Wednesday 21 March 2012

Our Caravan And Equipment

I thought it about time that I actually wrote a bit about caravans!


I do have a tendency to wander off on odd topics, so will start today by recapping on our caravan and some of our basic equipment.


We live full time in a Lunar Lexon 640 with a fixed island bed, it has a separate shower and toilet, a full sized cooker with 4 gas rings, grill and oven and a fridge.


We also use a slow cooker and a 2 tier steamer which are both brilliant.


We also have a CADAC, this is an all singing and dancing gas bbq which we simply could not do with out!


Our front lounge can sit 6 people, and we have cooked for 6 a full blown roast dinner on numerous occasions!


We use melamine plates and bowls, but all cups are china and glasses are glass! I still use my 101 year old King George V coronation china mug! It has traveled every where with us and doesn't even have a chip!


We use a wok, a massive saucepan, a saucepan with two steamer tops, and two small saucepans along with an egg poacher and an omelet pan. We use a hob kettle.


We have a full size awning that is massive. We put this up if we are going to be staying in one place for a week or more. We also have a small porch awning that we use for short stays.


In our awning we have 3 large comfortable Vango chairs, and 2 cheap and cheerful fold up chairs. The large table from inside the caravan is left up in the awning, along with a slightly smaller camping table.


On some sites we lay down an awning carpet, but as the weather is getting better we haven't bothered. We do notice that it does kill off the grass rather easily and this is a breathable carpet!


We also have a camping twin tub washing machine and also our tumble dryer!


For lighting outside we use a clamp on type light along with outdoor fairy lights and numerous solar lights placed around the three storm strap pegs and other places.


We use 2 x 29 litre aqua rolls and a waste hog.


I also cart around a set of heavy duty sack trucks, these are used to carry the loo cassette.


We have 2 power cables, 1 is 25m the other 10m.


I use a cordless drill for winding the legs up and down and I use a combination of screw in pegs and hammer in pegs on our awning.


We use propane gas (red ones) this has a lower freezing point than butane (blue ones), we have 2 x 6kg bottles and we get through 1 bottle approx every 30 days. If you are going full time you will need to have propane, or you wont have any gas during the winter!


That really is about it! OK there is probably plenty of little things that I have left out, but you get the  jist of it!


We use a Mitsubishi Pajero 2.8 Diesel Long Wheel Base to tow the caravan, and I run a Landrover Freelander 1.8 Petrol.


The Pajero is just an amazing beast, you don't even know that the caravan is on the back it tows it that well! Pound for Pound there is nothing that comes close.


Living in a caravan can be as complicated or as simple as you like. Nothing needs to cost the earth, and you don't need to buy brand new either!


So if you are thinking

2 comments:

  1. Hi,

    Fascinated to read your blog as we had our lightbulb moment about 3 weeks ago and are going to borrow a van for a weekend next weekend just to make sure I can't even stand it for a weekend - if I don't, we are going to follow in your footsteps asap!

    Very interested to read about the twin tub and the tumble dryer - how do they fit in - literally - where do you put them?!!

    Also, on another tack completely, what do you do about proof of address if you need to produce utility bills or such like to proove your address? We are planning on using Paul's workshop address for post but the utilities are included in the rent so he won't have any utility bills or such like.

    We are getting very excited already and starting to sell off the small things on ebay that we never use and clear out our cupboards in anticipation... just hope I don't hate it next weekend - not slept in a caravan since I was tiny wee!

    Jan and Paul

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  2. This is so interesting to read, as we are preparing for our own adventure. We bought melamine plates too and I look forward to keeping things simple :D I haven't been sure about getting a Dutch Oven, but it seems like a good idea for cooking on the grill.

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