Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

I would just like to wish all motimers, members of Touring and Tenting and all the caravanning and camping folks a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Whatever you are all up to I hope you enjoy it and 2007 is a prosperous time for you all.

As far as caravannng goes, we will be hoping to do much of the same as this year with maybe a couple of trips away all being well

Best wishes to you all

Posted by: Tenaki at 16:45 | link | comments
camping, caravanning

Servicing imported caravans

Servicing imported caravans

Has anyone who has personally imported a German caravan (Hymer in particular) experienced any problems getting the van serviced or having warranty problems sorted out by UK dealers?

Have received an interesting e-mail from Hymer suggesting that UK dealers won't undertake any sort of work on an imported van because it doesn't conform to UK regs.
Thanks,
AL

An easy question to answer it would seem, but apparently not you can read the thread here which has turned into quite a debate.

The full thread is a fair read but if you are interested take and look, if you are registered on the forums you can also add to it. Or of course you add your comments here

At present there seems to be an attempt to sum up what is a complicated thread.......have a read, it's facinating

 

Posted by: Tenaki at 19:44 | link | comments
caravanning

A-frame legal facts

Mororhome A-frame legal facts

The question had been raised ‘Does a car being towed become a trailer?’ Yes it is as a trailer is defined in The Road Traffic Act 1988, s

185 (1) as a vehicle drawn by a motor vehicle. Hence any wheeled vehicle being towed by another is a trailer. The interpretation, therefore, by the DfT is that a towed vehicle must conform to The Road Vehicles (Construction & Use) Regulations 1986 (SI 1986 No. 1078) and amending regulations with regard to the trailer regulations contained in that regulation.

These regulations call for type 02 trailers i.e. up to 3500 kg to be fitted with brakes to European Directive 71/320/EC as amended. This states that trailers built since 1989 must have overrun brakes of the automatic reversing design. Clearly a car cannot meet this directive’s requirement. Regulations also cover the braking performance of trailers. It is unlikely that a cable system operating the car’s footbrake would give sufficient braking force to meet the required levels. This is because car brakes can only give the necessary performance levels when the engine is running!

I did a lot of research when writing my book and I looked at many A frames and Dollies. The A frames that have so called receptors permanently fitted to a car to which you connect the drawbar cause many knock on problems. Fitting this framework is a modification to the car. The car’s owner must notify their insurance company of this modification. Do you ask the A frame maker if they have the permission of the car manufacturer to fit these brackets and steel members?

I have and not one has been able to tell me that they have the necessary authority to modify the car’s bodywork. I have seen one system fitted to the aluminium crush tubes on a Mercedes A class. This will change the deformation of the crumple zone if the car is in an accident when being driven. The crumple zone is there to absorb as much of the kinetic energy when in a collision thus protecting the occupants in the car’s safety cell. If the front is stiffened in any way by attaching bars and brackets more energy can reach the passenger compartment and then possibly injure the passengers more than it would have done without this modification to the body.

There is a recent new law on pedestrian safety and has caused car designers to make significant changes to the frontal aspect and construction of the car. The long bonnet on a Peugeot 407 is an example. There is no way that A frame brackets can be attached and left protruding and still meet these new regulations.

The effect on the airbags can be dramatic. It will not stop them working but can make them work in a collision occurring at a much lower speed. Airbags are controlled by a deceleration sensor that has a predetermined level at which it activates the airbags. Stiffening the crumple zone means that the airbags can deploy at a low speed impact and can cause facial injuries by going off unexpectedly. What will your insurance company say if the airbags have gone off but there is not enough damage to the car in the claim? If you have not told them of this modification they will take the opportunity to invalidate your insurance and not pay out.

A frames and Dollies are perfectly legal to recover a broken down vehicle to a place of safety if towed by a vehicle taxed and licensed as a Recovery vehicle. These vehicles can tow a car that does not have an MOT. They cannot be used to transport a car. That is why all the breakdown people such as the AA, RAC etc use a beaver tail truck for this purpose.

Dft advice is as follows:

‘We do not supply copies of legislation but I have included some information on various sources where they can be obtained. If you would like to purchase printed copies of Statutory Instruments these are available from TSO:

The Stationery Office Tel: 0870 600 5522
PO Box 29 Fax: 0870 600 5533
St Crispins e-mail: book.orders@tso.co.uk
Duke Street online ordering: www.tso.co.uk/bookshop
Norwich NR3 1GN

Alternatively you can consult "The Encyclopaedia of Road Traffic Law and Practice" published by Sweet and Maxwell. This publication is updated regularly and is available in most city reference libraries.

EU Directives can be found at:
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/search/search_lif.html 

UN-ECE Regulations can be found at: http://www.unece.org/trans/main/wp29/wp29regs.html 

From the above I hope it is clear that we believe the use of "A" frames to tow cars behind other vehicles is legal provided the braking and lighting requirements are met. However, while this is our understanding of the meaning of the Regulations, it is only the Courts which can reach a definitive interpretation of the law.

Alan Mendelson
Primary Safety Branch
Department for Transport’

Note the Civil Service way of saying ‘yes you can tow’ but adding ‘as long as the brakes meet the regulations’ whilst knowing that a car could not meet the trailer automatic reversing braking regulations contained within the quoted regulations.

The above was in responce to a post here 

The turorial was submitted with thanks by Brian Bate author of The Trailer Manual published by Haynes 

The Trailer Manual can be purchased online at  Haynes 

or From Amazon at £12.23 You Save: £5.76 (32%)

Trailer Manual
By: Brian Bate

"Following the same successful format as the Caravan Manual and Motorcaravan Manual, this is a comprehensive guide to buying, using, maintaining - even building - a light trailer, up to 3.5 tonnes in weight. Featuring car trailers, trailer tents, tippers, general haulage and motorcycle carriers, new and used, expert author Brian Bate provides the sort of information that will be invaluable to both novice and experienced trailer users, including authoritative details on the latest legislation affecting trailer usage.
"This book will prove to be a great help to both novice and experienced trailer users" Speedscene

Prices are correct at the time of publishing.
Tutorials may only be used with the authors consent, Touring and Tenting accept no liability for content or content of external websites

Posted by: Tenaki at 22:28 | link | comments
motorhome

running a caravanning website

Running a website can have it moments

I don't normally have a rant but tonight I feel in the mood. I have run the website for nearly 4 years now and I love it. If truth be told I probably spend too much time on it, sometimes to the detriment of everything else, but if you run a website yourself you probably know what I am talking about.

My site has, luckily, an active community and it is great and one of the reasons I spend so much time on it, but this weekend has been hell. It happens now again but I must say that through experience I hate this run up to Christmas because If anything is going to kick off its now. It's probably the stress of it all that doesn't help although why a couple of days should be stressfull I don't really know.......it just seems to be that way.

The bizare thing is sometimes loads of unconnected things happen at the same time. You deal with one issue and something else kicks off that isn't necessarily public but has to be dealt with while trying at the same time to deal with the other very the public things that suddenly kick off.

The point of my rant really is that I need to do a few things on the site and often plan these for the weekend, you know the sort of stuff, upgrades, improvements, links etc etc and when this sort of thing happens it all goes out the window. A weekend lost !!

And another thing on the subject of links, why oh why do some websites suddenly remove your link?

Anyway I feel better now that;s off my chest and regardless of all the stuff that goes on I still love it and it;s still my baby.

See........I have just spent half an hour writing this when I could have been trying to improve my google ranking........now thats a joy

Posted by: Tenaki at 23:38 | link | comments
camping, caravanning