Manuals - Keep them at home or in the van?
I'm having a tidy and we got loads of manuals with our van. Do people keep them in the caravan or at home? We've only got a small caravan so I'm thinking that leaving them home will give us more storage space and if things go wrong we will just manage or
if a dealer/mechanic is required they know what to do anyway. What are others thoughts?
Comments
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I have a 'caravan folder' where I keep all my booking forms, site information and manuals. When at home it lives in the house but, when in the caravan, it comes with me and fits easily into the caravan door pocket.
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I have a small nylon briefcase which holds van manual, site book, EH & NT handbooks, OS maps for the trip and the mover remote. Lives on the floor behind the drivers seat.
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all mine are kept in a little cupboard under the slide out table along with a small tool kit and a few odds and sods, tape cable ties etc. Always useful.
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Like Jill ours are all kept in a caravan folder that comes with us when away in the caravan and then is kept at home when we are not away. It is surprising how often Mr H has to refer to one of the manuals if we have a small problem. while away.
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when I first read the tittle I thought it said keeping mamals in the caravan
I keep mine in the large rather large zip up folder given with van by Swift under the front chest of drawers
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I leave mine in the vanas i wouldn't want to be out and about without them, but have downloaded the PDF version to my dropbox account, along with the manuals for the water heater, room heater and toilet, which means I can easily check the manuals at home
if I need to when the van is in storage. I also have a note of the chassis number and dimensions at home as you need the size when booking sites and ferries sometimes. the one thing NEVER to store in the van is the CRIS certificate.0 -
I keep all mine in van in a folder along with any other ancillary information. However I have most of it also on a USB stick which goes wherever my netbook is, house or van. I also have a small leather brief case which lives in the house which holds all
the documentation required for foreign travel. That goes in the van for my foreign trips otherwise it lives in the house.peedee
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You will often find that important operating instructions are replicated in the van manual. In an effort to save space in our new vehicle I went through all the booklets and where there were instructions in leaflets that were not replicated in the manual
then I photocopied the relevant pages and folded these to keep in the motorhome with the main manual and vehicle manual.0 -
Our campervan has excellent storage but it is limited. We have actually
read our manuals and we then extract the bits we need (e.g. we only need english language instructions not ten european languages) copy them and put them in our own vehicle specific manual. We also have emergency reference cards on laminated sheets
e.g. how to drop the spare wheel. The original manuals stay at home pristine awaiting the eventual disposal of our vehicle.0 -
The last thing you want on holiday is an exploding toilet.
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Phaw! 'here; what you had in your 'ands. (Terry Scott if I remember correctly
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We leave ours permanently in the Caravan, but carry the CRIS Cert and Service book when away with other, what we consider, essential paperwork.
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I seem to be the odd one out on this. I leave the big heavy binder containing all the manuals at home. They are all simply
operating manuals and once you know how everything operates why should you forget? It would be different if they contained proper circuit diagrams and expoded parts diagrams/lists ..... but they never do. Even the 'wiring diagram' for
the van itself is so poorly presented/inadequate -and even wrong in places- that it is easier to simply trace back yourself if necessary.The only instruction sheet I do carry (a single page) is for the Tyron bands .....and that is because I have never changed a tyre with one (or even seen one!).
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I seem to be the odd one out on this. I leave the big heavy binder containing all the manuals at home. They are all simply
operating manuals and once you know how everything operates why should you forget? It would be different if they contained proper circuit diagrams and expoded parts diagrams/lists ..... but they never do. Even the 'wiring diagram' for
the van itself is so poorly presented/inadequate -and even wrong in places- that it is easier to simply trace back yourself if necessary.The only instruction sheet I do carry (a single page) is for the Tyron bands .....and that is because I have never changed a tyre with one (or even seen one!).
Ok simple test (just a bit of fun, not trying to catch you out) would you know how to reset the thermal cutout on your water heater?
this happened to us and the manual did help to trace the fault through the trouble shooting pages and how to correct it.
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I keep the instruction books in plastic sleeves in a file folder inside a zipped folder case which I put in the bottom of the wardrobe each time we leave & hope I never have to refer to them though they have come in useful on occasions. I don't think I
can always rely on technology whilst away.0 -
when I first read the tittle I thought it said keeping mamals in the caravan
I keep mine in the large rather large zip up folder given with van by Swift under the front chest of drawers
We had one of these with our Bolero, handy but of course with a MH theres also another set of base vehicle manuals and service records etc...
this van has an even bigger black 'over the shoulder man bag' type of thing which weighs a ton....
manuals for the toilet, sat system, radio, reversing camera, inverters, coffee machine, 2 x tvs, the control panel, fuse board and PSU, solar panel controller etc, etc...
in the 'vehicle section' as well as the normal Fiat stuff.....theres even an Al-Ko chassis service record and rear steadies 'handbook'.
of course, all these tomes come in umpteen different languages making them about 15 times as large as they need be......talk about over the top
i keep it in the bottom of my underbed wardrobe, thank goodness for a decent payload....
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