Category: Gear & Reviews

Best Motorhome / Caravan TV (12V)

A question that comes up a lot on motorhome & caravan forums is ‘what’s the best 12V TV?’ – with the replies usually being units from either Cello or Avtex, depending on the personal preference of the responder………..

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Goodyear Snow Chains Review

On a lot of mountain roads in France it is a legal requirements to carry snow chains with you, and while proper Winter tyres make a lot of difference on snowy and icy roads, they will only get you so far (especially on big heavy two wheel drive vehicles like motorhomes!)

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Traction Mats – recover your stuck camper!

Motorhomes are by their nature big heavy things, and often two wheel drive – due to this it is easy to get bogged down or stuck in sand, wet grass, snow etc.

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Dealing with smelly grey water drains

There are various products specifically designed to clean grey water tanks and help stop the nasty smells that can often come out of your plugholes – usually when driving. There are also a plethora of personal remedies available on the internet – cheap cola or orange squash down the plugholes are some of the more ingenious.

While the commercial ‘tank cleaner’ products undoubtedly work, they are expensive and often only work for the time you have them in the tank – smells can quickly return once drained and used again.

The most effective cheap remedy we have found is scented bleach tablets – available for less then 2 Euros for 48 tablets from most French supermarkets:-

These kill any nasty bacteria living in you grey water tank and leave the grey water smelling clean – think the slight chlorine smell of swimming pool water mixed with a hint of eucalyptus!

Simply let one dissolve in a sink full of water before draining into the tank, or alternatively put one into the shower drain like a urinal biscuit and let it dissolve while you shower.

Do you have any other tried and tested solutions? – let us know in the comments below…

Motorhome Tool Kit

Our Motorhome is now over 20 years old, and when we travel we are obviously reliant on it for both travel and accommodation! Accidents happen, things wear out, and stuff breaks – usually at the most inconvenient moment! In order to ensure you can cope with most dramas on the open road it pays to have a decent tool kit with you, but with space and payload at a premium it is a fine balancing act to find a useful enough set of kit without packing the whole van out with a full garage load of equipment……

This is what I travel with, it’s a self contained Magnusson tool kit I picked up from Screwfix, or Toolstation…..or somewhere – I can’t remember exactly!

Everything is contained in this heavy duty waterproof storage case with handle

Inside are two high density foam storage trays keeping everything organised and stopping the tools from rattling about while we’re driving. Even the inside of the case itself is padded!

The upper tray contains pliers, screwdrivers and a hammer

While the lower tray contains combination spanners, a bit driver with a good selection of bits, sockets from 4-19mm + 21mm & 24mm (so it will even handle Ducato wheel nuts), two ratchet handles, extension bars, a tape measure and a knife with spare blades.

The only thing I have added is an 8mm Hex key in a 1/2″ drive socket – which is for removing the cap head bolt that secures the spare wheel in our Hymer Motorhome. All the tools are decent quality (not professional quality, but much better that most of the ‘DIY’ type tool sets you see) so it should last for many years on the road. The whole lot weighs 9kg in total, so doesn’t take up too much payload.

This has saved our bacon a few times and easily paid for itself several times over. What do you carry? – any tools/equipment you couldn’t be without on the road? – let me know in the comments below!

‘Silver Screens’ – Thermal Windscreen Covers

Whatever type of van you have it is worth investing in a set of thermal windscreen covers.

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Breville VTP169 Compact Slow Cooker – Review

This is a cracking little slow cooker. Perfect for two people.  Continue reading

Cobb BBQ/ Cooker Review

Looking for an ideal travel cooking companion?

Something that’s lightweight, versatile and lets be honest looks freaking cool?!?

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Clarke IG950 800w Generator Review

‘Wild camping?’- This is what you need (in our humble opinion)

Generator Review – If you are going to spend considerable amounts of time ‘Wild camping’ your are going to need some way of re-charging your 12v batteries – while solar can be a good solution in the summer we needed something to support winter use in the mountains, where the sun is often too low to reach down into the valleys even on cloudless days!

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New Bukkits!

The ‘2 bucket method’

When winter camping lots of Motorhome travellers prefer to not use the on-board grey water tank, instead going with the ‘2 bucket method’

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