Thought it was about time we posted again as it looks like we’ve not been up to much.  The thing is, we have, but nothing as long or as challenging as previous trips, so not really worth saying much about!  It also looks like the van hasn’t been used much, but in 2012 we probably had 70+ days away, and 2013 already its been used more than the house – and its holding up well.  So don’t worry, we’re still not reverted to “normality” again!

We’ve headed to Valloire again ( See HERE for previous trip) which is a lovely town in the French Alps.  We bought the ANNUAL seasom ticket (for winter and summer) again for a bargain €265 and decided to have a month snowboarding.  We’re camping in the campsite (<€25/n) which isn’t bad at all for a reasonable campsite and much needed 16A electricity to keep the van nice and snug.

Valloire is a fun little place, a bit off the beaten track and full of French and Dutch – not many English at all.  They have ice and snow sculpture competitions so thought we’d show you some we made

As usual, the slopes are good and reasonably quiet, and as usual we aren’t great.  We’ve had more lessons and had some excellent tuition so I guess we’re okay, but far from natural experts.  The wnow has been good, a couple of good dump downs since we’ve been here, so the pistes are good and off-piste is fantastic.  We’ve had a lot of fun off piste (with a guide of course, as our insurance doesn’t cover us off piste without one), and even went out and need to take avalanche packs with us.  Fortunately not needed, but the powder was amazing.  B****dy hard work mind, as if you fall then you are stuck, and Mel needed digging out a few times as she was like a cross between a flailing snow-angel and bambi with only one leg!  Still, all great fun!

This time we actually managed to overlap some friends here which has been nice.  Some other friends changed mind at the last minute, and boy-oh-boy did they miss out

The van is holding up well, very cozy and warm (despite external appearances), and the snow-tyres are doing their bit to keep us on the road.

Some pictures attached, but for all pictures of this trip see HERE

 

Blimey!

2012 was an amazing year, with the first 3 months spent in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, and then 3 month house hunting trip before we moved in in June.  Then the last 6 months of 2012 were busy catching up with friends, settling in our new home, and doing DIY…  Oh – and doing more work than we expected!  Despite 80+ days away in the van, nothing worth blogging about!

But – 2013 will start off with a months snowboarding in Valloire in the French Alps.  Taking the campervan again, so need to ensure it is working after having a long rest.

More trips planned in 2013 and we hope to get the balance of home and away right….

Some pics of 2012…

Our house is a 1933 detachached house, with cavity walls without insulation, and modern-ish double glazing.  We have a slight issue with condensation in that the bedroon windows get wet overnight, and we’ve noticed a couple of small patches of mould on cold external walls.  Its quite a minor issue for us, but pretty much down to the modern way of living – warmer air with central heating, and not as much ventilation due to double glazing; bricked up fire places; and roof insulation.  (using and venting the fireplaces is next!)

If we leave the bedoom windows open a notch, there isn’t condensation which sort of proves the point.  For more information on the causes of condensation see http://www.diynot.com/wiki/building:condensation_in_houses

Anyhow, we all know mould/damp is a pain, and we thought we’d be proactive about it, and thus try and avoid any future problems (like mould behind wardrobes etc) – especially as we’ve just started decorating the new house.

A couple of “internet friends” on a plastic car forum mentioned http://www.envirovent.com/ and that they had a PIV system installed from them, and had astounding results.  Environvent seem to be a consultancy/installer and not really suitable for DIYers – and hence the cost is fairly high.  But, the first-hand results I heard were positive.  So I started looking for alternative PIV systems…

What is a PIV system?

Well, its a “Positive Input Ventilation” system which basically is a system which increases air pressure inside a house which forces older/wetter air out of the house and thus prevents condensation.  Thats the theory, and to be fair I’m not entirely convinced it isn’t a snake-oil product!  The forum threads http://markbrinkley.blogspot.co.uk/2005/09/shit-misses-fan.html and http://www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=110195&start=0 give both sides of the story – many people saying the systems are superb, and a few saying they are not.  Interestingly, the miricle stories seem to be from owners, and the negative comments seem to be from the theorists.

