We’ve just booked our first fully serviced pitch. What additional kit will we need? Have just been using a standard aquaroll & waste hog set up (with ehu) to date. I’ve seen kits that can supply fresh water direct to the caravan, and also float valve kits - what are the drawbacks of both? Also - what will we need for grey waste water? Just a long pipe to take it to a drain? If so roughly how long?
For my first trip out after taking delivery of my PVC last year in April 2021, I decided to stay on an all service pitch as it was doubtful if the site's facilities blocks would be opened or not.
I have an onboard fresh water take of about 80L and a grey waste tank of about 53L.
I bought a 5m collapsible fresh water hose and found it was not long enough, and went to GO to get a longer one as the site did not have any that I could buy. The 15m hose in the Aquaroll-compatible filling kit that I bought was just the right length.
For grey waste water, the original hose I carried was just long enough to reach the drain, however, it did not connect well to the opening of my waste pipe.
I bought a funnel specifically designed to provide better connection for my type of waste pipe opening, along with 4 x 1m extendable hoses from Colapz in case I need them in future. It worked really well when I tried using it at home.
Although I am now better equipped to stay on a service pitch, I have not been back on one, for the reason that I prefer to stay on quieter pitches away from the others when I can. Hence I bought and carry an Aquaroll and a Wastemaster in my van nowadays.
All based on personal experience and preferences, etc. etc...
DK
------------- Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest & Play!
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We just use the aquaroll with a float valve, hoesepipe and I bought some household plastic waste pipe cut into lengths that will fit into the front gas bottle compartment a few joints and an elbow to direct it into the drain, I do put something under the pipe to support it where my outlet from the caravan goes into the waste pipe as it is just a flexible pipe
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------------- XVI yes?
As well is two words!
How does a sage know everything about everything? or does he? or does he just think he does?
Remember, if you buy something you bought it, not brought it.
It can pay to carry a length of coax cable with various ends as well. Some places have poor telly, but have a tv hook-up post you can access. They will 'rent' you a cable, but for a few quid you can knock one together.
We always use fully serviced pitches, whenever we can. Lots of CLs are introducing them and it is such a great idea.
We have a float in the barrel that came with a shortish length (5 metres) of food grade water pipe (about £20). I have an additional 8 metre length so that I can extend, if needed. All the connectors are standard garden ones.
For the waste, we use standard push-fit pipe from Screwfix. Buy a 3 metre length of 40mm white waste pipe and a 3 metre length of 32mm pipe and chop both in half. The 32mmx1550mm slots inside the 40mm for storage. We have a selection of fittings. Most important are the straight couplings for each size of pipe. Use the thinner pipe first and then feed that inside the other one and you can shorten and extend it like a trombone!
Having done this for years, we have a variety of angled fittings as well to cope with any eventuality. It may sound a little complicated but it is dead easy and inexpensive. Here is a link to the way someone has done it _Waste Pipe system
We have only ever been on a fully serviced pitch once, and that was simply because nearly all the pitches were fully serviced but we didn't find out until we got there. For what we paid it was incredibly good value. We usually avoid fully serviced pitches as they are normally too expensive for us. I have no problem with having to empty our grey water or with refilling our fresh water containers, it's what I have always done.
How long a pipe you will need depends entirely on where the drain is in relation to the outlet on the caravan. In our case it was only a few feet away and all we needed was a short length of pipe and a "Y" piece to join the outlets to the one pipe. I used our usual fresh water containers in the usual way, but I could refill them straight from the tap using a short length of hose, and no need to move them.
We always use fully serviced pitches with water direct to the caravan. Also carry about 8m extension hose. For waste water we have 3 x 3m of the ribbed pipe and we have managed with that.
You can never be quite sure how far from your van AND in what relation to your van service inputs/outlets any facilities are - back, offside or nearside, there is no standard or consistent layout it seems, which makes a definitive answer near impossible.
