The road toad

Assuming from your mpg you have the 2.0 Diesel which weighs 1715kgs and the 'suggested' or advisable weight for a novice is 85% of that or 1457kgs so I think vans around the 1700kgs plus your load of bedding, clothing, food etc etc will be unadvisable. Now some on this forum will say don't worry, you will be fine - but take advice - you don't want to be in a situation where the van drives the car, it is not a safe situation for your family to be in.

All I know is that without the caravan we could not ever contemplate a 4 - 6 week holiday each year in the sun in France/Italy/Germany and 2 - 3 weeks in the UK. It gives us total freedom to travel to our own time table without the need to queue at airports for hours or have to leave a package deal hotel at some ungodly hour in the morning or night. And after looking at the various posts here about caravan depreciation in the first year - why would anyone buy a new van? All I can say is please carry on so that others can pickup the 2 to 3 year old vans at massive savings and have someone else deal with and fix all the niggles found with a lot of new vans - the same goes for cars!

Well said rov. The audio unit in our 2011 Lunar is more than adequate for our needs but if it had a remote control that would be welcome. However, for music in the awning we do use a £30 portable bluetooth speaker which has excellent sound quality at levels that will not disturb our neighbours. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-SoundCore-Dual-Driver-Distortion-Microphone-Black/dp/B016MO90GW?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_3 Exactly what some people want from a caravan sound system is beyond me - I just hope we are never pitched next to them!

Like Paul1957 the first thing I did when we got our Lunar Clubman was to remove the Alko spare wheel rack (had to jack up the nearside of the van in order to get enough clearance to do that) and put the spare wheel under the bed - I was tempted to take the rack to the dump but it does make a decent shelf in the shed. Can you imagine having to change the off side wheel in the middle of nowhere, in the rain, in the dark and the first thing you would have to do is to get the spare out of that bl***y rack by jacking up the nearside - no way!

I think Stevan has a point. The sections where average speed cameras are in operation do seem to flow well. It certainly worked on the A14 when they replaced all the static speed cameras with long sections of average speed cameras. What used to happen was drivers slowed as they approached the first fixed camera from 70 +mph down to 70, next cars slows down behind him to 69mph and the next to 68mph and so on till there was an almost stationary section, then it sped up till the next fixed camera and the whole process started again producing another slow queue. Once the average speed cameras were in place the traffic flowed at a steady 60 - 70mph. It is also interesting looking at the huge numbers of drivers that get caught on the average speed sections on the M20 at the moment - they obviously believed the cameras were not active - be warned.

I agree with Frank completely. The main cause of congestion on motorways is the 'middle laners' who join the motorway, immediately get into the middle lane and stay there, often cruising at under 70mph. If they are not competent enough to change lanes then they should not be on the road. I witness it time and again on the M40 especially - I quite like it as it leaves lane one free for me while the plonkers queue up in the middle lane.

I agree with Stevan. We also took his route and acquired a £500 van from a friend, used it for one season and it gave us the opportunity to experience caravanning and started us thinking about our ‘ideal’ van. One year later we knew what we wanted and found a 2 year old van (which saved us nearly £10,000 from buying new) and it had everything we wanted. All the niggles that come with a new van had been sorted and it has served us well for nearly 7 years.

Today I ‘winterised’ our van and part of that was to clear the water system of any residual water using the Floe gadget. I invested in one a couple of years ago when a friend suffered various split pipes caused by residual water freezing over winter. It always surprises me how much water is left - I must have removed over 5 litres from a supposed ‘drained’ system. I always leave all taps open to help dry out the pipes . We never consume any water from the caravan water system as I dread to think of what lurks and breeds in the pipes over winter or any periods of non use during the warmer months.

It seems to me that what you can legally tow and what is safe to tow are two separate issues and the good old 85% rule is worth adhering to.

While browsing the forums and the members cars and vans I noticed a few scary combos with people towing at 100% of vehicle kerb weight! Are they mad or oblivious of the dangers? Surely any fool can see the dangers of the van trying to drive/control the car? Beats me.

Lift the larger handle to a near vertical position (it should stay there) then lift the smaller handle as you lower the hitch onto the tow ball and release it once engaged and the circular pop up indicator is showing green. Then lower the large handle - this will take more force to push it down. Has your van a hitch lock fitted? If so is the part that substitutes for the tow ball still in the hitch?

Make sure you take a spare tube/bladder with you as you will still get a puncture at some point - our experience is well documented in earlier posts. I am still amazed at how thin the tube/bladders are.

Concerning road surface structure - on on our regular trips through Belgium over the last 4 years we have witnessed the long overdue resurfacing of their motorways. And not just resurfacing, they were relaid completely including a layer of reinforced steel mesh which is something I have never seen in the UK.

The OP asked “What do you guys use for Evening entertainment/TV/PC/Film” so I told him, that’s why.

I only asked the question because I have an iPhone with a Vodaphone SIM and my wife’s has a Virgin SIM and between us we have nearly 20GB, unlimited minutes and messages for £22.00 per month and have never been ‘unconnected’ during our travels around Britain and Europe. We also use an iPad via one of the phones hotspots. I just can’t see why people spend money on Extra gadgets, after all the internet connection is what it is depending on location and no matter what gizmo you buy you ain’t gonna make it stronger.