What a busy beeeeee you are Marty!! :0))))))

Buff :0)

I purchased a clamp on AC
ammeter from screwfix for 20.

When you write, "Clamp on", do you mean a tong tester? This is a meter with
an opening metal caliper to put round a cable in order to measure the
current flowing through it.

Take note! It will not work on the whole cable. The line and neutral must be
separated.

HTH

Ernie Bull
Bristol

http://www.motorcaravanning.co.uk/vehicles/ says:-

Many modern ‘vans will have two built-in charging arrangements, one driven by the

engine and one via a mains hook-up. In our own ‘van each system charges both
batteries but this is not universally true.<<

Will the above be true for my 92 Hymer B544, I wonder?

I hooked my van up for the first time (in the UK at any rate), ran thru the switches on my
electical control unit, and could see no visible sign of any activity.

What (if anything) should the voltmeter and the ammeter be showing when the van is
hooked up?

Thinking about it, I'm not sure whether I've seen my ammeter show anything other than
a 'flat' zero reading ...

Cheers,
-Steve Wilson

This should be added to my previous post.

http://www.dvla.gov.uk/drivers/dmed1_files/group2.htm

Marty

-- The Camper House, sole UK importers of new Autostars & approved used
Autostar imports via network .
-- Tel. 01865 427900. Fax 01865 427576. P.O. Box Oxford 432, Oxford, OX2
9WJ.
-- http://www.thecamperhouse.co.uk e-mail to enquiries@thecamperhouse.co.uk
-- All comments herein are only the personal comments or opinions of the
author.

Found this, it might affect a few here in view of recent discussions.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------

DVLA TO REIMBURSE MEDICAL RENEWAL FEES
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) today announced that it will
automatically reimburse drivers who have been unnecessarily charged for the
renewal of certain short-term medical driving licences.

This follows the identification of a legal anomaly, dating back to 1996 and
introduced in January 1997, that led to drivers of cars and motorcycles
being incorrectly charged fees for the renewal of certain short-term medical
driving licences at the age of 70 and over.

After a further legislative amendment in 1998, the undetected legal anomaly
also affected drivers of buses and lorries for the renewal of short period
medical licences at the age of 45 and over.

Of the 42 million licences issued by DVLA since 1997, DVLA estimate that
200,000 people may be eligible for a refund. DVLA is now arranging to refund
the fees, with interest, to those affected. These will be issued
automatically to those affected by the end of June.

Having identified this, DVLA has put in place procedures to minimise the
risk of this problem happening again. DVLA regrets this matter and all
drivers seeking to renew their short-term medical driving licences will now
be exempt from any renewal charge.

Refunds will be issued automatically and drivers affected need not take any
action. Drivers who are concerned they have paid unnecessarily, and have not
received a refund by the end of June, should contact the free helpline that
has been put in place

Telephone number 0800 5877 664.

The DVLA helpline will also provide advice for those drivers who have moved
and not notified the DVLA of their change of address, and the next of kin of
those drivers who are now deceased.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------

Marty




-- The Camper House, sole UK importers of new Autostars & approved used
Autostar imports via network .
-- Tel. 01865 427900. Fax 01865 427576. P.O. Box Oxford 432, Oxford, OX2
9WJ.
-- http://www.thecamperhouse.co.uk e-mail to enquiries@thecamperhouse.co.uk
-- All comments herein are only the personal comments or opinions of the
author.

As a number have raised conccerns about the licencing rules vs medicals &
age this link should help someone understand what the Doctor will be looking
fo.

http://www.dvla.gov.uk/at_a_glance/content.htm

Marty.

-- The Camper House, sole UK importers of new Autostars & approved used
Autostar imports via network .
-- Tel. 01865 427900. Fax 01865 427576. P.O. Box Oxford 432, Oxford, OX2
9WJ.
-- http://www.thecamperhouse.co.uk e-mail to enquiries@thecamperhouse.co.uk
-- All comments herein are only the personal comments or opinions of the
author.

