OK, so it was our first trip at Easter and I now feel brave enough to share with you what went wrong with us newbies!
1. Arrived at the most awkward pitch imaginal (full really tight u turn amongst trees to get on what we though would be a nice pitch) at wellington country park. After many attempts of getting round the corner finally decided the only thing was to un-hitch the caravan, re-adjust and re-hitch. Forgot to put the handbrake off after re-hitching (I was in such a fluster) and proceeded try and drive the van up this hill, well the caravan handbrake certainly worked but I was not too keen on the smoke that came out from under my car....
2. After unhitching, somehow did not clamp the jockey wheel tight enough, this resulted in the caravan suddenly dropping at the front end, lucky I was stood by the jockey wheel and caught the front end before it did any damage. This also sent my wife into a panick as I politely asked her to tighten the jockey wheel whist I held the van with all my strength....needles to say like the time we had a gas leak at home and she forgot where the gas tap was, she went into the same panick mode, this resulted in her twiddling just about everything on the front of the van other than the jockey wheel clamp. We got there in the end...
3. Having checked to see who was watching after these two disasters (you know is it me or do all the binds start twitching when someone arrives on site)?...Well I set it all up nice and level, legs down all looking good (back still hurting and my nice Rover 75 still smelling, not sure if it was actually on fire)! and my wife then declares...' I dont like the van there, it needs to be spun round for a better view of the woods'...........oh, OK so I lift the legs etc and calmly spin the van and hear an ulmighty crunch....I return to the side of the van to see that my nice large plastic step that was neatly placed outside the van door (because I though we were settled) had disappeared. YES you got it, completely wedged underneath the bloody caravan in the middle of it........needles to say I am looking forward to our second trip and hoping that we will not make so many mistakes the second time round...I am sure it will get easier but I am still dreading the number two's problem...scarred from a camping experience in a toilet tent a long time ago...it's a long story and I am sure you will not want me to go into detail.....
1. Arrived at the most awkward pitch imaginal (full really tight u turn amongst trees to get on what we though would be a nice pitch) at wellington country park. After many attempts of getting round the corner finally decided the only thing was to un-hitch the caravan, re-adjust and re-hitch. Forgot to put the handbrake off after re-hitching (I was in such a fluster) and proceeded try and drive the van up this hill, well the caravan handbrake certainly worked but I was not too keen on the smoke that came out from under my car....
2. After unhitching, somehow did not clamp the jockey wheel tight enough, this resulted in the caravan suddenly dropping at the front end, lucky I was stood by the jockey wheel and caught the front end before it did any damage. This also sent my wife into a panick as I politely asked her to tighten the jockey wheel whist I held the van with all my strength....needles to say like the time we had a gas leak at home and she forgot where the gas tap was, she went into the same panick mode, this resulted in her twiddling just about everything on the front of the van other than the jockey wheel clamp. We got there in the end...
3. Having checked to see who was watching after these two disasters (you know is it me or do all the binds start twitching when someone arrives on site)?...Well I set it all up nice and level, legs down all looking good (back still hurting and my nice Rover 75 still smelling, not sure if it was actually on fire)! and my wife then declares...' I dont like the van there, it needs to be spun round for a better view of the woods'...........oh, OK so I lift the legs etc and calmly spin the van and hear an ulmighty crunch....I return to the side of the van to see that my nice large plastic step that was neatly placed outside the van door (because I though we were settled) had disappeared. YES you got it, completely wedged underneath the bloody caravan in the middle of it........needles to say I am looking forward to our second trip and hoping that we will not make so many mistakes the second time round...I am sure it will get easier but I am still dreading the number two's problem...scarred from a camping experience in a toilet tent a long time ago...it's a long story and I am sure you will not want me to go into detail.....
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