First time abroad in a touring caravan
Greetings to all you experienced continental caravaners,
My wife and I will be taking the van to France for our first continental caravan trip this year. We'll probably spend three weeks or so in France on site and the appropriate amount of travelling time, depending on our chosen destination. We may, but not certain yet, divide our time between two locations? We will be using what we hope to be modern and reasonably well equipped sites? Our van is new and is therefore equipped with all the latest tech. We have traveled extensively across Europe over the years, so have no concerns about driving etc... My main concerns are electric hook-up and gas consumption, gas connection adapters etc. I understand an adapter for the electric hook-up may be advisable? Is this still a wise precaution? I appreciate that wanting to know how much gas we might consume is a tricky one, but as there is only two of us and we'll be using electric for most things, is it possible to survive for three weeks or so with just one 6Kg propane cylinder? What does everyone do? For example, should I buy a second cylinder in the UK, or buy an adapter and purchase gas on the continent if its required? I'm sure this one will have exercised the minds of many over the years, so I would appreciate any guidance based on your experiences.
Regards
Comments
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We do a continental trip of about 6 weeks duration every year and take 2 4'5 kilo calor gas cylinders and find this is more than enough. As for electric connectors we take our british one acontinental one and acontinental one wired for reverse polarity.enjoy your trip hope this information helps .Navigator.
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If you click Overseas Holidays at the top of this page the Useful Information section there answers most of your questions about Gas and electricity. Follow that advice and all will be well.
If you are going right now in May and intend to use gas for heating and to cook big meals you will use more gas than we do - but we go south in the summer, cook only very occasionally, and find that a 6kg. Cylinder lasts us several years!
Good wishes.
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Our gas consumption, when on sites with EHU (and therefore gas only used for cooking) is very consistent at 1.4kg/week. That is cooking ALL meals, boiling water for tea, and using the oven extensively. Many people -especially if they often eat out- will use far, far less.
Once you start using gas for the fridge or heating/water-heating then of course gas consumption rockets.
Electric: Although the majority of sites now have the standard blue CEE17 sockets, there are still plenty with standard continental round 2-pin sockets, so well worth taking an adapter cable (cheaply and readily available, or you can make one up). The 'reverse polarity' issue has been debated ad-nauseum . FWIW, I consider that with any modern caravan that has double-pole circuit breakers the issue is irrelevant.
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I only used the French adaptor for the most southern site of my trip which was Chateau Sables d'Olonne all the rest have been same as UK. I think it looks sensible to go with the reverse polarity kit to check and I think I will in the future but you might find the thread and judge for yourself. I asked a few weeks ago when the site manager enquired! I did know what he meant but had no idea how to check. He simply said if it works it's OK but I think there is more to it than that!
There are so many lovely places to see I like to move on after a few days but it's such a personal choice as to how you like to do your holiday.
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I would have thought that one 6kg gas bottle would have been enough for three weeks if you make the maximum use of electric hook up. Whilst the CEE17 blue sockets we use in the UK are the European standard there are still some sites in France that still have two pin connectors so pretty essential to take an adaptor with you.
David
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As regards gas, we took 2 calor-lite 6kg bottles for almost 7 weeks last summer. Each bottle was about half full at the start of the holiday. We tend to use one for the cadac and one attached to the caravan. For us, that was ample. In fact, one bottle eventually gave up during the Mayday weekend a couple of weeks back, and we replaced it. The other is still on the van, but I reckon is almost empty. We do use the electric quite a bit, but we use the cadac a fair amount.
With regards to electric we always carry a short lead with a continental plug adapter and a similar lead for reverse polarity (with the traditional male and female English plugs on each end). In fact we take a spare of each when we take the caravan across to Europe. At least once everytime we go to Europe we end up by loaning at least one of those adapters out to other British caravanners/ motorhomers who have come to Europe unaware of the necessity for the adapters.
David
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Apart from the continental adaptor, which I have used occasionally and the reverse polarity covertor, used about the same. We carry two EHU leads, one about 10 m, the other a standard 25m. In the U.K. And abroad this means you only have to wind out the short version if close to a bollard. Plus abroad, you can connect the two on the very rare occasions you are more than 25m from the post. Or would prefer to route your cable so as not to have it driven over. This practice is frowned on in the UK and I think banned on CAMC sites, however seems common practice on some continental sites. As it is on the ground, I always weather proof the join.
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Hi Rouler
Don't give it another thought with one 6kg bottle you will have more than enough.
We were in France last summer for 9 weeks and used half a bottle of gas. Plus we use our gas oven far more than average because the microwave doesn't work.
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Many thanks to all for your prompt and valued input. It is always useful to get advice from those who have direct experience. I will purchase an electric hook-up adapter. The advice on gas consumption has also allayed my concerns on that matter for this first trip abroad. I would be interested to know if for significantly longer trips, say a couple of months over the winter, whether different solutions are necessary?
Many thanks again to all
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if you are going to use gas ove a longer period then there are a couple of solutions....
firstly, take sufficient gas to last the trip...obvious but easily acheived with (say) two full cylinders. problem may be carrying capacity.
secondly, do what the natives do, buy your gas locally but ensure you have the appropriate adaptor for Spain (and/or France).problem may be ending up with too many cylinders....
thirdly, use a refillable system (safefill) where ypu can take the cylinder to a LPG station to top up (with appropriate adaptors).
only you (based on more experience) can decide if any of these would suit your requirements.
FWIW, we have a MH with a refillable Gaslow system which we use all over europe for months at a time, often using Aires where there is no EHU, so we need gas for heating, fridge as well as cooking.
good luck.
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I think a longer trip over winter would require a bit more consideration. Often for long stays electricity is metered so it's likely you would use more gas than on a short summer holiday. I imagine you might be thinking of Spain? I would have thought the purchase of a local cylinder would be the least expensive option. Don't forget you would also need a suitable pigtail to connect to your bulkhead regulator which should be sold at the same place you buy your cylinder. I don't know if it's still the same in Spain but gas used to be much cheaper than other countries because it is still a major source of domestic cooking fuel.
David
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I agree one should be ample , like you we too only use Gas if absolutely necessary .
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The question of gas in Spain did indeed tax me before our first long overwinter last year. I had read horror stories of how difficult it was to obtain your first local bottle.
In reality, when I inquired at the local village shop, it was simply a case of paying Eu 10 deposit, which they said they would refund fully. No formalities. When I actually wanted a bottle, I was in fact only charged for the gas ....possibly because by then I was a regular customer! Anyway, I am now the proud possessor of a Repsol cylinder which I will take with me next winter.
The price of gas in March this year was Eu 13.6 for 12.5kg. Metered electricity on the site we were on was 30 cents/kWh which actually makes gas marginally cheaper for heating.
NOTE: Spanish bottles need a 35mm JUMBO adapter or regulator. Although regulators are available everywhere in Spain, finding an adapter to connect to you existing bulkhead regulator/pigtail could be difficult. Best to source one in advance from somewhere like Hamilton
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