Tag Archives: Fiamma

Bicycle Conveyance Contrivance….

16 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by in Maintenance, Modifications, Projects

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The Prologue…

One of the big debates in the caravan world is how to carry your bikes. Our continental cousins have the advantage that their caravans come with a longer ‘A’ frame allowing a bike rack to be installed on it. Fiamma have an excellent range dedicated to just that. In the UK though, caravan manufacturers seem to prefer the stubby ‘A’ frame and basically because of this and the fact that UK vans seem to come pre loaded with the weight of a small elephant already on the hitch, we have to come up with alternatives.

The old bike rack, even on its highest setting, it would not clear the caravan 'A' frame and it was unstable too.

Somehow carrying the bikes on the roof is a bit of an aerodynamic disaster as far as I’m concerned and Sue was adamant that they were not going inside her shiny new caravan so the only place left  was to hang them off the back of the Freelander. We had a bike rack from a well-known car spares shop that fitted on the spare wheel and up to now had worked fine. The problem was it carried the bikes too low to allow us to tow the caravan. I’d adjusted the frame to lift the bikes as high as I could get them, but it wasn’t right and it seemed unstable. Time to look at alternatives. Fiamma was a logical place to start. They are well-known for producing equipment for caravans and motorhomes and have a range of bike racks that are designed with this in mind. Continue reading →

Oswestry….. arrival

11 Saturday Feb 2012

Posted by in General, Trips

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

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

All set up

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

5 days at Barnard Castle

12 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by in General, Trips

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We had to wait almost a month before our next trip. We had arranged with out friends, Pete & Julie (you might remember them from the ‘Hello World’ posts) that we would meet up somewhere. As they had traveled down to see us in Oxford, we decided to head over in their direction this time. I had always wanted to visit Beamish museum in the north east and this seemed like a good opportunity. I booked us in to the Camping & Caravanning Clubs site at Barnard Castle using the on line booking system. I sent an email to Pete with all the details… knowing that he can’t get internet… or a mobile phone signal in the valley where they live I gave him a ring on his land line to let him know so he could toggle off to the local library 20 miles away to check his email. The dates were fine with them. We would arrive on the Saturday and they would drive up on the Sunday to meet us. The route I’d planned was over the M62 and to pick up the A1M north, so there shouldn’t be any problems. Sue had done here usual job of loading up the plastic boxes ready for the trip. This was going to be for 5 days, our longest so far.

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Our first trip…

12 Thursday Jan 2012

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Well, we had bought it, got all the equipment we thought we needed so I suppose we better try it out!

Where to go was the next question. As it happened, a chap had joined the Caravan Talk forum and was canvasing for help from the contributors…. what did they want in a caravan site. Now, that was a bit of a leading question and as expected, he got answers fired at him with both barrels… and what one person wanted was soon shot down by others as not being what anyone else wanted at all. I kind of felt sorry for him in a way, but admired him for actually taking the time to respond to all the posts. It was decided, we would visit this site for the weekend, so I ring up and booked in for Friday 22nd July for two nights. Oh yes…. I guess you want to know the site, Lady Heyes near Frodsham.

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