to see how the heck you get to the main building as most of the perimeter was thick bushes you could not see through or over and no signs. I opened the door… and shut it again.It wasn’t a particularly warm day but the smell of emptied stale urine bottles and dumped poo bags was overpowering. The only thing that would cure this would be the purchase of a good jet steam cleaner and steam cleaning all the concrete and surrounding areas.

I did have a look on google earth to see if I had missed the caravan parking area… but alas there isn’t one. The best bet I think would be to pull into the coach parking area as this did not seem to have any coaches…. why would it with the smell wafting over from the lorry park.

Photo: Google Maps

I could not even see a way to squeeze in the main carpark…. the lanes between rows of parked cars was ridiculously tight. 4 minutes after we pulled in and turned the engine off, I was reversing out of the lorry parking lane and we were back on our way. Even the pull in behind the Drive Through Costa Coffee was too short… it had a mini in it and was full. We could not even use the Costa Drive through… although the building didn’t have an overhang…. it did have a steel height barrier. Another thing I noticed were the bushes at every road junction. They all needed a good trim as the sight lines were very restricted… at one point I had to get the Amarok half way across the road just to see if there was any traffic approaching the junction from the right. The shrubbery has encroached to the road edges since the satellite photo above was taken.

I understand that the Tebay group has gained planning permission to build a new service station serving the M62 / M56 at Tatton… which is now it would seem being held up by a central government planning enquiry. Why am I not supprised. https://www.tattonservices.com

So, we are now back at home, I had my bloods and checkup yesterday and all going well. I have a CT scan next week so we will know more after the results of that. It’s back to planning our next adventure hopefully another two or three stopper. Sue has been binge watching “Vera” on TV…. so I can feel a trip to the north east on the cards.

Take care and safe travels.

More Jobs Ticked Off…

19 Sunday May 2024

Posted by in 5th Wheel, Caravan Road Lights, Donkey Creek Farm, Electrical, Fifth Wheel Company, Maintenance, Projects, Water & Plumbing

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OK we are still working on a few bits and pieces but the weather on Friday and Saturday was ideal for cleaning the outside of the 5th Wheel. So while Sue made a start on the cleaning of the nose cap, I finished the first stage of the water pump relocation project and upgraded the wiring.

At some point the original wiring had been modified to include a 10 Amp socket in the wet bay to allow the use of an external pump to fill the fresh water tank. We still wanted to use this as the original external electrical connector was missing the original plug and it was just easier to sort out the wiring. It had been modified using 6 amp rated cable to both eh internal water pump AND the 10 socket. All fused on a single 10 Amp fuse. The wiring I upgraded to 16 amp rated cable but retained the 10 Amp fuse. So there should be no issues with cable rating in the future.

You can see from the photo above some of the work involved in moving the water pump. It was originally mounted where the holes are on the vertical wall. This resonated quite badly as it is located just under the bathroom and was particularly loud at night if the loo was flushed.

So to reduce the vibration from the pump before mounting it in a different location I made a aluminium cradle to mount the pump to and sat this on rubber isolation mounts before mounting it to the floor using stainless steel bolts, washes and lock nuts….. in fact I used stainless hardware for all the mods.

The next job was to install a 0.75 L SeaFlo accumulator with the bag set to 15psi and isolate this from water knock caused by the pump using a stainless jacket flexible hose in a loop. I have another stainless hose that will be used in a future upgrade that will allow this pump to be used to draw water from a 120 litre bladder in the back of the pickup truck….. but for now that’s going to be a end of season upgrade.

The two valves [in blue] are used to isolate the feed from the water tank and the output from the pump and are a bit untidy…. these will be repositioned shortly as I’m going to add an outlet to allow me to connect a hose so I can wash off the bikes and flush the grey water drain pipe when I disconnect after dumping on a serviced pitch. I’ll also swing the pump filter 90 degrees for a bit of space saving and I’m thing about a water treatment pre filter between the tank and pump. We have a filter on a separate clear water dispensing tap the we use for the kettle or food prep…. but this would allow all the taps to be protected.

