After living in our caravan for just over a year now, you tend to come up with ideas that you would of thought that the manufacturers would of thought of.
Now, I realise that some of these ideas may well of been addressed by now or are in place on other makes of caravan.
So I can only go on what I have at the moment which is a Lunar Lexon 640 twin axle with a fixed island bed.
Don't get me wrong these are not complaints, but you would of thought that this information would of been sussed out by the makers and pushed through to the designers by now. Most are easy to fix and would be great to see them built in as standard.
1. Our caravan is just over 7 metres long, in old money that's over 20ft, our door is to the front of the caravan. This is where the awning light is situated. However, when we have the full size awning up the rear of the awning is like the black hole of Calcutta! Its dark down there! Another awning light situated down that end of the caravan would do just the trick.
2. If you have ever had to change gas bottles in the front locker in the dark, you will know exactly what I am talking about now. I use a head torch, but even with that sometimes the angle of the dangle is not quite right. A light attached to the underneath of the locker which can be manually turned on or off or if your really posh to turn on when the locker is opened would make a big difference. I now have a battery operated circular LED light attached.
3. Fire extinguishers and carbon monoxide detectors as standard fittings. I know some may well do this but I haven't seen many that do.
4. More electric sockets. In this day and age we use a multitude of electrical sockets in our everyday lives, we both have mobile phones, and both have laptops. Very often all four are on at the same time. We have one socket at the front end of our caravan, along the window ledge behind the front cabinet. We have installed a 4 way extension cable, its hidden from view, but still, would of been better if it had been a standard fitting. Even a double socket would of been a better idea.
5. A small tool kit, thankfully I cart around a full tool box and socket set, so can lay my hands on most tools easily. But before we went full timing I was lucky to have a screw driver on board. It doesn't need to be anything special, a bit like a car kit for your caravan, but a couple of screwdrivers, pliers etc would make all the difference.
6. A First Aid kit? We have one, but how about one as standard?
7. If you have ever been in a position to buy a new car, when you go through the sales process more time can be spent on choosing your accessories than the actual buying of the car itself. But, what you don't see is branded accessories from caravan manufacturers. In this day and age, selling the metal is just not enough. How about branded clothing or branded kitchen ware as an obvious example. One of the things us campers like is our gadgets and bits of kit that make our lives better or easier. Camp site shops are like sweet shops to kids! So brand your goods at point of sale and create some loyalty to your marque. You are losing a fortune guys!
8. How about a warning buzzer to let you know when your EHU supply has been interrupted either by you or your neighbors tripping out the supply. During the summer its never been much of a problem, but in the middle of winter and its freezing its not fun to wake up freezing cold as the supply has gone off during the night!
9. Warning stickers! My own personal pet hate. However there appears to be some very daft people in this world, so for the fools, how about a sticker on the tow hitch that reads "If you drive fast you are likely to kill yourself, your family or others - slow down"!
Finally - If money was not an object -
10. A self leveling caravan! Unhook, press a button and the legs adjust to the right height and level automatically.
So now the questions is what improvements would you like to see? If we can get a good response I'm happy to pose the question to the relevant manufacturers and see what their responses are.
As I don't tend to be active on the forums these days, please feel free to ask the question and let us know here what responses you get back, it could make interesting reading?
Till later................
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