I came across Nuaire Drimaster products http://www.nuaire.co.uk/our-products/search?m=1104&pt=1685 and as these can be bought as DIY installations at reasonable cost, I thought it was worth a punt…

Nuaire Drimaster Heat

I opted for a Nuaire Drimaster Heat (http://www.nuaire.co.uk/products/catalogue/residential/positive-input-ventilation-piv/drimaster-heat/ ) .  This is a loft-based PIV system with a single loft based unit with an outlet on the landing.  This system (apparently) does: -

• Programmable speed for small or up to 5 bed houses.
• Clever automatic heat recovery to use “solar gain” if the sun is warming the loft space
• Auto summer shut-down
• Air heater if loft air is cold

The air heater is a 500w heater which makes the air warmer if the air in the loft is cold.  This is for “our” comfort rather than any anti condensation functionality as it just prevents cold draughts.

Another benefit is that as the air is sucked out of the loft, it will actually force air movement and refresh in the loft space which of course will help with loft ventilation.

(Available on Amazon, but I bought elsewhere for £306 delivered with 10 year warentee)

Nuaire have been established for 20 or so years; sell internationally, and also sell comercial grade products.  This inspires confidence in the product and company as I doubt they’d be around so long if it were snakeoil…  The product feels well made, and if nothing else, it is well engineered!  It comes with a 5 year warentee, and the supplier I used added on another 5 years (though not seen any paperwork yet!)

Possible issues

As the air is pulled from the loft, when it is very cold, then very cold air will be blown into the house.  This is minimised with the heater, but of course it is still sending in cold air.  Our stairs/hall are coldish anyway so not overly concerned, and I’m guessing this is better than open windows in each room anyway.  Time will tell.

Installation

The kit comes with everything you need, bar some suitable cables, but I’ve opted to wire it slightly differently.  I’ll use 2 double-pole fused isolators, one for the entire unit, and one just for the air heater.  This will mean it complies with regs having an isolator, but also I can enable/disable the heater if I desire without affecting system functionality. (if I find a spur-timer cheap enough, then I’ll install one for the heater to prevent the heater running overnight).

The rest of the install looks a doddle….!

1. Cut a 225mm hole in the loft ceiling suitable for the output vent.
2. Mount the brackets on suitable joists
3. Fix unit to brackets
4. Connect and seal ducting tube
5. Cable up as necessary

I connected it to a fused spur off the lighting circuit as this was more accessible in the loft and isn’t as naughty as it sounds as, for example, shower extractor fans and shaver points are run off the lighting circuit.  The Drimaster Heat is fused at 3A but pulls a maximum of just over 500W, and as the lighting circuit is 6A and all our lights are low power, there is plenty of capacity.

Once installed, we set it to speed 4 (of 6) which is the right speed for our size house, and this seems to pull a constant 16W to run the fan which equates to 4p per day (excluding heater).   Pending success or otherwise, I may reduce speed to 3.  (4 = 40 litres of air per minute)

All that can be seen in the landing is a fairly discreet and flat vent, and the isolating switches.  Once the celing and landing is finished and decorated it will blend in fairly well.

In the loft, the grey bit (between the green bit and the flexy pipe) is the heater, and clearly I’ve ensured there isn’t any insulation touching or close the heater enclosure, even though its not that higjh powered or likely to be a problem.

Overall, a nice simple install, and now see if it works…..

 

Does it work?

The system works, and you can feel a nice amount of air movement.  The fan is very quiet and completely non intrusive.  We installed it as per the instructions and do not have a noticable draught.

After a few hours

Placebo effect or not, the upstairs landing definatley felt fresher, so if nothing else, the system moves more air around!  The landing does feel a bit cooler, but not colder….   We’ve closed half of the upstairs windows and will see how things look in the morning…

First day

Well, the upstairs landing is definately cooler and fresher.  I guess a thermometer would show it being colder, but it doesn’t feel cold.  Weird, but guess its the humidity change.  Overnight we closed 1/2 the bedroom windows, and in the morning the windows were still a bit condensated   So no magic solution after the first night.

5 days later

After being out for a couple of days, we came back and the hall/landing was still fresh.  Maybe we need to turn the speed down a bit!  But, we have closed all windows upstairs (and we don’t have trickle vents).  As such, the bedrooms are definately much warmer.  The first night back we slept with the windows fully closed which would normally mean wet windows, but on the first night back (day 5) the windows had a lght mist only on the bottom 1/4 of the window.  And by light mist, I mean as if you just simply breathed on the glass.   It was however a warm night

The next day it was 0′C outside, and with windows closed would normally result in very wet/condensated windows.  However, in the morning the windows were 99% clear of any misting or condensation. maybe 1cm high light mist at the bottom.

Bizzarely I’m still not convinced lol!  But the last 2 days have been mightily impressive.  Just need to monitor to ensure it is working as it still feels too good to be true.