I've got a Water Hog rather than an Aquaroll which has a different screw cap size and that dictated which float valve kit I bought, it came with a 7.5m inlet hose, which has proved adequate so far and not needed an extension. I've got a full 25m EHU cable which I have stretched to it's limits on occasions, and also a shorter 12m one if I don't want to 'loose' half or more of the length of the longer cable for closer EHU points (cables MUST be uncoiled from tight coils and left loose on the ground to avoid overheating!). For the waste pipe, I bought a 25m coil of standard corrugated pipe, cut it into two, one 10m and one 15m length, that with the aid of a push fit coupling gives me flexibility (10m, 15m, or 25m hose length) to cover almost any set up, I've certainly used the full 25m when on some sites where 'grey' water can be disposed of into a hedge. It weighs very little, and although a little bulky, fits in the front gas locker where it would otherwise be empty space.
I think you will find almost as many answers to your question as people that answer! Unless you know the site and it's layout and can tailor you kit, then it pays to be a little be flexible to cover the variety encountered, BUT that does sometimes mean carrying excess equipment. The alternative to carrying 'everything' is do research to locate a decent caravan/camping stockist nearby to chosen site so that you can at least buy anything you find you need once on site.
Some sites have all their pitches as fully serviced, even for tents. We wouldn’t normally pay more just to get a serviced pitch, unless we had to stay at that site to make the tour work.
We use our Whale water inlet pipe for fresh water & to fill the tank before we head off, it’s convenient.
We use our usual grey water canister, but empty it every morning down the drain on the pitch, rather than somewhere nearby on site.
TV point - nah; we’re not bothered, but it’s important to others.
But everyone has to trail their toilet cassette to the disposal point; we use site facilities so that’s not an issue.
And free site Wi-Fi is something we’d rather have than a water tap on the pitch.
Quote: Originally posted by Fiona W on 07/3/2022
Some sites have all their pitches as fully serviced, even for tents. We wouldn’t normally pay more just to get a serviced pitch, unless we had to stay at that site to make the tour work.
We use our Whale water inlet pipe for fresh water & to fill the tank before we head off, it’s convenient.
We use our usual grey water canister, but empty it every morning down the drain on the pitch, rather than somewhere nearby on site.
TV point - nah; we’re not bothered, but it’s important to others.
But everyone has to trail their toilet cassette to the disposal point; we use site facilities so that’s not an issue.
And free site Wi-Fi is something we’d rather have than a water tap on the pitch.
The site that we went on with mainly fully serviced pitches had just a few that weren't and they were mainly for tents. They also had metered electricity which also saved us quite a bit. (£2.80 for two weeks electricity). We definitely wouldn't pay extra for a fully serviced pitch either, we are used to emptying grey water and collecting fresh water, and even with our back problems we don't really mind. We also use the site facilities whenever possible too. We only use ours during the night or when it's pouring with rain and we are on-site.
We don't bother taking a TV with us anyway so a TV point would be somewhat superfluous. Not really that bothered about WiFi either to be honest. If it's there, fine, if it's not it's not a problem. We don't actually spend much time on-site anyway if the weather's good, we are out exploring. We come back to the caravan to sleep.
When site's facilities were opened, I would only use my own toilet in the middle of the night or when it was raining cats and dogs outside.
So emptying it at the end of the trip was not too bad.
Just wish people would check the CDP to make sure it is clean and no floaters before they leave!
DK
------------- Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest & Play!
- 2027: ? NL+DE+FR
- 2026: FR+DE
- 2025: 17/77
'24: 10/49; '23: 9/47;'22: 8/46; '21: 9/34
* Ex-tenter
* Treat life events like a dog: if you can't eat it, play with it or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away!
Not all sites involve a trek to the CDP, one site in particular we go to has a CDP on the serviced pitch.
I do realise though that not all serviced pitches have this luxury.
------------- XVI yes?
As well is two words!
How does a sage know everything about everything? or does he? or does he just think he does?
Remember, if you buy something you bought it, not brought it.
I use a folding trolley to take my toilet cassette to the disposal point, and my grey waste container has its own wheels so I don't have to carry them. To me it's just not worth paying extra for a fully serviced pitch. There was no such thing when I first started camping, and they still hadn't materialised when I bought my first caravan, so what you've never used you don't miss.
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Topic: Fully Serviced Pitch - extra kit?
via mobile 07/3/2022 at 10:24pm
