Caravanning Virgins

Primrose Lane

2 weeks ago my partner & I bought our very first caravan together, we won't be taking it home until the end of the month but in the meantime we want to get prepared for our first trip.

The caravan is a 2004, twin axle Coachman Laser 590/4.

I'd appreciate your help in preparing for our first trip i.e. what do we need. I am more interested in knowing what I need to connect to mains in parks, what is the story with water - is there a tap to connect for every pitch to or is it a case of filling tanks seperately in the park?

We have been advised that we need a battery, what is the battery powering? Is it just to heat water in the caravan or will it keep lights, fridge etc powered also if not connected to to main supply?

These are just a few things I can think of straight away but no doubt experienced campers will be able to add to this list. I'd really appreciate your help.

Again, I'm not looking for someone to tell me to remember to bring sun cream - as I'm all over that but I need a list for my boyfriend to tick off before we leave.

Thanks

_Brian

Firstly I'd start with your towcar, are you sure the car is capable of towing the caravan, general rule for novice towers is that the van shouldn't exceed 85% of the weight if the car.

Your licence, with a regular B the design gross weight if the caravan and tow car can't exceed 3500kgs

You only need a caravan battery if you're planning on camping where there is no electric hook up. We have our caravan three years and our battery has needed replacing since we got the caravan, never bothered replacing as we only stop where we have hook up.

You'll need a hook up cable for the mains, this pluggs your caravan onto the electric on site.

Most caravans don't hook directly into water on site. Most use an Aquaroll to supply water to the caravan which will have a pump that drops into the Aquaroll and pumps the water into the caravan.
Waste water, again most use a Wastemaster, this collects grey water from your sinks and shower for disposal into a grey water drain on the site. It has wheels for moving.
Both these can be got in Halfords.

The fresh water taps will be dotted around the campsite for everyone to share, usually the grey water drain is at the fresh water tap.

Some modern sites have a tap and grey water drain at each caravan hard standing. It's convenient and with a bit of hose got on eBay you can connect your grey water waste straight to the drain.

We don't drink or make tea from the tap in the caravan. There can be water lying in the pipes for months unused and I don't find this appealing, many do, we bring a 5l container to fill at tap and bring into caravan.

If you plan to use the toilet in the caravan, the most common set up is for the top tank for flushing is filed from outside- I being a watering can for this. There are chemicals added to the top tank for keeping the bowl clean, and another added to the toilet cassette to break down the waste, also special toilet roll which breaks down easier. Emptying the cassette is easy, there will be a chemical toilet waste point specially for emptying. It's much less hastle and icky than it sounds, I ise disposable gloves and empty so as to avoid splash back the toilet chemicals are also available in Halfords. Also we only use the toilet at night, liquids only if possible, our 2+2 family the cassette is fine for 5-7 days without emptying.

Your caravan may have a hot water heater, typically electric or gas operated, there will be a switch somewhere in the caravan to turn this on when on site.

Same for space heating, can be electric or gas.

When on site we use electric for everything, it's paid for so no point using your own gas and paying for electricity.

A point on electric hookup. It's not like being at home where you can plug on everything all at once. The hook up will be "rated" in Amps.
If you try and run an electric heater, electric cooker, space heater all at once them some of the lower rated sites the electric May trip out. I've heard of it happening but it's never happened us.
Tere are guides online for caravaners showing the expected Amps for basic items.

There are some great videos on YouTube by the caravan clubs on setting up on site, different caravan are mostly the same to set up. I can post links later when not on the phone.

Primrose Lane

Brian,

thank you so much for all of the above, its a great help. Looks like Halfords is the place to go directly to.

Do you use your awning much or is the general consensus that its just too much hassle correct?

We've viewed a few online tutorials but I guess until wew take it home & mess about with it ourselves it'll all start to make sense. But in saying that I'd appreciate you forwarding any useful links that you may have.

Question: what is the pipe in the kitchen sink for that you see some people using in the online videos, does it have a specific purpose?

_Brian

Primrose Lane wrote: »

Brian,

thank you so much for all of the above, its a great help. Looks like Halfords is the place to go directly to.

