Please can vanners who have their vans in storage advise us. We are moving to a bungalow and will not be able to keep van on drive. We will take the battery off and keep it topped up at home but what tips have you for convenience when wanting to use the van. At home it is easy to put in clothes, food etc but I am thinking that it will be a major exercise filling the car with clothing, food etc. When we prepare to go we put the fridge on electric for 24 hours so that it is cold for frozen and fresh food on the morning of leaving. Water and electricity is at hand for cleaning etc. Presumably this is not available on site or leaving gas on allowed, so how do you cope?
i park the van out side the house before we leave. either the night before we leave or if we're not leaving till the afternoon, i pick it up first thing and just park it on road out side house, i hook it up get the fridge working etc and load it up.
------------- Mark
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I do two journeys to the van one with all my stuff the day before and write a list of what I have forgotten and the next when we go to take the van with all I have forgotten and the food etc everything gets put where it should be in the fridge and that has to do a we don't have any Leccy in storage to chill it never had a problem though
Take all the inside stuff to the van a day or so before we go and set up the fixed bed.
Outside stuff goes in the car with us. Just easier to sort out on site with the wife setting up inside whilst I do outside. In the car we also have the bathroom stuff which has to be a last minute pack.
If we take any food it will be frozen and put i nthe fridge as we set off so that by the time we get there it will have thawed and ready to cook. Just pop fridge on as we set off. If we do take any fridge stuff we wrap it in bendable freezer blocks to keep it cool till the fridge gets up to speed. We tend to pick sites in areas that sell food so don't take much with us.
Trust me, once you get into a routine that suits you it will be a doddle.
Phil
------------- If you're not on a fell your wasting your feet and for 2014 it's.......Feb Castleton Mar North Yors Moors; Apr Sutton on Sea; May Thirsk; Jun Clapham/Riverside (Lakes); July Wharfedale; August Crakehall; Sept Knaresborough; Oct Wirral Park/Clitheroe
my mrs hangs the clothes in the wardrobe and put the stuff in cuboards, toilet stuff goes in the lot. as said we hook the van up to the house so fridge gets nice and cold before we leave, it'll run on the battery while we're travelling so every thing is cold when we get there.
Last time we did it the van was out side for the night before we left, hooked up aswell and we had no problems.
Hi yes it is a major movement our van is 6 miles away, and although we could get to park outside house we might not get it out, as it is tight where we live.
We leave everything in it for the season we might need, other than items which will degrade. Other than that its a case of transferring clothes food and other bits a pieces a few days before. And then the same on the return journey, however the car is full to the brim so i dont have to make a return journey to empty the van. Normally it will be the next weekend, to collect forgotten things and make sure everything is OK.
It is a bind but it does get easy. As for washing, I bought a cheap sprayer and take a 25ltr jerri can with hot water in it from home and all the soaps etc, and just get on with it.
enjoy
Chris W
van on drive car on road no one bothers about a car being on the road but neighbours can moan if the van is there. the van is there for a limited amount of time so there is no problem what so ever cleaning, filling, tidying, emptying and maintaining can all be done this way
Hi, we have van in storage, we just load up the car and when i get to storage i put the things in the fridge, and do the rest when we get on site. we have a tap on storage site so go and wash it there. If we are on electric on a site i just hoover up before we leave.
Can't do as one suggestion as the new drive is not really long enough to get a van on and the road is narrow. Never seen the bendable freeze blocks, that is something to look out for. Didn't think of a sprayer and can. I suppose I can hang everything up once there while OH sets up, I usually just put the kettle on and sit down
You have all made something that I considered onerous sound quite easy.