The cooler landing isn’t an issue as the bedrooms are definately warmer, and we’ve opted not to use the built-in air heater just to see how it goes.

So, 5 days in, looking good….

(See the rest of our tip index here)

In the past I have tried some devices that enable you to watch TV on a laptop and I had mixed results.  Flakey quality, high power consumption, and unreliable software.  So I gave up and bought a Meos 13.3″ TV unit which has served us well for a few years.  However, this unit failed, and with zero after sales service and no spares avaialable, its destined for the bin.

But as we seldom watch TV, but still want the ability to, I sought a cheap alternative…

Knowing how poor computer based TV receivers are, I avoided the unbranded eBay units, and bought a branded August Digital Freeview unit from Amazon mainly due to the price (£16.49 delivered) and the fact most of the reviews were excellent.  But also, its a brand, with an English support website – www.augustint.com - that in istself is a rareity.

So, the box arrived and I was surprised to find it was a full cosumer box, with all the cables, remote control, CD, and even an indoor aerial.  I would not recommend the aerial as you do need a decenr aerial same as any TV.  Rather than use the CD I downloaded the latest drivers and software from their website and installed those (though the version numbers were same as CD).  The installation of the drivers and the software was trivial and worked perfectly on Windows 7.  The device simply plugs into a USB port and takes all the power it needs from there – no other power required.  Its about the size of a USB memory stick – so quite tiny!  The remote control is the size of a credit-card.

All good, so I ran their software, Total Media 3, which tries to be an full “Media Center” and integrates all your music and videos & DVD as well as the TV.  Actualy rather impressive and it does just work.  It feels like the real Windows Media Centre but a little quicker (and simpler) – but no complaints.  Setting up the TV card is simple, though two niggles – the channel scan takes longer than a TV, and the channels aren’t in natural order.

But, apart from that it simply just works!  The TV will work full-screen or in a small window, and the sound/picture quality is as good as you’d hope.  You EPG (TV Guide) can either be via the Internet or via the aerial - so no Internet required.  Great idea!

We’ve set the TV up on both laptops, neither of which are powerful (one is am old Samsung Netbook, and the other a low power Asus) – and they both work fine.  (The slower Netbook takes longer to channel scan, but works quickly once scan completes)

For £16.49 – an absolute bargain and not worth fixing the old TV for!

If you go for alternative makes, make sure the device has an English website where you can get updated software, and it isn’t a cheap clone where support will be non existent.

 

After 7 years our first van had its first real component failure, which can’t be bad.  The water pump seems to have failed due to a seal going between it and the power steering pump. resulting in coolant leaking very slowly down and over the starter motor.  Getting it changed at a garage was quoted at £320-£380 at Ford and other garages which is a little steep.  The job isn’t trivial or simple, but isn’t actually too difficult if you know what to do.

Total cost using Ford bits, can be £120, or £50 for cheaper versions.

However, on our investigations we didn’t find any definitive answer, so a good friend came over (Thanks Chris Rabbit!) and we tackled it together.  Probably took a relaxed 5 hours, but with hindsight (and these instructions), probably a 3 hour job.

We took some advice from the Ford TIS and the Ford Transit forum (thanks to the people that offered some advice) – we took some advice, ignored others, and made it work!

These instructions are based on a 2005 Mk6 FWD 2.0L TDCi 125ps Ford Transit.  The instructions should help any 2L varient, but you may have different pipework as you may or may not have an intercooler or EGR.

So take this guide as a GUIDE ONLY.  And remember I’m not a mechanic, so you really should disregard anything in here and ignore it!  Follow it at your own risk as I accept no liability for yoy being mad enough to trust an Interent stranger!

Tools required

• Socket set and ratchet
• Medium & long extension bars
• 6mm, 7mm, 8mm, 10mm,  12mm, 15mm sockets
• 10mm spanner
• couple of screw drivers, one rather large flat head
• Small torque wrench
• bigger torque wrench
• Electical or gaffa tape
• Silicone lube
• Recommended host-pipe-clip removal tool (really, makes life SO MUCH easier)
• Recommended Clic pliers for air intake pipes.  Either this or swear for 20 mintues
• Recommended belt tensioner tool, though you can get away with screw drivers and 3 hands.