Do you use your awning much or is the general consensus that its just too much hassle correct?

We've viewed a few online tutorials but I guess until wew take it home & mess about with it ourselves it'll all start to make sense. But in saying that I'd appreciate you forwarding any useful links that you may have.

Question: what is the pipe in the kitchen sink for that you see some people using in the online videos, does it have a specific purpose?

We've used the awning in France when we were pitched for two weeks, havent bothered in Ireland as we've been stopped no more than a week anywhere and just dont have the need..
Its not as much bother as you'd think, first time we put ours up in the garden here at home it took maybe 1.5 hours, but we marked the poles and second time we had it up and the groundsheet laid in about an hour.

Lidl or Aldi had aquarolls and caravan stuff within the last few weeks, not sure how much but might be worth a look.

The pipe in the sink has me baffled ?, ours has a regular round sink, mixer tap and a plug.

Have a look at www.caravanclub.co.uk/community/discussions/
There are sections for new folks to ask questions, caravans, towcars and lots more. You can register even though you're not a paid member nor living in the UK.

The only thing we're sorry about with our caravan is that we didn't buy it years ago !!

moodrater

re pipe in the sink: are you talking about the submersible pump for the aquaroll. It keeps dribbling after you've disconnected it so people dump it in the sink.




You definitely want to thoroughly clean/sterilise the fresh water tank before you use it.
http://www.caravanclub.co.uk/media/1022808/water-matters-mo.pdf

An aquaroll is much easier to clean because you can agitate it or just roll it around and you can see inside it. You never know whats inside an underfloor tank. We have really hard water here and the freshwater tanks get scabby very quickly I have to resort to citric acid.

Make sure you have toilet chemicals, I find the smell of most of them nauseating especially the formaldehyde ones so we just use oxygen stain remover (sodium percarbonate) in the cassette now it does a better job. Its only a couple of euros per kilo in lidl - W5 Oxy Power

*Kol*

Does the W5 oxy power break down solids?

Dexter Bip

_Brian wrote: »

We've used the awning in France when we were pitched for two weeks, havent bothered in Ireland as we've been stopped no more than a week anywhere and just dont have the need..
Its not as much bother as you'd think, first time we put ours up in the garden here at home it took maybe 1.5 hours, but we marked the poles and second time we had it up and the groundsheet laid in about an hour.

Lidl or Aldi had aquarolls and caravan stuff within the last few weeks, not sure how much but might be worth a look.

The pipe in the sink has me baffled ?, ours has a regular round sink, mixer tap and a plug.

Have a look at www.caravanclub.co.uk/community/discussions/
There are sections for new folks to ask questions, caravans, towcars and lots more. You can register even though you're not a paid member nor living in the UK.

The only thing we're sorry about with our caravan is that we didn't buy it years ago !!

Friends of ours have an awning for their caravan. We've been away with them a few times and they manage to have it up in about twenty minutes. A boon in windy or cold weather and effectively doubles the living area if you bring a groundsheet.
By the same token we bought a Fiamma privacy room ( i.e. side walls for the normal roll out awning) for our own MH in 2009 and it's still in the box.

moodrater

*Kol* wrote: »

Does the W5 oxy power break down solids?

Yes percarbonate is even used to clean septic tank leach fields, the w5 also contains surfactants and protease enzyme that you find in nappy detergents to break down poo stains.

Aqua Kem blue on the otherhand contains formaldehye and methanol and in my experience does f.all to breakdown solids in the short term and effectively preserves contents.

Aqua Kem green contains bronopol which is basically a disinfectant/preserver.

_Brian

Here's a few simple videos on the setup on site.. all basic stuff but worth looking at.. the first is a very modern caravan and the later two are actually part of a series of 10 videos on starting caravaning - they date from ~2000 so less modern caravans are shown.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GHZTzEjf8g


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33jNhmMXgt4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCiRI4VDc74



I find at home I like to plug the varavan into the mains and check everything is working before heading off, its also handy when you get your caravan as you can play with the electrics and ensure you understand all the controls.
To be able to do this you'll need an adaptor to plug your EHU (electric hook up) cable to your regular 13A square pin socket at home.
The bits can be got from a good hardware store and made up or you can purchase them made up already..


