Down on the Farm
Those readers who attended the latest Practical Motorhome rally at Stowford Farm Meadows will be aware that the site has a well-equipped workshop with fully-qualified, highly-experienced staff to deal with routine maintenance or to make repairs to, or
carry out upgrades, on any European make of motorhome.
Stowford Farm Meadows' workshop has been approved by anybody who is anybody, including the National Caravan Council, The Caravan Club and The Camping and Caravanning Club.
Not only that, the workshop now owns and runs the
very well received website www.caravanfaultfinder.co.uk. Just log on and see what a wealth of information is available on operating the residential part of our motorcaravans, and on the vagaries of typical equipment that has been fitted over the years. Included are exploded diagrams, tables showing frequently reported faults and how to cure them, plus tips and hints.
Just recently, I experienced
a bit of a problem with my Carver Cascade water heater
but was able to find the answer by looking at an exploded diagram which
was available for viewing,
or downloading from the website, without having to pay a single penny.
Tune in, turn on
D'ya ken John Peel? (With apologies to John Woodcock Graves.) Recently, the papers and periodicals have been
full of obituaries for the iconoclastic broadcaster,
John Peel. Many of us grew
up listening to his Radio 1 show on our tinny transistor radios. It featured previously unheard-of or little-known pop music bands. Many
of them deserved a wider audience, but there were,
of course, some who didn't!
John continued presenting his cutting-edge music show until he died late last year aged 65. Latterly, he had also presented the successful
Radio 4 Saturday morning programme Home Truths.
Among all of the hagiographies and 'me-too' epithets was a very revealing and incisive comment from fellow DJ David (once aka 'Kid') Jensen. He thought that Peel's Radio 1 show continued to be popular because he had the rare gift of being able to listen and therefore select music through the ears of a
15-19-year-old. In other words, he could genuinely empathise with the tastes of his young audience instead of relying on the results of a focus group staffed by fuddy-duddies who think they know what is going to appeal to the young.
Unfortunately, I have none of Peel's instincts on youth and young adult culture.
A case in point: some years ago, I brought home a
brand-new coachbuilt motorcaravan to put my test gear in before disappearing 'on test' for a week or so.
The motorhome in question had just been imported and
I was the first journalist to see it, let alone get his paws on it. The target market for the design was young families.
So I asked our daughter, then a young mum in her early 20s, what she thought about it.
Her opinion was positive.
I then explained to her that,
of course, the completely plain slab sides of this prototype would be adorned with modern graffiti-style graphics before production models appeared in the showrooms.
Silly me, the fact that it
was plain and completely unadorned was, for her, one
of its strong suits, and what
I thought might attract a younger person was completely off-beam. Sure, it was only one young person, but she is one whose tastes
I thought I knew quite well.
It is in all our interests to attract more young people to motorcaravanning. The moral of this story? All of us who are involved in the industry should not assume that we know what young people – or any other sub-set of buyers – wish for in a motorhome, we should try asking them instead!
An ill wind...
This month's 'near miss' is a real shame because I remember seeing
the 'van at its debut and thinking that it had a really good future. Built by JC Leisure, the Columbus is a micro-coachbuilt on a Daihatsu pick-up. GRP sides and a specification better than the then hugely-popular Romahome dismountable, gave it a promising start.
Even better was the fact
that one of the alternative layouts included a shower room. Quite an achievement
in a micro-coachbuilt.
The trouble was that it
never really took off. Perhaps this was due in part to the publication of an early road test in which the writer claimed it was unstable in high winds. A truism, I would have thought. Surely any high-sided vehicle on a narrow wheelbase will be less stable in high winds than in still conditions? I thought this would be ameliorated by reducing one's road speed to suit the conditions. However, to this day I have not had the chance of driving one, plus
the highly-regarded road-test journalist in question is one of the most experienced in the business, so who knows?
l Some facts for you: length 3.91m (12ft 10in); price £15,995; base vehicle Daihatsu HiJet, powered by a 1.0-litre, three-cylinder petrol engine.
Van Wurkes well
If you have a Type 2 VW
panel van and want to make
it into a camper, or if your Type 2 interior has seen better days, how about treating it to a new set of furniture?
