Easter Caravan Site Club Closures.

The Caravan Club has closed some sites and restricted others over the Easter period due to the weather.

This is the situation as of Thursday evening ( 28/03/2013 ) :-

Caravan Club Closures etc.

For the Caravan & Camping Club the closures are:-

Bala
Barnard Castle
Leek
EburyHill
Cannock

If you were travelling to any of these sites over Easter perhaps a phone call may be in order to ascertain the latest situation.


Ian

Beechwood Grange

Just returned from three nights at Beechwood Grange near York.

We were fortunate that as the rest of the country was suffering from snow we didn't see any apart from the odd flurry.

There was a cold wind but that was it.

The Orion performed faultlessly and the lagged heating pipes made it all the warmer.

I did have to call on the warden as all the 240v electrics went off and I presumed we had blown the bollard but it turned out I hadn't plugged the mains cable into the van properly.

I was especially impressed with the Isabella Magnum Eclipse sun shade,not that there was a great deal of sun to be shaded from but it makes a shelter if it rains.

We took this as it wasn't worth taking the Magnum just for three nights.

Although there was gusty wind most of the time,the Eclipse never moved an inch.

It was a bit of a gusty tow back down the A1/A64 but I think the shockers make all the difference.

Ian

Bog Standard Five Second Maintenence

I have read in one or two places about the Thetford toilet giving up the ghost and the problem has been diagnosed as the fuse at the rear of the toilet cassette compartment not making good contact.

Had this wizard wheeze of removing the fuse and applying a dab or two of Contralube to the fuse blades and replacing it.

Hopefully this might stop further problems.

There you are,five seconds and all done.

 Ian

Winter Is Officially Over.

Went up to the van today,removed the winter wheels and reattached the round rubbery ones.

I did find the screw in wheel locating pegs mentioned in an earlier posting very useful in relocating the wheel to the hub.

I thought I would remove and check the spare as I have not removed it previously and there are all sorts of horror stories about the difficulty in removing it.

Well yes it is not the easiest device in the world to use but it wasn't the "devil from hell" that I thought it would be.

Having said that you have to lay prostrate on the ground to remove it and I was in a storage compound with my overalls on,much different I imagine to doing it at the side of the road in the pouring rain.

One thing that I did come to appreciate,that I have seen complained about but didn't realise the consequences of,was the problem of how to remove the spare when the puncture is on the near side which is the side the spare is located.

I only just managed to extricate the wheel from under the chassis with the van tyre inflated and the van fully nose down.

How you do it with a flat tyre I don't really know,plus the Al-Ko jack obstructs the removal of the wheel I think from memory,I will check this on my next visit.

I suppose you could run the flat up a levelling ramp to give some height,remove the spare,if it will come,and then jack the van up.

Or of course you could ring Mayday Green Flag and make a cup of tea whilst waiting.

I was pleased to see that the spare had been balanced as requested and a Tyron band fitted,one up for the dealers as I can't remember asking for a Tyron for the spare,glad they did it though.

Ian

Shockers Again.

After a visit to a dealers yesterday I can confirm that despite what the Bailey site says the latest Orions don't come with shock absorbers as a standard fitment.

I wonder what would happen if someone insisted on them being present as this is what Bailey are advertising ??

Orion 440/4 As An Example.

Interesting.


Ian