Thinking of useful extras for motorhome

My friend's bike rack is clamped onto the towball, how can you tow a car if the towball is being used by the rack or have i misunderstood the above....?

i was thinking the towball could be used for the rack OR for towing, but not both?

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i was thinking the towball could be used for the rack OR for towing, but not both?

Correct BB, I never tow my car when going "over there" but the tow ball Thule rack will be on loaded with my extras. Burried under the cover is a spare tyre, e-bike and freestanding awning.

peedee

We have the Witter version of this, luckily it doesn't foul the car or van on tight turns but it is a PITA trying to get the Alko hitch on and pushed down, as you can't employ full strength, due to not being able to get right above the hitch. 

We have used it with the Kuga but have now bought a Toyota ProAce MPV, we can take out some of the seats and get the bikes inside. Much better arrangement.

On the MH we had a Fiamma bike carrier, not to high for us to lift the bikes onto and I do miss the ease of it.

Of course with MH's the thing to watch is the weight limit of the rear axle, once you add a towbar + bike carrier + 2 ebikes you could well be near or even over the limit. 

We did add a towbar to ours as we had plenty of weight allowance but the towbar was used initially to tow the small car, then later on it was used to tow our big scooter on a small trailer. Bikes always went on the Fiamma rack.

l have booked my Motorhome in at the end of June for 120 watt solar panel, l believe this is all l require, we mainly do hook up but require it to charge both batteries when we are at home, the thinking for a 120 watt is through the winter months. l could have gone for the 80 or 100 watt panel but thought for the extra 100 quid it would be worth it. Also with saving all our pitch fees and fuel plus trips to the restaurants we have saved a considerable amount since December, so we decided to have the Road Pro Mini Dome fitted, l know it only covers the UK, we don't intend to go a abroad but on the off chance that we do we decided to keep the stand alone Maxiview Sat. Has anyone got a Road Pro Mini Dome and what do they think of it, your advice would be gratefully appreciated.

Heethers

just a word about the solar set up...

ensure that all batteries receive charge....this can be managed with a dual output solar regulator or by sending all charge to the leisure batteries (with a single channel regulator) and then harvesting charge to the cab battery with a Battery Master device.

Also, MPPT regulators (cleverer than cheaper PWM versions) are coming down in price and would be a benefit as they are able to maintain higher charge levels in lower sunlight...

cant help with the dome, im afraid.

We didn't have a dome but going on reports from those that have had them I'm not sure that I would choose one.

There are small dishes that I think have a better reliability.

There is also a nice small system called SNIPE, it has a very good following.

If we were looking to install a satellite system for use in the UK and possibly northern Europe we would choose a SNIPE.

We did have a dish on our MH but it was a large 85 cm one as we used the MH all over Europe. 

we had the predecessor to the system TG mentions (Snipe), a Camos Flatsat, with panels still made by Selfsat.

the Snipe is pretty much an automated version of the through-the-roof one we had about 6 years ago

the (cropped to show the antenna) picture was taken on the ile de ré and we got uk tv there, so roughly the equivalent of a 60cm dish.

i made my own 'skewing' plate to further extend the range, i think the Snipe has it built in...

also, doesn't raise the height of the van like a dome would, and, lets face it, domes are ugly.

the Snipe is pretty wind resistant, too

Thank you, Officer Crabtree. Good job you were not just passing ...

Steve

I think the original Snipe has been replaced by a Snipe Dome

David