Jul 30, 2007
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Hi, I have been trying to post photos to the Buyers Guide - Caravans section Pegasus 524 thread, and it has gone wrong (just displaying the text), please could you delete the erroronous posts.

Many thanks.
 

Parksy

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Nov 12, 2009
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Hi Zafiral

Make sure that your battery is fully charged and that you have plenty of lpg and you'll be fine.

It might be worth phoning the steward of your first rally to see if you can turn up slightly earlier, more often than not this is no problem and let them know that this will be your first rally.

We're off again on Friday, we're at a sports club on the banks of the Severn and it looks as though the weather will be lovely for a change.
 
Jul 9, 2001
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Parksy

As a silly question, is it difficult to check the charge of a battery? Our guage shows 13v at all times, even when I checked before connecting the mains for our first use after the winter closed season.

One issue we could get is that most of the EEDA meets are within 10 or 20 miles of where we store so the charging from the car will be restricted. We also use a mover for further degredation and the tracker/alarm on the van means we cannot take the battery home for 'conditioning'. Storage is about 30 miles from home.
 

Parksy

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Nov 12, 2009
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Up until now I've always carried a spare fully charged leisure battery when rallying especially during the darker weeks so that I know that I'll have plenty of power in reserve but we're considering investing in an 80 watt 12v solar panel and charge regulator which will end the need to carry the spare battery and allow some limited 240v power via an inverter.
 
Jul 9, 2001
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We don't really have the space for a 2nd battery (and it is a fair weight too!!!), and as the van is new I am too scared to try wiring in a solar panel.

Are generators frowned upon on rallies?
 

Parksy

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Nov 12, 2009
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You don't have to 'wire in' solar panels lol!

Some decide on roof mounted panels which calls for the cable to be routed through the roof of the caravan and behind bed boxes etc to the battery, I'd personally leave that to a fitter who was experienced in fitting caravan roof mounted solar panels.

The majority of solar panel users on our rallies erect their panels on stands on the ground outside their caravans. The systems appear to be 'plug in and play' and the only wiring for you to do would be to attach two crocodile clips to the leisure battery.

I don't see many generators in use on our rallies, I think that genny users need permission from the rally steward to use them and there are some restrictions on how many hours they can be used.

Id say that a fully charged leisure battery should last ok over the course of a weekend rally during the lighter summer nights as long as you leave the t.v. at home and don't use omnivent fans or the blown air heating fan
 
Jul 9, 2001
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Oops, I thought it was more involved!!! Not sure I can get croc clips on the battery, squeezing a piece of paper in on top of the battery could be fun!!!

The latest C&CC mag has a couple of sections on rallying & also preparing for off grid.
 

Parksy

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Nov 12, 2009
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We're picking up an 80 watt solar panel, charge controller and all of the other gubbins needed to connect to our leisure battery this lunchtime on the way to this weekends rally in Evesham.

The package costs
 
Jul 9, 2001
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Enjoy your weekend away, we have home commitments this weekend, & then we are at Teversal C&CC for the bank holiday.

Are Solar Panels a theft risk?
 

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