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Just a thought! I have found that when given bad service or poor vfm a carefully worded, factual, polite, emotion free, but clearly stating my own point of view review on Trustpilot very often gets a response - and if that response is hollow, like so many, a follow up update often serves as a gentle kick up the bum! No suppliers like bad publicity so on the basis of nothing to lose it might be worth a try?

My understanding is that it is prolonged contact with bleach that can corrode stainless steel (and some plastics) which is why having cleaned with bleach I feel it important to thoroughly rinse, as we do at home, all traces of bleach away from any stainless steel or plastic surfaces and not allow the bleach to dry in situ. Getting neat bleach on your hands is not usually a problem as long as it is rinsed off quickly and not left to corrode your skin!

Apart from all the usual common sense stuff we used to flush the fresh water tank at least twice with good old Mk1 tapolene, leaving it full overnight before emptying it into the waste tank before draining the waste tank when full. If you can drive the van around a bit sloshing the water about in the half filled tanks so much the better, drain them out asap before the disturbed gunge has a chance to settle - NOT on the open road please. Having heard that bleach can damage stainless steel we stopped using bleach in the sink other than for a quick rinse around followed by an extensive fresh water rinse and flush out. Remove spare wheel from underfloor housing and check it's pressue and condition thus ensuring both mechanism and wheel will work if you need it. Check all battery terminals and fuses, and cables where visible, for abrasion, damage, corrosion and tightness and check there is no heat build up anywhere when being charged. Ensure all the functions of the hab control panel work correctly with no suspicious displays. Check for damp or water ingress in all lockers - especially hard to reach corners. Ensure all door and window catches and locks operate smoothly. Ensure your toolkit (and multi meter if you have one) is complete and functioning It's been a year or two since we last had a van so there are probably more things to check!

Thanks, that's really helpful, practical experiences are always very handy. In that case for the sake of a few Euros as a nomadic wanderer with destinations unknown it's probably well worth having the card in your wallet even if it never gets used. Belts and braces and all that chaps!!

I do recall using an Aire within a car park some years ago somewhere in the South East of France where there was a barrier entrance that was open as we drove in but closed behind us. Others came and went using a card which I just assumed was a normal credit cards but when we tried to leave the machine would not accept any of our several UK cards that we carried at that time to try to avoid any more cock ups, which were in themselves not unusual at that time. Eventually a kindly French Camping Carist used his card to let us out and I gave him the cash - and a warm 'merci'. It put us off using any Aire or car park with barriers ever again and after all these years I now wonder if we may have fallen foul of the early days of this type of scheme? Over several years we did get used to seeing people - the French in particular - avoiding paying for an Aire so I guess those elements of the Camping Car community has brought this on all users?

We used to enjoy a highly nomadic touring style, never prebooking, just wandering in a semi planned general direction, stopping as and when we were inclined, but of course always at the mercy of pitch availability. That said, we rarely found it an issue and we soon learned that if we particularly wanted to be somewhere very popular it paid to arrive mid morning rather than later in the day. If that failed it was rarely an issue finding an alternative not too far away and as long as lat & long were accurate navigating was usually easy enough. CCP looks, on the surface, to be another version of the same solution, but with prebooking 'suggested' and access and departure limited by cards and machines - neither of which are infallible. Am I missing something here please, as so far I don't quite see any advantage to an 'All the Aires' or 'Camperstop' book that has no restrictions?

Fair enough David! I am no expert on these things but from my perspective some of the actions and attitudes displayed by the CC (as it was called before it laundered it's image to CMC) do not appear to be in it's members interest - or is it only nomadic style Motorhomers who only need the occasional short stay who dislike this 'club' that was built around, and still seems to mainly cater for tuggers?

Sorry John, I can offer you no easy solutions but if you are an AA or similar organisation member they may be able to help, possibly not, but maybe worth an ask? This kind of attitude seems to pervade European makers in general who fail to understand that a happy and satisfied customer is often the very best vfm advert that they can get. They may want to charge you £7500 but you can bet your cotton socks that it actually costs them a heck of a lot less than that because they are obsessed with compounding your misfortune in the name of profit. As the Post Office would say - you are the only one with this problem so it can't be a design fault - yeah right!

From the 'club' website - Caravan and Motorhome Club is a trading name of The Caravan Club Limited, registered in England and Wales no. 00646027. Registered address: East Grinstead House, East Grinstead, West Sussex RH19 1UA. The Caravan Club Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (no. 311890) for general insurance and credit activities. Without going into the legal definitions it has always been my view that a genuine 'club' is run by it's members for it's members benefit in a non profit making manner. In which case the caravan club is a company not a club and has always had it's own agenda. With the notable exception of a few wardens/site managers in days long gone we never did find this company's sites and addiction to pre booking - even THSs - welcoming or friendly and we left many years ago when they forced everyone to pay for EHU whether they wanted it or not. I can see the attraction for those that like their kind of sites but I can also understand the distaste for those that do not!

We have had these in the past and found them to be unreliable, plus having to open the gas locker to look at them was often overlooked. Newer ones may be better but would I still would not rely on one. The best method we found was to have a decent and easy to use manual changeover valve. Not automatic as then you get two empty bottles which is really inconvenient! I also used to note how many days a bottle of gas lasted, less in cooler trips of course, as a rough guide to anticipating when.

