Why do we name our motorhomes?
Pictured (right) is the Bancroft dynasty's latest carriage. Replacing our 1998 Auto-Sleeper Medallion, it is a 2003 Auto-Sleeper Pollensa on a Ford Transit.
We bought it from a small dealer who has enjoyed the dubious honour of supplying us with our previous five motorhomes. If you find a good local dealer, as we have, stick with him. Don't go to
the other side of the country
to save a few quid, you will regret it.
Over the next few months we'll let you know how we have been getting on with the Pollensa. We've already been away in it for several weekends. This, though, is a relatively short acquaintance, so we are still in the 'honeymoon' period – you know, when everything appears perfect and self-congratulations are in order for making such an astute purchase. It is only after a few weeks away, when (perhaps) you have cracked your cranium on a badly-positioned locker door for the umpteenth time and realised the sink takes four hours to drain, that a more realistic appraisal can
be attempted.
In common with many other owners, we always name our motorcaravans. The Pollensa
is 'Fenland Drifter', but why do we name what is, after all, just an inanimate object? As far as I can tell, nobody calls the washing machine 'Sudsy', or the vacuum cleaner
'J. Edgar' (think about it!) and the only form of address given to our old petrol lawn mower was, “For heaven's sake start you awkward devil.” (To be honest, it was usually a bit stronger than that.)
My explanation is that many owners name their motorhome because of their emotional involvement with it – after all, it is a means to so many memorable ends. We've had exciting transcontinental adventures, stormed mountain passes, enjoyed countless days out, partaken in a romantic dinner for two while watching the dramatic evening sky, taken the rugrats to Skeggy
or Sunny Hunny for a bucket-and-spade holiday – and, of course, used it as a car.
One school of thought suggests that it is because the motorcaravanning lifestyle is so appealing that owners are sometimes less than robust over the (on occasions) poor standards of service received from the industry.
A chance to make your voice heard
Practical Motorhome's Sovereign Awards fired a warning shot across the bows of some manufacturers and dealers last year when it looked at the purchase of
new motorcaravans. This year we are looking at used
motorcaravans and this is the penultimate opportunity this year for you to fill in the questionnaire on pages 115/116 and give us your opinions. Closing date for submissions is 7 October, so please don't delay. This is your chance to have your say.
It matters not a jot whether you paid £500 or £50,000 for your motorcaravan. Similarly, we are equally interested in those who bought privately, such as from the classified advertisements in Practical Motorhome, or from a motorhome dealer.
Fellowship at Ferry Meadows
Recently, we spent the weekend at the Ferry Meadows campsite in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. It is one of our favourite Caravan Club sites. How far away is it?
Oh, it's miles from home… about five to be exact. Flora and I were there as guests of the Caravan Club who were holding a weekend for journalists in the field…
(pun intended).
Anyway, on the Saturday, after a presentation of the Caravan Club's reliability survey on touring caravans
(go to the website at www.caravan
club.co.uk to view the results).
I went for a stroll around
the site and stumbled upon a rally of the Caravanners and Campers Christian Fellowship. All Christians are welcome and it seemed to me to be a good way of combining faith, friendship and fun. They have been going since 1969 and have a varied rally and holiday programme. (See the information box, opposite, for further details.)
The something for nothing slot...
I am all for that, because
I'm London Welsh. We are
like Yorkshire folk, only not
as generous.
In contrast to last month when I reviewed several recent independent publications, all of which offered first-class information and grand value for money, this month I offer an overview on some whose VFM (value for money) score might be difficult to calculate, as they are all free, gratis and for 'nuffink'.
Free-of-charge, high quality information and advice, regularly updated is 'out there'. Sadly, it sometimes
gets lost among the shed-loads of re-issued, out-of-date, twaddle. (As a side issue, please be very aware that the internet has its share of charlatans, criminals and the plain well-intended but mis-informed, so do think about the integrity of your information source when accepting as gospel what comes up on the screen.)
Here are three campsite guides in my favourite information format
– a book. These books
can be ordered free of charge through the appropriate website, or by telephone, or even by good old-fashioned snail mail. All the organisations usually have stands at the National Boat, Caravan and Outdoor Show in the National Exhibition and Conference Centre, Birmingham, and the Caravan and Outdoor Leisure show at Earls Court, London.
The first, Best of British,
is a promotional organisation whose members own or manage some of the finest campsites in Britain. How can I be so sure? Because each has been graded 'excellent' by the appropriate Tourist Board – it's a pre-requisite of membership. There are around 45 sites in the scheme at present and my partner Flora and I have been to many of them and reckon that this initiative is a good one.
The second is the Quality Touring Parks Guide from the NCC (National Caravan Council). This features around 1600 sites in the UK, so its sphere of influence is wide.
All sites in the book – from small, basic, stopovers to huge holiday complexes – have been graded by the relevant Tourist Board.
The last, from the Irish Caravan and Camping Council, is their guide
Caravan and Camping in the Emerald Isle. It is well put together, with plenty of photographs and location maps. You are assured of
a warm welcome at any of the listed sites: the hospitality
we have enjoyed while motorcaravanning in Ireland has managed to melt even this old cynic's heart.
These guides are genuinely helpful, and considering that they are free, are well worth keeping in your glove box for quick reference while you're on tour.
Jargon - well busted
Don't know a chassis-platform from your elbow? Don't worry, 'Travellin' Man' will try and help.
It's a difficult task for us specialist scribes
– try not to laugh too loudly at that one – to get the
lingo right in articles because readers vary greatly in their experience of motorcaravanning and their understanding of technical vocabulary (…that is, jargon).
Also, new readers are joining us all the time and
it is all too easy to assume prior knowledge of the 'techy' bits. Several folk asked me at the previous readers' weekend staged by Practical Motorhome if I could include in my column a sort of duffer's guide to coachbuilt motorcaravan chassis terminology.
So, here is my attempt to explain the difference between a chassis-cab and a chassis-platform. The latter is now increasingly referred to as a 'platform-cab'.
Most coachbuilt motorhomes are built on chassis-cabs. This is where
the chassis manufacturer (Fiat, for instance) delivers a normal cab and rear chassis to the motorhome builder for conversion to a motorcaravan.
The bit behind the cab has no bodywork on it and looks like a skeleton with wheels. The converter then cuts off the back of the cab and the roof and then builds the caravan body onto it.
With me so far? If it has a bed over the cab, it is called an 'overcab coachbuilt'.
The bulge over the cab is sometimes known as a 'Luton' because hat hauliers in that town in Bedfordshire, first put these forward extensions onto their transport vans so that they could stow more hats
per run.
They were able to do this because hats in boxes are light but bulky, so storing some
'up there in the Luton' did not affect stability.
What now seems several centuries ago, I worked in
a gentlemen's outfitter, and back then there were loads
of independent hat manufacturers and millinery shops in Luton, although
I doubt that many have survived to date.
Do you have a bulge over the cab – instead a streamlined slope from the top of the windscreen? Yes? Then you have a 'low-profile coachbuilt'.
If the coachbuilt is made
on a platform-cab then the original vehicle will have
what looks like a van floor behind the cab, but no van sides. On this base, the caravan part is built on,
as before. A few overcab coachbuilts are made like this, but because one of the main advantages of platform-cabs
is said to be a lower rear floor, most which use this chassis are low-profile coachbuilts. They use this type of chassis to give them a more sleek, ground-hugging, stance.
Smaller vans, such as
the Peugeot Partner and the Citroën Berlingo, are often
not manufactured as chassis-cabs, and are available only
as platform-cabs.
See you next month!
Jack Bancroft |
