What niggles you about your van?

[Mikey1]

Here's an interesting discussion.I know there is no such thing as a perfect van,but what niggles or poor design/fitting thing on your van could have been done better or a bit more thought gone into it.

Mine is the position of the toilet roll holder in the bathroom of a Crusader Super storm.It is postioned so you cant reach it and you have to learn forward or it digs in your back.Would have been useful to postion it in front of you surely.I know you dont spend much time in there,but when you do its nice to be comfortable!

 

[GillW]

Niggle on ours,an Elddis GTX Furicano,is the water inlet The Aquaroll ends up in the awning as the water inlet is on the nearside of the van

Minor but annoying when trying to manoeuvre a full barrel into the awning

 

[sparkes]

What realy niggles me about my van is that it was supposed to be delivered this morning and even after spending over 18K the dealer still cannot read their own paperwork!!

 

[MikeAce]

My niggle with our van (Ace Jubilee Herald 2004) is the seats, beautiful colours and they look great when in the seating position but they fold out into rather a poor bed, not greatly comfortable at all, there is one large cushion which is reasonable and 2 smaller ones that fit together to form the other half of the bed.

i know that its not just my van that has this problem, more like all of them do but its the only niggle i have with an otherwise perfect van.

 

[darrell_5099783]

hi.. the only niggle i have up to yet.( we not had our van long ) is the position on the barbeque point at the front of the van.. why is it placed exactly where the awning goes right at the front of the van.. i have to pull the flap of the awning out of the way to plug the cadac in... but im sure i will find a few more things before long..

daz

 

[lunar2000]

A niggle with my van ( Lunar LX2000 )si the gas locker lid. Why do the manufacturers make them so that they only lift to the horizontal? Not all are like this but my back kills me when I have to lift the gas bottle etc out.

Any suggestions to over come this problem would be greatly appreciated. If possible?

Pop

 

[popupJohn]

The position of the water heater switch. Tucked away at night under the bed so I cant turn the thing on unless I get out of bed and get down on my knees..then back in till it heats up for washing/showering etc.

That can soon be changed tho

 

[eriskay]

The position of the water heater switch. Tucked away at night under the bed so I cant turn the thing on unless I get out of bed and get down on my knees..then back in till it heats up for washing/showering etc.

That can soon be changed tho

Why do you not just leave water heater switched on it is thermastatically controled . I switch it on when I arrive on site & switch off when I leave ????

 

[ProfJohnL]

What realy niggles me about my van is that it was supposed to be delivered this morning and even after spending over 18K the dealer still cannot read their own paperwork!!

I think thats the dealer that niggles rather than the van!

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

Ive got an Abbey GTS Vogue 217 and there are 2 things that get up my nose. One is the red drain plug situated underneath the offside front of the van. To remove it is a work of art which I still haven't conquered, surely in this day and age they could have thought of a tap. The second bone of contention is the water pump connection. On our old Abbey it was a Whale pump, just pushed in and to remove it you just lifted one clip - simple. On the new models they changed to Truma and now have two f*rty little clips, top and bottom, the plug has to be manouvered into place before you press these tiny clips to lock the connection so it's watertight. The fun begins when undoing the connection. Surely out there, in the design teams, there are people with a little bit of savvy. Oh I forgot to mention the Hot Water Heater drain plug switch too, situated under the front seat. Nothing wrong with that as long as you have wire arms to get between the slats or maybe a contortionist, lying on the floor with your arm in the lower cupboard feeling around for the said switch. Do the people who design these vans ever use them themselves, surely not. I would love to meet one and for them to explain what advantages the Truma pump had over the Whale pump, probably cheaper from the crap design.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

The new but not improved Alko jockey wheel fixing inside the A-Frame.

 

[stuart_5107319]

Nothing - i have an Eriba

 

[mikeE]

Lord B - how I sympathise with you over the problem of the little red drain plug. There always seems to be a puddle or sharp stones - or both - JUST where you have to kneel to get at the thing. So I tried the tap option. Remove red plug, replace with a short length of water pipe and add a push fit 12mm. shut off valve. It seems such a simple solution I wondered why 'van designers had not done it ages ago so have been waiting some four months for some dreadful disaster to befall. But so far so good but I'm still waiting for it all to go pear shaped, still keeping the red plug handy just in case. Just to make the on/off process even easier I put a tiny dot of paint on the skirt of the 'van to show exactly where the tap hangs - can now drain the system by touch alone.

 

[Val & Frank]

Ive got an Abbey GTS Vogue 217 and there are 2 things that get up my nose. One is the red drain plug situated underneath the offside front of the van. To remove it is a work of art which I still haven't conquered, surely in this day and age they could have thought of a tap. The second bone of contention is the water pump connection. On our old Abbey it was a Whale pump, just pushed in and to remove it you just lifted one clip - simple. On the new models they changed to Truma and now have two f*rty little clips, top and bottom, the plug has to be manouvered into place before you press these tiny clips to lock the connection so it's watertight. The fun begins when undoing the connection. Surely out there, in the design teams, there are people with a little bit of savvy. Oh I forgot to mention the Hot Water Heater drain plug switch too, situated under the front seat. Nothing wrong with that as long as you have wire arms to get between the slats or maybe a contortionist, lying on the floor with your arm in the lower cupboard feeling around for the said switch. Do the people who design these vans ever use them themselves, surely not. I would love to meet one and for them to explain what advantages the Truma pump had over the Whale pump, probably cheaper from the crap design.