And this might be of interest as well, as motorhomes are based on these
chassis.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------

Euro 4 Light Goods Vehicles - New Tax Class (36)
From 1 March 2003 light goods vans, first registered in the UK which meet
Euro 4 emission level standards, will qualify for a lower rate of vehicle
excise duty (VED).

The Chancellor announced this concession in his budget in April of last
year. The changes reinforce the message to both the motor industry and the
general motoring public that 'the less you pollute, the less you pay' for
tax discs.

The new tax class (TC 36) only applies to those light goods vans, weighing
less than 3.5 tonnes, which meet the required Euro 4 standard as detailed in
the EC Directives.

The rate of duty payable for the new tax class will be 105 for 12 months
and 57.75 for 6 months, a saving of 55 and 30.25 respectively on the
normal vans rate (TC 39).

The manufacturer needs to provide voluntary confirmation that the vehicle
meets the Euro 4 standard at first registration in the UK. Without this you
will be charged the higher rate of VED. The manufacturer will add this
information at first registration either via the Automated First
Registration and Licensing System [AFRL] or on the paper V55. If this
information is not available, you will need to contact the manufacturer to
obtain evidence that the vehicle meets Euro 4 standards. This should be a
signed declaration made by them on formal headed paper.

Vehicles registered in the UK before 1 March 2003 will not be eligible to
claim the new concession.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------

Marty

-- The Camper House, sole UK importers of new Autostars & approved used
Autostar imports via network .
-- Tel. 01865 427900. Fax 01865 427576. P.O. Box Oxford 432, Oxford, OX2
9WJ.
-- http://www.thecamperhouse.co.uk e-mail to enquiries@thecamperhouse.co.uk
-- All comments herein are only the personal comments or opinions of the
author.

Hi

I think you will find these are bench marks. If that is the case if you
look at an Ordinance survey map there will be a spot height associated
with it. It is a mark that was used to indicate how high above sea
level that particular place was.


bob

--- In motorhome-list@yahoogroups.com, "Hilary" <musicalj2@y...>
wrote:

Something the meaning of which eludes both me and a friend is an

odd

sign which we have spotted on things as diverse as old buildings -
colleges, churches, and mileposts. It looks not unlike an inverted
War Department sign stamped on any piece of WD cutlery - that's

going

back some, and the cutlery was purloined by my father when he was

in

the RAF, so don't blame me!

It has a straight horizontal line, central to that is a line

dropping

downwards at 90 degs, and either side of this central line are

lines

at 45 degs. If you take the points of the compass, the main line
would read W to E, the central line (which meets but does not cross
it N) to the S, and the lines either side ESE and WSW (I think!).

They usually seem to be carved in stone, and we thought at first

they

might be the mason's mark, but there is a diversity of age and
situation - some in Oxford, some in Huddersfield and Manchester.

Any

light to shed on the subject?

Hilary

It sounds like markings people have made to show where a "wireless"
internet conection can be made. ie pirating someone elses internet
connection. - there was a news item about it some months ago.

Any other thoughts??

Steve (Hilary's better half) :-))

Alan, I had no problems at all wild camping in France over the Bank
Holiday but we were carefully looked at by the gendames on more than
one occasion.

I agree with what Chris says . . . and yes, we are often looked at by the
police in France when we are parked up to wild camp, but we just smile and
wave and actually are very pleased that they take a note of our number
plates. We like the idea that police are cruising around and have never
ever had any problems. We always try to spend the latter part of the
evening where we intend to spend the night and just see how the locals
respond. We have a VW with the sliding door and in the summer leave that
open and smile at everyone that goes by.

Buff :0)

Depends whether you want a pitch or not.

One of the big disappointments to me in motorhoming is the constant need to
book if you want to be assured of a place.

We phone ahead, either the night before or on the day. Saves a lot of hassle
when turning up unannounced to find sites closed for one reason or another
or full.