The result of moving the pump, anti knock loop and accumulator is that now we cannot hear the water pump running in the caravan. Result!

Sue working hard cleaning the front locker wall after going a grand job on the front cap above. The task of cleaning…. including the use of a tooth brush around all the door seals eventually took two whole days.

If anyone has tips about restoring the plastic handles on the lockers I’d be grateful if you could leave a comment. I’ve been steered to something called “The Pink Stuff” miracle cleaning paste by a couple of other 5th wheel owners

Let there be light…. more light in fact!

The other title upgrade was to the rear of the 5th Wheel. I have been reading up on some proposed lighting changes for articulated trailers in some countries. What used to be called front and rear marker lights seem to have gone through a name change….. these are now called “edge out lights”.

If you are parked in a straight line they are not required to be seen, but if you park at an angle exposing the edge of the trailer, the edge is required to be seen by either on coming traffic or following traffic… depending on the angle you are parked at. I’m not exactly sure how this affects things in general in the UK, but it was interesting that I picked up on the watching a couple of training videos about hitching and unhitching a articulated trailer in preparation for your HGV test.

As I understand it, if you are stopped and an edge of the trailer is exposed past the normal line of the prime mover unit and trailer straight line width then this edge must be marked with lights.

From the front our ‘marker lights’ seemed to be located in the correct position…. but I could not find out about the rear in much detail, so a quick chat with a man that knows all about this he pointed me in the right direction. Although that said he was also unclear as how this would affect 5th wheel caravans as he thought it might only apply to commercial vehicles. I did mention that the VW Amarok as most of the heavier pickups are actually listed and taxed as commercial vehicles. That brought some “Hmmm’s and Ahhh’s” into the conversation….. including “in that case you will need the ‘angles of death’ stickers in Europe….. Angles Morts”

These lights show red to the rear and orange to the front. As they are located at the widest part of the trailer…. on this side that has to include the awning frame they indicate the edge of the trailer to the rear…. and from the front the amber side also indicated the edge of the trailer to oncoming traffic.

A really handy thing for me is when driving even during the day I have my side lights on. The amber light I can see in my side mirrors and it clearly marks the end of the trailer…. in inclement weather this has become a bit of a game changer as I now can clearly see even in a lot of road spray where the back of the trailer is.

when following lorries I always notice how bright these tiny LED rear lights on rubber stalks are that stick out from the side of the trailer…. I tend to notice these before I sometimes see the rear light cluster….. these are the same… they are CE marked along with the UK / Euro markings so must be compliant with regs but they are brighter that the 5th wheels rear red side lights….. and the more rear lights I have hopefully will reduce the chance of someone getting to intimate with the rear of the trailer!

Personal note….

Thanks to everyone asking how I’m progressing….. the chemo is going well and I seem to be quite lucky as I have very few side effects to the point that really the couple I have is a mild inconvenience.

I have settled down in to a routine of having a stoma and bag…. bit of a shock to me when I had it done as it wasn’t mentioned in the pre-op that this might be an outcome….. but there again it might have been…. I was on that much medication I was convinced that I’d had a conversation for about an hour with a man stood at the end of my bed dressed in 1040’s clothes complete with trilby hat and chain smoking staring up the ward never taking his eyes of someone I could not see because of the curtains around my bed. He told me he was tasked with keeping an eye on this person as he was suspected as being a spy for the Germans.

What the hell were they medicating me with!!

Only a few days away from the big TourFest North West at Donkey Creek Farm… if you are going please drop by and say high. Sue and I would love to see you. Henry might be a bit noisy though!

A Few More Jobs Ticked Off The List…

01 Wednesday May 2024

Posted by in 5th Wheel, Blog updates, Donkey Creek Farm, Events, General, Mini Break, Projects, The Old Oaks

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Like any project, ticking the small stuff off a list is the way to move forward even if it seems like sometimes you have ground to a halt. A bit lacking on photos…. I’m temporarily unsure of their location… pilot speak for I’ve lost them! I’ll correct that in due course.

