That was expensive

EmilysDad
EmilysDad Forum Participant Posts: 8,973
1000 Comments
edited July 2022 in Caravan & Motorhome Chat #1

Set up on a CL last week and tried to use one of the 2 wheel locks I'd taken ... a lozenge type ALKO & a Bulldog Max .... The pitch sloped up to the back & by the time I was happy with where the caravan was, lining up a wheel with the ALKO receiver was the last of my worries. Needless to say I could fit neither .... no worries & both went back into the locker on the side of the caravan. A week later, I set off home, got onto the M5 and noticed a locker door flapping in the breeze, I'd not locked the locker door. So ... there are 2 wheel locks & a wheel brace knocking about .... they even have a key to each attached to the bag that the AKO lock came in. To be hoped they ended up in a gutter rather than the middle of a carriageway. embarassed

On a positive .... the mover remote was still in there!?

Comments

  • flatcoat
    flatcoat Forum Participant Posts: 1,571
    1000 Comments
    edited July 2022 #2

    Bad luck, there but for the grace and all that. For what it’s worth I carry all the caravan security locks in the car, they weigh quite a few kg’s. 

  • cyberyacht
    cyberyacht Forum Participant Posts: 10,218
    1000 Comments
    edited July 2022 #3

    Always do a walk round and check all your lockers and doors before setting off. Mind you, I did manage to leave home with my step still out a couple of months back. A motorist in the queue at the traffic lights kindly drew my attention to it.

  • commeyras
    commeyras Forum Participant Posts: 1,853
    1000 Comments
    edited July 2022 #4

    Ouch ED.  I too do a walk around before leaving - inside windows, lockers, fridge to 12v and roof lights secure then outside lockers, stabiliser, jockey wheel, mover off wheels (that's easy to miss).  Nevertheless, a few yrs ago we were on the autoroute last day heading to Calais when a motorist overtook me indicating that something was open.  I stopped and the battery box door was open!  The mover power switch is in there but fortunately I had left it in the socket.  Message 'check check and check again!'.  I am so paranoid now that if, after starting to drive I think I have not done something I have to stop and check; I have banned Mrs C from asking 'have you checked .......?' because if she does I have to stop and check. We are experienced caravanners who make these slip ups so newbies be careful; if you are interupted in your last walk around start again, it could save you pounds.

  • EmilysDad
    EmilysDad Forum Participant Posts: 8,973
    1000 Comments
    edited July 2022 #5

    if only the lockers had the same fasteners as the previous caravan, These need a key to lock & unlock them them but it lets you withdraw the key when unlocked. The previous caravan had lockers with a latch that would keep the locker door closed but not necessarily locked (the toilet cassette door still has one of these. Lesson learned is not to remove the key when unlocked & don't close the door too.

    So, if anyone buys a 29 Alko lozenge lock with just one key on eBay from the Bristol-ish area ..... I might have the other key! 🤣

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,299 ✭✭✭
    5,000 Likes 1000 Comments
    edited July 2022 #6

    I’m sure we would have done the same, fortunately I get an extremely loud alarm if I start the engine with it out.

  • richardandros
    richardandros Club Member Posts: 2,681 ✭✭✭
    1,000 Likes 1000 Comments Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited July 2022 #7

    I am also paranoid about my pre-driving-off safety checks and have a 'routine' that I have to go through. How is it though - and it does annoy me although I don't say anything - that as soon as you start to hitch the van up to the car - a neighbour (either at home or on site) suddenly pops up and has to have a chat! When they've finished, I invariably have to start from the beginning just to make sure I haven't forgotten anything.

    Another of my little 'quirks' is that on the morning of departure - when we have finished watching the morning news over breakfast  (and usually ages before we leave) - I get up - switch the TV off - unplug it - lock it into place - switch the amplifier off and retract the aerial. Another job easily forgotten if left until later!

    We are fortunate with our van in that the locker locks are sort of turnbutton things that have to be physically turned to engage the locking mechanism - before pressing them in to lock them. If they aren't turned the lid just drops open so it's pretty obvious. Even if I had forgotten to actually lock them (which I never have) - they still wouldn't come open.

  • cyberyacht
    cyberyacht Forum Participant Posts: 10,218
    1000 Comments
    edited July 2022 #8

    So have I with a second switch on the dash. I must have been distracted when it started beeping.

  • Graydjames
    Graydjames Forum Participant Posts: 440 ✭✭✭
    edited July 2022 #9

    I always do a walk round too, but I have found it doesn't always work. Only last Sunday, leaving Burford, I did what I thought was possibly my most thorough walk around ever. Due to van problems (no electrics), I was stressed, and on giving up and deciding to leave a day early, I packed up in a bit of a hurry; I thought to myself, I've rushed, I must double check everything is ready and correct for travel. So I did, or so I thought. 

    As I was almost at the exit of the site, a very breathless lady waved me down; did I know my nearside van window was open? 

    No, I didn't know, despite checking and double checking, I'd just missed it. It was fully open as far as it would go as well.

    You see what you expect to see.

    I was so grateful to this lady especially as she had chased me no little distance to stop me and I was effusive in my thanks. It was a good job I was keeping to 5mph. Most anybody else and she'd have had no chance.   

  • bandgirl
    bandgirl Forum Participant Posts: 440
    100 Comments
    edited July 2022 #10

    Fortunately we’ve only ever driven off with the caravan wet locker unlocked once, so far, early on in our caravanning career.  The door flap came open as we were going along.  We didn’t lose anything valuable, but the top of the flap sustained some damage where it must have scraped on a speed hump or something.  We were lucky that the mobile engineer that does our servicing put in for it to be replaced under warranty and the manufacturer agreed (Swift, as it was an Abbey caravan).  Even with both of us going round checking all the lockers, windows, roof lights etc. pre departure, never say never.  One rule I have is that I always leave the caravan door open until I’m ready with the key in my hand to close it and lock it immediately.  That way there’s no risk of closing and forgetting to lock it.

  • EmilysDad
    EmilysDad Forum Participant Posts: 8,973
    1000 Comments
    edited July 2022 #11

    Just remembered that my battery powered awning compressor was in the locker too .... 😳 

  • NutsyH
    NutsyH Forum Participant Posts: 534
    edited July 2022 #12

    I did that, but my step isnt attached!. I remembered whilst going down the M5, so stopped at Highworth Caravbans and bought another set.

  • rodneya
    rodneya Forum Participant Posts: 9
    edited October 2022 #13

    My car had a puncture on a Thursday afternoon in September this year.  The hole in the tyre was too big for the compressor and sealer liquid (in leu of a spare wheel) to fix, didn’t even try to use it

    Green Flag picked up the car and arranged for a new tyre in Norwich 30 miles away.  The tyre should have been available Saturday morning but someone had ordered the wrong size and a replacement wouldn’t be available until Monday 

    Two 90 minute trips on a bus and £230 lighter, stuck without a car at Incleboro Fields for days.  I would have been even less pleased to find bits of debris from the locker of a caravan sticking out of the rubber

    Please check your locker doors 

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2022 #14

    Nice Buses and Drivers and a chance to see the county instead of.watching out for other motorists 👍😁

  • rodneya
    rodneya Forum Participant Posts: 9
    edited October 2022 #15

    Very nice countryside, buses not my usual mode of transport.  As for other motorists they don’t usually bother me it’s just what they might leave in the road

    The offending item in this case was a piece of flint washed into the road in the heavy rainstorm.  At least the van was on its pitch not on the car, could have been much less convenient