Thinking of useful extras for motorhome

My fault SteveL, should have said external TV aerial socket. Its not only some UK sites that provide TV on the bollard. Some Continental sites provide satellite TV on bollards especially the further south you go.

We don't have a microwave either BB, never flelt the need for one in an LV. Do you have a dash cam? That would be fairly high on my list these days. Some insurance companies are giving discounts if you have one.

peedee

We don't have a microwave either, although there was one in our last caravan. We would find it useful but it would remove a storage cupboard and of course they are reasonably heavy. I can think of better uses for the weight. We have changed our style of living from that in the caravan and actually use few 240 volt items. This is mainly because we find it easier and have refillable gas rather than the Calor bottles in our caravan. There is a lot less work surface in our MH than our old caravan, so gone is the electric kettle, electric coffee maker and electric toaster, we now use the whistling kettle, gas grill and push coffee pot. It also makes moving on quicker. Although a continental make, our MH does have the same size  cooker / oven as our caravan. It was one of the reasons we chose it.

all good stuff above...

agreed, the microwave would take up kitchen space, id rather have the large upper cupboard storage....

uk branded MH Kitchens are generally so packed full of 'goodies' that they seem to forget about storage....often plenty of worktop, enhanced by fitting tiny, under counter fridges, leaving a dearth of decent drawer and refrigerated storage. storage, for us, every time.

we had a Thetford Duplex oven/grill installed as part of the 'fettling deal'. 

not really considered a dash cam, Peedee, but might look at some point.

we have our own satellite system so (with a little attention to parking) we have tv everywhere and doent even have a site TV extender....but i might make one...for a trial...

ps...i have seen folk (on continental sites) watching tv outside...how, in that bright sunshine?....and even some upmarket MHs with this as an option....

With our new motorhome we had a few more extra's going for the Alliance range rather than the more basic Advance range so don't have a long list of extras to add. I don't think I will bother with a satellite dish on this one as we have an aerial which seems to work quite well. For the number of times we have to use the external TV co-ax cable we do just thread it through the corner of a window. Its something we have done over the years without a problem. We have always found microwaves useful. When we go away we do tend to use ready meals, especially for short trips so that along with the oven prove very useful. Margaret also uses it for her porridge every morning. So I think for us the mods I will be thinking about adding is the fan I mentioned earlier. Might think about a chassis mounted bike rack but we are not sure on that point as we don't think we will be touring abroad and we find riding bikes in this country more difficult because a lack of proper paths. Finally I should mention that the first things we added to this new motorhome was a VanBitz alarm and a Battery Master (the latter suggested by Peedee many years ago) 

David

David, that would be a shame if you stop touring abroad, having read your blogs i can see that ypuve had plenty of good times.

any particualr reason....the virus, getting older, still plenty to see in the uk etc?

one of the great things for us when 'away' is (as you inferred) the wonderful, quiet, often dedicated cycle routes...general cycling here holds little interest....dedicated paths are around but you have to find them..

good luck.

BoleroBoy We are lucky where we live we have quite a few cycle ways, all disused railways thanks to Dr Beecham, (for us that can remember him an ex Chairman of my old company good old ICI). We tend to look for sites that have cycleways,most sites carry maps of them, we are on the borders of the Derbyshire dales which have really good cycle tracks Tissington trail, Monsal Trail, Manifold trail Staffordshire, and outside our back door the Middlewood way, all a good 8 to ten miles long with no traffic, just shared with walkers and Horses. If you go online you nearly always can find one within a easy drivable distance, quite a lot you can ride too from most CMC sites. One we hope to do is the New Forest. With never been abroad l can't comment, you may be correct in what you say that cycling is more pleasant but believe me we have some of the best pleasant and quiet cycle routes in the UK has well. All keep safe it won't be long before we are back on the road

Heethers

c

 David  our MH had a full service plus cam belt change before we bought it in July, Its milage was 18550, it's now done 20660, l am thinking of only doing an oil change we only do on average 5000 year and do a full service in 2021. Obviously it will need an MOT in July no idea how much it is for a Motorhome is it more than a car.

Heethers

BB

Never say never but by the time this current situation is over we will both be in our mid seventies and having not been abroad since 2016. I suspect there is an element of confidence involved. We also have an issue with insurance cover although I am sure that could be overcome, even at a cost. We have been very fortunate that we first started to go abroad in 1987 and as you know we have toured quite extensively through Europe, probably more so than many others, almost at the expense of the UK. So in a way we quite look forward to exploring around the UK as there are many places we have not been to. The bike thing is a bit more complicated. The Cycle Pro carrier we had on the last motorhome was OK but it was quite a lift and looking at the Alliance it looks as if the same carrier would be even higher which makes it a no,no. Hence the reason for looking at the chassis mounted racks but they are quite expensive so we have to decide whether we would get the use out of it. An alternative that has been suggested to me is a tow bar used in conjunction with a Thule (?) detachable cycle rack. This would give us the option of towing a small car if I could persuade Margaret that it was a good idea!!!

David

An alternative that has been suggested to me is a tow bar used in conjunction with a Thule (?) detachable cycle rack. This would give us the option of towing a small car if I could persuade Margaret that it was a good idea!!!

That is eactly my arrangement David, it works very well and gives a great deal of flexibility. You can carry other things on a tow ball carrier appart from bicyles. I have even carried a free standing awning on mine as well as a bike.(It is rated at 60Kgm)

peedee

We have the thurle we took the bike rack off the motor home added a tow bar, l know a bit expensive £870, the reason being we have electric bikes and they were quite heavy lifting to height the rack was. We already had the Thurle when we had the Santa Fe.We had to calculate that we wouldn't contravene the 3500 kilo weight restriction. One thing l cant find for the Thurle is a bike cover ours is the XTC2, the one from halfords is bit naff. The other thing is we can now open the rear window fully