Well after much deliberation (and cogitation) we have finally gone and bought an Eriba Puck L I am sooo excited. Got to sort out tow bar for Honda Jazz (decide to do this on the Jazz rather than one on Peugeout 307 estate - lots of miles, not sure how long 'he' will be 'with us')! and insurance, etc.
Question is what else should we do? Apart from tow bar, insurance (is Caravan Club good for this) what else do we need to do
Any advice would be REALLY appreciated. We only started to 'camp' last year (i.e. with own setup after year's of camping with Eurocamp/Canvas) so any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
welcome to the caravan world hope you have plenty of nice holidays
firstly i would get several quotes for insurance . we did and we ended up with caravanguard was a great deal cheaper foer our bailey ranger .last year we bought a new van and just stayed with them so dont know if we could have got it cheaper elsewhere ,but were happy with them
------------- Sandringham 22nd mar - 30th mar
thorpe park 27th apr - 1st july
thorpe park 1st sept 2015- 1st nov 2015
clumber park 29th dec -4th jan
Congratulations on your caravan although I must confess I had to google the name of your caravan to find out what it looked like. Like it and I hope you have many happy times in it.
Twurly
------------- You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only option!
Thanks for the advice Lyn, will look into that tomorrow.
I know Twurly Eriba's are 'different ' we needed to buy a small caravan to store under our car port and looked at what was 'out there' hence the Puck L. Been to Automotive Leisure in Poole twice now to view Eriba's and the Puck L was 'just right' (yes I know I have done the Goodilocks 'pun' before).
Anyway am over the moon but am concerned have we missed anything. On the way home we realised that we would need to sort out a number plate for the caravan (well I assume we will need to); insurance; wheel lock thinkgie; gas bottles; waste water bottle; and anything else?????
My Dada had a Honda Jazz 1.4cc(automatic though) and was told it wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding! Just check with Honda that it is one of the models that can tow. My dad's was a CRT (I think).
I don't want to burst your bubble as its lovely when you hear of someone who has bought a lovely caravan, congratulations on that one!! Just check the Honda vs. you have can tow, so you won't be disappointed!
Well done on the new van you will find you will have everything you need in the house to start off with and can buy new stuff as you go cutlery plates etc. The four main things you shall have to have are as you said Gas Bottle, electric hook up cable (get the longest you can), aqua roll or similar for fresh water and a waste master for gray water. Oh check you have chemicals for the WC.
The most important thing is and never forget it "THE KETTLE"
Andy - have got a lot of camping stuff that we can use; in fact I only purchase a lovely bright red kettle recently when we visited the Newark Caravan and Motorhome Show in March.
Jax - the guy at Automotive Leisure checked on the internet that the Honda Jazz 1.4 SE - manual - can tow an Eriba Puck L and I doubled checked this morning with Towcar.info who confirmed that our model should safely be able to tow the Puck L too; there was review on that website from someone with a Jazz /Puck L combo who said that it has been ok so far - just have to think ahead i.e. when coming up to roundabouts, which I should imagine is the same with most caravans?
I suppose we will just have to wait and see in the meantime I am very excited.
Oh I know this is going to seem very silly but what do we do about number plates for the Puck? Forgot to ask yesterday.
If is this century it will need long numberplate, if older it will need square plate. Its best to stick on with double sided tape not drill holes & screw on. If you are paying top $ from AL I suggest you phone/email them with your car number & let them supply & fit plate within price paid, so its all ready when you collect it. If you are going abroad you want 'euro' numberplate with blue bit & GB symbol.
Sorry, another question. The guy at AL suggested we needed a cover for the Eriba; I said that we were storing it under car port but he said useful to have one because of ultra violet.
If you are storing under cover you don't need a cover, salesman is just trying 'add value' to his order. I'm not quite sure the actual changeover yr from long to square plates, it was around '00 but if you get them to fit plate then no probs.
Compare insurance companies. We got ours through "Insure my Caravan" for £120, with CC it was double that and Caravan Guard was over £200. Policies were like for like too! It's worth comparing them. Congratulations !
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