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Subject Topic: Cycle racks and Caravan height on Ferry Post Reply Post New Topic
04/10/2013 at 9:31am
 Location: Hull
 Outfit: Elddis Tempest
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Has anyone any experience of P&O ferries actually checking the height of bikes on top of cars or the height of the caravan,particularly through Hull. If you book your caravan at 2.5 metres and the car+ cycle rack at the same the price goes up by £50,if you drop the cycle height to 2.4 metres it goes down again,if you drop the caravan height to 2.4 metres it goes down another £30. Are they that fussy that they'd actually measure and pull you up for the sake of 100mm?


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04/10/2013 at 10:15am
 Location: East Lothian
 Outfit: Autocruise Stardream
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The problem will arise if you've told them you're 2.4m and you're sent onto a deck with 2.4m clearance, you're at 2.5m and you wreck your bikes, then its your problem


04/10/2013 at 10:39am
 Location: Lancashire
 Outfit: Caravan
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if caravans go free at weekends, why does the price change with length and height?
Normally they don't bother about bike height if you are pulling a caravan, usually you are on a deck next to artics which are a bit higher.
if anyone says anything get someone to push the bikes alongside you, they don't charge for width.


04/10/2013 at 10:45am
 Location: Cornwall
 Outfit:  Hobby 650 Ec low profile motorhome
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Greetings,

Don't know what 'van you've got but it would be a low one at 2.4mtrs.

Our Lunar (2010 Lexon is 2.6(5) ahhhmmm) The 0.05 gets lost in the wind, tee hee.

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04/10/2013 at 11:16am
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Can understand the length issue as it determines the number of vehicles that they can get on, but height of a car and caravan is odd, if, like you say the price goes down when you take the bikes off, the price drops, as you stupidly have to pull the taller van on anyway, unles they have a magic shrinking machine which can't shrink bikes?

Width is also another minefield, we booked a crossing and the old car cost more than when we changed the booking because I got a new car, which was wider, longer and about the same height. We had a £5 refund after they took the admin fee.


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04/10/2013 at 11:46am
 Location: welsh
 Outfit: sante fe swift challenger 580 sr
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came back on one of the last P&O from bilbao and they were using a pole to measure vans problem is there are some lower parts to a deck where they sometimes put you ..but if your straight down the middle with the trucks no problems......................


04/10/2013 at 1:04pm
 Location: Hull
 Outfit: Elddis Tempest
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Quote: Originally posted by markh1 on 04/10/2013
The problem will arise if you've told them you're 2.4m and you're sent onto a deck with 2.4m clearance, you're at 2.5m and you wreck your bikes, then its your problem


Can you honestly see the them only allowing such a small amount of clearance?


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04/10/2013 at 1:07pm
 Location: Hull
 Outfit: Elddis Tempest
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Quote: Originally posted by ayjay on 04/10/2013
if caravans go free at weekends, why does the price change with length and height?
Normally they don't bother about bike height if you are pulling a caravan, usually you are on a deck next to artics which are a bit higher.
if anyone says anything get someone to push the bikes alongside you, they don't charge for width.


The caravans free at weekends thing is also puzzling me,the price clearly changes when you take the caravan off for both a Saturday and Sunday night crossing. The prices still seem to be on the move though. I'm gonna wait for the CC to release their prices then take it from there. I'm hopeful parts of the pricing structure are still to be loaded onto the system.


04/10/2013 at 1:26pm
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2.4 mtres is usually max height allowable on the low car/light vehicle deck. Anything higher than that or with a trailer has to go on truck deck. Thats how it works on Dover/Dunkirk route so probably other routes have similar systems.

As the ferry is loading the crew are directing vehicles so it is unlikely that an overheight vehicle would get as far as hitting anything & some ferry checkins have height sensors so they know your height anyway.

-------------
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04/10/2013 at 2:21pm
 Location: Scotland.
 Outfit: Conway Camargue Lots of Vangos. .
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Do they check? Yes they do, if you watch when they're shuffling the vehicles around for loading at least one of the chaps will have a little laser type measuring device to double check which row vehicles should go into. Where they put you is not determined by the ticket, you're sorted by eye. Where you might get checked against your ticket is at the check in kiosk, some of these have measuring devices.

