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Sorry about the long post! Lots of advice needed.We have just returned from our first trip in our caravan. We had a good time and we are hooked! I do have a couple of questions though.

1) When I come home with my van we have to turn round at the end of the road with a load of pushing and pulling ( with car). I did seem to get the smell of the clutch burning. Obviously I have to ride the clutch a bit. Is this nomal? I dont want to have to replace the clutch too soon!

2) The first couple of nights was quite windy. Every time the wind blew ( which was most of the time) It came straight through the top of the fridge vent. It also came trhough the back of the cupboard it is in. This seems to be coming away from the wall slightly. Is this normal?

3) I seem to have busted the water pump. It was running when we bought the van. I ran all the water out so it would not freeze. However, when I refilled the tank last week the pump would not work at all. I checked the swithces any possible fuses. Nothing made a difference. Any ideas.

Thanks in advance for any advice offered.

Cheers

Robin

Hi Robin

Can't really help you but will be interested to see what replies you get about the clutch cause we had the same problem when we got back today from our first trip out.  We had a good time too with a couple of mishaps but we're still here so must of done ok lol

Hi Robin,

Apart form the initial teething problems that we all get at first i hope you still had a good time!?

I can't really help with the first two questions about the vent etc as i have the same problem myself on occasion if the wind is blowing in the right direction, I found situating the caravan in a suitable direction and having the car or a windbreak etc infront of the vent helped somewhat....

In regard to your pump, if you have tested the fuses and switches and all is fine then it may simply be an air lock, our pump often does the same after draining the system, I cure the problem by opening up the taps, switching on the pump, filling up the pipe outside and manually blowing the water through til it reaches the tap, - that gets mine working fine again. - maybe that's all yours needs too.

Hope you figure out the problems.

All the best,

Grub.

Yeah, we enjoyed ourselves. My wife wants to go again in a couple of weeks!

I did briefly think about air locks or something. I think the pump is switched i.e. when you lift the tap it is supposed to run. I can see cables running from the taps. When we first tried it the pump made a noise but it does not do anything at all now. I will try blowing through the pipes, however, we have an onboard tank. Not quite so easy! Thanks Grub

Hi Robin , here's some answers for you .

1 you may want to think about getting some sort of caravan mover http://www.powrwheel.com/
http://www.truma.com/truma05/en/products/detail1_en_78547.html
http://www.hitchdrive.com/main.html

2 the back of the fridge should be sealed so air can't get into the caravan , just flow air in and out of the vents to cool the fridge cooling fins down , there is normally a baffle plate that directs the hot air out through the top vent , but when caravans are built the baffle isn't made to seal the back of the fridge very well , hence you get air blowing into the caravan . Air can also be blown past the sides of the fridge and underneth the fridge ( cupboard under the fridge ) see picture in my profile .

3 if you've used the pump and it's run dry you may have bust the pump , the pump needs to be in water to stop it damaging the bearings .

atb

Wizard

Thanks Wizard, the caravan movers seem like a nice idea but quite expensive. I'll have to avoid going backwards up hill.! Once its on the drive I can cope. As Wlee says, I'll have to let the clutch cool/avoid high revs.

I am thinking I have burnt out the pump but in the book it tells me to empty the system in winter but running the taps ( and therefore the pump)! The only other thing is that when we bought the van the guy said that he had had a special socket fitted and a pump made up to pump water from the aquaroll into the on board tank. This was how I found out the pump no longer worked as this one did not either!

>>I am thinking I have burnt out the pump but in the book it tells me to empty the system in winter but running the taps ( and therefore the pump)! The only other thing is that when we bought the van the guy said that he had had a special socket fitted and a pump made up to pump water from the aquaroll into the on board tank. This was how I found out the pump no longer worked as this one did not either!

Hmm not to sure how you'd go about draining a onboard water tank , is your pump inside as well ? if it is i'm not to up on these types of pump . I would have thought to drain the water out of the pipes it would be just a matter of opening the taps and letting the water drain down into the onboard tank , but like i say i don't really know the in's and out's of an onboard system .

atb

Wizard