Parts required

• Replacement water pump
• Replacement water pump gasket
• Special spline grease
• (All above from single eBay supplier who is a genuine Ford garage, £105 delivered, though cheaper non-branded parts available – see http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Keith-Motors-For-Genuine-FORD-Parts – ordered and came 9am next day)
• 5L  (well 3-5L) of FORD 10 year coolant  (Ford provided stuff dilutes 50/50 with tap water, cheaper ones only offer 5 year protection and may be pre diluted)

Additionally

• Consider changing power steering pump belt (eBay £8 delivered)
• Consider getting a blank EGR gasket to seal off EGR valve

The main problem with this job is the posititon of the water pump.  In itself, it isn’t a tough job, its just a right b*****d to get at, but hopefully this guide will help.

1 – Drain the coolant

There is a drain plug, slightly recessed, in the bottom right corner of the radiator (when standing at the van looking under the bonnet).  Its easier to get at underneath, and feeling (as its blind and you may have to push a cable out of the way), just undo the big plug and the coolant will drain.

Put a big large container underneath as it will splash.  And take off the coolant tank cap to allow it to empty.

2 – Remove air resonator

The top box with “DuraTorq” on is the air resonator.

• Undo the two hoses circled with a screw driver or special clip tool. Disconnect hoses.
• Unclip the oil filler bracket and rotate 90′
• Undo the two hidden nuts at the back, you will probably need to unclip the pipework at rear.  These are 12mm.
• Once nuts removed, slight right-hand side of air box “back” and then rotate slightly up, and then slight right.  This motion makes it clear the bungs.  Make sure you don’t lose the nuts or the rubber bungs.

3 – Remove EGR outlet pipe

Remove he EGR outlet pipe on the right, this is simply two jubilee clips.  Be warned, this pipe may be full of black sh*t from the EGR, so it can vet very messy very quickly.

4 – Remove Power Steering pump belt cover

This is a simple plastic cover on the right hand side covering the power steering belt.  Its a 10mm nut at the front side, and the rear just prises off with a screw driver.

5 – Remove EGR pipe

Had we done this at this stage it’d have made life so much easier as this entire pipe gets in the way.  Ford do not recommend moving it, but really, you should!

• Remove the 2x 10mm bolts at the front end
• Disconnect the intercooler hose via simple jubilee clip
• Remove the two bolts holding the pipe to the EGR valve (8mm)  Beware that when you remove these bolts a narrow gasket may fall out, so try and catch it.  (you can use an EGR blanking plate here when you reassemble!)
• Remove entire pipe section (should be just metal pipe as shown on left pic (as hoses should now be disconected) – and the metal pipe out the back covered in the heatshield)

6 – Remove Power Steering Belt

This is a bit of a pain if you don’t have a tensioner tool as the tensioner is spring loaded and keeps the belt tight, but this means the belt can’t just come off, the tensioner needs to be released.

We’re sure there is a tool or technique, but reglardless, here is what we did.

• Put a scew driver in the square hole, and held it tight. (red X)
• Put a big screw driver between the nut and the scrrewdriver above (blue line)
• Rotate screwdriver against nut and little screwdriver in direction of green arror causing the tensioner to release (under load), so with your 4th hand, get the belt off and then release the tensioner slowly.

7 – Remove Air Intake Manifold

This is an easy bit (as I watched Chris do it!)

• Its 9x 10mm bolts which all need to be removed.  These are all captive so don’t worry about dropping them.
• The dip-stick holder needs to be removed
• You will possibily need a long reach socket and an extension bar just to get access, but apart from working out how to get the nuts, then should come off.
• There is a cable attached to white clips.  We sensed if we pulled these clips they’d snap, so we removed the tape and left the clips in situ.  The cable is then “free”.
• Be careful when removing as there are 8 rubber gaskets.  They didn’t fall off for us, but keep an eye out just in case.

At this point, you should look like the picture.  Also pic of manifold removed

8 – Loosen coolant hose support bracket

There s a coolent hose support bracket in the way of the power steering pump, it sort of “lipped”.  The Ford TIS reckons there are 4 nuts on it, but I only found two!  And removing these nuts gave enough movement to move it out of the way.   The bracket is shown in “green” and rough nut locations in red.

• Remove 2 nuts – 15mm.  These may be very tight/rusted, so may need to soak
• Leave bracket in engine and hoses still connected.

9 – Detach power steering pump

Note:  The power steering pump stays in place – so be careful not to strain any pipes connected to it!

