Silly touring stories

[KenWashington]

Message from the PCV editorial team:

Prompted by the tale of a chap who arrived at a campsite, only to realise that he'd forgotten to attach his caravan, Practical Caravan is putting together a feature about silly touring stories. We are looking for contributions and observations from readers and forum members in order to make it a great read.

Whether you have been told ridiculous caravan 'laws', had someone give you completely false information, seen people doing ridiculous things on site or have seen a Ford Fiesta towing a twin-axle across the Alps, we want to hear from you. We also want to hear the horror stories about dealers giving you the brush off, site owners shrugging their shoulders and fellow caravanners who have raised a smile as they go about their business.

We will pay £20 for every contribution that is published. We don't need pages, just a short explanation is perfect. Simply email your contribution to practical.caravan@haymarket.com, including your name (forum or real), your story and with Tall Tales in the subject line.

 

[BeemerMal]

Moderator1....I had a "tall story" printed in this months Practical Caravan, did'nt get the

 

[KenWashington]

Sorry to hear that. Email the editorial secretary on practical.caravan@haynet.com and she will look into it.

Mod1

 

[JeremyClarksson]

I went away camping with brother/friends and forgot the tent -twice!

 

[Guest]

How about the time we went to visit a well known South Wales Bailey dealer with a mission to buy two brand new 'vans (one for my family, one for my parents) and were 'treated' to the sales patter from none other than the owner himself.

I have to say I admired his confidence when he refused to increase his generous offer of

 

[coljac]

How about the time we went to visit a well known South Wales Bailey dealer with a mission to buy two brand new 'vans (one for my family, one for my parents) and were 'treated' to the sales patter from none other than the owner himself.

I have to say I admired his confidence when he refused to increase his generous offer of

 

[colin(bridgend)]

Hi Simon we have recently bought a new Ace Jubilee Envoy fixed bed 4 berth from Barry Caravan Centre. The gentleman we dealt with was a guy by the name of Alan Dunn. He was very helpful and could not do enough for us. We mentioned this to a neighbour and they have experienced the same quality of service enen though they bought a second hand van. Give them a visit as their web page is not up to date and see what he can offer. They are not Bailey dealers but Swift. Mention my name if you so wish - Colin Williams - Penyfai. Good luck in your quest. Another neighbour had a bad experience from the local Bailey dealer and will not go back there.

 

[Dudley_374244703]

Hi Simon we have recently bought a new Ace Jubilee Envoy fixed bed 4 berth from Barry Caravan Centre. The gentleman we dealt with was a guy by the name of Alan Dunn. He was very helpful and could not do enough for us. We mentioned this to a neighbour and they have experienced the same quality of service enen though they bought a second hand van. Give them a visit as their web page is not up to date and see what he can offer. They are not Bailey dealers but Swift. Mention my name if you so wish - Colin Williams - Penyfai. Good luck in your quest. Another neighbour had a bad experience from the local Bailey dealer and will not go back there.

I too have had experiences both with South Wales Bailey dealers and as it happens with Alan at Barry Caravans.The difference in attitude and service could not have been more pronounced.The latter was a pleasure to deal with.I have also purchased a Bailey Ranger from Chipping Sodbury...they too were v.good and instead of being asked to pay

 

[Guest]

YES,but you are missing the punch line .Did you get a better deal and what was it ??? Col

Apologies. Yes we did find a better deal with a 2 minute phone call to a Bailey dealer in Cheltenham. The attitude from the lady on the telephone was far closer to what I would expect from someone trying to sell a product and develop a good first impression.

My parents and I both ended up with better deals but from different dealers. I actually ended up with a 3 month old Sterling with all the gear plus a brand new awning for less money than the Ranger we had decided on.

 

[Guest]

Hi Colin,

My parents ended up buying their 'van from the guys in Barry and the attitude and service was indeed in sharp contrast to our earlier experiences. My wife and I ended up buying our 'van from Vale of Glamorgan Caravans and again the service and deal offered was excellent.

 

[emmerson2]

Excuse me, but I thought the thread was for silly TOURING stories!

 

[cris_408518]

True Story.

