Gary & Diane - Ramblin' On » Our Caravan http://go.id.au About the Riverland, Caravaning, Geocaching, Travelling ..... Thu, 08 Jul 2010 03:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 12 Volt Battery Instalation http://go.id.au/2007/11/10/12-volt-battery-instalation/ http://go.id.au/2007/11/10/12-volt-battery-instalation/#comments Sat, 10 Nov 2007 04:43:10 +0000 Gary http://www.go.id.au/2007/11/10/12-volt-battery-instalation/ Our Traveller caravan does not have a 12 volt battery set up.

As we would like to stay overnight in National Parks and/or bush camp we decided to fit a 12 volt battery and have access to some 240 volt appliances (TV, Satellite TV Decoder, Laptop, Battery Chargers, etc.) that are in the caravan.

The following gallery details the project from start to finish.

Download Information

The following files are available for downloading which we found useful.

[download id="1"]

]]> http://go.id.au/2007/11/10/12-volt-battery-instalation/feed/ 0 Towsafe Training http://go.id.au/2006/09/29/towsafe-training/ http://go.id.au/2006/09/29/towsafe-training/#comments Fri, 29 Sep 2006 01:35:32 +0000 Gary http://www.go.id.au/?p=65 I’ve just completed a Towsafe Training course conducted by Tom Olthoff  who writes the Caravan World magazine Caravanning Clinic pages.

The course consisted of eight evening sessions (3 hours) plus a weekend practical (6 hours). The course is conducted by Tom. Tom invites experts in their field to present some of the topics covered.

The topics covered include:

  • Selection of car and caravan
  • Towing vehicle modifications
  • Towbars and hitches
  • Maintenance
  • Suspension, brakes and tyres
  • Electrical and LPG safety
  • Communication
  • 12 volt systems
  • Caravan design and layout
  • Loading and hitching
  • Towing techniques
  • Manoeuvring
  • Regulations
  • Storage (when van is not in use)
  • Accessories
  • Caravan parks and campsites

The cost per person was $170.00 or $310.00 per couple. Further information for anyone reading this post who resides in Adelaide can be obtained from Tom by contacting him on (08) 8377 2650.

Towsafe Training have been conducting caravanning courses for more than 20 years and have extensive experience in all facets of the industry, providing current, relevant and unbiased information.

]]> http://go.id.au/2006/09/29/towsafe-training/feed/ 0 We Have Our Caravan http://go.id.au/2006/07/22/we-have-our-caravan/ http://go.id.au/2006/07/22/we-have-our-caravan/#comments Sat, 22 Jul 2006 11:01:23 +0000 Gary http://www.go.id.au/?p=28 This morning we collected our caravan from Dave Benson Caravans, not without a little drama.

Table of Contents

  1. Collecting the Caravan
  2. Initial Fuel Consumption
  3. Update on Fuel Consumption

Collecting the Caravan

Prior to collecting the caravan, we had a new heavy duty towbar and electric brakes fitted by Halls Towbars on Main North Road, Enfield. This took around two and a half hours.

We then proceeded to drive around the corner to Prospect Road to collect the caravan from Dave Benson’s service yard only to find no-one in attendance and the gates closed. We then went to the showroom yard 2 kilometres up Prospect Road to be told that they were there!

Back we went and this time someone was there – we’re sure they weren’t when we first went, but never mind.

They then proceeded to do a hand over explaining how everything worked. After an hour or so we were ready to go on our way. We checked all connections and lights and set off.

About thirty seconds later we received a call on the mobile to tell us that they had forgotten to stow the jockey wheel and that it was still attached to the caravan. We pulled over and removed the jockey wheel. No doubt others will have similar stories about what went wrong when they collected their caravan.

Initial Fuel Consumption

We were somewhat surprised at the fuel consumption as we travelled home to Berri. We sat on between 85 kph and 100 kph. Usually we get around 500 kms from a full tank of gas. Towing the caravan we got around 300kms. This equates to about 20ltr/100kms.

We will be doing some further research on fuel consumption before considering whether to upgrade our towing vehicle.

Update on Fuel Consumption

As the trip home to Berri was our first trip towing a caravan, we weren’t expecting our fuel consumption to be as great as it was. We believe we will be able to achieve a slight improvement by driving a little more consistently and not travelling over 90k/hr.

Tom Olthoff (Caravan World Magazine Writer) emailed me a story he wrote regarding towing a caravan behind a TJ Magna on gas and in his article he achieved similar results. We now don’t feel as concerned about our fuel consumption – it just means we need to budget more for fuel expenses than we might otherwise have anticipated.

]]> http://go.id.au/2006/07/22/we-have-our-caravan/feed/ 0 Dave Benson Caravans http://go.id.au/2006/07/09/dave-benson-caravans/ http://go.id.au/2006/07/09/dave-benson-caravans/#comments Sun, 09 Jul 2006 05:47:56 +0000 Gary http://www.go.id.au/?p=22 We bought our caravan from Dave Benson Caravans, in July 2006. We had been looking for a pre-loved caravan for some time and finally made the decision to buy.

We had a look around most of the caravan yards and dealerships in the northern suburbs of Adelaide and eventually returned to Dave Benson Caravans.

Their pre-delivery service was not very good at all. We were extremely annoyed that a crucial part of the anti-sway bar was removed when we went to pick up the caravan. The workshop manager’s response was “We didn’t know what it was for, so we removed it”. From there things didn’t get much better.

We hope that we have made the right choice of caravan and that the caravan we have bought will provide us with years of enjoyment.

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