Is there a conspiracy?..

[angel3]

Hi All,

Just been to visit my new and as yet unused van today in it's storeage site. It was v exciting, if a bit wobbly (No corner steadies down, oops..actually don;t know if that is a big prob in storage or not! ha ha)

We weren't actually needing to move it today, just filling it up with 'stuff'. Good job really as now hubby and me are having wobblies over the fact that the van is parked inches from two vans on either side, one almost touching behind and not enough room in front to reverse up a car. Am I being complete thick newbie here or is there some secret special way of getting our van out, that everyone knows about but me?? Levitation of large heavy objects not being my specialty....

Thanking u in anticipation (and feeling a bit stupid at the same time ;-) )

Angel

 

[swpostie]

Hi angel,

Our storage site has a secure pick-up and drop-off area. We just contact them the day before we want the 'van and they pull it out into the pick-up area, all ready and pointing the right way!

When we bring it back we just tow it into the yard and leave it there.

They will also pull it out into the yard if we want to clean it or work on it (water, ladder, electric and air supplied).

So, all in all, not much help to you - sorry!

 

[BG]

Steadies should be down if you are entering the van - how did manage to get the van in - if it goes in then it should no more difficult to get out - if you see what i mean

 

[angel3]

Yes I totally see your point BG and that's what baffles me! The dealer had it all set up for us on his forecourt when we took delivery of it so he could demo all the systems etc. We then left it up to him to put it into storeage so never saw him do it! As u say it went in so must come out and I assume everyone else gets theirs out ok.

Maybe it's a set up like Rupert's (I hope so, sounds great!)

Angel

 

[MikeAce]

when we collected our van it was six months old and it too was only sat on the jockey wheel, i moved it to the pitch we had booked into for the weekend (to test the new van) and dropped the legs there.

Rupert, please dont take this as a criticism towards your site but do you not mind your pride and joy being towed by someone else? i couldnt handle that, i would be afraid of it being slung around, no one loves their van more than its owner, i know, i sound like a big girl. lol

my storage yard has the gold cassoa award for security and the pitches have about 5 feet inbetween vans, when in storage it has the legs down everytime so that on the occasional lunch break i can pop over and have chill time in the van. (i work 5 minutes away from the site)

i guess i am way too attached to my van.

 

[LMH]

Hi Angel

In my experience, caravan dealers are a bit like car dealers. Best not go there.

However, think about it, how many times have you been in a car showroom or seen cars on the forecourt and thought to yourself 'how the hell did they get that car in there?'.

Same with caravan dealers.

If you can hitch up and pull the caravan out in a straight line without having to do much turning when pulling the van out, that would help you 100%. If you have to start going forward, turning slightly, then going forward, maybe reversing etc, personally, I would ask the people who put it in storage for you to get the damn thing out.

We collected ours from service last year and if I said it was a nightmare to move it, that would be an understatement. We did do it eventually (pushing it by hand) but I noticed when I started walking around to ask for 'one of them to move it as they had parked it only a few inches from vans either side', the people at the service department simply disappeared.

They like to cram as many vans onto storage sites as possible.

Lisa

 

[ValA.]

Our storage site has about four feet or more between vans, four feet at the back, and a whole road width and a half in front, so it's easy to get in and out. We don't have anyone to tow it out for us. Previously it was stored elsewhere, but we found that other people handling it were not as careful as us, and things like dirty grab handles, and small dirty oily marks around the corners where it had been manhandled, made us wonder just how much care they put into handling the vans. We decided to move it.

If I were you I would immediately find out what the arrangements are to get it in and out of storage, hours you can do it, and so on - after all that's part of your contract with the storage site. If you don't like the terms, then start looking elsewhere, even if it's only to move at the end of your first contract. I wouldn't have mine stored with so little room between vans - you've only to look at the damage caused by the recent fires at two well-known dealerships to see what might happen.

By the way, I hope you've put the legs down! Going into the van without can cause problems - we saw a van tipped on it's backside once, where both (heavy) people had obviously been at the back of the van at the same time, with no steadies down. You could end up in a real mess if there's so little room around your van.

 

[Thorpedo]

The site I store my van at sometimes told me off when I had a broken steady as they said they always put the rear steadies down to help stop the van moving in high winds, I took that to mean the possibilty of swinging into adjacent vans.

Food for thought.

 

[whitetop]

The storage site I used had a drop off / pick up yard.

You phoned the day before and they had it ready to go when you arrived. They had the spare hitch lock and wheel lock keys so the could secure van after storing and getting it out.

6 in / outs included in fees.

Fully insured and a caravan main dealer 1 mile away for servicing etc....got 25% off all labour costs at dealer and discount off accessories.

 

[CameronBurns]

when my caravan had to be put into storage for 6 months (i cried for 7 of them LOL!!!) i was worried if anything would happen to it. we had to leave the compound owner with the keys, in case he had to move it- he asked for a full set of keys 'in case he needed to go in the caravan for us', and that was scary, thinking someone is moving, looking in and 'touching' your pride and joy at any point was strange.

being over protective (this is turning into one of those dramatic all-tears scenes in a film) towards my caravan, i had about 6 locks on it, it was all tiedied inside, polished outside with wheel covers on to protect the tyres from the elements, the corner steadies on blocks so grass didn't grow over them and all moving parts lubricated with grease/oil. of course i had a fit 6 months later when he told me he had moved it. the wheel covers weren't put on right (which isn't a suprise, it takes me all of the holiday to get them on!) and the A-frame cover wasn't either and the caravan was GREEN WITH DIRT i took it quite personally. there was nothing wrong at all with the storage facility, there were good reasons for these harmless 'happenings'- it's just me who loves my caravan too much!!!!!