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42 PAGES OF EXPERT BUYING & PRACTICAL ADVICE
TOURING › CAMPSITES › TESTS › EVENTS › TECHNICAL
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UYEUYE Our test & tech ‘mag in a mag’
KNAUS STARCLASS 690 PAGE18 SWIFT ELEGEANCE 650 PAGE98 COMPASS CASITA 586 PAGE106
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Our in-depth guide to choosing and using caravan covers
42PAGES OFEXPERT
BUYING,CHOOSING
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TOURING WITHATEEN!
IN THIS SECTION 16 Towcar of the month – Subaru Outback 2.0D Premium 18 TEST Knaus Starclass 690 94 Kit & Caboodle: June’s new gear 96 30 Days in June. Win prizes every day! 98 TEST Swift Elegance 650 102 Leisure batteries explained 106 TEST Compass Casita 586 110 Great used vans at Ropers 116 Caravan covers guide 124 Tyre-pressure monitoring systems 126 10 vans for touring with teens 130 Q&A 134 Caravans for sale
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This month's KIT&CABOODLE
Thecoolest,mostconnectedandcaffeinated caravanninggearrevealedandreviewed
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GERBERCENTERDRIVEMULTITOOLWhy cart a hefty tool kit on your tours when everything you’re likely to need for minor DIY jobs is included in this ingenious multi-tool? There’s a wire cutter and wire stripper, a long, sharp 3.25-inch blade, a serrated blade, nail puller, a powerful screwdriver with magnetic flathead and Phillips bits, a file and needle-nose pliers, all folded neatly into a tool that’s only 4.7 inches long and weighs a nifty 270g. Covering all bases, there’s even a bottle opener… now if only it could take the empties to the bottle bank! PRICE £124.99 W gerbergear.co.uk
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CAMPINGWITHKIDSWritten by Simon McGrath, the editor-in-chief of Camping & Caravanning Club magazine, with a foreword by TV presenter, Julia Bradbury, this is the definitive guide to getting the most out of camping with children. It contains 400-plus ideas to keep children, from tots to teens, busy and entertained while on a campsite. Before the 'b' of bored issues from your offspring's lips, reach for this new book and pick one of the great ideas to have fun as a family, including how to reconnect with nature and learn new, and old, skills. From cooking delicious food on a campfire to whittling a tent peg, there are loads of great suggestions for wet and dry weather, in the day or after dark.
It comes with great illustrations and is guaranteed to make camping and caravanning more fun for kids. PRICE £14.99 W shop.theaa.com
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MIVUESATNAV& DASHCAMTow with a double dose of peace of mind thanks to this clever new GPS and forwardfacing camera, designed specifically for caravans. The MiVue 65 LM Truck’s software guides large vehicles along routes that avoid low bridges and narrow roads, sparing your clutch and nerves. It will also calculate an estimated time of arrival, based on whether you’re towing or not. The Lane Departure Warning System gives you a signal if you drift out of your lane and the Forward Collision Warning system sounds an alert if you are too close to the car in front - both could be very useful for long, tiring drives down continental autoroutes. The wide lens dash cam captures video of the road ahead in HD, which could help your claim in the case of a disputed insurance incident. PRICE £299.99 W mitac.com
10 great caravan choices
10 great caravan choices that make touring with a teenager more survivable!
COLEMANXTREME60QTIf you’re camping without an electric hook-up, or just want to keep shopping or a picnic chilled on a warm day, this massive cooler could be just the answer. It’s so efficient and well insulated that Coleman claims it can keep ice frozen for up to five days - which is great for campsite G&Ts! Smart thinking raises the cooler on four feet to avoid the compromise of heat transfer from the ground, while the corners are rounded to shape the Xtreme as closely as possible to the most efficient spherical design for an ice box. We know how we plan to fill our cooler… cheers! PRICE £99.99 W coleman.eu
WIN IN 2017 Caravan Lottery Enter once to be in with a chance of winning all the prizes in Kit & Caboodle each month.
