Best Of
Re: What are you all up to
Great pictures @DSB, @nelliethehooker and @Wherenext. You all look as though you are having/have had such wonderful trips away and visited some lovely places. We are feeling very disappointed today as we were supposed to be meeting up with some very dear friends that we haven't seen for ages at Easton Walled Gardens but after a long telephone conversation last night decided that it would be unwise given the high temperatures forecast (and also our ages 😕) so will hopefully re-convene some other time. We were so looking forward to it and I had hoped to post some lovely photos on here. We are now going to make an early dash to Waitrose to do our supermarket shop before it gets too hot.
We had a lovely spell of rain last Sunday, it was most refreshing and the garden loved it. We had a very enjoyable meal out with friends for Sunday lunch and the friend that I mentioned that is retiring (aged 84) from teaching special needs children is now going to volunteer to teach adults to read and write. There is no stopping her. She had been threatening to retire for some years and then kept going back. Her husband said she has done more farewell tours than Frank Sinatra!
@Takethedogalong The roses that we have bought are Supertrooper (a floribunda) and Aphrodite (a hybrid tea) and our daughter gave OH for his birthday My Lovely Dad (also a hybrid tea). Aphrodite is particularly lovely. We might buy another floribunda at some point to even things up.
Other than that not a lot to report. I have been watering the garden and doing a bit of gardening in the evenings (mostly dead heading) when the weather is cooler. We have seen more butterflies and bees in our garden than we have seen for many years. I did my usual stint on the Cathedral shop (nice and cool in there) when it was surprisingly busy.
Keep cool everyone and drink plenty of fluids.
Re: Movers
@patrolman, when you say “stopped working “, could you be more specific? I have the Powrtouch Evolution (auto) myself, is that what you have? I have experienced a couple of problems, but were easy to fix.
Freddy55
Bailey Unicorn nose weight excessive
Just purchased a Bailey Unicorn Madrid V 2024. I didn't check the nose weight when I picked it up and now find that the nose weight tips the scales at 128kg.
I suspect the dealer will say it's due to the mover, battery and gas bottles so I've worked out that as the 30kg mover is located 0.6m in front of the wheels, it only contributes 4.3kg to the nose weight (using 30 x 0.6 = R x 4.18 where 4.18 is the distance from the nose to the wheels). Similarly the 21kg battery is 1.02m forward of the wheels, increasing the nose weight by 5.12kg and for the gas bottle, increasing the nose weight by 2.51kg - the total for all these being 11.93kg. So, if I took them all out, the nose weight would be around 116kg.
If I were to travel with them all in the caravan, I would need to counterbalance the 28kg excessive nose weight (Bailey say max nose weight should be 100kg) by having a counter balance of 44kg right at the back of the caravan. The distance from the wheels to the rear of the 'van is only 2.63m so a much larger weight is needed to counterbalance the 28kg.
I haven't contacted the dealer with this information yet but has anyone had a similar experience and did they feel the need to reject the caravan as being unroadworthy?
Fortunately my car will take 140kg nose weight and the Alko hitch will take 150kg.
Re: That’s New
@Takethedogalong I was using my Android tablet quite a bit the last few days and I noticed I get the exact same screen as you point out. I have been checking a bit further and found out there appears to be two user interfaces available. On logging in it appears like this
but if I rotate the tablet 90 degrees into portrait mode the user interfaces changes to this
the same as you show and it stays like that when I rotate it back to landscape????????????????
Work that one out!
peedee
peedee
Re: Replacing Car - Limited Diesel Options
Torque at 360n/m looks fine for towing almost any twin axle. There looks to be plenty of power and torque although I have never driven the Volvo. Given the figures you quote I would not worry. You do not say what you tow so we have to guess the actual weights. though.
I have driven many similar powered petrol and diesel engine cars over the years and generally petrol engines work once you get used to the different driving characteristics. They are a bit thirstier and require a few more revs to get them going and might need an additional downshift some times, if you go for a manual.
If you like the Volvo best I would go for it but if you are open minded on makes you could checkout the figures and test drive what looks best to you. Remember for most of us the towing mileage is a small percentage of our driving and a car you can live with on a day to day basis is the most important thing.
Wildwood
Re: That’s New
The verification process for me has got worse; I use Chrome for CT and leave the CT tab open. Previously I got in no problem, then the verification page started coming up, but that then let me in. Now I get another page telling me it's taking longer than expected and to refresh the page if the problem persists. Refreshed the page several times, but with the same message every time.
The only way I could get in was to start from scratch, open CAMC website and go into CT that way. Getting in from an already open tab directly to CT no longer works for me as the verification process just won't let me.
Another odd thing last night was that initially I went to Firefox (which I normally use, but had to use Chrome for CAMC and CT as since the update I had problems) to see if that would work, and in Firefox I got the Essential Maintenance message, so put it down to that. Went back to Chrome to try again, and got in via the method described above, and hey presto, no Essential Maintenance message! All very odd.
InaD
Re: That’s New
Also using an iPad and mine is also as peedee showed. Possibly it’s down to the version of iOS being used, currently I’m using 18.4.1.
SteveL
Re: How to keep cool in the caravan....
Leave the blinds closed on the skylights or mostly closed if open. I’ve made many a white jacket, like a horse blanket, for our dogs over the years and found their backs are cool within seconds of putting it on them (white obviously reflects the heat) I’m no expert at needlework (as my efforts will testify 😂), but it works a treat. I tend to get a metre or two of the thick white cotton material, similar to what chef’s wear, but have also cobbled together a version of it from a cheap white t-shirt. No need for constant wetting and folds back into my pocket when not needed 👍
Gillway
Re: How to keep cool in the caravan....
in the past when we have caravanned in a heatwave we shut the blinds leaving a small space as I was told years ago that the heat can ruin the windows🤔 and we find some shade for us and the dogs. At night we just lay on the bed, but not retiring until the sun goes down. Drink plenty of water for us and the dogs.
I will mention that having dogs in this weather means that a decision has to be made as to going home or not
joanie
Re: Shock - Camping and Caravan Club not to attend show
We have been members of both Clubs, and we have always viewed them as quite different Club styles. Which for us is good as we prefer variety to cloning. Prefer the less manicured, less pitch perfect, set up with more grass. We don’t pick our holiday destinations based on the loos and showers as we use our onboard facilities. I think if you have quite set “must have” preferences, then CAMC is possibly the way to go.
On the Trustpilot reviews debate, C&CC has never had good ratings, they simply don’t seem to engage with anything left on there, hence the much lower number of reviews. CAMC however do, and it’s often the best way to get across a point as it is monitored, and you are likely to get a response. CAMC ratings plummeted back when the new bookings system and pricing policies were introduced, from a high base to a medium satisfaction level. Back to that high level now, although it’s reviews for individual sites rather than the organisation as a whole that might be the driver? CAMC know their target market better, whilst C&CC’s demographic tends to be wider, particularly in terms of age range and income, harder to satisfy?
