Are some Caravan Club CL's losing the plot?

[JoMutch]

Definition

I am curious...what is the legal definition of a motor car? Can't seem to find it on Google.



Polly

Motor Car
n. 1. An automobile, locomobile, or locomotive designed to run and be steered on a street or roadway; esp., an automobile specially designed for passengers and propelled by an internal combustion engine.
2. (Elec. Railroads) Any car containing motors for propulsion.

motor caravan
n
(Engineering / Automotive Engineering) Brit a motor vehicle fitted with equipment for cooking, sleeping, etc., like that of a caravan

 

[Firefox]

I just don't know where these high figures come from.

A 700W fan heats my van up in no time. Even if left that on all day it would only be 0.7x24x0.11 = £1.84.

Realistically I don't think I would ever use more than £1.50 a day and that's in really cold weather. Normally it would just be 50p to £1.00 and I'd hope the site owner would make a little bit of profit on the £2.00 they normally charge for EHU.

£9.00 charge or £9.00 usage is completely ridiculous and wasteful in the extreme.

 

[Channa]

Unless you live at home with Mum and Dad and they have a common sense deficiency , no bugger and quite rightly so will subsidise you.

After that watch out ?

Channa

 

[Pollik]

Motor Car
n. 1. An automobile, locomobile, or locomotive designed to run and be steered on a street or roadway; esp., an automobile specially designed for passengers and propelled by an internal combustion engine.
2. (Elec. Railroads) Any car containing motors for propulsion.

motor caravan
n
(Engineering / Automotive Engineering) Brit a motor vehicle fitted with equipment for cooking, sleeping, etc., like that of a caravan

There must be more to it than that. A reliant robin is legally a motorbike. My motorhome also meets all the criteria being a motor car, with a few extra bits besides!



Polly

 

[Byronic]

I just don't know where these high figures come from.

A 700W fan heats my van up in no time. Even if left that on all day it would only be 0.7x24x0.11 = £1.84.

Realistically I don't think I would ever use more than £1.50 a day and that's in really cold weather. Normally it would just be 50p to £1.00 and I'd hope the site owner would make a little bit of profit on the £2.00 they normally charge for EHU.

£9.00 charge or £9.00 usage is completely ridiculous and wasteful in the extreme.

I have seen the occasional camper usually a caravanner with a big enclosed awning (in the winter) using a 2Kw heater in the awning a 1Kw heater in the caravan then add the fridge, and on/off water heating, cooking, etc. soon gets to 3840 Watts 3.8Kw/Hr very easily, and thats the 16 Amps used up.
The site owner could of course install 10Amp tripping. In Europe it's often 6 Amp and in Morocco 1 Amp is not unusual!

 

[Deleted member 8180]

I just saw the CL site Woodhouse Farm in Powys featured in MMM magazine recently:

Check out the spec:

Facilities: Chemical Loo disposal point and water only

Prices: £18.00 inc EHU and two adults. Children £2.50 extra each, Dogs £2.50 extra each

They must be having a laugh here. A lone camper with two dogs is going to pay £23.00 a night for a patch of grass in a field. No toilets, no showers, zilch. What makes me laugh even more is that this was a featured review site in MMM :lol-049::lol-049::lol-049:Surely they would feature sites which are likely to be of interest. I can't imagine many would be interested at these prices!!

£2.50 for a dog? I've asked why, to be told "It's the cost of cleaning up after them". Fair enough,as I'm paying for it I'll let my dog cr*p in their office.

 

[John H]

It is, in fact, illegal to re-sell electricity at more than cost price, see Resale of gas and electricity

AndyC

True but that doesn't stop some people doing it! As for usage, whenever I have stopped at a site which meters electricity I have found it interesting that even in winter I have never managed to get my usage above £2 per night and usually it is around £1, so £9 is definitely having a laugh. If there really are people out there who have several heaters on 24 hours a day in order to heat their awnings or whatever, then the CL owner could easily include in his contract that any use above, say, £2 will require an additional payment - that payment being what it cost him plus VAT (which he is entitled to charge). The fact that this particular guy is trying to charge everybody £9 is inexcusable.

 

[cooljules]

my dogs are part of the family, so i take them with me. Gemany is a dog friendly country. i would rather spend my time with dogs than certain people......

 

[Firefox]

A 2kW heater, 24 hours a day, in an awning ? ...... some people just don't care.

I hope nobody on this site indulges in that kind of stupidity.

 

[AndyC]

I am curious...what is the legal definition of a motor car? Can't seem to find it on Google.



Polly

The UK Road Traffic Act, and the Construction and Use Regulations, define a motor car as follows:

Motor car: a mechanically propelled vehicle (other than a motor cycle or invalid carriage) which is constructed itself to carry a load or passengers and the unladen weight of which:
a if constructed solely for the carriage of passengers and their effects, and is adapted to carry not more than seven passengers exclusive of the driver, does not exceed 3,050kg;
b if constructed or adapted for use for the carriage of goods or burden of any description, does not exceed 3,050kg or 3,500kg if propelled by gas;
c does not exceed 2,540kg in a case not falling within a or b above.

There is also a heavy motor car:

Heavy motor car: a mechanically propelled vehicle which is not a motor car, is constructed itself to carry a load or passengers and with an unladen weight exceeding 2,540kg.

You rarely see the term 'Heavy motor car' used, but I did see it recently in one local authority's parking regulations.

AndyC

 

[Deleted member 8180]

I can quite understand cleaning charges for accomodation, but I've yet to see a warden hoovering dog hair up from a campsite pitch...