• Note on image, green is rough outline of bracket holding power steering pump on, red the bolts.
• The top & bottom bolts are 10mm and are long and go through the water pump.  Remove these.
• Remove the middle bolt, 8mm
• Remove the two remaining bolts, 10mm
• The bracket will then come off, rememeber which way round it went!

The power steering pump is now free and you should be able to separate it from the water pump (pull away from water pump as the water pump has a spline going into the PAS pump.

Check spline for wear, as if you have been leaking for a while and the grease has been washed out, it may be damanged and you may need a new PAS pump.  We caught it early, so grease still present.  Clean old grease out if you can.

10 – Remove water pump

• Disconnect 3 hoses from water pump.  That special tool I mentioned at the start is very handy!
• There are then 4 bolts holding the water pump to the engine.  The top 2 are bolts, the bottom 2 are bolts with thread both sides.
• Unclip wiring clip from bottom bolts
• Remove all 4 bults (10mm)
• Remove water pump (NOTE: make sure gasket comes with it, and make sure PAS pump is safe)
• Once removed, undo the nut holding the coolant engine sensor (8mm), and “pull out” the sensor

Thats it!  Everything is now removed.  You should now have something resembling:-

At this point, have a cuppa, and clean up all the bits you think necessary.

Not going to bother with pictures for reassembly, the ones above should suffice.

11 – Install water pump

• Ensure O ring on water engine sensor thing is good, if not replace
• Clean and tiny bit of spray silicone lube and put sensor into new pump
• Tighten nut (8mm, 10NM))
• Put on new water pump gasket and put pump back into engine, ensure you keep gasket clean and don’t damage it. (Remember bolts are different top & bottom!)
• Tighten up, 10mm, 24NM, opposites first
• Attach wiring harness clips to bottom bolts
• Reconnect hoses using special tool

12 – Install power steering pump

• Clean spline hole
• Fill with the special grease
• Use special grease on the water pump shaf
• Put PAS pump back in place
• Put bracket back in place
• Re bolt all 5 bolts.  (4x 10mm 22NM, 1x 8mm 22NM.  Note, TIS says 22NM for the 8mm bolt too, but felt a bit too tight…)

13 – Connect coolant hose support bracket

• Move bracket back into place
• Screw on 2 nuts, 15mm, 22NM

14 – Install air intake manifold

• Put manifold back in place
• Make sure gaskets all in place
• 9 nuts, 10mm, 15NM
• Reattach oil dipsick older
• Tape on cable to plastic connectors

15 – Install Power Steering belt

• Using same technique to slacken the belt tensioner, do this and connect PAS belt
• Recommend a new belt
• Check belt is around alll pullies correctly and lipped-in
• Release tensioner slowly

16 – Install EGR pipe

• Manuvure EGR pipe back into place
• Front side, 2x 10mm bolts, 24NM
• Rear side, ensure gasket goes in (or new EGR blanking plate) – and tighten up with 8mm bolt

17 – Install belt pully cover

• Slot belt cover over rear connector and push down
• Install nut at front side, 10mm 10NM

18 – Connect EGR Pipes

• Connect intercooler pipe to EGR pipework
• Connect air intake pipe from metal pipework to air intake manifold

19 – Install air resonator

• Ensure rubber grommets with metal inserts are in place
• Wilggle into place, e.g. slide right, forward, and rotate down.  Obvious if you remember how you took it out.  (be aware of catching pipework at rear and the air pipework can block movement)
• But 2 bolts in behind
• Attach air pipes
• connect clips
• Clip hoses neatly at rear

20 – Fill with coolant

• Ensure radiator drain plug is closed!
• Fill with coolant to “max”
• Wait and have a cuppa
• Make sure no tools balanced on engine or bonnet….
• Start engine and check all is okay
• Keep coolant at/near max
• Get up to temp, stop and cool down, and top coolant up if necesary

Check everything, and jobs a good un.

 

Hope this helps someone – I know I’d have been more confident doing it had I read this at the start!  Cheers to Chris again for his help.

 

 

 

Well, its now August, and our Asia trip seems a distant memory.  To aid that, we’ve just spent a few days creating a photo montage and got it printed out and delivered today in A0 size.  Its massive!! 5,200 pixels wide, and 7,300 pixels high.  Any bigger the laptop kept crashing and it wasn’t able to convert the file types.  Looks amazing.

Now doing one for our Europe campervan trips.

Such a PITA – having to copy & stitch together numerous “maps” to get one the size we want.

