Back after 10 years
Hi everyone,
I'm Annette. I'm back!
I was last here with an Eriba Troll and my family with young children. The Troll went with the divorce.
Now my young children are teens and I am back with my new-to-caravanning partner of 10 years.
We have just ordered a Trigano Silver Mini Freestyle 290 and are in the process of completely emptying our garage and having a new garage door installed to welcome our new arrival. It is mainly for trips away when the teens are with their dad and later when they fly the nest. And in years to come maybe it will be a good way of going to visit them, wherever they end up.
We have also just ordered a new car. After lots of research we went for a new Suzuki Vitara SZ-T auto, 1.4 petrol turbo. There were lots of options for such a lightweight caravan so it was hard to choose. We almost got the manual AWD but in the end decided the auto would probably be more useful than AWD and it was only possible to choose auto or AWD. But matches on towcar.info were reassuring for both as well as recent reviews in Practical caravan. There were also good reliability ratings on Which and it comes with the latest safety features as standard. Hopefully we made the right choice.
We've also gone with the same awning (not really awning) as we had with the Eriba, a Cinch Pop up Tent, which is basically a re-make of the Quechua base seconds we had previously and I gave away a number of years ago. That and some kind of sun canopy should be enough for us and easy to put up and down, I never liked the idea of a proper awning. It also has an inner tent that the teens can sleep in, should they wish to join us at any time.
We're excited to start planning a big trip in the summer having not been away anywhere for 2 years. Looking forward to seeing some of you out there on our trips.
For now, here is a picture of the Troll in 2011 with the Quechua Seconds and a sun canopy thing which I made sewing on some awning rail tape to a tarp, but really looking forward to the new adventure.
Annette
Comments
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Welcome back from me too. Your personal story is very similar to my own (and probably many others) and hope for you it is much better second time around, as it was for me! Exciting times and new memories to be made. Enjoy!
btw Does anyone else see a grumpy looking cat in your hitch cover? 😂😂😂👍
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New towcar is here. Garage is prepared with new door and almost empty. Just need to seal the concrete floor in garage. Importer is going to France and bringing caravan back to the UK on Tuesday. What a journey this has been, from an idea nearly 2 years ago, to a huge planning project, to being nearly there!
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I wish we'd taken before and after photos. It was totally rammed with stuff, virtually impossible to walk through. It has been a massive project and has taken about a year to empty. A very gradual process involving a new bigger shed, additional storage in the house, giving things to friends and neighbours, numerous trips to the tip and a new roller garage door. I've even put sealant on the concrete floor to try and limit the dust in there. Various neighbours have been looking at it in amazement having seen it before. It was the only way we were ever going to get a caravan without moving house. Now heard our Silver Mini 290 is being delivered this Sunday!
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Good luck with it all, you will certainly deserve your first outing. Hope everything goes well for you all👍😁
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It's here and we got it in the garage. Now hooked up in garage and charging leisure battery. Everything seems to work. A question, right now we have the handbrake on and all 4 corner steadies down, which we were amazed we could manage to reach. It would be impossible to drive onto the ramps with chocks in the garage. Is it better to keep the handbrake on in there or wedge something under the wheels (it seems to slope very slighly and roll towards the door on its own)? If so, what could we use, campervan type chocks we could roll it onto, or something else? Or keep the handbrake on?
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People have different opinions but most folk do not store their van with the handbrake on as it’s possible for the handbrake to seize and be very difficult to take off again.
Instead, securely chock the wheels with bricks, blocks or similar - you don’t need levelling ramps as you’re not staying in it - and make sure you don't have strain on the cornersteadies to avoid undue stresses.
Lastly - enjoy!
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Agree with TW. Put a note on the van door to remind yourself to check things before you step into van in garage. Better to be safe and ensure chocks are still in place. It’s stored under cover, you won’t get most of the issues others do when keeping outfits outside. Just ventilate it a bit, and don’t leave any food stuffs in there! 😁
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Thanks for the advice. It might sound like a silly question, but how do we get the chocks under the wheels in the garage? Do we need to try and roll it back onto them, or put them under the wheels in the direction it slopes and then take the handbrake off?
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-- we really do need a few more folks with differing views, if only to stop me posting my nonsense of humour at every opportunity 
I'm Utterly Flabbergasted ~~ I had to provide proof that both my garages were full of { expletive Deleted User } before I was allowed on here !!