 

[el-D]

Having just returned from a 3 week trip around Belgium, Germany and France, where we used almost entirely 'stellplatz' and aires de service, it depresses me to remember that the options in the UK are so poor unless you're prepared to shell out silly sums of money. The Europe trip cost very little in terms of overnight fees and not much for the added services either. A vineyard in the Black Forest provided a pitch with EHU free in return for eating in the restaurant where we enjoyed a superb meal with a large glass of wine at 18 euros for the two of us. Many of the stellplatz and aires gave EHU either free or for very little and almost all are in great locations, not hidden away in an grotty car park somewhere. I'm afraid the campsites here really have lost the plot or at least are pushing their luck. I certainly don't look twice at a site if it doesn't give something like decent value.

 

[MartianTom]

Having just returned from a 3 week trip around Belgium, Germany and France, where we used almost entirely 'stellplatz' and aires de service, it depresses me to remember that the options in the UK are so poor unless you're prepared to shell out silly sums of money. The Europe trip cost very little in terms of overnight fees and not much for the added services either. A vineyard in the Black Forest provided a pitch with EHU free in return for eating in the restaurant where we enjoyed a superb meal with a large glass of wine at 18 euros for the two of us. Many of the stellplatz and aires gave EHU either free or for very little and almost all are in great locations, not hidden away in an grotty car park somewhere. I'm afraid the campsites here really have lost the plot or at least are pushing their luck. I certainly don't look twice at a site if it doesn't give something like decent value.

That's decided me. I was planning my first long trip for next spring/summer. The US was my most favoured location, but the shipping costs are simply too high. Around the UK was also on the cards. But Europe it is!

 

[el-D]

I'm sure you won't regret it MT! I don't know if you use a sat-nav. I don't normally but just before departing on this trip my daughter offered me the use of hers. Man was I glad she did! It made life so much easier. The German 'Bordatlas' that lists stellplatz gives the gps coordinates as well as addressses which makes it really easy to find them.

Southern Belgium was attractive (but avoid the Antwerp ring road in the rush hour!) and the Black Forest was totally amazing. France I always enjoy and of course we came back sounding like a milk float! If you decide to include the Black Forest make sure you go to Schiltach. The stellplatz is right by the river and the village is fascinating.

Happy planning and bonne route! :have fun:

PS Don't give up hope on the long haul destinations. I bought a used RV in the US and wandered 6,000 miles across the states before selling it in San Francisco and in NZ we rented a van to tour both islands — totally amazing and not to be missed! It can be done, just needs a bit of lateral thinking — oh, and a fair bit of cash!

 

[MartianTom]

I'm sure you won't regret it MT! I don't know if you use a sat-nav. I don't normally but just before departing on this trip my daughter offered me the use of hers. Man was I glad she did! It made life so much easier. The German 'Bordatlas' that lists stellplatz gives the gps coordinates as well as addressses which makes it really easy to find them.

Southern Belgium was attractive (but avoid the Antwerp ring road in the rush hour!) and the Black Forest was totally amazing. France I always enjoy and of course we came back sounding like a milk float! If you decide to include the Black Forest make sure you go to Schiltach. The stellplatz is right by the river and the village is fascinating.

Happy planning and bonne route! :have fun:

PS Don't give up hope on the long haul destinations. I bought a used RV in the US and wandered 6,000 miles across the states before selling it in San Francisco and in NZ we rented a van to tour both islands — totally amazing and not to be missed! It can be done, just needs a bit of lateral thinking — oh, and a fair bit of cash!

Thanks, el-D, I'll keep those recommendations in mind.

I tend not to plan anything much when I set out travelling. I like following instinct, turning left one day instead of right....

A fair bit of cash is the main problem! I'll figure it, though, somehow.

 

[David & Ann]

As El-D suggests, Antwerp is busy on the ring road but I think it is a wonderful place to visit. A lot of character and fantastic Architecture. I really enjoyed it.
Brugge and Gent are two other Belgium cities which are worth visiting. I will load pictures of these places on here when I get them together, to show what you may be missing.

 

[cooljules]

been there a few times (not intentionally, i just cant read a map!)

touble i had, i wrote places i wanted to visit in english, bought a german map and found that in the countries the places were spelt diff. ok with antwerp, its antwerpen so not too bad, but a few were totally different.

 

[Deleted member 8180]

That's decided me. I was planning my first long trip for next spring/summer. The US was my most favoured location, but the shipping costs are simply too high. Around the UK was also on the cards. But Europe it is!

Too true... we spent 4 weeks in France and used campsites 3 or 4 times to use washing machines, otherwise Aires (free or around 5 euros) or France Passion.

 

[el-D]

We didn't do any planning on the Europe trip, just had a tunnel crossing out and back. What happened in between was a day-by-day thing. It works so well over there because you can always find somewhere to lay your head, it doesn't have to be a campsite. All we knew was that we wanted to 'do' the Black Forest and wander back through France at leisure.

In the US we had a few folks to visit scattered across the country, hence the very zig-zag route and the 6,000 miles from Florida to San Fran', but apart from that we just went as we wanted to and were free to take up suggestions from folks we met. Without that we would not have seen 'The Badlands' or maybe Bryce Canyon.

NZ was a bit different as we have family near Auckland and spent some of our visit to the country with them. We took off for 3 weeks on our own in the rented RV and had to be fairly disciplined over getting too side-tracked. That would have been all too easy since NZ is THE most fabulous country to travel in and the people are so-o-o-o friendly.

 

[el-D]

been there a few times (not intentionally, i just cant read a map!)

touble i had, i wrote places i wanted to visit in english, bought a german map and found that in the countries the places were spelt diff. ok with antwerp, its antwerpen so not too bad, but a few were totally different.

I speak reasonably good French but my German is virtually non-existent so I think I left a trail of somewhat bewildered Germans behind me! Happily they are so good-natured that it was all good fun. Don't even start to think about Flemish! I think they know this and consequently pretty well everyone speaks English, fortunately!