Apologies if this has been discussed (a million times) before. We're new to caravanning - bought our first one last November and have gradually started to get the hang of things with lots of help and support from here plus several weekends and long weekends away since.
We are due to embark on our maiden voyage to the south of France with it in a couple of weeks time and so will be stopping en route over night a couple of times on the way down. Up until now every time we've towed we've completely drained the system of water and emptied the loo (the flush and the waste tank) before setting off. Is that completely essential? Wondering if we can put 'a bit' of flush fluid and 'a bit' of blue stuff in the bottom so we can use the loo if we stop on the way and when we are stopped overnight - or do we just need to be completely drained down and use public facilities until we get to our destination?
And one final question - on our first evening away from home we are leaving after work to drive to a friend's place near Folkestone to plot up in the caravan on their private property overnight and get an early start the next morning - we'll literally rock up about 10pm, have a quick drink with them, sleep, and disappear at the crack of dawn the following morning. Hope this isn't a daft question but is it ok to stay hitched up and just drop the steadies down and go to bed (to get a swift departure the following morning) or do we actually need to uncouple?
Sensible to use your caravan loo when driving through France. Some of the toilets at "Picnic Aires" are awful.
If you look at your car and van when hitched up, you will probabky see that it is "nose down" ,so not level.
You should uncouple, and leave the car where it is and just drop the van onto the towball the next morning. It will only take a couole of minutes.
You will have a great time in France.
we use our toilet on the journey, don't let it get too full though and just put a pint or so in the flush tank. As long as the ground is reasonably level, no reason to unhitch. At least that's what I think and have done myself.
------------- 74,going on 25
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder
Thanks - is it sensible to just put a nominal amount of fluid in the loo? Wasn't sure if the 'sloshing about' motion would make it unsteady?
We've tented a few times in the same area before and really love it. It's going to be the height of luxury in the caravan! Might struggle to come home!
We use our loo when travelling, have about a pint of water with blue in the waste tank and a couple of litres in the flush tank. A good tip I was given was to put the pink stuff diluted in a spray bottle and negate the need to put anything in the flush tank. I also empty it every day when travelling!
As above with the loo tips,if you leave the van hitched,and steadies down,don't forget to raise them in the morning,very easy to see the van already hitched to go,jump in the car and drive off,do a good all round check,including lights/handbrake etc,and have a great holiday
The Dutch and Germans when they only stop for a night on sites do not unhitch there vans they just put the 2 back stays down to stop it rocking. We noticed this and also they park their cars close to the roadways on site so its just legs up and go.
Just be careful when you first flush the loo after you stop, when you open the slider blade, especially in hot weather, there can be a gas build up that may cause some splattering, especially if the tank is getting near to full.
Its best to be ready and cover the bowl with an old towel kept just for this purpose, rather than risk having to do a major clean up if you happen to be unlucky.
Julia
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
We are also gojng to the South of France with a couple of overnight stops,
I also wondered about leaving hitched where possible and just putting
the legs down down on the overnights, but decided to leave unhitched.
I have self leveliing suspension on the rear of my car and was concerned that if it settles overnight and lowers it could put undue strain on the kegs or A frame / towhitch of the caravan.?
Dave, I unhitched mine every time if only to give the suspension a rest.
Julia, if you're travelling with a nearly full waste tank you are carrying a lot of excess weight. A litre of water weighs a kilo so a full tank probably weighs about twenty kilos if not more!
Many thanks, much appreciated. I think we'll just pop the legs down on the first night as we have an early start the next morning. Planning more civilised stopovers for the other nights! Will just use minimal fluids in the toilet and empty regularly.
If you don't unplug the caravan from the car socket, the 12volt in the caravan will run from the car battery when the engine is not running. This may be OK but may drain it.
When plugged in with the engine running the caravan internals are isolated fro the car by a habitation relay.
it's fine to leave it hooked up and drop the legs. I always place my drill driver on my drivers seat though so I can never drive off without having lifted the legs :-)
We also use the loo on route, few pints of flush water is fine
Quote: Originally posted by Grandad Kenny on 08/7/2016
Dave, I unhitched mine every time if only to give the suspension a rest.
Julia, if you're travelling with a nearly full waste tank you are carrying a lot of excess weight. A litre of water weighs a kilo so a full tank probably weighs about twenty kilos if not more!
Thanks Kenny, but l rarely carry any liquid in my toilet cassette, and even if we do, then its only from a couple of uses en route to the campsite. My worst experiance from a toilet gas 'explosion' was from a Thetford type toilet fitted to a river cruiser boat. The combination of the boats movement underway, the heat of a hot summers day, and the scarceness of emptying points for such toilets around our cruising area at the time, made or one heck of a mess splattering the contents over me as l went to slide the blade to flush the contents away. I have had this happen in the caravan, and with fairly low levels of fill, but luckily not to such a great extent as the boat inceident. We put this down to using cheap budget supermarket brand blue chemical not doing its job very well at the time, and have never used this brand again since. The fact that the heating duct in our caravan's bathroom blows right onto the side of the toilet base and the cassette within it, if we have the heating turned on fairly high for any length of time during cold weather has a similar effect on the contents as a hot summers day, which doesnt help the situation.
We use the CL network quite a lot for our pitch needs, and always ety the cassette every morning whilst on site. Theres only the two of us, so the cassette is seldom full, and we now only use the Thetford or Elsan brands of Blue chemical, no more cheap stuff, you only get what you pay for.
Julia
Post last edited on 09/07/2016 12:07:44
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
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Topic: What to do about the loo?
