Recent content by GaryB

Just make sure the bottle jack will go under if the caravan tyre is flat. I bought a low profile bottle jack after realising a standard one wouldn’t fit under if the tyre was flat.

The threaded boss that the winding screws runs in can strip if there is too much pressure exerted on it (such as trying to lift the caravan using it), they are easily replaced, I had to do one on my parents caravan a few years back. I THINK I got it from EBay.

It's because their design spreads the load from the jack, if a jack is just placed on the underside of the chassis member it will cause significant distortion. Personally I use a trolley jack under the axle tube but that involves a bit of groveling around to get the pad in the right place so...

We had similar on an Alko chassis on a 1996 Coachman many years ago, the wheel was in a "cage" that simply hinged down once the latch was released, no telescopic tubes etc to battle with.

We’ve just had four nights on a serviced pitch & it was brilliant. The only sour point is the price! However £43.60 a night for 2 people over a Bank Holiday on a club site probably isn’t bad!

I remember seeing one advertised that was hand operated, looked a bit like a big salad-spinner

We’re currently at the CAMHC site at Carsington Water, booked in January as it’s always popular. It’s certainly busy but there’s a handful of empty pitches.

It’s a good job we all like and do different things, imagine how boring life would be otherwise. Anyway, I prefer serviced pitches as it makes life easier when filling up my jacuzzi and running the washing machine.

I’d also advise buying a genuine Aquaroll (Hitchin) adapter kit as the cheaper EBay alternatives leak (in my experience!).

We’re on one now and I use lengths of plastic waste pipe, I have a selection of 1 metre and 1/2 metre lengths.

Agreed, our first new caravan was a 2002 Sterling Eccles Jewel, the build quality was good, the bathroom very usable and the bedroom worked well.

I went on a weight-reduction exercise when we collected the new caravan a few weeks back, I had various bits of wood for levelling and ditched them for 2 x set of the Carastack pads as mentioned previously, seem to work well.

From memory (I've had quite a few Swift's over the years) the front window shape and size has remained unchanged so a Swift group dealer might be able to confirm this and order the correct seals for the job. Regarding wall board there is (or was!) a place called O'Leary Motorhomes that did a...

When we had a caravan that wasn't a fixed bed (mistake!) we turned the cushions over and also used a 2" mattress topper from Dunelm which was reasonably comfortable.

As John has said, there’s usually a way of opening the grid, sometimes it’s a spring loaded flap. I use lengths of rigid waste pipe pushed together with a 90 degree bend on the end.