Well we're going on our first long distance holiday tomorrow, and I'm getting excited. We need to be on the road by 9am ideally, so I'm planning on doing a lot of the prep work tonight so it's just a case of hitching up in the morning, but it got me wondering - what is your going away routine?
I don't mean in terms of hitching up, more in terms of preparing and loading - do you do it all well in advance, the night before, or just chuck a load of random stuff in the van on the morning?
I think we have a good routine already, my wife handles the clothes/food side of things and that leaves me to worry about the towing/caravan side of things. She's been preparing all week, and tonight we're going to load the van and do all the checks like nose weight etc, hopefully leaving us to get ready in the morning, and take our time going through a proper hitchup routine.
Only thing about packing tonight is the awning goes in front of the fridge so to pack the fridge means leaving the van plugged in overnight so the fridge can work.
If this is your first trip have you ever weighed each item as you load them to ensure you are not overweight. It is amazing how it soon adds up. We are on caravan number eleven over forty five years of caravanning. Each time we have bought a new van I have looked at the load plate to ensure we are not overloaded. We always Finnish up putting things like awning,poles mains hook up lead and weighty things in the car so as not to exceed the caravan permissible loading, and also increasing the weight in the car helps stability. Have a good holiday and many more to come. As our caravan is kept next to garage I have it plugged in and run fridge on mains for a day putting food in the night before we go away and then switch it to battery in the morning when hitching up.
My caravan stays pretty much packed up all the time - I even have separate "caravan" clothes that stay in her!
The only thing I need to add or take with me is food which I usually pack in the car and load into the fridge on arrival at site as my little mini fridge is mains power only so can't pre chill or use it in transit like a modern caravan!
Our fridge is 3 way but I still connect up EHU at home with a converter plug to prechill it. I load a few freezer blocks in for the journey and it's fine on arrival.
Thanks all. Yeah I've got the fridge loaded and plugged in now - didn't fancy leaving stuff out of a fridge for a 5 hour journey tomorrow.
As for weight, yeah I've weighed all heavy things (stuff 2-3kg+) and it's surprising how it all adds up. My maths tells me I'm about 50kg under the limit so that should be plenty spare for stuff I might have overlooked (although I haven't overlooked things like gas bottles etc). We're taking the dogs cage and all clothes in the car - we take a fair few clothes away haha. In the habit of putting the wheel clamp in the car too, and all my beer. After that, it's all in the caravan.
The problem is your van may actually weigh more than you think.
Handsbooks often state it could be 5% more. Someone wrote to one of the caravan mags after finding out their 200+kg loading limit was actually under 40kg because the caravan was far heavier than the brochure listed weights.
If your estimates is just 50kg from max i would get it weighed.
So, what is included in the calculation for the weight of the 'van alone? I thought it included a gas bottle and battery for example, but excludes things like motor movers.
Hi Tidburyboy
Just to let you know that when we bought our Swift Basecamp earlier this year the "van alone" weight explicitly excluded the leisure battery. Swift suggest adding 20k to your "personal effects" weight to take account of the leisure battery.
It does (in our case) include 10kg for gas which might be a bit light if you travel with 2 bottles.
We found that the brochure for the van gave a pretty good definition of what was and wasn't included. Of course, anyone buying a used van might not be able to get hold of the info so easily...
Quote: Originally posted by sandgrounder52 on 26/8/2017
Hi Tidburyboy
Just to let you know that when we bought our Swift Basecamp earlier this year the "van alone" weight explicitly excluded the leisure battery. Swift suggest adding 20k to your "personal effects" weight to take account of the leisure battery.
It does (in our case) include 10kg for gas which might be a bit light if you travel with 2 bottles.
We found that the brochure for the van gave a pretty good definition of what was and wasn't included. Of course, anyone buying a used van might not be able to get hold of the info so easily...
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: Routine