David

Something the meaning of which eludes both me and a friend is an odd
sign which we have spotted on things as diverse as old buildings -
colleges, churches, and mileposts. It looks not unlike an inverted
War Department sign stamped on any piece of WD cutlery - that's going
back some, and the cutlery was purloined by my father when he was in
the RAF, so don't blame me!

It has a straight horizontal line, central to that is a line dropping
downwards at 90 degs, and either side of this central line are lines
at 45 degs. If you take the points of the compass, the main line
would read W to E, the central line (which meets but does not cross
it N) to the S, and the lines either side ESE and WSW (I think!).

They usually seem to be carved in stone, and we thought at first they
might be the mason's mark, but there is a diversity of age and
situation - some in Oxford, some in Huddersfield and Manchester. Any
light to shed on the subject?

Hilary

What do folk do regarding CL's? Ring ahead and book or just turn up?

Thanks,
Danny

As we are preparing for our first trip abroad and being aware that
some sites have only low amperage supplies, I purchased a clamp on AC
ammeter from screwfix for £20. Also measures AC/DC Volts in a 20 volt
range (possiblibly DC current as well ?) to test and see what the
electical bits are actually pulling.

A fine little gadget for the money.

Tony:

We carry a 12.5 and 25 metre leads, 12.5m works for most CC sites.
The other half of the 12.5 is semie permenantly connected up at

home

Sorry ... didn't really understand this. You're saying that the lead
that is
'semi
permanently' connected is also the one that works best at most sites.
Is this
correct? If
not, which lead is which?

==============================

Apologies !! For one reason or another I ended up with two 25 metre
leads, I thought that carrying 50 metres was over kill and cut one
lead in half. So I carry a 12.5 metre (used 7 times out of 10) and a
25 metre (used 2 times out of 10) and on the tenth occasion join the
two together !!.

The "spare" 12.5 metre lenth I wired up with a 13amp plug and use it
as a wander-lead for the M/van to charge the batteries, run the
hoover in the van after returning from a trip, etc.

Buff:

One is the longest and one
the shortest length we could find.

Steve:
> But what are the lengths please?

Im sorry Steve, but I don't know . . . and I am not going to unpack them to
find out for you !!! :0))))

You could go on line to one of the camper van accessory retailers and see
what is available. We were all given details of an on line catalogue in the
thread to do with Bar B Qs yesterday, perhaps they sell cables. We just
bought the shortest available and the longest available. I expect that more
options/lengths are available these days.

If you are going to get a long one and a short one you just need to
determine how short the short one could be if you are going to use it at
home. (I used a piece of string to measure how long the short one needed to
be in order to make sure it would reach to the van when parked up outside
our garage at home . . but that was years ago and I don't remember the
details)

We are very glad to have a very long one as it means we can be where we want
to be on the campsite. We use CLs and CSs sites a lot and the informality
means you can pretty much park whereever you want, cable permitting.

Buff :0)

Tony:

We carry a 12.5 and 25 metre leads, 12.5m works for most CC sites.
The other half of the 12.5 is semie permenantly connected up at home

Sorry ... didn't really understand this. You're saying that the lead that is 'semi
permanently' connected is also the one that works best at most sites. Is this correct? If
not, which lead is which?

Buff:

One is the longest and one
the shortest length we could find.

But what are the lengths please?

Alan:

steve, most hook up leads are 2.5mm2 not 1.5mm2, most uk ehu are 15a
so bigger cable safer bet.

The Maplins site has the current capacity of the 1.5mm2 arctic cable as 15A. That's a
wapping current, and some 2A greater than the rated capacity of the UK plug I'll be
using on the front when at home. I reasoned that the 2.5mm2 would be overkill, and
behave like a ship's hawser when being coiled.

most ehu leads come in 25m lengths which
are ok for most sites.

Whoops. And I thought I was overdoing it when I bought 15m :-)

Many thanks to all,
-Steve

There is a difference between what most motorists would do in normal driving
and what they would have to do to pass a ROSPA test.