I think it cost something like €5 for the bits locally, and already made up they are about €15.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/13A-UK-PLUG-TO-16A-240V-BLUE-CARAVAN-ELECTRICAL-HOOKUP-SOCKET-ADAPTOR-CONVERTER-/230830034152


For waste water connections, although not shown in the videos it can be handy to get a Y piece or similar. It takes the two outlets from the caravan and leaves you with one waste hose to go into your waste container, but more importantly if you are on a serviced pitch with waste drainage you can use a single longer hose to bring the waste directly from the Y piece to the drain leaving you with no waste "grey" water to empty. the extra hose isnt too expensive ~€3 a meter, I have two pieces 8 & 2 meters and manage fine with them. Its a nice to have rather than a must have.


They mention caravan leveling "side to side", we have ours 3 years and honestly never needed to level side to side, but I have a few short bits of wood in the caravan to level with if I needed.

Macy0161

Regarding the toilet cassette, we have used the biological washing tablets and liquids - we've found the concentrated biological liquid the best. I haven't noticed any issues with emptying or increased smells tbh. We'd mainly stay on sites though, so maybe don't have the inputs that those that just use their own facilities...

For the onboard water tanks and pipes, you can get cleaners to clean pipes and containers. I think it's aqua pure that I've got in the past - only a couple of quid for a small tub. Not sure whether it's an issue with caravans, but the only thing you have to watch is if it's safe for hot water tanks/ metal in the system. If it's all plastic, I assume milton/ sterilizing fluid would be ok. We tend to drink bottled water in our van, but we find it's handy for teeth brushing and with the children generally not to be worrying about the water out of the tap. It's a small space for everyone to cope with an upset stomach!

*Kol*

Macy0161 wrote: »

Regarding the toilet cassette, we have used the biological washing tablets and liquids - we've found the concentrated biological liquid the best. I haven't noticed any issues with emptying or increased smells tbh. We'd mainly stay on sites though, so maybe don't have the inputs that those that just use their own facilities...

For the onboard water tanks and pipes, you can get cleaners to clean pipes and containers. I think it's aqua pure that I've got in the past - only a couple of quid for a small tub. Not sure whether it's an issue with caravans, but the only thing you have to watch is if it's safe for hot water tanks/ metal in the system. If it's all plastic, I assume milton/ sterilizing fluid would be ok. We tend to drink bottled water in our van, but we find it's handy for teeth brushing and with the children generally not to be worrying about the water out of the tap. It's a small space for everyone to cope with an upset stomach!

One point to note on the powder type steriliser. It is imperative to make sure you dissolve it completely in a container of warm water before you put it in the water tank. I learned that it will not dissolve in the the cold water of the tank!! I took a while to remove it grain by grain.

_Brian

Macy0161 wrote: »

Regarding the toilet cassette, we have used the biological washing tablets and liquids - we've found the concentrated biological liquid the best. I haven't noticed any issues with emptying or increased smells tbh. We'd mainly stay on sites though, so maybe don't have the inputs that those that just use their own facilities...

We use the specified pink and blue products.. On a few forumns I see loads of "talk" about the price of these.. Seriously they are not expensive. Same as the specified toilet roll, not expensive yet there is endless talk about trying different brands to find something similar.. Really, use the wrong toilet roll and it blocks the casette - then you have made a simple job into a whole world of dirty pain.

moodrater

Correcting myself here: in europe aquakem blue no longer contains formaldehyde - its now bronopol and the useless green stuff is just classified as cleaning/washing agents with no substances of interest in the msds so you're probably better off with biological detergent than that stuff.

*Kol*

moodrater wrote: »

Correcting myself here: in europe aquakem blue no longer contains formaldehyde - its now bronopol and the useless green stuff is just classified as cleaning/washing agents with no substances of interest in the msds so you're probably better off with biological detergent than that stuff.

Some good suggestions here. I got an eco friendly liquid in Charles Camping years ago that has a pleasant enough smell and seems to work. Though I try to empty every day anyway as it is not as heavy!! And as it was put above I don't want to experience the "dirty pain"!!