To enter, go online to caravan.ma/caracomps pop in your details, and, if you like, sign up for our useful and informative Caravan e-newsletter. Each month we publish the winner in Caravan and online. If it's you, call us on 01778 392450 or email johns@warnersgroup.co.uk to claim your prizes.
LAST MONTH’S CARAVAN LOTTERY WINNER IS Mrs Wendy Hegarty from Wisbech, Cambs (Claim your prize by 31 July 2017)
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›› CARAVAN BUYER
CELLHIREHUAWEI4GMIFI Stay in touch and surf the web while caravanning overseas, thanks to this MiFi, a portable WiFi hotspot. A MiFi is a small device that teams with a country-specific SIM to deliver 4G speeds where available and reverting to 3G when the signal is weak. It’s a brilliant alternative to campsite WiFi, which can be slow, patchy and erratic. It allows you to connect SIM-free tablets to the internet, as you would with home WiFi, so you can keep kids and screenagers quiet on long drives and longer evenings. We’ve negotiated a 10% discount code for every reader. For more information, visit cellhire.co.uk, and enter CVMAG2017 in the checkout for a 10% discount, until 30 September 2017. PS The European Union will abolish one of the biggest bugbears of the smart device generation - roaming charges - on 15 June. This means EU citizens won't be charged extra for calls, text messages or internet access outside their home countries, if they’re travelling within the EU. PRICE £19 plus data tariff W cellhire.co.uk
BEANBAGSKickstart your caravanning mornings with a tip- top mug of coffee that avoids the hassle of washing out an espresso stove or cafetière. These Bean Bags are pyramid shaped, and work just like tea bags (brew in a mug of hot water) for a fuss-free mug of joe. There are three tasty varieties: Breakfast Blend, El Salvador and Definitely Decaf (which is something we’ve never craved at the crack of dawn on a caravanning trip). PRICE £4.50 for 10 W rawbean.co.uk
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PRIMADELUXEAIRAWNING Fusing decades of industry expertise and innovation, the Deluxe Air Awning from PRIMA delivers outstanding build quality and all the thoughtful touches you’d expect from a premium inflatable, at a price that will really make you smile. The Deluxe is available in 260 and 390 widths, with an additional annex option. Heavy duty zips, veranda-style windows, and no-trip doors make this a perfect choice to expand your space. If you haven’t made the move to an inflatable awning, you’ll be amazed at how fast you can pitch up with PRIMA’s patent-pending Flexi-inflation system. PRICE 260 - £599.99 390 - £699.99 Annex - £149.99 W bailey-parts.co.uk/prima
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July 2017 | 95
TYREPRESSUREMONITORYINGSYSTEMS
Tyre Pressure yre Pressure MONITORING
Fitting Next, we had to set up the monitor for our vehicle combination. We chose a towcar with four wheels and a trailer with up to twelve. You select the wheel position on the monitor and then pair that position to the valve sensor. There are two ways of doing this. The first (known as LF) is by pressing buttons and holding the bottom of the monitor next to the sensor to be paired. Once paired, you press the 'Set' button to store the setting. We had to have several goes before we got this right. The answer is to read the instructions carefully and follow them to the letter! We found the second method (known as inflation) a little easier. This involves selecting the wheel position on the monitor and then screwing the sensor into place. Even so, you do have to remember to save the setting by pressing the 'Set' button.
›› CARAVAN BUYER
››Advances in electronics over recent years mean that tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) are now relatively cheap and easy to fit, not just to cars but to caravans, too. Indeed, tyre pressure monitoring has been a legal requirement on all new cars since November 2012.
In August 2015, Bailey became the first UK caravan manufacturer to add tyre pressure monitoring as a standard feature on some of its models (Pegasus and Unicorn). Sensors are preinstalled inside the wheels and the owner just has to buy the monitor unit. The good news is that, if your caravan doesn't have sensors fitted, you can easily add them yourself. This is because a new type of sensor that replaces the valve cap is now available. You simply screw the sensor into place and, as it goes on, it depresses the valve, allowing the pressure to be sensed but preventing the air from escaping.
