Winter Caravanning & that all important Gas!

Apr 1, 2006
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Hi folks, 1st time on this year so Happy new year to one and all. Last year,as it is now, we had an invitation to visit Edinburgh from daughter and Son in Law and the grandchildren for Christmas and Hogmanay. Problem was that most of the family were heading north too so we were asked if we could take the caravan up for accomodation. No problem there, but, we had never been winter caravanning before and what was the weather going to be like?

I purchased a 1.5 mt gas tail for propane and a 47kg cylinder of gas and fortunately for me , we had just had the van serviced and happened to mention this at the dealers. The engineer rang me at home and expained that the cylinder valve MUST NOT be above the regulator on the van as it can become contaminated with oils etc from the cylinder as they can run down the pipe. So I quickly changed the 47kg for 2 18kg which, when stood on the ground were below the regulator. As it happened, it was one of the best decisions I have made. We left on the 22nd Jan with snow on the ground and the inevitable comments from my son about "extreme Caravanning!" and after a 7 hour drive, arrived at the farm in 8 degrees of frost. The next day, having stayed in the farmhouse for the first night, we had to de ice everything with a hair dryer and got the gas on, the van started to warm up but it took a long time to reach a comfortable temperature due to the deep cold that the van had reached. The outside temperature never rose above freezing for the whole 12 days of our stay and dipped to -15 one night with regular -6. However, with the gas permanently on during the day it was a real pleasure to return to our little home.Electric heating on during the night and with the electric blanket on the island bed we were as cosy as toast! If I had taken my 2 normal cylinders,I would not only have changed a cylinder 5 times as we used approx 25 - 30kg of gas but with the larger cylinders- just once and the saving on gas immense. I also found out the importance of an internal water tank as I had never considered it before in all 20 years of caravanning. Had we had the old system, the A/roll would have had to come inside every night or be defrosted every morning with a sledge hammer! Brought her home on the 4th Jan all safe and sound. Winter caravanning? Yes, I would definately do it again. Thanks to Elddis for a great vehicle - so nice to snuggle up in bed with a severe frost outside eh? It was noticed that we didn't see another caravan on the road in all 350miles up there and only one on the way back. "Is it me?" as Terry Wogan would say.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Merve, like you, we were in Scotland for Hogmanay, in Beattock. We took our two standard 6kg gas bottles, and didn't need to change over and we were away for ten days.We also used electric heat overnight.Van water system froze, but we were pitched next to the shower block, so that wasn't a big problem.Other than that, a great time was had by all.
 

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