Electrophile, surely!

Certainly use 15amp breaker as already advised. Also, try to find a
"fast" breaker that allows a minimum of overload.
There are breakers and breakers. Some are designed to allow for the
overload current demanded by electric motors starting current. Clearly
you wouldn't want one of these.
Another option is to go for an even lower current such as 10 or 12 amps.

S.Whitehead
s.whitehead@iee.org

On 11 Oct 2008, at 15:19, "donald9605" <don.newton@btinternet.com>
wrote:

Here is one for Ernb or all other electrophobes.

When overwintering for a lengthy period of time I use a site supplying
16amps.

I would like to avoid having to get the site manager to reset the trip
(in a locked box) every time we inadvertantly

go over the 16 amps. This is a pain if it is late evening/early
morning
etc.

What simple, cost effective, piece of kit can I install in the main
supply cable to say trip the supply at

15 amps and then can be reset by me?

mike.motorhome wrote:

It's good to see that someone has his warranty. I fixed the elbows
myself with sawn-off biro tubes but Lunar doesn't know that.

Well, they probably do know. I'd be surprised if someone from Lunar
isn't keeping a quiet eye on all this.

Mike, I have read every page on your website, and I'm going to offer a
few comments on the whole. Please not that I have no conection with
Lunar or any part of the motorhome industry; I'm just someone thinking
of buying a campervan or motorhome, who stumbled on this mailing list a
few days ago, and then saw your posts about your website.

The first thing is that it's incredibly hard to figure from the website
what your problems are with Lunar, and what you want done about it all.
Your website has lots and lots of words, many of them waxing lyrical
about how you think their business should be better organised, other
words direly predicting what may befall Lunar if they don't help you ...
but nowhere in the midst of it all is there a simple summary in which
you set out what the problem is, and what you want done. Without that,
I found myself losing the will to live on my first two attempts to read
your website, and only persevered a third time out of a stubborn
fascination at the sheer verbosity and incoherence of what I was reading.

You will probably be quite offended by the previous paragraph, but I'm
sorry: your website IS verbose and incoherent. It circles around the
point without ever getting near to it.

Reading your correspondence with Lunar and with your dealer, I can see
that you do indeed appear to have had some genuine problems with them.
But it also seems to me that you have handled this in a way which made
it very difficult for them to help you:

* at nearly every point you were unclear about what you wanted
* you paid over money without having a clear written agreement of what
you were getting for it (that's a mistake for both you and Lunar, but
both sides should have foreseen the trouble that would cause)
* There appear to be big chunks missing from the published
correspondence, because at several points you refer to things which
aren't covered in any of he other letters.

I started by looking at the correspondence with a lot of sympathy for
you, because you appeared to be someone who had paid out a lot of money
for a motorhome and not received what they wanted. But by the time I
had finished reading it all, my sympathies had swung round quite
strongly to Lunar's side.

You say that Lunar has stopped replying to your letters, and that's why
you have been campaigning publicly. But I have to say that if I was
working for Lunar, I too would have stopped replying to your letters,
because there was no sign that any further correspondence with you could
have gotten anywhere; it would just have generated more words without
clarifying what you actually wanted.

If you were still dissatisfied, you should have gone to Trading
Standards and pressed your case; they would probably have reminded you
of the importance of clarifying what you wanted. But instead you tried
to generate a barrage of bad publicity for Lunar, which will only put
their backs up, and will generate results for you only if you can make a
really big storm.

However, I genuinely doubt that you will succeed in generating any sort
of a storm at all. The magazines you plan to approach would be very
ill-advised to take up the case of someone who has consistently been so
unclear about what they want, particularly since a quick glance at their
pages will show you that they depend heavily on advertising from the
manufacturers. They are gong to be slow to bite the hand that feeds
them, and are most unlikely to join in any crusade.

If you try to make a nuisance of yourself at Lunar's stand in the NEC I
expect that you will be politely escorted away by the security staff who
will have been warned to watch out for you. That may not feel fair, but
it's the way these things work.

Nor has your attempt to recruit other dissatisfied customers borne
fruit, so it looks like you'll be on your own in your storm-making. The
three emails published on your website consist of:

* "“untrustfuls” near Slough, who bought one motorhome they were
delighted with, and found that when they tried delaying their order, the
order was abandoned by the supplier. The supplier probably should have
been more communicative, but it doesn't seem to me to be unreasonable to
lose interest in completing an order if the client messes you around.
And it's all nothing to do with Lunar.

