xtrailman

I have 570. I moved the spare further forward under the bed. Carry both water roll's upfront with two fold up chairs, all the wardrobe clothing upfront onto the berths, jack and everything with any weight either in the gas locker, or under the berths. Only have the wheel and waste hog under the bed. And I have a upgrade worth 64kg.

Balloon or condom I've read . I have a large ballon over mine, about a £1 for a pkt

Not wanting to sound clever here but I never collect and tow a caravan with out checking the nose weight, or asking the dealer to check before buying. Some caravans don't give a decent NW with bikes on the back with out substantial front loading, with proves in practice difficult or inconvient. I front load to get 85kg on the nose with 40kg on the back rack, 29kg bikes, 10kg rack. If I collect from the dealers after warranty work I need to take water containers for front ballast to get a good NW towing empty. You can't blame the dealer, but I agree publishing the ex works NW would help, I once had an Avondale with a ex NW of 35kg!

I don't have any issues with 235x50x19 on a Tiguan with standard suspension. But I found the road noise much higher with a Tiguan on sports suspension fitted with 255x45x20, but again the ride was ok. You need to test drive the kuga to establish wether the ride suits you.

Modern fridges can be that powerful that the voltage drop is so great that the fridge isn't receiving 12v required to work. I'm looking at fitting a 12v to 12v "charger " to overcome the problem, Tic tac has fitted one.

Poor electronics can make any car unreliable. There is little to go wrong with the electric motors.

Both my Mazda's had incorrect mass in services printed on the V5c, I did nothing but get an email of Mazda stating the correct weight. I wouldn't bother contacting the DVLA myself.

It would be a good idea to make equipment option, as I never use our oven or hob, and can do with out a micro wave, the latter is very heavy in weight and power, and something I managed with out for years. And the radio hardly gets used. My swift is woodless and they still make the Elegance that is woodless. Floor and walls, roof, all woodless.

Resting on the floor is a poor design which my Unicorn 1 had, it can lead to water ingress to the floor, which I had. I believe the latest Bailey caravan now have some overlap to allow water to drain away from the floor. I think we have all at one time or another hit a pot hole, some you don't see in time and oncoming traffic doesn't allow driving around it. IMO caravans are like tissue paper to keep weight down and cost, so anything is possible if you're unlucky enough to hit some rough roads, train crossings I find are a real pain. With my bailey I also had an interior wall pull away from the side wall, repaired at the factory. To the OP I wouldn't worry about the caravan as Swift have a reputation for really good factory repairs. My Unicorn came back from the factory still leaking water into the floor, along with two dents on the outside, opposite the repaired wall, then was damaged on arrival at the dealers, resulting in a new back bumper and two rear steadies being replaced.

I use a full stop clamp, it enables me to use the alko thread if I want to line it up, or a conventional clamp if its too much trouble.

Thank fully I'm no longer lumbered with the Alko wheel lock, but remember the hassle sometimes removing it.

I do the same as mentioned above, use chocks, but on site I never see anyone else do the same?

I've been towing with bikes on the back of my 2017 Swift conqueror 570, its 24' 7" from memory, and the bikes weigh around 29kg, the rack around 10kg. I've had zero towing issues, but I have to put a lot of my allowance up front to get a 85kg NW.

Perhaps the best option is using her bus pass. We only have one car in our household, and never seen the need for two, if I did we would have kept the cx-5. My wife has never had a problem driving even the larger Xtrail T31 we had, and she is a nervous woman typically she will not drive on motorways, and refuses to even consider towing, even when I said she could do a towing course!

Its no where near the Shogun in size, more like the Tucson, Kuga, Tiguan, Q3. Front /rear sensors reversing camera, area view camera now available, it very easy to park up.