Little Things….

04 Sunday Dec 2016

Posted by Simon Barlow in Accessories, Caravan Electrics, Electrical, Maintenance, Modifications, Technical

Tags

Caravan, Caravan Electrics, Maintenance, Modifications

One of the little things that has been on my “must do something about that” list for a while is to address the problem we have with not enough places to plug things in and charge them. When we are in the caravan in the evening the front looks like a tech gadget table top sale… Macbook Pro, WiFi router/MiFi device, two iPhones, camera battery chargers, Fitbit charger and all these needed plugging in. The 4 way surge protected power strip I put there just wasn’t cutting it any more.

It was time to do something about it. A couple of years ago Swift supplied a kit to modify the drop down TV system that was installed in a range of their caravans. Our caravan already had the upgrade, however they did supply a new piece of wood to replace the installed piece as some of the holes had moved when they upgraded the latches. Always wanting to repurpose things I thought that this could be the basis of an upgrade… not to the TV drop down but to the rear of the draw unit. I wanted to install USB charging ports but still required a couple of 240 volt sockets and a brief search on Amazon I came across what I needed. The other thing I wanted was a couple of 12 volt sockets so that I could use our 12 volt plug-in USB chargers if we were pitched off grid.

To The Bat Cave…

The build was fairly simple. I had already converted the draw top from a slide and swing open operation to a pull out so the addition was straight forward.

The top being assembled in the workshop

It was a simple matter of cutting out the two rectangular holes for the 240 volt face plates and opening up the two existing holes intended for the new latches to the right size for the 12 volt sockets. I did intend to use the same electrical fittings as are already installed in the caravan but pricing everything up it came out at nearly four times the cost of what I eventually used here.

The two 240 volt sockets are wired with 2.5mm multi-strand cable and have slim line back boxes to protect them and the 12 volt cabling is all done with crimp connections and protected with heat shrink tubing.

The whole project including installation only took me a couple of hours and made me wonder why I’d been putting it off for so long!

I didn’t want to fasten anything to the structure of the caravan so the piece seems to ‘float’ above the front sill. The wiring was all pre done in the workshop and was easy to connect up to the caravan services as we had a 240 volt and 12 volt outlets nearby in the base of the draw unit.

Plenty of room even with the blind down.

The upgrade now gives me 3 x 240 volt sockets and 6 x USB charging points plus 2 x 12 volt sockets. The space under the sockets can be used to tidy any excess charging cable away while in use.

Shopping...

Use the following bits from Amazon…

Knightsbridge SFAV7USB4MB 13 A 1G Screwless Switched Socket with 5 V DC 5.1 A Quad USB Charger with Chrome Rocker – Matt Black

Knightsbridge SF9902MB 13 A 2-Gang Screwless Switch Socket with Dual USB Charger – Matt Black with Chrome Rocker

The back boxes came from B & Q and the 12 volt sockets came from Go Outdoors caravanning section.

BlackVue Dash-Cam Fitted…

17 Thursday Nov 2016

Posted by Simon Barlow in Accessories, Dash Cam, Gadgets, General, Modifications, VW Amarok

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Dash Cam, Modifications, Tow Vehicle

A few days ago I fitted the Black Vue DR650S-2CH 16GB twin camera dash cam to the Amarok. All in all it was a vey easy install taking me less than two hours to accomplish. The longest part was actually tucking the wires in along the edge of the head liner so they can’t be seen. Helpfully Black View supply a little blue tool that helps you do this without damaging any of the interior trim. I also installed the Black Vue Power Magic PRO that allows permanent connection to the vehicles electrical system and gives you the ability to use “Parking Mode” which records continuously when you are parked with the engine off.

If you have considered a dash-cam but don’t know where to start, one of the best introductory guides to Dash Cams that I have seen is by Techmoan.com. Just click on the link to watch it. There are also dozens of dash-cam reviews on His channel.

The electrical side of add the camera was made easy by using “Add A Circuit” fuse holders. (I’ve put links to everything on Amazon at the bottom of the post) Crimp the Add A Circuit on to the correct cable on the Power Magic unit then simply identify which circuit is permanently live in the fuse box, select a fuse, pull it out and insert it into the Add A Circuit fuse holder along with a fuse of the correct rating for the Power Magic and push the Add A Circuit into the space where you removed the fuse from. You will need two as the Power Magic requires a permanent 12 volt supply and an ignition switched 12 volt supply…. and a ground of course.

From the driving position very little of the front camera can be seen.