First off the blocks is that produced by the established Van Wurkes company. It uses 15mm pre-finished MDF, which has been pre-assembled into five modules, and (it claims) can be installed by
any competent DIY enthusiast. The modules certainly looked nicely finished on the demo vehicle. Unusually, Van Wurkes does an overhead locker to go above a rear
face-forward rock-and-roll seat. Its replacement interiors come with cooker and fridge already mounted in the units.
New kid on the block
NJR makes its units from marine-grade ply. This is for the customer to trim, veneer, paint or varnish. NJR offers
a basic kit of two convertible dining seats (including deep lockers in the squabs), plus a double-door storage cupboard for £390, ready assembled.
Other furniture is available for special order. Whichever manufacturer you chose,
you should get gas or electricity connections checked over by a professional. Similarly, any seats used for travel should be constructed and approved for the purpose of transporting passengers.
Hacks bouled out
Recently at the annual Caravan Writers' Guild Chairman's Event, yours truly arranged
the now traditional knock-out boules competition.
Last year's winner, Stuart Hicks, motorhome marketing manager for The Explorer Group, was unavailable on the Sunday in question, so couldn't defend his title. In the event that is an unspoken but closely-fought battle between the trade and the press corps, the latter struggled, losing many key players early on ('key players' is perhaps overstressing their abilities, what I meant was 'those who had remembered their glasses').
Fortunately, the scribes' honour was upheld by
photo-journalist Chalky White, who just lost out to Mark Cheater in an exciting final. Mark is the proprietor
of Phantom, which makes tracking systems for motorhomes. It's good to
see young innovative people joining the industry, even if it did mean the press corps losing at boules – again!
The Phantom uses the Global Positioning Satellite System (GPS) to pinpoint its whereabouts. This information can be accessed through the 24-hour call centre.
Phantom says its system has been tailored for use on motorhomes in many different ways, but especially in that it takes so little power from the leisure battery. As a back-up, the device will alert the Phantom monitoring centre should battery power become low, which in turn will alert the owner. This feature will be of particular value to those readers who store their motorcaravans away from home and perhaps for periods of several months.
Seeing the light
It never ceases to amaze me how often we look at things, but don't really see them. Driving on today's roads with their frequently high volumes of traffic requires a high level of concentration. Usually, I am too busy trying to (a) find my way, (b) avoid running over too many jay walkers and
(c) answering the familiar “Are we nearly there yet?” from junior in the back to register much of the street furniture when piloting our motorhome in urban areas.
Quite by chance, I was
stuck in what radio reporters euphemistically call “heavy traffic” when I started to look at the lamppost adjacent to the spot where we had spent the past ten minutes waiting for the bird-brain in front to get out of the way. What a revelation. The lamp was a real work of art, with the city coat of arms contained in the brackets for the shade and loads of intricate detail.
Later that week, we went to see friends who run a business in San Pedro de Alcántara on the Costa del Sol in Spain. Here, the mayor has overseen a sympathetic restoration of parts of the centre, including renovating all different types of street furniture. Where, say, an original early 1920s' lamp had been replaced with a modern one which stood out like a sore thumb, it had now been replaced with a copy of the original. Wonderful. Next time you park in an old town, village, or city, do look up at what illuminates. You may be in for a pleasant surprise.
Sovereign Awards
Following publication in this magazine last month of my statistical analysis of the results of our survey, I will respond to follow-up queries in a future issue.
• The closing date was the end of October, but we received 10 late responses. These will count in our next new van survey.
• To respondent 'RM', who was concerned about his motorhome's garage door flying open, I have received no further reports on the failure of the garage door locks on the Ace Novella Roma, although the locks used for this purpose by many manufacturers seem to me to be very weak. I haven't examined the locks used on the Roma, so I can't comment on their suitability.
• To 'G and MC' who criticised the accuracy of
our Buyers Guide at the back
of the mag: all information
in it is taken from the manufacturers'/importers' supplied data. All entries
are free, but this doesn't seem to motivate manufacturers
and importers to send us their latest details, even though we regularly request them.
Happy motorcaravanning!
Gentleman Jack Bancroft |