Caravan owners jockey wheel tyre had split and damaged the wheel of his sixteen + foot family caravan. Due to head on holiday after work on the Friday he heads to the nearest dealer on his motor bike to get a replacement from the site shop. Dressed in leathers and with helmet and gloves he gets ignored by all at the counter, next free assistant dismisses him and goes off with newly retired caravanners who have just bought a new van and entered after him.

Next free assistant again brushes him aside and starts with another couple, running out of lunch break he stops the manager who again is about to ignore him for another customer.

" OH did you want somthing "

well like he's stood pacing up and down for 15 minutes. He shows the guy the damaged jockey wheel.

"OH YOU HAVE A CARAVAN " says the Manager, and the others customers and assistant look in disbelief.

" Well yes, and I need another jockey wheel as we find leaving it down as we tow it with the bike improves stability "

" what model van sir ? "

Armed with the model type the correct wheel was supplied and paid for as those in the show room muttered on about towing such a large van with a motorbike as the chap donned his helmet and left to return home fit the new wheel and hook the van up to the family car ready for the next days holiday start.

A lesson for any retailer about judging by looks !

 

[elaine_5040336]

Scotland has it for us.

3 years ago we had made the long journey from Lincolnshire to Scotland. We arrived at the site. We were shown to our pitch and my husband was guided on. The chap was so picky that we should be exactly where he wanted us. Having put up the awning I was putting in the steel pegs and went straight through the water main. We had the most amazing water feature. Thank goodness the site warden told us where to put the legs down. It was fixed and it wasn't the first time it had happened.

The year after the cam belt went on the car on the way to Scotland, we arrived on the back of a truck, hubby had all the tools and parts posted to us and fixed it the next day. We have not been back to Scotland since.

 

[Robert_374242026]

Does this qualify for a silly touring story?.we took our inlaws on holiday to the Lake District ,the sister -law wanted to freshen up in the bathroom,at this point i should mention that the toilet flush at that time was one which had a round disc you pushed down to flush.To continue,i became aware of the water pump running longer than usual and glanced towards the bathroom door,blue water was coming out and also a "help" from inside. to cut a long story short what she had done was to place her towel on the flush, and without realising it had flooded the cassett to overflow all over the place.I believe we had on board at the time about 100 ltrs in the onboard tank!. It took ages for her husband and i to clear it all up from whithin and the outside hatch which was also in a mess.Boy did she have a red face . We have all been on holday together many times since and had a good laugh over it.

 

[colin-yorkshire]

A few years ago we decided to go for a holiday in north west scotland because we had never been that far north before and was told how fantastic the views were.

so off we went going in september to aviod the midges.

500 miles in an old maxi attached to a 15ft colchester (would n't be allowed to to that today ?? course not.)

took us 2 days to get there (on single track roads north of glasgow).got pitched up at ardmire point in ullapool and settled in for 2 weeks peace and quiet.

next day getting up after a well earned good nights sleep we found someone had pitched a van during the night right next to us about 6feet away on a almost deserted site 4 kids 3 dogs and a tent.

it was about then I heard the voices!! oh sounds familier that accent and it was!!. from the family up the street 4 doors away 500 miles and it not far enough?? so we packed up and left the same day.

not so much a funny story but a dear one as we had paid for 2 weeks and stayed one night. oh and by the way we never saw the views it was foggy.

 

[Phil_374243344]

Well it started the first week of our holdidays a few years ago, we had travelled from Grampian to Malvern, my friend at the time was looking to buy a roof box, and by chance it was the time when PC had done a feature on them. we had phoned the "roof box company" to find out where they were, after finding out they were in dorridge, near birmingham.

We decided to put it into the sat nav to find out how far away it was, anyway the difference in accents between scots and brummy means that he had pronounced it sounding like durridge, the only result that came back was a place called durris near Aberdeen, a phone call back to him and got the correct spelling meant that we could find him.

