We still have not been away in our new to us caravan. It's been a shock to the system after our old 1980 caravan. Even though this once old compaired to a lot of your caravan she's very modern to us with Telford toilet, water heater, crystal filter, shower, blinds ,fly screens and yhe bl**dy fancy tow hook up thing. pull put this pin turn that push this eve that has it own instrution book in fact the only thing we don't have now that we did was double glazing. But trying to figure everything out read all the books work out what keys for what and how everything works is an art in itself. But I don't want to go away and not now how something works or find out it broken because we have not checked and tryed it. Our nabores must think we now live in the caravan as were in it so of term trying stuff out. The check list for setting of and setting up is now going from a sheet of paper to its own book there's that much to do. I see now why some stay with basic old caravan lol
------------- Dyslexic not stuped
It's nice to be important but its more important to be nice
Know what you mean, It's also true that the more gizzmos you have the more there is to go wrong. Although I enjoy messing-around with the van and fixing things there is no getting away from the fact that I've spent about four days this year already repairing and servicing stuff.
Never mind, it keeps me from being under my wife's feet.
My OH has no interest in cars, caravans, DIY, etc. he has always had office jobs and is useless at anything DIY (his words). I, however, will have a go but I have a bad knee so am very limited as to what I can do. We thought having a caravan on a seasonal pitch would be easy...have it delivered and sited by the supplier, get advice from manuals and kind people on here and hey presto! It hasn't been easy at all, in fact it has been quite stressful at times especially when you read something new and then wonder if it is has been done correctly, like levelling the van (in another post). I am sure it is like everything in life, you learn how to do it in time and then it becomes second nature. We love our van and are looking forward to the time when when we can go to it and relax 100%.
Its a bit odd here hubby has short term memory loss and I am basically wheelchair bound so I read up and work out how to do it and then direct hubby. Between us we make in very fit active person lol. The next thing to tackle is this water filter thing it just seams a waste of money buying theses filter at £10+ every few months when we clean the water system every trip. We had to do that with the old van no filters in her so we find that easer. So were going to take it out and see if we can put it back as a blank its the taking it out I am not looking forward to lol
Our mane problems going to be the tow hitch trying to get hubby to retain how to do it as I'm already in the transit when he has to hitch up. He's been hooking trailer and caravans up for years with the old type hitch so he retains how to do that but this is going to be fun. But we like a challenge lol
------------- Dyslexic not stuped
It's nice to be important but its more important to be nice
The filter refills are only a fiver, once a year that's all.
I then carry a hose pipe to connect to the tap on site and fill the water drum rather than carry the drum back and for.
I know what you`re sayin`! We have an old van(91) don`t use a water filter (drinking water comes out of an old milk carton) we only use hook ups, so there`s no battery. There`s only one switch for the pump which I sometimes forget to operate . .and one for the hot water heater. Oh, and the fridge . . .and a key to lock the van up with. What more do you need?
------------- Peripheral people don`t have as much excitement but they sure live longer
our first caravan was found when we both retired.i said what can we do now? we cannot pick and prune roses for the rest of our lives.because my lady was a self employed hairdresser and customers would ring constantly through the day we decided to vanish for a month in a brand new static caravan,hired.near blackpool.there we spotted an oldish caravan in a garage fourcourt.a 1992 bailey avallon se.brilliant white.lol.we bought it and it served us really well for years after.we really loved the caravan and so did the grandchildren.i looked after it really well in mint condition.when we came to sell it i put it in a local paper and just after it came out it sold to a young family in less than 4 hours.she said after the rubbish i have seen i will be back with deposit and my dad at 5 pm.the story i am trying to tell you is when it was being driven down the road away from us and watching it go was most upsetting for both of us,so i know how you are feeling.always in your mind is have i done the right thing is it not?
------------- the only silly question is the one you do not ask.
Quote: Originally posted by lunarvenus on 19/5/2013
The filter refills are only a fiver, once a year that's all.
I then carry a hose pipe to connect to the tap on site and fill the water drum rather than carry the drum back and for.
The book on the filter says change it every couple of month. And change it every time you clean the pipes out. That seams a lot of changing. Carrying the wAters no problem because it's hubby's job he likes taking his hog for a walk with all the other men its some sort of richuale. Hog walking lol
------------- Dyslexic not stuped
It's nice to be important but its more important to be nice
I think you got it right there Micheal we new what we were doing with old candy and sort of think may be we should have used the money to get her damp patch fixed and kept her. I did shed a tear when she went and the newer vans lovely she's 1993 van but only ever been used 8 times and kept garaged so she like new. She's been serviced more than sleeped in lol. but all there's books for everything so many thing to go wrong. I keep telling myself once we have done our first big trip away and worked things put we will be fine.
------------- Dyslexic not stuped
It's nice to be important but its more important to be nice
The fun is finding out things when on site so long as you take all essentials it's part of the fun finding out how things work. There will be daft things that you will find out as well, like me last weekend. Took our new van out for the first time since picking it up in January and it's the same layout as the old one but could not get the toilet light to work. So armed with a screw driver I took the cover off, bulb ok took the light fitting off pulled all the wires out all ok, refitted it then found another switch outside of the toilet that did nothing! switched it on and then the switch on light and guess what the light came on.
My sis has a van about the same age. When we went away for a quick try out, we didn't go too far away, just in case!
For two days we wondered what all the little black bits in the water were, and where they were coming from. The dealer (yes, I know!) said that all had been sterilised, etc...
The filter was that old and cruddy you wouldn't believe it! so my sis just took it off altogether and joined the pipes back up. then we sterilsed the system... and it's been fine ever since without a filter! They are not strictly necessary, and I think you can safely do without them altogether if you want to. My sis does anyway.
We didn't have one in the old van and always cleaned the system every time we used the caravan as I always thought there would be stail water in it that needed flushing through. So I would still clean everything every use now a filter might clean the bits out but won't clean stail water away
------------- Dyslexic not stuped
It's nice to be important but its more important to be nice
If Hubby has short term memory loss , film him doing the tow hitch, then next time, show him the film, it might save a bit of time. We did this with a temperamental trailer tent :)
Wish you had mentioned that before I could have filmed the last owner as he showed hubby who to do everything. That would have been so easy and then I could have just put the film in hubby's phone. I will get him to do it with the book and film him infancy I should do it with everything he can't remember come to think of it I don't think I can film everything he forgets lol
------------- Dyslexic not stuped
It's nice to be important but its more important to be nice
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.
Topic: The difference in a newer caravan
so my sis just took it off altogether and joined the pipes back up. then we sterilsed the system... and it's been fine ever since without a filter! They are not strictly necessary, and I think you can safely do without them altogether if you want to. My sis does anyway.
