dont go down that route.......battery went flat on ours, thinking it would charge quicker/better on caravan, OH did a swap. Then went and traded old boat in for a bigger one. Went out to sea and had a bit of a mishap with something floating just under the water - prop hit it, damaging the blades. Lucky us found a reconditioned one at a local marine dealers. Didnt realise the old knackered battery hadn't been changed over back to the caravan. Started the new caravan season with an old battery which just didnt hold a charge. Had to buy new battery for caravan at the start of last season. Didn't get out on the new to us boat at all last year, due to the Napoli and the 2 booms they put across the river to stop the oil coming upstream. Weather been too bad this year to get out on the water until last weekend..... Friday: Battery flat on boat. Had to have it on charge all day Friday/Friday night. Saturday: No charge in battery. OH suggested we swap the old battery on the boat for the new caravan battery - just to check its working.....Dont even think of it I told him.... Missed the tide on Saturday having to go out and buy new battery. Sunday: OH tried fitting new battery to boat, only fittings different. Had to go and find somewhere who does conversion lugs. By the time we got back it was high tide (can only get in/out of harbour 2hours before and after high tide). OH fitted on new battery...outboard burst into life...!! Whoopeeeee!! Got boat into water, negotiated tricky bend at harbour mouth, into the open sea....this is the life....!! Gave boat a bit of wellie......boat rose at the front, engine growling, frothy wake spewing at the back of us and off we......didn't..... Turned out that the propellor wasn't a reconditioned one at all - it wasn't working properly. We'd also let the old prop go, as it was an exchange unit. So now, we've got to get a new prop.
this weekend will be our first proper weekend out in the van, so reading all your 'eventful' trips has been an insite!
I now know not to forget to pack the electric hook up cable, the sky box and all the stuff for the awning!
Luckley my OH is extreamly anul about packing and everything has to be in the right place so when he does his pre trip inspection (that he's been telling me all about for weeks) i expect eveyting to be present and counted! and at least if it's not it's not gonna be my fault!
my job for this weekend is food, booze and sorting the kids out! proper doddle!
so i hope you all the best of luck and hope you don't come a cropper with any more trips planned for this year, i don't really think it can get much worse!
There must be a god of luck for caravanners for he was with me a couple of weekends ago when I was putting away the caravan store. A gust of wind grabbed it and it flew over the roof of our 4month old caravan. I imagined the worst but thankfully the caravan was undamaged and the only thing wrong with the store was one leg was slightly out of shape and OH managed to fix that easily enough. Last weekend at the same place our sky dish and stand went for a burton but again OH managed to fix everything, even the LNB which he had to epoxy back together....he has his uses!!
St Christopher was certainly looking after us when we brought the 1981 Nevis back up from Runcorn, got to 6 miles from the house and the A-frame snapped, going over an extremly bad piece of road, RAC said they couldn't help as the Car had not broken down, phoned a mate and within an hour he arrived with his low loader and put the caravan on it and brought it home, amazingly he had just returned from a long trek away and was practically near where we were! Now that I believe was St Chris working hard! (-;
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.