Recent content by Silversusie

'Practical Caravan' September 2010, p.52, 4th column, mentions lubricating awning zips with awning channel and zip lubricant, or smearing them with candle wax. We've never found candle wax to be very effective. We use Pledge to lubricate the awning rail - would that be OK for the zips too...

I asked a similar question some time ago and was told that the algae (or "black bits", as I described it) was caused by using the Thetford pink flush. So, like Wigandiver, we stopped using it and now we have no problems either.

Thanks to everyone who replied - it's certainly given us something to think about. What we've decided to do is not to use any chemicals in the toilet on our next trip, to see how it (and we) cope. We've got into the habit of emptying it every day because we tend to stay on CL sites and it...

So maybe we shouldn't bother using any fluid at all? Does anyone else do this? What does it...ahem....smell like? One of the reasons that we empty each day is because of the unpleasant odours!

Please could someone give me some guidance on this? After I empty the toilet, I put in 75 mls of Aqua Kem Green because that's what the label says you need for a 10 litre cassette. However, my husband only puts in 25 mls after he empties the toilet, on the grounds that, because we empty it...

Thanks for all your help, will have a go next week!

I understand that Thetford have discontinued the above product. Can anyone recommend a similar product that will get rid of the black bits in the toilet water tank? Many thanks!

A huge thank you to everyone who has replied with suggestions - I'll be giving the van a really good internal clean as per your instructions. Paul, you asked about the internal layout of the caravan. In Practical Caravan magazine, it's layout S - side dinette, end bathroom. The layout of the...

Thanks, Catherine, I'll try that. I'm going to make it my goal to get to the storage compound more often to air and clean the van from now on. As I said to Glenn above, I can't blame it on the children! Today we collected the caravan from its annual service. It now has a damp reading of 60%...

Hi Glenn Nope, can't blame it on the kids...they live in Australia and America respectively and never caravanned with us (we worked our way through camping to get to a caravan).

Lutz, you said "If the damp needs to be treated every year, then it hasn't been doen properly in the first place. The caravan obviously needs a professional job to get to grips with the problem." Unfortunately, it _has_ been done "professionally" - by an "Approved Workshop". There is a current...

Our caravan is now 10 years old. The last two annual services have revealed a certain amount of damp at the rear of the van, which has been treated each year. Once we started getting these damp readings, we started putting moisture-removing crystals in the van each winter (when it's in storage...

Thanks Christine, that's a great idea and I think it's what we'll go with. Thanks to everyone else for your input!

Roger, we have the same problem as David, we can only feed the draft excluder in from the middle as the front and back ends of the channel are "stopped up". So we too have a baggy bit around the wheel which funnels the breeze nicely into the awning! David, if you used scissors to trim yours, I...

Our awning draft excluder (if that's the right term for it, it's the long piece that slots into the lower edge of the caravan) is too long for its channel. We feel it should be possible to cut it to fit, since it feeds into this channel from each side of the wheel arch. Has anyone done this...