Each sensor contains a tiny battery plus
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Terry Owen
Tyrefailureisthemain causeofcaravanaccidents, whichiswhymonitoring tyrepressuresissovital
electronics that use low-frequency radio waves to transmit pressure and temperature information to a receiver in the car. During our research we discovered that not all valve sensors are the same. Some of the smaller ones do not have enough power to transmit reliably from the caravan to the car. This type is designed purely for use with a car. When you buy a system it's therefore important to state that you need it for use with a caravan. We chose the Snooper Tyre Pilot STP116 system. This can monitor a variety of vehicle combinations, including a single tow vehicle with up to 10 wheels, plus a trailer with up to a dozen wheels.
Along with the monitor, we chose eight sensors, four for the car, and four for the twin-axle caravan. We checked the pressure in each tyre to make sure it was correct before fitting the valve sensors. Screwing the sensors into place was a piece of cake, although tightening the grub screws that lock them into place did prove a bit tricky.
The 12 possible wheel positions on the trailer did seem a little daunting, but you simply select the four that you want to use and, once saved, only those four are displayed. Once paired you can go into additional menus to set the points at which the monitor will alert you of abnormal conditions, such as low or high pressure or high temperatures. We liked the fact that you can set these on an axle by axle basis as our towcar has higher pressures at the rear than the front, when towing. The monitor comes with a suction cup for windscreen or dash mounting and an internal battery that is rechargeable and will last up to 60 hours in normal use. This is really handy as it means you don't have to have messy cables on show and can place the monitor wherever is convenient in the car.
In the unlikely event that the montitor does go flat just when you don't want it to, you can power the monitor from a cigar lighter socket via the USB adapter and lead provided. On the road Before setting off, the system had gone to sleep as no motion had been detected. However, as soon as we got going, the sensors began to register. It took a couple of miles for them all to show but, once in, they didn't miss a beat. The screen alternates between the towcar and caravan. It was fascinating to watch as the tyre
TOP High and low pressure warning settings BELOW LEFT The sensors are hardly noticeable once fitted BELOW Valve sensors, showing the locking grub screws and key
pressures slowly increased a few PSI as the tyres warmed up.
To see the temperatures you press the 'Set' button. This was quite revealing on one occasion when we ended up with a car tyre pressure somewhat lower than it should have been but not low enough to trigger the alarm. You could see that the tyre was running a few degrees warmer than the others. It was enough to persuade us to pull into the next service station and put it right. Conclusion Once you've lived with a tyre pressure monitoring system you won't really want to be without it. You soon stop staring at the screen every couple of minutes and learn to trust the fact that it will alert you early if something is wrong. In the case of a puncture this could make the difference between getting to a safe place or not. When towing a twin-axle caravan it's perfectly possible to have a deflated tyre and not know about it - until the second tyre fails through overload. A TPMS system should give you plenty of warning in this type of situation. For the peace of mind it delivers we think that the Tyre Pilot is worth every penny (see pricing below).
Tyre Pilot costs: £100 for the dash-mounted monitor and two sensors (single-axle caravan) £150 for the dash-mounted monitor and four sensors (twin-axle caravan) £200 for the dash-mounted monitor and six sensors (towcar and single-axle caravan) £250 for the dash-mounted monitor and eight sensors (towcar and twin-axle caravan)
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TYREPILOTW snooper.co.uk T 01928 579579
July 2017 | 129
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GERMAN QUALITY Knaus StarClass 690 LUXURY FOR COUPLES Swift Elegance 650 VERSATILE 6-BERTH Compass Casita 586
LEISURE BATTERY GUIDE • 10 VANS FOR TOURING WITH TEENS • TYRE PRESSURE MONITORS • Q&A