Second week we were in the peterburgh area, we were doing shopping in halfords and I had recalled there being a caravan dealer nearby, I went to the sales assistant to ask her where it was and she said "eye", so after the problems in the first week I proceded to ask her "and how do you spell it" she replied E Y E and you had to be there to see the expresion on her face, I said thank you and about turned out of the store,

Phil

 

[colin(bridgend)]

Towed the caravan from Bridgend to Marldon in Devon (Widend Caravan Site) and realised that the caravan keys were back home - she blamed me and I blamed her - right old ding dong. Julie the site owner phoned around a few dealers to see if they could help but to no avail. Decided to park caravan on site and come home for keys. Unhitched van and went to put some stuff away in the boot of the car and lo and behold the caravan keys were in my shoe in the boot of the car. Again right old ding dong - she blamed me I blamed her for putting them in my shoe. Julie heard us arguing and came out to see us (don't worry we weren't causing any nuisance to any other holidaymaker) and turned the whole episode into a joke. Now when we phone ahead for a reservation Julie reminds us to bring the caravan keys with us and when we arrive at the site the first thing Julie asks us is have we got the key with us?

 

[LizCornwall]

That got to be

 

[colin(bridgend)]

That got to be

 

[Allyson]

Went away for New Year Eve down to Cardiff to try the new van out. Went shopping during the afternoon and it bucketed down never mined if we could go to the fair that night we had brought the T.V. playstation and the new game for it called Buzz (who wants to be a millionaire). Got back to the van and the heavens opened. Put the meal in the oven to cook for a lovely supper and started to set up the flat screen T.V. which tuned in nd searched for the channels back home.

It was still pouring about an hour and a half later, opened the

oven to serve the food to find it was still cold, Ovens thermostat had gone.

It was then we decided to *** back home and get the remote control, whilst there we had warmed our meal up, eat it at home and returned to the caravan with the remote control for a night in with Chris Tarant.

When we got back in the van and started to set the playstation up yet again we looked for the playstation cable to connect the T.V guess where it was back at home.

No way was we going back again.

Luckly there was a break in the weather and we managed to go to the fair for about two hours, then the heavens opened again.

This time it was back in the car and back to the van to see the New Year in on the Telly.

What was going to be a few miles down the road turned out to be a journey of 55 mile all round journey turned out to be a 110 mile journey.

Needlees to say my son no longer has the T.V. in his room it's in the bag and ready to go.

 

[colin(bridgend)]

Allyson what part of Wales are you? From your milage I would say an area bounded by Port Talbot to the west, Brecon to the north and Chepstow to the east. Would this calculation be correct?

 

[Allyson]

Allyson what part of Wales are you? From your milage I would say an area bounded by Port Talbot to the west, Brecon to the north and Chepstow to the east. Would this calculation be correct?

Hi Colin

Blackwood, glad we didn't go any further for a trial run.

 

[giovanni_5060838]

HAD AN OLD CI ECCLES.I was alway complaining that i didn't think

the brakes on the van worked, correctly but as it was only around 750 kg, and everyone else seem to think they were ok

i left well alone.

Last easter we went away to near stratford [aston cantlow] which

is about 70 miles from where we live.

This time i complained about how heavy the van was and asked the

wife had she gone over the top in packing up the van?

The car struggled as i never got into top, and the fuel gauge

moved considrabally too.

Finally we arrived and i got out to see smoke pouring off the

vans brakes... Left the handbreak on didn't i.

It ran so much better on the way home!

 

[colin-yorkshire]

A couple of years ago just after we bought our new van

the wife and I decided to take it to the coast to try it out

before venturing on a long haul to devon

just the job we thought,so on goes the van quick check van ok house locked ect off we go?

about an hour into our journey we thought have a stop, cup of tea walk the dog?

oops no dog left her behind oh dear, not wanting to to tow all the way back home we left the van in a pub car park after explianing to the landlord about our mishap

great got back home and the poor little thing was sat on the door step looking all dejected

got her in the car and went back to get the van

when we arrived back at the pub (no the van wasn't missing)?

the wife decided she needed to go to the loo and didn,t want to go into the pub because of embarassment so she went in the van instead and as soon as she sat down up went the front of the van because I hadn't put the legs down

she could not get out and I could not pull the front down so I had to go into the pub and get a couple of lads to help me

what a laugh they had at our expense serves us right I think

they probably still have a laugh about it now and again in the pub

 

[DavieP1]

Thats gotta be the twenty quidder, i'm having very funny images coming into my head now, if it wasn't dangerous i think i'd actually set the missus up with that one!!!!

Regards