Damage to caravan on a club site

If the lawn mower is properly maintained, all the guards are fitted and the machine is used correctly, stones shouldn't get thrown, for one thing it breaks health & safety. The main culprit for throwing things is a brushcutter, these are only really guarded to stop stones being thrown at the operator and half the time the operators remove the lower half of the linehead guard.

Can you prove the dents were not there before ? This will be the problem.

Maybe it shouldn't happen but neverthless it does occasionally.  We have been inside our caravan when it was showered with gravel.  One stone hit over head height and left a substantial dent.  The (private) site management couldn't understand the problem and refused to accept any responsibility.  Short of suing them I don't know what we could have done.

I am always very wary of rotary mowers because they can potentially do serious injury or worse.

The guards on a walk-behind rotary are designed to deflect anything downwards, the only problem is that can lead to clogging and ultimately the engine stalling if the grass is long. Well meaning operators have been known to tie the flaps up slightly (or in some cases, fully back) to allow the grass to eject faster, this can lead to stones being thrown. I have heard of at least one person being killed by a stone throw by a rotary mower (the blade tip speed is in excess of 150MPH), so I would urge you to discuss your problem with the warden.

Too late for that YP, you've outed them

I can sympathies with you YP, it happened to me while on a CL a couple of years ago. Like you we returned back after a day out to find the grass had been trimmed and I noticed a small cut in my awning window next to the door. It was definitely not there before as the awning was brand new.

I did not confront the owner either for the same reasons.  

The point is that you can't possibly know it was the lawn mower, as you weren't there. It could have been a stone from a car or child, a child playing with a toy, shuttlecock bat etc. It's unfortunate and bloody annoying, but you can only suspect, not know the cause.

I'm with youngphil, how can you really say anything ?

Highly unlikely that a car or a child playing would make two dents in a caravan, however a mower could.

We were on a CC site a couple of years ago where the warden told me of an incident  that had required the club to instruct wardens not to use the sit on mowers as an awning peg had been left in the ground and when the mower connected with the peg, the peg flew through the caravan door and damaged the fridge. Not sure if the van door was open or closed.

I too suffered a dent in my van, when it was less than a year old, from a ride on mower on a club site.

I know it was from the mower because I was sitting in the van at the time and heard it.

I did go and mention it, to the mower driver, but only got a shrug of his shoulders.

The good news is that it was 10 years ago, I have still got the van and the dent and it has not spoiled my enjoyment of it one jot.

I can't help thinking that some people can be a tad too precious about cars and caravans.

I had the rear side window on my Mondeo estate smashed by a stone from a mower whilst visiting a sheltered housing complex. The gardening team there denied all knowledge of it but the fact that the side of the car was covered in grass clippings suggested very strongly that mowing was the cause. Unfortunately the grass cutters still wouldn't accept liability.