You could always put the bikes in the van for the crossing? In the past when we've not been able to get a booking for a car with top bike rack (I always seem to leave things to the last minute) we strap the bikes flat onto the top of the trailer tent before we book in, then put them back on the top rack as soon as we arrive at the other side. It's not ideal for either bike or TT cover even with padding and it probably puts us over the payload of the TT but it's only for a few hundred yards of driving.

Failing that phone up and ask, most ferry companies don't charge for both elements of your unit when you're over height, just the higher one.



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04/10/2013 at 2:34pm
 Location: Lancashire
 Outfit: Caravan
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If memory serves me right, Hull /Rotterdam cars and cars with caravans load via totally different ramps. Cars go on via a ramp to the middle of the ship, high vehicles go up the back end. The high vehicle deck is cavernous.Zeebrugge, cars go on the ramps, caravans are kept away from going under the ramps by dangly tapes. Brittany Ferries have put us under ramps with a caravan, and I have to say I had a sweat hoping I hhad remembered to fully retract the tv aerial.


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04/10/2013 at 5:57pm
 Location: Cumbria
 Outfit: Coachman VIP 520
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Quite a lot of years ago with Brittany ferries (even though we'd accurately declared the height of our van) there was an employee with stepladders unscrewing the sticky up bit on the top of our (and most other people's) TV ariels as we boarded the ship!


22/10/2013 at 12:48am
 Location: Eccles Manchester
 Outfit: Pennine Pullman
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Hmm I don't recall being asked for height of our Pullman when I booked Dover>Calais this year through CCC (had to look online while booking for the length mind!) but I'd specified the car + roofbox + bikes..
When we arrived we were missing the roofbox (long story!) and had decided not to take the bikes. Our turn to go and the chap directing everyone pointed us at the ramps for the upperdeck!! Mild panic set in with OH saying "We'll never get this up there" while I was thinking if I get stuck I'll have hundreds cursing me! Thankfully he took pity and put us on the lower deck!! So in theory they WILL put a folding camper on the upper decks with the 2.4m restriction...


22/10/2013 at 7:42am
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Quote: Originally posted by unseen on 22/10/2013
Our turn to go and the chap directing everyone pointed us at the ramps for the upperdeck!! Mild panic set in with OH saying "We'll never get this up there" while I was thinking if I get stuck I'll have hundreds cursing me! Thankfully he took pity and put us on the lower deck!! So in theory they WILL put a folding camper on the upper decks with the 2.4m restriction...


You will never get into any sort of situation like that on a ferry, once you drive up the ramp it is for the loading crew to decide where to put you, they will not park you in an unsuitable place. If you get as far as driving onto the ferry without anybody pointing out your vehicle size differs from your booking, then you are ok.


-------------
Regards, Jack+Jon.


22/10/2013 at 9:58am
 Location: Cornwall
 Outfit:  Hobby 650 Ec low profile motorhome
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Hi Again,
Cliffystephens wrote,
"came back on one of the last P&O from bilbao and they were using a pole to measure vans"

We had the same scenario at Bilbao and I KNOW it was the last ferry. The previous round trip had been cancelled because of bad weather, thus trapping I don't know how many people who had been on a booze cruise for over a WEEK There were some VERY hungover people who had enjoyed the Spanish hospitality a little too much.

They were trying to maximise the space because they had to get everyone on and the pole came out

-------------
How come when some people visit the fountain of knowledge, they only gargle!!!


22/10/2013 at 5:29pm
 Location: Pontyclun
 Outfit: Compas
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out of pompey on brittany they were this year and charging people accordingly

5 people on our site were done trying to board st malo

not only over the 2.4 also over the 1.9 were being checked

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2022
North and West wales grand tour (in T5)
Matlock (in T5)
New forest and IOW (in T5)
New Forest
La tranche sur mer
jevea (Valencia)
2023
Cotswolds
Tenby
(added a Compass Rallye to crew)
Royan
La tranche Sur Mer
2024
royan
La tranche

'Wyrd bith ful araed-Fate will out'



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