There are several switches on the Power Magic to set before you install. The first set the minimum voltage the unit will turn the cameras off at, this stops you flattening the vehicle starter battery, the second set sets a time for the cameras to stop recording after 24 hours, 48 hours or you can set it to infinity. There are several combinations and it’s all explained in the instructions.

The rear camera is installed at the top of the window avoiding getting one of the heating elements in view.

A few installation tips….

Try to install the camera so that the lens is as central as possible so you capture as much of the road as possible.
Try to install the front camera so that the area in front of the camera is swept by the windscreen wipers so you can clear the rain.
If you install a rear view camera, try to make sure it is not positioned directly in view of one of the heating elements, but close enough so that the window is cleared when the screen heater is on.

The front camera tucks up behind the rear view mirror

Editing the video…

I used iMovie on my MacBook Pro, I’ve never tried editing any video before, so here is my first attempt…

I have a feeling that I might have to create a YouTube account in the near future…. that’s going to be a whole new adventure!

Shopping Guide on Amazon UK:-

Black Vue DR650S-2CH 16GB

Power Magic PRO

Add A Circuit Mini Blade Fuse Holder

Add A Circuit Standard Blade Fuse Holder

Ecocamel Shower Head…

09 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by Simon Barlow in Accessories, Gadgets, General, Modifications, Product Review

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Ecocamel, Modifications

A few weeks ago Abigail from Ecocamel contacted me asking if we’d like to test out the Ecocamel water saving shower head. I’d seen adverts for these and noted that some caravans were now having them installed but I never really gave them a second thought until Abigail contacted me.

The shower heads arrived just in time for me to fit one of the Ecocamel Jetstorm shower head to the caravan for our trip to Leek.

Now, sometimes you subconsciously prejudge things and I really wasn’t that excited about a new shower head, after all what amazing things can you do spraying water about. The first time I went to use it I turned on the shower in the caravan as normal and adjusted the temperature by swivelling the tap into the position I normally use and lift it for the flow. What surprised me was the water seemed much hotter than I’d thought it would be. I re-adjusted the tap, and as the shower head had a better spray pattern (who thought that adding air to water would make that much difference!) I could reduce the flow and this meant I had to adjust the temperature down a bit. So what does this all mean?

Well, reduced flow saves water and as you are not using as much hot water for a similar spray pattern your hot water lasts longer. This was borne out by the fact Sue could have a shower straight after me without waiting for the hot water tank to come back up to temperature as it filled up with cold. Admittedly they were ‘navy’ showers but it took away that early morning decision…. whether to dig out all the shower stuff… brew a cup of coffee… stare out the window for a bit and pluck up the energy to schlep over to the site facilities or just hop out of bed straight into the shower.

Home again, I decided to replace our rather expensive and heavy shower head in the upstairs bathroom. Again, I was a bit taken back by the improvement a simple device could have. We have a combi-boiler and when the old shower was turned on max flow, it did struggle to keep up temperature wise. The water was hot but not really skin reddening hot. What a difference, as we could now turn down the flow a bit, the water was HOT and I had to adjust the temperature knob down on the tap from almost max to about half way.

So why has it taken a few weeks for me to pen this review? Well I like testing things and I wanted to know just how much water/energy we were saving so over the course of a few weeks I did some measuring and recording… not good enough for detailed analysis but just enough to satisfy me we were indeed saving water and that should mean energy too as we are not heating up as much water per shower. As long as you can turn the flow down a bit from your normal setting with your old shower head and you get the same spray/deluge you will save water and hence energy.

Are there any downsides? Well they are a bit noisy as the head sucks in air and mixes it with the water, however its only as noisy as one of these power shower do-hickys.

Are we happy with them… you bet Ecocamel is the only way to go now!

If you are going to the NEC show this week, stop by Ecocamel for a chat, they are on Stand 11.03 or checkout there website Ecocamel.com

Keep an eye out on the blog, as I have TWO of the Jetstorm shower heads to give away. I’ll post the details after we come back from the NEC!