Oh you poor thing having to do this yourself, can the butler not manage ??? Myself I get the wife to do these mundane chores. And being a very brave soul I typed this when she wasn't looking.

Frank

 

[popupJohn]

Why do you not just leave water heater switched on it is thermastatically controled . I switch it on when I arrive on site & switch off when I leave ????

True but then I would have no excuse to move it and cover the hole with an extra telly connection which is needed on that side of the van.

(devious minds some of us vanners who need a reason to to convince SWMBO of our good intentioned ideas) ;-)

 

[GillandMike]

Hi LB

Glad to see you are back. Your sense of humour has me in stitches. We have an Abbey Vogue but a 215 year 2000. Abbeys 'improvements' to your van don't seem much good. We have the red plug problem, but the water heater switch is on the outside of the seating locker and easy to get to. If I could understand Mike E explanation of solving the red plug problem I'm sure it would be great.

Our niggle is the front locker, locking and unlocking. Not only is it a security nightmare the darn thing is so difficult to lock and unlock. Every time I think I've managed it I foumd I haven't... it drives us both bats.Can anyone come up with a solution before we go mad.

Gill

 

[mikeE]

Gill,

Remove the red plug from the draining pipe under 'van and replace with about four inches of plastic pipe then the push fit shut off valve available from most caravan accessory shops. Trouble is it seems so simple someone must have tried it before and found it lacking. But just what I wonder.

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

Hi LB

Glad to see you are back. Your sense of humour has me in stitches. We have an Abbey Vogue but a 215 year 2000. Abbeys 'improvements' to your van don't seem much good. We have the red plug problem, but the water heater switch is on the outside of the seating locker and easy to get to. If I could understand Mike E explanation of solving the red plug problem I'm sure it would be great.

Our niggle is the front locker, locking and unlocking. Not only is it a security nightmare the darn thing is so difficult to lock and unlock. Every time I think I've managed it I foumd I haven't... it drives us both bats.Can anyone come up with a solution before we go mad.

Gill

Thank you very much Gill :O) My red plug problem is its in the stuck mode at the moment and refuses to be moved. Give it a couple of days and it will come out no problem. I wonder if the plugs are female hehheh!

 

[Rioja]

I have a Lunar Clubman 2002.

If you leave the key in the door lock and the doors blows in the wind it wacks the side wall and dents the panel.The previous model had a buffer to prevent this happening.

The lip in the front locker makes putting gas bottles in quite difficult, and despite the price , a coat hanger lookalike to prop the door open is cheap and nasty.

 

[Simon_5041575]

Swift Corniche 1990.

The plug hole in the shower is never in the right position. I have to bail out the area every time before the toilet can be used again.

 

[PaulT]

3 things on my Indiana - the gas locker light which is at the bottom of the gas locker and gets covered up by anything that gets put in there (why not put it at the top?). Secondly, the method of ascertaining if the on board tank is full i.e. wait for it to overflow (I've added a length of pipe to mine so the overflow goes back into the Aquaroll). Lastly, the instructions for the water valve positions -why not put them by the valves, not on the door flap of the adjoining locker (fortunately, the lable peels off and can be put somewhere sensible).

All the "niggles" mentioned on this posting go towards proving that the people that design 'vans don't live in them.

Bailey have got it right with the water inlet and the outside BBQ point though - both on the non-awning side.

 

[SteveW77]

The position of the water heater switch. Tucked away at night under the bed so I cant turn the thing on unless I get out of bed and get down on my knees..then back in till it heats up for washing/showering etc.

That can soon be changed tho

I usually do the same, but in this last heat wave I kept waking up covered in sweat. It's suprising how much heat those thing give off.

 

[greenplum_5088396]

Looking around for a new caravan after selling our family one in the spring. We've made a list based on the use we put our other caravans. Why put access to underseat lockers where you have to either be on your knees (or lower) surely with what they can save, they can make top access a lot easier??? - Stuff that makers assume you want, couple of examples;

 

[clivea]

Hi,

we have a Bailey Series 5 Bordeaux and cannot undersatnd why Bailey installed the switches (lights, awning and pump) and 12 volt meter underneath the coat hooks. It is impossible to see the pump running light and battery meter when anything is hanging up. There have been times when the pump has not switched off. Also the power switch for the water heater is on mounted on the bed support at floor level and unlike prevoius vans this one is not illuminated when the power is on. Hence it does tend to get left on inadvertantly.

 

[Angela_5076436]

The incredible shortage of electrical points

In our 2 vans - admittedly they are so-called 'entry level' the first thing we have to do is to put in points !! It really is not asking much to have more than 2 surely