Parking by the peg
Comments
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“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”
? Robert A. Heinlein“Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.”
? Dalai Lama XIV“You’ll learn, as you get older, that rules are made to be broken. Be bold enough to live life on your terms, and never, ever apologize for it. Go against the grain, refuse to conform, take the road less travelled instead of the well-beaten path. Laugh in
the face of adversity, and leap before you look. Dance as though EVERYBODY is watching. March to the beat of your own drummer. And stubbornly refuse to fit in.”
? Mandy Hale, The Single Woman: Life, Love, and a Dash of Sass“The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It's people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages.”
? Banksy, Wall and Piece“Any fool can make a rule
And any fool will mind it.”
? Henry David Thoreau, Journal #14Just a few comments about rules. I wonder why so many notable people think this way.
Because they all have / had anarchic tendencies.
Anarchy definition :- a state of disorder due to absence or non-recognition of authority or other controlling systems.
But hey, we are talking about parking next to a peg so perhaps a little anarchy is ok.
The Dalai Lama an anarchist, really.Most certainly. The Chinese would like a word with him about certain matters and I suspect the it would amuse the DL himself to be considered an anarchist
I wouldn't worry about him parking next to the peg though I understand he prefers tents
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I have never had a problem opening the door(s) on my Land Rover Discovery while parked beside the caravan - and they are BIG doors. But then it is designed to go onto grass.
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We have a Volvo XC90 (same as IanH) . I often find it tight on the "car side" of the pitch if parking the van to the peg. I think too much space is allocated for awnings sometimes.
If tight, I either place the van a few inches further right, or just put the car wheels on the grass, it has to be either one or the other.
If I pulled the car on so as just to avoid the Aquaroll, I could open the car door enough to get out (first stop position), but not to the fully open position, without hitting the van.
I prefer not to risk denting my van.
I suppose it depends to an extent on how close to the van you have the Aquaroll. I have ours pretty close usually.
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Some are very tight. The one we had at Morvich had a hedge on one side. With the van to the peg the passenger door was within inches of the hedge and I could only open the drivers door to the first stop. If you had mobility issues, it would probably not be a pitch you could use, unless you did not want to use an awning.
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I park to the peg and to give adequate clearance for door opening I also have halve a wheel width onto the grass, this leaves masses of room on the other side for the canopy.
It would be of benefit to lose a bit on the canopy side but that's how they want it, so its either 'to the peg' and the car encroaches onto the grass or take a chance by slightly off the peg and saving the grass area.
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You can only do so much to comply with the rules, if the car does not fit, it does not fit.
There is a huge variation in pitch sizes and grass strip widths from site to site,
Very big pitches at Silverbank (Banchory) and Stonehaven, also Burford, stacks of room for car/caravan/awning, plus Aquaroll etc.
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We have a Volvo XC90 (same as IanH) . I often find it tight on the "car side" of the pitch if parking the van to the peg. I think too much space is allocated for awnings sometimes.
If tight, I either place the van a few inches further right, or just put the car wheels on the grass, it has to be either one or the other.
If I pulled the car on so as just to avoid the Aquaroll, I could open the car door enough to get out (first stop position), but not to the fully open position, without hitting the van.
I prefer not to risk denting my van.
I suppose it depends to an extent on how close to the van you have the Aquaroll. I have ours pretty close usually.
Why couldnt the aquaroll (and, indeed, the wastemaster) be placed either behind or in front of, the caravan with suitable longer hose attachments....?.....(or even get manufacturers to place the inlet/outlets at the rear) to allow more space on the pitch?
seems odd, when space is tight, to give over so much to a water container which could work just as easily, out of sight at the rear....
Pumps/water uptakes would need to be sold with longer hoses, these are specific to the type of device, so not just any hose can be used.
Wastemaster would be easier, but longer waste pipe gives more chance of pipe sagging and poor drainage.
Outlets at rear under van would be fairly simple, though they are best as close to sink/shower as possible, but are generally placed at the side to allow drainage even on sloping pitches (as in rear end of van almost on ground)
Inlet can only be where it can be hidden under a bed or sofa, so often not possible at rear, e.g. where shower room is at rear.
Other consideration is side lockers....you need space to access them so do not want car too close. So you might as well have the "services" in that same space.
As I said, just missing the Aquaroll would put the car doors too close to the van for my liking.