A Place for Everything…

29 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by Simon Barlow in General, Modifications, Projects, Tow Vehicle, VW Amarok

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Modifications, Towing, VW Amarok

The additions to the Wolf continue, despite the recent news from Glossop Caravans at our last service, that we have damp in the caravan. Hopefully we will hear soon whether or not its covered by the warranty. So, moving on, a couple of additions to the VW Amarok. After installing the sliding bed, I noticed that there was some space available between the end of the bed and the truck bed at the cab end. It was only 70 mm, but I thought with a bit of creative construction, I could come up with a contrivance to hold some of the stuff and tools that we normally schlep about with us. Using 18mm birch ply phenol finished board I came up with a storage box that is fitted to the bed and projects forward right up to the truck bed front wall… Continue reading →

Pressure Relief…

01 Wednesday Jun 2016

Posted by Simon Barlow in Accessories, General, Modifications, Projects, Water & Plumbing

≈ 23 Comments

Tags

Caravan, Maintenance, Modifications, Plumbing, Travel Trailer, Water Supply

A lot of new caravans now have the ability on a ‘super pitch’ to be able to attach a mains water feed directly to the caravan without having to have an Aquarol as a water reservoir, and this seems like a good idea. I started looking at the options available and was surprised at the cost of the only suitable system for our caravan. I also wasn’t keen on the plastic regulator. This got me thinking, maybe it was time for a little Caravan Chronicles DIY project.

I wanted to come up with some sort of contrivance that was assembled from stock components that were easily available anywhere. After a brief search on Amazon I came up with my shopping list and ordered everything (see links below).

The result was a simple to use commercial pressure regulator that I could use our existing blue water hose that originally connected to the Aquarol and standard hose fittings that allow me all the options for connecting up.

As a temporary mount I used a couple of the small plastic hangars that Fiamma sell that slide into awning rails allowing you to hang things from. In this case a couple of cable ties held it in position. I’m currently in the bat cave folding a small aluminium plate to mount the regulator on that slides into the rail and has a foam padded back to protect the caravan. I opted to use brass fittings for the hose connections rather than plastic just for durability.

So how did it work out?

Well on a recent trip to Southport Caravan Club site (where the photos were taken) it worked extremely well. The initial set up was easy and to start with I reduced the pressure using the small screw on top of the unit to about 0.5 bar (7 PSI) to ensure I didn’t over-pressure the caravan plumbing. I increased this to about 1.5 bar and this gave an excellent flow rate with the added feature of not having to run the internal water pump.

Something that was in the back of my mind however was what if the regulator failed and full mains pressure was allowed through to the caravan’s internal plumbing? As I’d used a commercial unit, hopefully the chances of this would be very slim to non-existent as these units are designed to be permanently installed in commercial and domestic plumbing installations however I also added another little handy gadget at the tap end…

This ‘Y’ fitting has two small ball valves, one of each outlet. So when we go out, I simply turn off the appropriate ball valve. Having a ‘Y’ adaptor also allowed us to fill up our Brita filter jug or draw water off without having to turn the tap off and disconnect the caravan hose. All in all everything worked out perfect. (note I have since changed the blue hose adaptors shown for brass ones for durability).

One last thing…

If you are at all worried about water quality in your caravan, connecting up this way will allow you to thoroughly flush out your caravans water system and give you clean water from your caravan’s taps, (especially In summer too, when the sun has been warming up the water in your Aquarol all day) all you need to do is just run the tap for a minute or so to get cold fresh mains water.

Caravan Chronicles Shopping...

I am often asked where to buy some of the products we use. Here are the links to the products. If you click on the links and purchase any of the items, a few pennies will go to helping the cost of running CaravanChronicles.com

Caravan Ultraflow Inlet Hose Assembly (I bought one of these so I could keep my existing one intact. You will need the correct model for your caravan water inlet).
15mm Adjustable Pressure Reducing Valve Including Gauge 1-6 Bar Reliance Water Controls The pressure regulator comes complete with a pressure gauge.
Brass Bush 1/2“ BSP Female x 3/4″ Male Reducing Bush “Converter (these were used to adapt the size of the fitting on the pressure regulator so I could fit the female quick release adaptors.
Garden Mile® Solid Brass 2-Way Double Outside Garden Tap Adaptor & Hose Connectors 3/4″ With 2 Quick Release Female Adaptors. An option, but very handy.
Silverline 598438 Tap Connector Brass I bought two of these for the regulator.

Caravan Chronicles Shopping…

21 Thursday Jan 2016

Posted by Simon Barlow in Accessories, Blog updates, Caravan Chronicles Shopping, Caravan Electrics, Help Guides, Projects, Technical

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Caravan, Caravan Electrics, Caravanning, Maintenance, Modifications

I receive a lot of emails asking where people can buy some of the tools – especially some of the crimp tools and terminations I use in my posts and articles. In the past I have just emailed people back with the details and maybe links. However my last post about cable termination brought on a rather large amount of requests. So I have decided that I will include links to the products on Amazon. So from now on you will see a section at the bottom of any posts called….

Caravan Chronicles Shopping...

