i've just come back from a new site opened this year in Frodsham, Cheshire. I booked online a mains service pitch including drainage, however, when we got there, yes there were points for water and drainage but no way could we use either as we would have needed 40' lengths each of pipe. This to me defeats the object of having a mains service pitch (i always look to make things a bit easier for my OH he still had to fill the aquaroll and empty the wastemaster) and i was dissappointed, am I being too fussy or does anyone else presume that mains serviced pitches mean you can plug and go ???
to me a mains servicved pitch is a pitch with a elec hook up, for the full works i would look for the words full serviced pitch, as there are alot of room fo movement in the words mains serviced pitch.
mike
If we book on a serviced pitch I expect the water tap and drainage to be at least as close if not closer than the EHU. We have a couple of regular CL's which are serviced and in France we have had pitches with services with in 15ft
on the website it does say electricity, water and tick an extra box for drainage, which i did, fortunately i did take the wastemaster, i think i'll always phone in advance to double check or better still book over the phone, you live and learn !
I would expect all services to be easily accessible from the pitch.
With a proper full service pitch, the tap, electric outlet are within the bollard and the drain is below the tap but sometimes the tap and drain combination may be separate from the bollard but still within easy reach of the pitch.
C&CC have the annoying habit of calling a pitch with EHU a service pitch no doubt others are copying now.
I've always thought that a service pitch included EHU water and waste within the boundaries of the pitch - not on the site somewhere - it's bad enough trying to get a waste run within the length of the caravan - pretty impossible over 40 feet
------------- Caravanning is a way of getting a cheap holiday out of an expensive hobby
This is the first negative post that I have read about this site, it opened early this year, and the first weekend was FREE, all the rest of this year it is HALF price.
The owner went on the other caravan Forum and asked peoples advice on what they wanted on the site. I think if the OP had spoken to the owner he would have gone out of his way to help
as already mentioned is it depends on definition of "fully serviced"
in the last two weeks, been on two sites with different set-up
1st - had a "serviced pitch" that included water. Both electric and water were on the same "post", but i only have a 10 meter hose, and it didnt reach. Needed another 5 meters. EHU was no problem as this is a long lead! Didnt have waste, and wasnt expecting this, so just used the wastemaster
2nd site informed me it was a "fully serviced" pitch and included waste and water. Great i thought, but again whilst the EHU and water were on the same "post", i needed a long hose of at least 15 meters to reach it.
Waste was great as this was litterally in the caravan footprint and i just used a 3 meter length to fit.
It varies from site to site, and you need to understand what their definition of "serviced" is...then you just have to take a hit if you havent got a long enough hose!
In my original post i was asking for thoughts and advice regarding serviced pitches, and if my perception of mains serviced pitches were wrong. I did talk to other people on the site who had the same view as myself ie whats the point of having a drain and water post on the pitch, when no one can get to it, the site itself is lovely, but it won't always be half price, the site owners have made a lovely job of the landscaping, shower blocks etc, i will go back again but i'll remember next time that i can't just plug and go !
To be honest as every pitch had its own connection, I would have thought that the tap position (at same lenght of the ehu) was pretty normal for a full serviced pitch. Many caravans have pipes long enough to reach either the water barrel or the caravan inlet depending on what method they use. The taps are not that far from the pitch after all and though I did not measure when we were there, they seemed nearer than 10 metres !!!!
How close do you expect? I am assuming that you were on the standard caravan pitches here, though looking at some pics of the site it appears that the position of some caravans will make them further away.
The waste does seem a little far away (same as the tap)but really it is only the addition of some extra flexi hose that is needed and that would be quite easy to keep a spare for different campsites.
That to me is a fully serviced pitch really. I do think you may need to look at a slightly longer hose for the future just in case if yours really cannot reach.
I think thebest thing to do if you have a problem with a site is to speak to the warden, on this site he is the owner, if you dont tell him he wont know of problems
I think he as gone out of his way to get things right, he asked for feedback on another forum
Having finally found the site, looking at the booking system, there is a difference between "drainage" and "piped drainage" . If you choose "drainage" then lots of pitches come up, but if you choose "piped drainage" then far fewer come up.
Presumably the "piped drainage" ones are those where the drain is right next to the pitch.
This is what I would expect on a "serviced pitch". I would expect both water tap and grey water drain to be right next to the hardstanding, either at centre rear or at a rear corner. I would not expect to need more than 6 metres of waste pipe from caravan outlets to drain.
I think the way the pitches are described is a bit confusing, and the actual position of the water/waste needs to be made clear on the site plan.
Fresh water further away would not be a problem to us as we cary 30m of hose, but long runs of waste pipe are not really suitable.
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Topic: serviced pitches