See attached for a much smaller version of Asia so you get the idea.  The quality and size of the real one is HUGE! (85cm x 120xm) and the detail is super as you can see all the name places etc really well.  The pics are roughly where they were taken..

Ahhhh – memories…..

 

Well, as you may have seen, we’ve not updated our blog since we came back from Asia.  Amazingly, we came back on 25 March, then after sorting some bits out we went area/house hunting with a HUGE area of the Cotswolds, Wiltshire and Dorset.  So the little camper has been used heavily since then.

But, the work paid off and we bought a house in Melksham, Wiltshire.  We saw it on 26 April, made an offer on 27 April, and completed on 1 June!  Amazingly quick, and of course since then we’ve been shopping….

Its a nice little 3 bed house on a private lane with space for a campervan or two on the drive – so perfect.  Some work needed, spent today sorting out a water tap for filling the van up!  A bit of TLC, DIY and decortating to do, and today we had delivery of a new washing machine and my home cinema system!  All set up so Mel is looking forward to watching Matt Damon tonight in HD glory.  Sofas don’t arrive for a few weeks….

Its got a lovely garden with apple and pear trees.  No idea what to do with them all, so maybe homebrew cider?  If we don’t kill them off of course!

So this year may see very few long trips as we try and establish the house and ourselves in the area.  We’re actually really

happy with the location and the friendliness of the people – already at the local running club a

 

nd going to sign up to the Bristol Half Marathon in September…  Oops. 

But worry not, the dream isn’t over….!  Just this year we may have to settle for 3 months in Asia and a couple of long holidays…  Normal service will resume!

 

For our other tips, see our tip index here

I have been asked directly and answered a couple of times on forums, as to what we recommend to be the best laptop charger.  Some chargers on eBay seem to only work when the engine is running, and some the quality is iffy to say the least.

I used to use a cheap charger that was fairly low rated, and it used to get hot.  Very hot.  One day it actually blew up when we were in Spain which was a bit of a pain, but it almost took the laptop out too as it “shorted” live and neutral causing the laptop to “bang” and shut down making deathly beeps – but fortunaltey after I unpluggeed and removed the battery it recovered.  Phew.  So I do not reccomend cheap eBay type chargers.

So if your laptop needs 45W (e.g. a netbook) – I’d still highly recommend getting a beefier charger.  Our 120W is fine, it charges our Samsung netbook; Asus Ultra-low voltage PC; and our Dell XPS power hungry laptop.  (yes – I know, 3 laptops is a big extreme!) – but the single charger we have has attachments for all of the above.  The Dell XPS takes all 120W as its more of a workstation and the charger copes fine. 

I bought our charger in a shop in Spain, but can pop into Maplin to buy one, or of course buy one from Amazon.  The one I show here is identical to the one I have.

ALWAYS check the DC voltage your laptop needs.  This will be either on your laptop (as “input”) or on your power supply (as “output”).  All our laptops are 19v.  The recommended charger is variable voltage, and ours gives a tested 19v when connected to running engine or leisure batteries, so we’re quite happy with it.  (always make sure you haven’t inadvertently moved the voltage selector switch though lol!)

 120W is probably the biggest you want in the van. If your laptop needs more than 120W then you should consider a lower consumption laptop as it will suck you van batteries dry!  Our Asus laptop (bought with van in mind) only needs 40W    Of course, the 120W charger can power lower power hungry devices and if you only plug in a 40W laptop then you only use 40W power.  The number is just the “maximum”.  In our experience too, the smaller units get so hot you waste a huge amount of power in heat.  The recommended item, for us, never gets hot.

Hope this is useful to someone!

As of April 2012, the Caravan Club have released their 2012 version of their data for Caravan Club Sites, CLs and now their Caravan Club Abroad sites.  These are available direct from the caravan club site.

However, these as normal, are not available in the formats I and others want, namely and Google Earth.

As such I’ve done the converions for you and they are available FREE on my download page CLICK HERE

(I don’t believe there are any copyright issues as you can’t use the CLs without being a member, and the Club Sites would probably welcome the free advertising?)

See below for a screen shot from 2011 as an example of the data points.

At last, the camping and caravanning club 2012 data is available.  See our main GPS download page here to download it.

You obviously need to be a member to use the facilities.  The .csv and some of the files (not all) are available direct from CCC.  However, the data here is just formatted in the way you want it  

The data is of course (c) CCC.  It contains locations of Club Sites, Club Certified Sites, Forest Sites and also their Listed Sites.  The below is a small screen shot from 2011 on my laptop.