Any specific items used will be listed, and by clicking on the link to the item you will be taken to the Amazon store page. If you do decide to purchase anything, it will be from Amazon (or their associates) and delivered by them. It’s just like buying from Amazon directly.

The price you pay is exactly the same as it would be by going directly to Amazon. All I receive is a few pennies from each sale that will help towards keeping the wheels of Caravan Chronicles turning.

I have also created a shopping page that lists the products under a link to the original article. There aren’t any photos, just descriptions to keep the page neat and quick to load. If you want to go back to the article, just click on its title.

I hope you don’t mind me doing this, but it will save you having to email me asking where to get things from and save me a bit of time in replying to everyone.

Cheers

Simon

I’ve been thinking about this for a while…

27 Sunday Dec 2015

Posted by Simon Barlow in Gadgets, General, Modifications, Projects, Uncategorized

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Caravan, Caravans, Modifications, Towing

I’m sure that anyone that is a four season caravanner will recognise this… in winter you arrive on site around six in the evening in the dark, in the pouring rain. You get to your pitch and it’s a tight reverse manoeuvre on to it. Your partner gets out with a torch to guide you back. In the rain it’s hard to see out of the side windows and mirrors and you partner disappears into the blackness with only a point of light from their torch to give you any idea where they are. You put the vehicle into reverse and the reversing lights on the rear of the tow vehicle light up the front of the caravan like a National Trust stately home but not much else. You now struggle to see the corners and edge of the pitch in the contrast of the brightness of the floodlight front of the caravan. The darkness down each side caravan and the illumination from the reversing lights of the caravan just seem so far away the little orange side marker lights are not much help in lighting up the area around the van.

This has happened a few times to us and I’ve been pondering over it for a while. What I’d like is not only the normal LED awning light but one on the off side of the caravan and on the rear too with the ability to be able to switch on all three to give a general illumination around the caravan when manoeuvring at night. The LED awning light on our Swift caravan is quite effective at providing enough illumination on one side so what about two more being fitted? Or giving the side marker lights the option to be changed from orange to bright white? They could be controlled from just inside the main door and a simple electronic circuit to turn them off after a few minutes or when the caravan is disconnected from the tow vehicle could be incorporated or even off the key fob remote so you could turn them on when returning back to the caravan in the dark.

Off side and rear illumination would be handy too when it comes to the late night “Oh God it needs emptying/filling” moment just as the full moon disappears behind a cloud and the batteries are a bit run down in your torch (or flashlight for our American cousins) and you just happen to be next to the EHU bollard that the light doesn’t work.

Now while we are on the subject….un-hitching or hitching in the dark is also a bit of a black hole, pun intended. Hitching or un-hitching using a torch becomes a bit of a pain and if you wear vari-focal or bi-focal glasses, using a head torch means constantly adjusting it to get it in the right focus area to see. So, while the additional awning lights are being installed, what about a similar light above the front locker that can be turned on to light up the hitch head allowing easier coupling and un-coupling?

It doesn’t have to be standard on all caravans, but what about an “All Seasons Touring” option pack that could include the above and other things… like mud flaps on the caravan? I’m sure you can think of other things as well. So manufacturers….It’s too late for 2016 caravans but what about considering it for the 2017 range?

I think I can feel a couple of projects coming on…

Upgrading pre September 1998 Caravans to 13 Pin

06 Saturday Jun 2015

Posted by Simon Barlow in Caravan Electrics, Electrical, Help Guides, Maintenance, Modifications, Technical

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

13 Pin Plug, Caravan Electrics, Maintenance, Modifications, Towing

One of Caravan Chronicles long time readers and supporters, Colin “Snowy” Snowden, has sent me an excellent article he has written covering all aspects of upgrading pre September 1998 UK caravans to the 13 pin Euro Plug.

It’s very comprehensive article and goes into detail about the various problems and colour codes that were used and cover some of the changes that are required, habitation relays and details the steps required to actually do the upgrade with steps on fault finding.

If you have a pre September 1998 caravan and are thinking of replacing the original 12N/12S wiring with a 13 Pin plug, it’s an essential read.

The document can be downloaded and viewed here: Upgrading to 13 Pin

Colin has included contact details in the article, but if you have any questions that the answers might be helpful to others as well, you could also post them in the comments section below and Colin will be able to answer them.

Lets be Practical…

05 Saturday Jul 2014

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

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Andrew Ditton, Caravan, Caravan Magazines, Caravanning, Caravans, Maintenance, Modifications, Travel Trailer, Travel Trailers

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