* "JananBill", who describes poor service from Halls Motorhomes. Sounds
bad, but again it's nothing to do with Lunar or with your dealer

* "Vigilant-vanners", who bought yet another brand of motorhome from yet
another dealer, and only got satisfaction after going to court.

And that's it. Three complaints from three different people, all
involving different companies. Were they just unlucky? It's hard to
tell, but three dissatisfied customers out of thousands can be found in
any industry. So far, you've got nothing to support your claim that
Lunar are terrible.

It sounds like you are determined to proceed to make as much noise as
you can, but I don't think it'll have much effect other than to give you
the satisfaction of making a little noise. Only a very little noise,
mind you: for all your big talk of a storm, the question has to be "you
and whose army?"

And in a way I think that's a pity, because the Camping & Caravan Club's
survey show an unacceptable level of quality problems in British-made
caravans and motorhomes, which compare very poorly with German models.
Some sort of wider campaign to draw attention to these poor standards is
probably well-justified, but the complaints need to be much better
formulated than yours.

That's my thoughts. Make of it what you will!

Best wishes, Pet Human

On 12/10/08 19:55, "Andy Clarke" <andy@bm-services.co.uk> wrote:

There's one on this page:

Thanks, Andy, A useful bit of kit. Being the cause of a power shut-down can
be quite embarrassing. My 600W kettle tripped the supply at Clères. It had
gone "leaky" and tripped the earth leakage relay.

Fortunately, the switch box could be opened easily and the switch reset. And
I "cured" my kettle by cutting the earth wire. I do not know why it had one,
really, as it was 100% double insulated. I could not imagine anyone dipping
a finger in boiling water just to test for an electric shock. And if they
had, guess what? The ELR would have tripped just the same.

Before anyone goes ape, it is now in a recycling box somewhere.

--
ErnB
Bristol

On 12/10/2008 18:38, Ernest wrote:

On 12/10/08 14:28, "chris724114" <chris724114@grouply.com> wrote:

what you need is the IVR Fuse Control (from Grade
or order via caravan dealers)

I am intrigued to know what this device is, Chris, or what it does and how.
Please provide a link.
TIA

There's one on this page: www.intacaravans.co.uk/acatalog/Misc_Electric_Products.html

Andy Clarke
--
www.ukmotorhomes.net - The UK Motorhome Website
www.motorhomemarket.co.uk - The Motorhome Classifieds

On 12/10/08 14:28, "chris724114" <chris724114@grouply.com> wrote:

what you need is the IVR Fuse Control (from Grade
or order via caravan dealers)

I am intrigued to know what this device is, Chris, or what it does and how.

Please provide a link.

TIA
--
ErnB
Bristol

--- In motorhome-list@yahoogroups.co.uk, Ernest <ernb@...> wrote:

You had better have some flexibility - some sites only allow 4A.

Especially

in France.
----
ErnB
Bristol

...............
In Spain it can be as low as 2 Amps.

Ray Stables

On 12/10/08 13:43, "Pet Human" <pethuman@gmail.com> wrote:

And of course the cash will be ever-so-safe in a bank.

Great interest rates on offer in Iceland, I hear ....

Buy Premium Bonds. No interest, but a £30,000 bond should, statistically
speaking, win a prize every month. Anything from £50 to £1M. And it will not
go walkies.
--
ErnB
Bristol

If you are willing to pay for it (£80 - £90) and have it installed I
suggest (exactly?) what you need is the IVR Fuse Control (from Grade
or order via caravan dealers) --- we have had in one use for 18
months.

See

http://www.intacaravans.co.uk/acatalog/Misc_Electric_Products.html

http://www.touringandtenting.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22545

It was discussed in October MMM

ChrisC

--- In motorhome-list@yahoogroups.co.uk, "donald9605"
<don.newton@...> wrote:

Here is one for Ernb or all other electrophobes.

When overwintering for a lengthy period of time I use a site

supplying

16amps.

I would like to avoid having to get the site manager to reset the

trip

(in a locked box) every time we inadvertantly

go over the 16 amps. This is a pain if it is late evening/early

morning

etc.

What simple, cost effective, piece of kit can I install in the main
supply cable to say trip the supply at

15 amps and then can be reset by me?

Ernest wrote:

As to your other plans, I would say that getting rid of unused property can
only be a win, win, strategy.

And of course the cash will be ever-so-safe in a bank.

Great interest rates on offer in Iceland, I hear ....