I built a new aluminium frame for the water pump and moved the pump from the original mounting position which caused a lot of noise when running, especially in the bathroom…. as we have a direct tank flush not a holding tank, this was particularly annoying if the loo was flushed at night. So now the water pump is mounted on its isolation feet on an isolated aluminium frame bolted directly to the sub-floor in one of the lockers. I also changed the piping from the pump from solid to flexible connections further reducing noise transmission through the pipes. My next step… some time this week is to install a larger one litre accumulator tank between the pump and plumbing to reduce the cycle times of the pump. Thankfully the plumbing system installed in the 5th wheel is rated for a greater pressure than most caravans and motorhomes… that’s what gives us a great shower!! so I’ll be able to match the accumulator pressure with the pump pressure to get the best out of them.

The other little upgrade was to move the grey water and fresh water dump outlets closer to the side of the caravan. They used to be set back about eight inches and required a kneeling mat and one arm dexterity to plug in the flexible waste pipes when on a fully serviced pitch. Now it’s a simple matter of bending over and I can easily access both outlets for connecting pipes…. saving the knees a bit of hard labour at my age is key. Also if dumping at a motorhome service point I can easily see if I’m in the correct position for a clean dump and not going to splash all over the place. As the Hanks say… “Let ‘er rip”

Thanks to my local nut and bolt supplier… Francis Kirk and Sons I’ve been going there for bits and pieces since 1976… I have now got a full set of stainless steel fittings… an odd collection of UNF and UNC sizes…. ready to replace all the nuts and bolts on the pull out sun canopy, replacing the original components that were showing signs of rust and starting to bind up. I also managed to get a set of tap and dies to run through all the threads before changing everything over.

We managed to get some of the picture frames mounted inside the caravan and that makes a huge difference…. along with upgrading the occasional side lights to LED dimmable units…. feels more like home with each little improvement.

Not long to wait now….

Looking forward to Tourfest North West in a three weeks time, 24th May – 27th May at Donkey Creek Farm and meeting up with some of the bloggers and vloggers I’ve followed over the years. Thankfully no one will recognise Sue and I so we can sneak off if it gets too rowdy . I believe it is now fully booked so if you wanted to go you will just have to wait until the next one.

A few days after that we are off to The Old Oaks at Glastonbury…. it’s been a few years since we were there so it will be nice to go back and see all the changes and improvements they have made. Hopefully we can get back out on our bikes again as well.

An Appointment In Rhuallt…

04 Tuesday Jul 2023

Posted by in 5th Wheel, Fifth Wheel Company, Rhuallt, VW Amarok

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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.

The Big Reveal…

28 Wednesday Jun 2023

Posted by in 5th Wheel, e-bikes, General, Motor Home, Rhuallt

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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”.

10 Days, Two Awesome Sites and Breaking News… Pt 2

11 Sunday Jun 2023

Posted by in General, Hanworth Country Park, Lincoln

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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.

That’s it for now.

Bet you can’t wait for the next blog post.

Or are you going to have a guess in the comments?

PS…. someone asked for more Henry….

A Bit Of A Review…

20 Saturday May 2023

Posted by in Donkey Creek Farm, MiRider, Site Review, Travelling in the UK

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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.

OK, here’s a few pics…

If you want to find out more visit the website : Donkey Creek Farm

While we were there…

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.

Lighting Up The Scene…

25 Saturday Mar 2023

Posted by in Accessories, Car Trailer, Caravan Electrics, Caravan Road Lights, Electrical, Gadgets, Maintenance, Modifications, Projects, Technical, Tow Vehicle, Towing, Vehicle Wiring Projects

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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.

Just a quick one…

08 Sunday May 2022

Posted by in Accessories, Caravan Electrics, Electrical, Modifications, Off Grid, Projects, Technical

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Lithium Upgrade for a caravan

I’ve had quite a few people email me asking for more information about the Victron system for a caravan that I was planning mentioned in the previous post. As this seems to have generated a number of questions, rather than give detailed answers to each one I thought I’d post the drawings. For the moment it’s on hold but here are the drawings.

While Victron would seem the obvious choice, there are a number of recent new products from Sterling Power that have rekindled my interest in the project…. watch this space.