Cheltenham Caravanner

and having viewed your route on Google Earth (streetview) if there are parts of the route that are not obvious then ask about it on here. Lots of local knowledge available.

We belong to both clubs but mostly use CMC. To my mind the CMC sites are generally better on a number of aspects including quality of shower blocks and roadways within the sites. On more than one occasion I have asked on a C&CC site why the roadways are made of gravel when a nearby CMC sites has tarmacked roads only to be told " we can't get planning permission" . Strange that CMC does not seem to have the same problem. Also I prefer to select my own pitch. Nevertheless, it's down to personal preferences in the end.

Must get some new wellies, storm coat and sou-wester.

Of the centre bathroom layouts we have seen (at the caravan shows) the Bailey seems to us to be the best. One particularly poor design point on most of them seems to be the cylindrical shower door which on every one we tried seemed to stick or jam on opening and closing. The Bailey has a swing open door which flexes a bit and swings outwards which I guess means water drips onto the carpet. Maybe the OP can comment on this. Otherwise quite a good layout if you have three or four people to accommodate and you don't want the front section people coming through to a rear bathroom.

Went yesterday. Managed to avoid spending except a couple of cups of coffee. Quite taken with one of the statics. Mind you with a £132K price tag it ought to be good.

Thanks for the additional info. I don't have a problem getting from Cheltenham to Buxton. Have done it several times, sometimes via Leek, occasionally via Lichfield/Ashbourne or Derby / A6. Re Buxton to Penrith I think A555 is looking favourite. Thanks again for all your advice.

Thank you one and all.

We plan to go to Buxton and then on to Penrith. This would seem to entail approaching Stockport northbound on the A6. Looking at the maps I can't see an easy way to join the M60 eastbound from the A6. Can anyone who lives in that area advise

Not daft. Same question I was going to ask. On my rig the car engine has to be running before it will provide power to the caravan.

Nevertheless, with two gas bottles and a whole load of other clobber it is easy to be nose heavy. In fact our Swift Challenger is nose heavy even with the front locker empty. Judging by what you see people putting in the front locker I reckon a large percentage of caravan owners are exceeding their car's nose weight capacity.

It depends on what you have in the front locker so any figure stated is not necessarily meaningful. I would suggest you buy a good nose weight gauge as the weight could vary each time you tow.

I have a V70 D4 with the 2L engine. Pulls fine (although not quite as well as the 2. 4L XC70 I used to have.)

On both occasions they have, without charge,

Twice now after servicing, and on two different models of Volvo, I have had clonking noises from the rear end. On both occasions I was told it was because raising the car relaxed the suspension allowing a stone that was trapped to get caught elsewhere. Anyone else experienced this on a Volvo or any other vehicle ?

Wrong !! Her choice !!!!