Your Emails

	Brittle Tyre Accidents

	First of all, thanks for including me in the circulation of the pilot issue of Caravanning Answers and congratulations on a great new publication. I particularly liked the video clips accompanying the Italian Lakes feature. I’m writing to alert your readers to the dangers of running a caravan on old tyres. Recently my wife and I were caught out when a tyre on our Avondale Rialto ended up in shreds as we travelled back from Cornwall to the Midlands. Although we were on the motorway, our speed wasn’t excessive and we were in the inside lane at the time, so we were able to come to a fairly controlled and safe stop. In different circumstances it would have been a disaster but, in the event, we simply bolted on the spare and went on our way. Next day I took the offending wheel to a tyre depot recommended to me by my local caravan dealer and told them of my surprise that the original had blown. Although it was several years old (original equipment on the ‘van in fact), I had inspected both tyres before our trip and contented myself they were in perfect condition and correctly inflated. It turned out the man at the tyre depot was a caravanner himself (and a friend of the caravan dealer who had referred me), so he knew his stuff and I thought it worth passing on his advice to your readers. Apparently, because caravans tend to do less mileage than cars, it takes much longer for the tread to wear down and, after a few years, the rubber starts to go brittle and can develop hairline cracks that don’t show up in a cursory visual inspection. The fact that many caravans stand for months in the same position adds to this problem. Therefore, it is regarded as good practice to renew caravan tyres every five years regardless of the tread condition. You can tell how old each tyre is by looking for the DOT (Department of Transport) Code on the tyre rim. This is a code with 11 or 12 numbers/letters, the last four of which tell you when the tyre was made. For example, 0508 means the tyre was manufactured during week 5 of 2008. For tyres manufactured before 2000, its the last THREE digits that give the manufacture date - for example 118 means the tyre was manufactured in the 11th month (November) of 1998.


	The DOT number indicates this tyre was manufactured in week 22 of 2009.

	According to the man in the tyre depot, caravans overturning whilst being towed are normally the result of tyres that burst because the rubber has gone too brittle. I learned my lesson the hard way. In future I’ll buy new caravan tyres every 5 years. David Casey


	Keeping a Level Head with Shower Power

Our rather ancient Lunar Clubman caravan had a two-way spirit level screwed to the A-frame cowling so, at least in theory, levelling the ‘van should have been a doddle.

We don’t have a caravan mover and so attempted side-to-side levelling by towing the Lunar up a wedge-shaped plastic chock specially designed for the purpose. We took it in turns to stand in the danger zone between caravan and car whilst the other one did the towing. Shouting ‘Stop’ at the point when the bubble centred was a task we honed to perfection. Pulling on the ‘van’s hand brake and attaching the anti-rollback device to the chock whilst the car’s footbrake was still applied soon became second-nature and not even once did we lose a finger in the process.

Then there was the comparatively easy task of front-to-back levelling using the jockey wheel adjuster before finally screwing down the levelling feet and entering the ‘van to find it was way out of level.

Eventually, we unscrewed the spirit level from the A-frame and tried levelling with it placed on the floor within the doorway, and then on the

kitchen area work surface. Each gave a slightly different result, but both were much more successful than levelling at the A-frame. In fact, we thought we had cracked the problem until the first time we used the shower.

Although the rest of the caravan appeared to be level, the shower tray stubbornly refused to drain, as water ran AWAY from the drain hole, rather than towards it. Clearly the shower tray was not on the same level as the rest of the ‘van and, for a while, we duly soaked up the excess shower tray water using a sponge which we wrung out into the wash basin.

Then an on-site conversation with a near-stranger revealed the solution. “We’ve got that problem as well”, he told us. “We place the spirit level over the drain hole of the shower and level the shower rather than the rest of the ‘van”.

Well, did we feel stupid or what? Needless to say, we tried his method and found that, with a perfectly draining shower tray, our Clubman is so close to level that we are not conscious of any discomfort.

Pete & Lizzie Stanton

Win £60 worth of pitch accommodation

Video Clip Problems
	Thanks for sending me the pilot Caravanning Answers. I think it is very good and have already emailed my form to receive regular copies. However, I did have one problem in that I was unable to play the video clips. This was disappointing as the prospect of a magazine with video is very exciting. I am using Windows Vista and I have Windows Media Player installed. When I click on the video clip picture I get a dialogue box asking which application I want to use to play the clip. When I choose Windows Media Player I get a message telling me it can’t read that type of file. George Boxley

		We needed to use a video format that both PC and Mac users can view and which compresses the files. To play them back, you’ll need to have Adobe Flash Player installed on your computer. We chose this format because most computers already have it. *If your’s doesn’t, download it from www.adobe.com/flashplayer.* Ed.

Caravan Storage

When I bought my first caravan twenty five years ago, I was able to keep it in a temperature-controlled industrial unit.

After 5 years water ingress became a problem and the caravan workshop suggested the dry air conditioned atmosphere had dried out the joint sealing compound causing it to crack.

I had this fixed and traded the ‘van for a new one, which I kept on my driveway without experiencing water ingress problems, although keeping the ‘van clean during the autumn leaf fall was a bit of a nightmare.

Around 10 years ago, another change of ‘van prompted a storage review and I paid for storage in a barn with semi-open sides. This overcame the problem with autumn leaves, but was inconvenient and expensive.

Three years ago, apprehensively, I ended this arrangement, brought the caravan back to my drive and enclosed it in a caravan cover.

For me, this is the best solution. It keeps the ‘van clean, allows it to ‘breathe’, and there’s no ongoing cost.

Robert Adams