Irishgoatman

moodrater wrote: »

Yes percarbonate is even used to clean septic tank leach fields, the w5 also contains surfactants and protease enzyme that you find in nappy detergents to break down poo stains.

Aqua Kem blue on the otherhand contains formaldehye and methanol and in my experience does f.all to breakdown solids in the short term and effectively preserves contents.

Aqua Kem green contains bronopol which is basically a disinfectant/preserver.

Can you help me out here Moodrater? I looked in Lidl for this product and although I saw a lot of different W5 Oxy power products I couldn't see any that mentioned Percarbonate in the ingredients. Can you let me know the full name or post a pic of the container please.

Many thanks.

moodrater

Its the fella pictured here but anything that says oxy is about the same, some have optical brighteners thrown in for white clothing or fancy scents:
http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=60989

> 30% oxygen based bleaching agents means sodium percarbonate / sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate

Irishgoatman

moodrater wrote: »

Its the fella pictured here but anything that says oxy is about the same, some have optical brighteners thrown in for white clothing or fancy scents:
http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=60989

> 30% oxygen based bleaching agents means sodium percarbonate / sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate

Thanks for this, now I know what I'm looking for.
Lidl in Castlebar certainly didn't have that, only liquids. I'll try Tuam next.

Again, thanks moodrater.

Macy0161

_Brian wrote: »

We use the specified pink and blue products.. On a few forumns I see loads of "talk" about the price of these.. Seriously they are not expensive. Same as the specified toilet roll, not expensive yet there is endless talk about trying different brands to find something similar.. Really, use the wrong toilet roll and it blocks the casette - then you have made a simple job into a whole world of dirty pain.

tbh, it's not really price as such, more convenience. Any lidl or aldi you can pick up biological liquid cheapily and handily. I'm also happier handling, and storing in the van, biological washing powder rather than the more extreme chemicals of the commercial ones.

Similarly the toilet roll - I've never really priced up the difference, but I can walk into Lidl and pick up their Recycled/ green pack stuff which breaks down fine in my experience, rather than a special trip somewhere/ rely on a site having supplies/ ordering online.

Benbecul97

_Brian wrote: »

We use the specified pink and blue products.. On a few forumns I see loads of "talk" about the price of these.. Seriously they are not expensive. Same as the specified toilet roll, not expensive yet there is endless talk about trying different brands to find something similar.. Really, use the wrong toilet roll and it blocks the casette - then you have made a simple job into a whole world of dirty pain.

The specified pink and blue products are expensive in Halfords, €16, but not in Aldi, €8. Same as the specified toilet roll, not expensive?? 4 rolls in Halfords @ €5.50 is expensive.

Really, use the wrong toilet roll and it blocks the cassette?? Not the case. If on a campsite, when possible, use the campsite facilities. Only use the cassette toilet when inconvenient to use the campsite facilities (during the night) and only for #1s and you'll have no problems.

MRnotlob606

I'd love a caravan any tips for a newbie ?

moodrater

MRnotlob606 wrote: »

I'd love a caravan any tips for a newbie ?

Try before you buy. You might find you / your family hate it or you don't like towing it. Have you got a suitable tow vehicle?

Primrose Lane

Guys,
Can anyone tell me where is Ireland will I be able to get a 'Truma Crystal Maxi Pump& Plug' please?

I've located it online but its all UK based, plan to go camping next weekend and don't want to be disappointed if it doesn't come in time.

Thanks

PS. Thank you all for all your help and tips so far. Now that we have finally brought it home - prepare to be inundated with messages (aka Cries for Help)

moodrater

Donagheys, pat horans, charles camping should all be able to supply one.

Benbecul97

Primrose Lane wrote: »

Guys,
Can anyone tell me where is Ireland will I be able to get a 'Truma Crystal Maxi Pump& Plug' please?

I've located it online but its all UK based, plan to go camping next weekend and don't want to be disappointed if it doesn't come in time.

Thanks

PS. Thank you all for all your help and tips so far. Now that we have finally brought it home - prepare to be inundated with messages (aka Cries for Help)

http://www.partsformotorhomes.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=Truma+Crystal+

Order it today, you'll have it Tues/Wed!