Recent content by David_from_Ashby

Have you tried using Google Chrome browser instead of Explorer? It is available free from google. I find it quicker and more reliable than Explorer. The whole idea of tabbed browsing works well, as does the home page whish presents quick links to your "recent and favourite sites. On the rare...

Hi Clive Personally I would not buy a dedicated satnav. I am now on my 3rd Phone based satnav program, which is by far the best I have ever used. ALK Copilot V8 on Android, Windows Mobile phone and iphone. I run it on a HTC Hero and it is brilliant. We used V7 on a windows mobile phone in...

I doubt that a brisk coupling would trigger an airbag. I have been involved with quite a lot of airbag development and undertaken plenty of airbag "abuse" testing which is designed to ensure that airbags do not trigger prematurely. One such test is called Vandalism and involves smacking the...

Colin In general I have to agree with you about extended warranties...however, we were "given" a 5 year warranty as part of a package deal when we bought the appliances for our new kitchen 7 years ago. In that time, the oven was the only thing to fail, and since has had 4 new fans and 3 heater...

Hi Happy Lappy I used Etyres to fit 3 new tyres to my van when I first got it. Because the tyres were a little unusual, it took them a day longer to get them than they initially said (2 days instead of 1) but they were cheapest and the tyres recently manufactured (like only 1 month old). They...

Earlier this year we did the route from St Malo to Saint Avit de Loisir, near Le Bugue in one day. Rolling off the ferry at the crack of dawn, finally reaching the site at around 18:30. One very long day of driving! Next year we are taking a different approach, getting the early morning ferry...

Hi all I have come in to this conversation rather late, but I think a simple summary is in order (from a practicing vehicle dynamics engineer) In general - lower profile tyres will most likely offer better stability than higher profile tyres due to less sidewall flexing - Wider tyres will...

Hello All I have a Compass Corona 524 which houses the spare wheel neatly in the front locker. Now having tried different loading conditions have found that the van tows much more stably with a nose weight in the region of 75kg. With the spare wheel in the front locker the nose weight is up...

Hi All I tow a 1300kg Compass Corona behind a new shape Honda CR/V, this has always been a bit unstable at higher speed (in France I should add) and occasionally a bit "wobbly" on UK motorways, particularly when overtaking/being overtaken by coaches. I have always been careful with loading and...

Hi Nikki If it is not raining when we pack away, I usually try to wipe as much water off as possible, and leave it up as late as I can before packing it away. If the weather permits, I drape it out of the decking in the back garden to finish drying, if not I have it very loosely rolled in the...

Hi JTQ A simple answer really, the fan heater has three heat settings, cold air only, 1 bar (750W) and 2 bar (1.5kW). If i runit on 1 bar it uses approximately half the power that 2 bars pull (neglecting the difference due to the fan running in all three modes). CHeers David

Hi All Thanks Gary, it is an MCB that is tripping, which knocks out all the 240v sockets. We are talking about a 1.5kw heater running on only half power to around 750w. Well wiothing the MCB capability. Incidentally, the MCB is fine for relatively short periods of the heater running on Max as...

Hi All On a couple of recent winter trips away we started having problems with the caravan RCD tripping. Usually this occurs with the caravan blown air heating running and a small fan heater in the awning. The fan heater is fine and does not have an electrical problem but after say an hour or...

Hi Sparkle We have two children aged 5 and 2 who are only too happy to "help" with pitching up and packing away. We have been vanning now for just over 1 year, and already managed over 46 nights away in that time in every weather from hot sun to strong winds, snow and torrential rain. The kids...

Hi Roger I am just learning Italian for work reasons, but can recommend www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french as a good starting point. Our tutor recommends it to support what she teaches. I have tried the Italian site and it is pretty good. Cheers David