caravan misuse

[KenWashington]

(Posted in Our Website in error)

can someone tell me why people pay £14,000 + for their luxury caravan but then do not use all the facilities is has on board. We stopped at a site near Newark just off the A1 at Cromwell, in the site comments book people moaned about not enough showers. Why buy a caravan with a shower and then not use it (my husband is 6'4" and we used ours every day) We saw a woman come out of a brand new Bailey 6 series ladened down with her pots to wash, why she did not was in the caravan that cost her all that moneygo only knows. you can look at it two ways we either say to manufacturers we dont really need all this equipment so give us basic cheaper lighter vans or we use all the equipment we have paid for not use the site facilities and maybe the site owners might keep prices down we pay the same as everyone else but dont use their hot water we shower in the van and wash all our pots in the van. Lets all use them for the reason we picked the specification.

Linda

 

[Rubix]

Aha, here it is : my reply (good job I saved it) :

That's all well and good Linda, but do you know any 'Vans that come without showers ? Or ovens ?

Our van is 9 years old so has no oven, but it does have a shower. It's ok if you have mains water hookup but I personally can't be a***d to fill up the aquaroll (and empty the waste water too) every day when i have paid for a much nicer and probabaly longer shower.

It would be nice to have a "basic" 500Kg 'Van but I don't know of many that a family can fit in.

I have read some reports from manufacturers and some feel they want to build the "everything as standard" spec 'Van, and others choose the (cost) options method, but this of course would cost much more if you wanted all these options as they need to have alternative builds for those who don't want say the microwave (locker instead)

I personally don't go for the fixed beds, but other like them, why, well in my case I want more room for family (we also have a wetroom, rather than a seperate shower cubicle).

We are all different and want different things for our own personal reasons.

Unfortunatly you can't please all the people all of the time.

I'm not haveing a go, but we don't always have the option, and i suppose some people still want some of the hotel "luxuries" by having someone else clear up after them (shower, toilet, potwash) as they are on holiday.

 

[RiaandJames_374303418]

We always do the washing up in the caravan, if we get a UK super pitch or a continental pitch with drainage and water feed we use the shower quite a lot.

If site showers are good we use them a lot if we can't connect to water and drainage, we are not caravanning to spend time running back and forth to drainage points and pulling Aquarolls more than we need to.

No doubt you use the sites power supply and water to wash with, in the UK you don't exactly get a lot for your money at very many sites, a few good clean showers with hot water is not a lot to ask for!

Plenty rarely use caravans cooker facilities I've noticed, but I doubt we would want to be without them.

Ria

Ria

 

[linda_374319653]

Aha, here it is : my reply (good job I saved it) :

That's all well and good Linda, but do you know any 'Vans that come without showers ? Or ovens ?

Our van is 9 years old so has no oven, but it does have a shower. It's ok if you have mains water hookup but I personally can't be a***d to fill up the aquaroll (and empty the waste water too) every day when i have paid for a much nicer and probabaly longer shower.

It would be nice to have a "basic" 500Kg 'Van but I don't know of many that a family can fit in.

I have read some reports from manufacturers and some feel they want to build the "everything as standard" spec 'Van, and others choose the (cost) options method, but this of course would cost much more if you wanted all these options as they need to have alternative builds for those who don't want say the microwave (locker instead)

I personally don't go for the fixed beds, but other like them, why, well in my case I want more room for family (we also have a wetroom, rather than a seperate shower cubicle).

We are all different and want different things for our own personal reasons.

Unfortunatly you can't please all the people all of the time.

I'm not haveing a go, but we don't always have the option, and i suppose some people still want some of the hotel "luxuries" by having someone else clear up after them (shower, toilet, potwash) as they are on holiday.

I would love for manufactures to build a van with sprung seats and nice furniture but in the past when they leave luxuries out of a van they then scrimp on the furniture and when they look cheap no one will buy them. New vans have bigger water tanks so you can have a long shower without running out of water. My husband always fills the water up every morning. If people want running water straight from the mains they could use a hotel. What happened to old fashioned camping, my children use to help with the filling and empting of water.

 

[colin(bridgend)]

We have NEVER used a shower in our caravans - either use site facilities or go round dirty. We were told on one occassion by a senior salesman in Swansea to be very careful buying second hand caravan with a shower. As the van is being towed so the body of the van is flexing. As this happens the selastic seal aound the shower tray gradually gives (maybe over a few years) and moisture will run down onto the floor under the shower and start to rot. We also where possible do the washing up on the site amenity rather than have a mess in the van. Obviously common sense prevails on this depending on the number of dishes and the weather. The toilet is only used as an emergency at night and then where possible not for long sessions.

We have been caravanning for almost 38 years and this is how we have managed in the past and probably will carry on until we give up the hobby. All to their own whatever they so wish to do. This view could be adopted to many aspects of spenditure - why buy a four bedroomed house if there are only two or three in a family, etc., etc.

 

[linda_374319653]

We have NEVER used a shower in our caravans - either use site facilities or go round dirty. We were told on one occassion by a senior salesman in Swansea to be very careful buying second hand caravan with a shower. As the van is being towed so the body of the van is flexing. As this happens the selastic seal aound the shower tray gradually gives (maybe over a few years) and moisture will run down onto the floor under the shower and start to rot. We also where possible do the washing up on the site amenity rather than have a mess in the van. Obviously common sense prevails on this depending on the number of dishes and the weather. The toilet is only used as an emergency at night and then where possible not for long sessions.

We have been caravanning for almost 38 years and this is how we have managed in the past and probably will carry on until we give up the hobby. All to their own whatever they so wish to do. This view could be adopted to many aspects of spenditure - why buy a four bedroomed house if there are only two or three in a family, etc., etc.

