Tuesday 2 September 2014

New Camping Equipment Essentials For Our VW T25 aka "Duckie"

Bringing my experience of full timing to kitting out our VW T25 "Duckie" has been fun. We started out with very little in the way of equipment, but it does not take too long to kit out a van to our own specification.

We decided on a list of items that were required to bring her up to top spec.

First on the list was a Cadac. My one went when the caravan did! So a new one was a must.

We took a bit of time in trying to find the best deal and price, there are a few combinations around. We did try to buy one from GoOutdoors but they had sold out, so after we came home we looked on Amazon and came up with an even better deal!



Now when you buy one of these you also need to think about how you are going to connect it to your gas bottle, so we also bought a gas regulator for a propane bottle and a length of gas pipe.

Some thing else you also need to consider is how you are going to store your cadac when you are away camping. From experience it is a real ball ache to pack it all up and put it away every night, or even bring it into you awning once it has cooled down, so why not buy a cover?

Well, that's what we did and that is what we are doing again!



We also treated ourselves to a Cadac Pizza Stone - a bit of a luxury but as we all love pizza we thought we may as well.

Whilst we were in the cooking frame of mind I always fancied the idea of a Cadac Skottle - but to be honest I found them a tad expensive at £33.00 for what they were. So whilst we were wandering around IKEA the other day I came across something very similar, but at a fraction of the cost. I think off the top of my head it was £15.00 or less! Not only that but this one is a lot deeper and can be used as a "wok" style pan. Brilliant for stir fries, currys etc.

So what else did we buy? The list goes on!!!!

With the twin axle caravan I never bothered with levelling ramps, instead relied on two rather thick planks which I placed under both wheels to raise them up a bit and it worked a treat.

However with having less space and being a bit more practical we bought a set of Fiamma Levelling Pro Ramps and some chocks to go with them, just to be on the safe side.


The chocks just slide in on the runners and with four of us in the van if the handbrake were to fail a bit of piece of mind! I may even use them on flat ground - just in case!!!


Of course we had to have the bag for it all to go in!


We carried on shopping by adding a camping table - my old one was a good few years old when I bought it from ebay! It has certainly seen some serious action and was in dire need of replacement. So another item added to the basket!


In my caravan I had a smoke detector, which constantly went off, so in the end one night I took the whole unit off the wall and flung it out the door. I know that was childish but it really did my head in as you would then spend at least 5 mins looking for smoke!

So, with that in mind we decided to buy some half decent smoke and Co2 alarms. There is some debate as to where to place the Co2 alarms - Up high or down low, my feelings are down low, but if anyone has any good information on this matter I'm all ears!


We also bought a couple for the house at the same time.

Now it's one thing detecting a fire but putting one out is another matter all together.

Fire extinguishers and fire blankets were added as well, both for the camper and for the house!



The bill was getting bigger, but, these are one off purchases, and essential for piece of mind and ease of camping.

Anyone can rough it, but why do that when you don't have to?

I did treat myself to a new titanium Spork. I have had several plastic ones now and each one has broken after a bit of use. I love the concept of them so decided to splash out!


These are brillant and the titanium one is well worth the extra money. If you haven't ever had or used one before I suggest you get one to try it out. A spoon one end and the other a fork with a serrated edge for cutting. Pure genius!

I already had a cover for it, so it was just a new Spork


So with our Amazon shopping basket over flowing we hit the purchase button and await our goodies to arrive. I am so looking forward to having a Cadac again and introducing the wonder of cooking on it to Kiera as she has only seen the normal steaks and burgers being cooked and not the full monty of roast chicken or pork!

The other reason for buying it, is that we can also use it for outside in the garden, saves us buying another gas BBQ!

Not sure what the final bill was, I was to scared to look! 

Should all start to arrive pretty soon, excited!!

Till later...............

1 comment:

  1. Really interesting, thanks for sharing.
    What a great insight into caravan life.
    Pam in TX.

    ReplyDelete