During some 50 years of Motorhoming both UK and abroad by far the most unreliable element of almost every van were the batteries - both engine and hab. We never used sites or EHU and we found that batteries thought good could often fail unexpectedly and suddenly - usually at the most inconvenient time - dark, cold, wet, windy, etc. We learnt to carry a good spare battery secured in a locker together with jump leads long enough to reach from hab to starter battery and were able to overcome such annoyances quite easily. Disconnecting the leisure battery(ies) from their circuits and jumping them to the engine battery usually worked to start the van and only once did we ever need to use the spare battery. We were sometimes able to help other stranded vanners of various nationalities in various countries over the years and that alone made the carrying of 'get out of jail free' spares worthwhile. If you use sites with EHU you are probably less 12v reliant but if your camping style and attitude to risk warrants it then a good spare 'un is worth considering.

Over the years I have always found good old fashioned mouse and rat poison to be the best medium term solution. Place it where they run, along edges, beside walls and corners, close to gaps and small holes etc and simply wait for 'em to eat it. The little bu##ers do return eventually but the more we can kill the less they spread - in theory! Unscientific it may be but it is also cheap, easy and effective!

Thanks Jeremy for the insights into rodential habits - very informative - you learn something new every day!

Some 20 years ago we gave up on both major 'clubs' due to costs and ever increasing non availability. They are not Clubs for the benefit of their members in the true sense of the word - they are profit making entities with their own agendas aimed primarily at touring caravans and tents that mainly need to pitch for longer periods so we too would not rejoin either. That said we did find the CCC considerably more user friendly than the CC (as was) now laughingly calling itself CMC without seemingly changing its attitude to Motorhomers. We then gave up on touring the UK where we (as Motorhomers in general) were not welcome so we started going abroad and found the attitude very different. We tried hard not to abuse the welcome and we found books like 'All the Aires' and 'Camperstop' were all we needed to find perfectly acceptable stopovers, albeit often for short stays, which suited us but may not suit others. We also found that some areas were less well served than others so a little forethought before heading off each day was needed but the lure of no pre booking worked well for us in our meanderings and we found some stunning locations often by pure chance. The cost of the books was quickly recovered by using low cost Aires but as the years rolled by we found that getting a pitch early in the day in popular locations was a good idea rather than travel and hope for the best come the evening. From what I read here and elsewhere little has changed in the UK to encourage responsible nomadic, touring, go where you fancy lifestyle that self sufficient Camping Cars are built for. I guess we have to thank the irresponsible minority and so called 'travellers' and the mess they all leave behind them for that?

Trust Gary to be first for the New Year - hope it's a good 'un Gary & Sandra. One of the downsides of all that sunshine is that it seems to have bleached Gary's wig! At least by the time the New Year reaches us it is well run in and should be free of faults, awaiting mankind to inflict it's own faults and doctrines on anyone less inclined to be so selfish and greedy. Best wishes to all, even Derek, for 2024!

It all depends! If your battery was sound before it was allowed to go dead flat it may recover OK. That said it may also do it again without warning? Funny things batteries, don't always do what you expect of them! How long was it flat for, any idea? How long since it was last started? At two years old it should have plenty of life in it but that is no guarantee as batteries are notoriously unpredictable and much depends on how well it has been cared for and used There is a constant discharge on all batteries to maintain things like clock, ecu, locks, alarms etc and it pays to start and run reguarly, especially in the colder spells. Only way to find out is to use the van and it may be worth carrying a set of jump leads long enough to reach the leisure battery, which makes a very good jump start battery when needed. I always disconnected the leisure battery from habitation circuits before jumping to avoid any risk of power surges damaging anything. If your van is still under warranty it may be worth talking to the provider - but don't hold out too much hope as they will probably blame the user!

PS - It's never an intrusion - discussion is what a Forum should be all about so thanks for including us all. PPS Happy Christmas!

Over the years we have bought several vans from shows due in no small part to a combination of a far better selection than one dealer, greater competition and very often advantageous terms. If not we didn't buy! We always tried to choose a local(ish) dealer, preferably a known dealer or at least one with a good reputation for customer service, as it is much easier to get any issues resolved if it is a short hop to the dealer than a several hundred miles expedition with overnights to consider. Over a long period we got to know many dealers which made it easier for us but I get the perception that things may well have moved on since those days of stability of people and dealers. I don't know about recent shows as the range of dealers attending has diminished sharply of late and the last shows we looked our perception was that they showed very few 'sold' signs on vans even on a Sunday. I think maybe the days of shows are numbered due to spiraling costs? But that is just a personal view - other views may differ!

For really effective repeating try eating raw onions.

Sorry - I must try harder!!

I have had many outdoor extension leads at home over the years and some never kink whilst others kink whatever I tried to do. That led me to think that maybe it has more to do with the way the cable is made than it does to do with the means of storage? We carried an EHU lead but never in 50 years of 'vanning ever found the need to use it so I have no experience of the orange snakes. In theory using a drum and winding it off and winding it back on as a direct reversal should not cause kinks. so if it ain't the drum and it ain't the user what else could it be? Try a diffrent cable perhaps?

There was a Money Saving Expert programme on ITV this week where Martin Lewis explained many of the legitimate ways to reduce insurance costs. It may well be on ITVX or summat but I have no idea how that works as my smart TV is incompatible with it's non smart user! It was car insurance based but the ideas will extend to Motorhomes too.

Please do not try to turn this into a political thread to suit yourself or it will get the chop.

Not quite, the things that made us quit are still there but more under control, although health insurance whilst desirable then is a neccessity now that it too is a lot more expensive. Amongst the many good bits there were a few bad bits that we also recall that we took in our stride but they would be much harder to resolve in a foreign land now, so rose tinted is no substitute for seeing the reality of it.

Thanks Brendan - only round the bend!