I have been caravanning for over 40 yrs and my husband works in the caravan industry caravans come now with fully sealled units that are put in place before the roof goes on. The walls of a caravan flex when towing not all the furniture. Flexibul sealant is used they are perfectly safe to use and I was refering to people buying new vans. We are lucky to borrow new vans but we do have a 89 Ralleye 510 sat on our drive waiting to be sold and I would not use the shower in that but we did do all the washing up etc in it.

 

[Lancer]

I think it all depends on what services are available at site, we went to Brean and the pitch had its own water and grey waste so connected up and used our own shower every day.

At Blackmore only had electric so used the excellent shower block on the site, I think you should not worry over the seals in the vans shower cubicle causing damp though it's wise to make sure all seals are OK I recently asked on the annual service that the seals around the shower be checked and if necessary re sealed which was done.

We also tend to do our washing up in the van can't see the point in dragging all your dirty dishes over to a sink in a block when you have a sink in the van.

It is wise to flush the waste pipes though with Milton at the end of the season to make sure no waste builds up in the pipes.

Emptying the chemical waste is one job I really hate I wish they would come up with a supper pitch that handled that.

Stu

 

[cooky1]

I think it is all about being able to do what ever you want. If you have a shower in the van you have the choice to shower there or on the site. The same goes for the washing up. Sometimes we wash up in the van, but if the wash is a large one and some of the items are greasy then the site washing facilities are better.

Some people like to socialise at the washing points - it just depends on what you want to do.

 

[RogerP]

Site facilites for showering. Although our caravans shower is probably too small for me we opted for a smaller shower primarily to gain space but so that we could shower our 2 year old if needed.

Caravan for washing up and generally we wash up directly after using. This way dishes can be put away not left around smelling , also means we only need take the bear minimum number of plates dished etc etc thus saving weight.

I've witnessed people taking what seemed like a dishwasher full of pots and pans every evening to be washed up. It looked they used clean items each sitting , stacked them till after tea then washed them in one go, and this wasn't just a one off there were several people doing this all week.!!!!

any way each to their own , having said that I was close to using the van's shower recently as the showers on the site we were at had 2 temperatures 'so hot it was steam' or 'off'.

 

[Garfield]

We use CL's and rallies so our shower gets used all the time, even on sites that have good showers I hate the "soggy bottoms dance" as one post put it. We have just upgraded from a van with a tiny combined wc washroom to one with an end bathroom with separate shower and would never go back. Perhaps those complaining about lack of showers were not fortunate enough to have a caravan with a usable shower, the one in our previous van wasn't.

 

[Del_374232870]

This isn't caravan misuse, its owners choice. we have all the mod cons in our van , yes we always do the dishes in the van but where available prefer to use the site showers and facilities.

Dont see how showering and washing dishes in the van would save owners much, after all water is metered for the site owners and most caravans have electric water heaters so there goees most of the savings. This is reflected in some all year sites which charge more for the pitch fee in the winter to compensate for the increased electricity usage.

Each to there own, but I certainly don't see that I am misusing my van by not always using the shower in it.

 

[ajmacintosh]

We wash all our dishes in the caravan.

Up until 2 weeks ago we had never used the caravan shower but stayed on a site (no names mentioned)with showers that were lets say 'unpleasant'. Anyway, my Wife says 'is the aquaroll full?' upon inspection of said water container I confirmed that it was and into the shower she went albeit for a limited period of time. when she emerged she said 'oh that was lovely - I will be using that everytime we go away!'.

My point being...has anyone here ever even tried thier shower?

Just a thought......

Andrew (Maesteg)

 

[S-MaxJon]

We have a Coachman Amara - the only facility we don't use is the shower.Main reasons - too cramped and will probably soak the whole toilet and don't want to keep filling up aquaroll and wait for water to heat up.!!!

My in-laws don't even use the water heater and wash up at the wash rooms and they have a brandnew van.My girlfriend says they spent too many years camping and old habits die hard!!

 

[steve_5041630]

Everybody to their own I think.

But personally. We are a family of four and caravan regularly, generally at CL sites, sometimes at CC sites. we tend to be self sufficient. Use the shower and clean up pots etc in the caravan. Can't see the point in cleaning pots and pans in a communal sink. Also, first time we went away used the site showers etc. Other peoples hair in the plug hole and so on. Yuk. So unless we have a real need to, don't use them.

And also the sight of people walking from the showers in dressing gowns etc. Again...Yuk...

 

[RiaandJames_374303418]

I'm in the Jodie Kidd height range and James is a bit taller, we've not had problems using our compact caravan showers, also the water comes through hot as soon as we've connected our present and previous caravans! There is no waiting.

We use site showers, but have not had a problem in compact van showers. Also a quick blast from the blown air heating soon dries out the wash room and yourself if you want

Ria

 

[jinty0_0]

i love going to the pot wash as it lets you speak to fellow campers, but my hubby hates the pot wash so if i want a hand doing dishes i have to stay in van. we recently bought a new van and explained to the salesman what we wanted and needed after looking at a few vans we decided to look at caravans that had shower away from the wc or could be shut off from them as we wanted to make sure we could dry off all the walls after use to prevent dampness, when we collected the van from the dealer the salesman says the shower is really only to be used by kids as adults could break the seal by this time he had our money.

 

[Oldfogey]

Legally this is known as a "post-contract term" and is therefore no applicable. It is reasonable to assume that the shower can be used by anybody on a regular basis unless there is clear advice to the contrary before the contract is made.

I would suggest writing to the dealer (copy to the manufacturer) pointing out what the salesman said, and advising that the shower will regularly be used by adults. Ask them to confirm in writing that this presents no problem and will be fully covered by warranty, or to refund your money in full as the caravan will have to be considered not fit for purpose.