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As has been stated before a good few cc sites have been on the network for a long time the last one we were on is over 50 yrs in club ownership and to accomodate the ever growing "need"for hardstandings several pitches have been lost ,so what do the club
do when the older sites need to fit in the ever bigger outfits on sites that have not got the space for the ever growing popularity of our "lifestile" and the ever decreasing availabilty of land available for sites0 -
But as stated before in the Real World of club sites it is a far cry from The "fantacy" of some of the post on here
In full agreement JVB
.+1 especially that fantasy about generous pitch sizes
...If I was a photographer rather than a person who takes just pictures, and could download such photos, a view of the site we are on in Sussex would show that it is not a "fantasy"
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Perhaps the club just needs to accept that it can't market certain pitches as awning and reclassify them as non awning. This would then provide plenty of space for the car and maintain safe distances. As JVB noted outfits are getting bigger, wider vans and
awnings. It is just unrealistic to expect them to fit on pitches designed for the last century and maintain 21st century fire breaks. This would then remove the need for "sensible adjustments" and folk could pitch to the peg as instructed. We would then be
sure that these "sensible adjustments" hadn't comprised safety.0 -
That's what they did at Old Hartley when they realised the gap did not conform to the regs. In fact the whole site was converted to non awning.
Very nice site but you do risk your pitch being one of several that have such a fall, the front end of the caravan appears to be "flying" in mid air. I don't like that and would not take such a pitch so I only go when it's not busy and I can avoid these pitches.
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While 'vans have got bigger it is usually length rather than width that has seen the bigger increase. I would love to have the washroom drain to the rear (as that is where it is in the 'van), but even on some apparently level pitches the rear can be so
close to the ground that one hardly has to drop the steadies and the pipe connector would almost be below the base of the Wastemaster. Simple. logical solution would be to run the waste pipe out just below the sink but I've never seen a manufacturer fit things
that way.0 -
In the last couple of years numerous hard standing pitches on sites have been redesignated non awning, to maintain the fire gaps, when in the past there would have been some "flexibility"
Perhaps it is time to do some more. You can't get a quart into a pint pot and everything seems to be getting bigger. Threads on CT about wider vans and awnings.
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While 'vans have got bigger it is usually length rather than width that has seen the bigger increase. I would love to have the washroom drain to the rear (as that is where it is in the 'van), but even on some apparently level pitches the rear can be so close to the ground that one hardly has to drop the steadies and the pipe connector would almost be below the base of the Wastemaster. Simple. logical solution would be to run the waste pipe out just below the sink but I've never seen a manufacturer fit things that way.
...Our first van was about 6 ft wide now they are 8ft wide about the size of an aqua roll bigger
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Perhaps the club just needs to accept that it can't market certain pitches as awning and reclassify them as non awning. This would then provide plenty of space for the car and maintain safe distances. As JVB noted outfits are getting bigger, wider vans and
awnings. It is just unrealistic to expect them to fit on pitches designed for the last century and maintain 21st century fire breaks. This would then remove the need for "sensible adjustments" and folk could pitch to the peg as instructed. We would then be
sure that these "sensible adjustments" hadn't comprised safety.I agree Steve.
Either accept that some pitches really aren't big enough and make more pitches non-awning or (less favourable option) have fewer but bigger pitches.
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Since it seems the majority of caravanners do use some type of awning, restricting the number of awning pitches would not be a good move IMO.
I would only think that a good idea where pitches are really narrow.
However, changing the size of pitches and therefore having to move the hardstandings would be costly, so it puts the Club in a difficult position.
Restricting awning size might be a compromise?
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The problem as I see it is that if smaller non awning pitches cost the same as larger awning ones people with no awning still take the larger pitch. Non awning pitches should be cheaper to encourage people to use them more. Certainly in the bakers a small
loaf costs less than a large one0 -
Since it seems the majority of caravanners do use some type of awning, restricting the number of awning pitches would not be a good move IMO.
I would only think that a good idea where pitches are really narrow.
However, changing the size of pitches and therefore having to move the hardstandings would be costly, so it puts the Club in a difficult position.
Restricting awning size might be a compromise?
My experience is that the majority do not use an awning but want a similar area to sit out?
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Perhaps CC Ltd should follow the example of one of their affiliate sites and designate the slightly narrow hardstanding pitches moho with awning only. The moho could then take up part of the space normally used for a car without compromising safety spacing.
Of course the peg would have to be moved and a reduction in price made to encourage take up. Write your comments here...m/vans can already use a wind out awning on non awning pitches
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