On 12/10/08 12:47, "Neill King (MH-List)" <yahoo@motorcaravanning.co.uk>
wrote:

Yep and the pound is still falling! Our masters are doing a great job for UK
PLC!

Did they ever?

I repeat;

If politics worked, the world would be at peace. Its peoples happy, healthy,
well housed, well educated and free.

The only time in my whole 76 years when such conditions almost existed in
Britain, was in WW2. If that sounds daft, remember, that was the only time
when most of the pin-striped bastards really did work for the good of people
of Britain. Although I dare say their only real aim was save their own
arses. I say most, because some of the scum-bags were working their own
agendas, even then.

There was an indescribably fantastic atmosphere about the place, and I did
really feel extremely proud to be British.

What will come of the present crisis, I do not know, but it doesn't augur
well.
----
ErnB
Bristol

I've just come across www.keepmoving.co.uk

You can input the start and end of a journey, and as well as calculating the route and giving traffic info, it will also find the 3 cheapest filling stations on the route.

Andy Clarke
--
www.ukmotorhomes.net - The UK Motorhome Website
www.motorhomemarket.co.uk - The Motorhome Classifieds

On Sun 12 October 2008 09:50 Martin wrote

In message <gcrmce+67n6@eGroups.com>, Tom <salmont@mindspring.com>
writes

We spent the month of May in Spain and I cannot recall seeing
Police
anywhere on the road stopping people. We entered from Tangiers

How did you get to Tangiers?
------------------------------------------------------
Hi Martin,

You can follow Tom's travels here.

http://home.mindspring.com/~salmonjt/Narrative%20Page%20List.htm

Don

In message <gcrmce+67n6@eGroups.com>, Tom <salmont@mindspring.com> writes

We spent the month of May in Spain and I cannot recall seeing
Police
anywhere on the road stopping people. We entered from Tangiers

How did you get to Tangiers?

Martin
--
Bennett House

Don Madge wrote:

Looks like a bit more competition on the short see crossing.

http://directferries.co.uk/news/2008october.htm#L1

This was featured on our TV news here in Kent last week. I like going to Boulogne and had hoped to use if for day trips as I don't live far from Dover, but the sailing times (there are only 4 crossings a day) are not ideal for that, see http://www.ldlines.co.uk/news.html

Jim

--- In motorhome-list@yahoogroups.co.uk, Ernest <ernb@...> wrote:

> (We will not confuse matters by discussing diversity.)

Ernie, my blood just ran cold...
When I was a spark in Cardiff in the late 80's, one of my jobs was to
work out how large a supply we needed or the various factories our
company owned. We had to order a large enough supply, but now too
large as you were charged for what you ordered. Go over this and a
hefty fine was sent our way...We had to get it just right.

I used to spend days working out the diversity factor and then going
over old bills to check for averages and changes. Hour and hours spent
looking at clamp meter readings, shift patterns etc etc etc. All this
before the advent of computerised monitoring systems and chart recorders.

This had to be done for each of our 7 factories... A lot of
responsibilty for a 21 year old...

After this, came power factor correction..... How I welcomed automatic
PFC controllers!!!!

All this will mean nothing to a lot of you, but to me it was hell!!!!

Getting back on topic... I'd struggle to use 15A in our van, but I
guess if you a microwave, large heater, and possibly a hoover running
at the same time, you might get close.

Darren

Looks like a bit more competition on the short see crossing.

http://directferries.co.uk/news/2008october.htm#L1

Don

This new Sony e-book is nothing new.
I've been reading e-books for about 10 years, thanks to my Palm PDAs.
If you get a Palm Treo mobile phone/PDA you can download the books
with the need for a laptop.
E-books are great but they do have problems... You can't lend them to
friends, Change the PDA and the book is unreadable, unless you can
rememebr the unlock code, not all authors are available on e-book.
Some, Stephen King for example, has written book only available on
electronic format.

Most new mobile (smart)phones can display e-books, but the size of the
screen can make this tiresome. I'm yet to try it on my N95 8GB, but
this might be OK, and it's built in wi-fi should make downloading
books a lot easier :)

Forget the Sony thing, it's far too expensive for an e-book reader.

Darren

I did my 1st aid course with St Johns Ambulance and they offer cheap insurance cover in case you are sued by someone that you treat (so long as you maintain your training)...

Maybe be a double-edged sword though, as having insurance cover often encourages someone to sue you if they think there is a pot of money to be had.. Lawyer friends of mine say its very unlikely that a court would award damages against an individual without cover unless they had done something particularly stupid or incompetent...