20 outandaboutlive.co.ukSeptember 2019
Mind your head, here
comes the bed
Over the last 10 years we
have owned two Hobby
motorhomes, justthe shor t,
under-6mtype thatwill fit
on the drive andalong most
roads/lanes. Good quality,
winterised andgreat for
carrying ka yaks on the roof.
The current one hasa
drop-down bed, which allows
plenty of room for entertaining
aroundthe extendable table
at the front and a good sized
kitchen at the rear. Perfect
for our requirements, or so
we thought. We have owned
campers/small motorhomes
for over 30years, so we knew
what we were looking forwhen
we ordered the ’van at the NEC
in October 2015.
It was eventually delivered
in June 2016 andall went well
to start with. You can hear the
‘but’ coming. Go over a pothole,
there areplenty of those these
days, or asleeping policeman
and the dogwould start to get
agitated, creeping through to
be at the passenger’s feet. She
had heard the imperceptible
sound of the click as the bed
mechanism was released. Then
the bed came down to rest
on the back of the frontseats.
“Find the nearest place to stop!”
was the frequent cry.
Hobby couldn’t offer a
solution. Unless you drive over
the bumps all se ems tobe well
with the bed.
Online forumstell a
different story. Drop-down
bedsare aptl y named. We’re not
the only ones with t he proble m.
This year we spent a
fortnight in beautiful north
Wales and Anglesey. Each
day we would cursethe bed
when it did its usualdescent
whilst driving. We came home
determined to find asolution.
What we neededwas a way to
keep the bed in pl ace.
Eventually, Leisure Spares
of Boroughbridge came up
trumps. It has bailed us out
in the past with fridge spares.
Wonderfully helpful company.
It had the exact sameclip
part thatkeeps the saf ety netin pl ace when you areup t he
ladder in bed. We had the
strapping, so by overni ght
delivery the on going proble m
was solved.
We hope our solution will
help ot hers solve the problem
of dropping drop-down beds!
ValWe are all in this
to enjoy ourselves
I often read magazine
letters from fellow campers
complainin g about noisy dogs,
noisy childre n, grass is cut too
often, grass is not cut enough,
volume of music, volume of
people chat ting, still lights ,
flashing lights and people
generally enj oyin g themselves.
I like to thin k I amfairly
tolerant of all the above.
Unless some of those arereally
persiste nt, moaning in the big
schemeof things is qui te p etty.
We are all camping for one
reason and thatis – we enjoyit
and we have differentways to
enjoy ourselves.
What I ha ve yet to seeis
complaints about the state
facilities are left in or speeding
aroundsites. Whilst I do not
want to moan my gripe is:
1 Food waste left in the sinks
2 Speeding aroundsites –
speaks for itself, dangerousso slow down.
Regarding the facilities.
After I wash up, I clean and
rinsethe sink so that all soap
suds have flushed away. I am
then able to seeif there is any
waste and,if there is, I clean it
out myself.
I cannotrecall the amount
of times I ha ve had toclean
other people’s food waste. It
is disgusting! These are our
facilities, so look afterthem. It
is not the warden’s job toclean
up waste due to the laziness of
people. There arebins provided
so there canbe no excuse.
My motto is leave the
facilities (toilets also) as you
would like to find the m.
So instead of moaning
about people’s differentways
of enjoyingthemselves let’ s
concentrate onthe import ant
things so thatour great hobby
can be made even better.
Paul RaboneToll bridge charges
When travelling in our
motorhome to Southampton
to catch the Red Funnel fe rry
to the Isle of Wight our sat-nav
took us off the motorway at
junction 8. We arrived at the
toll bridge over the River Itchen
and signs indicated a charge
of £1.40.As we pulled up, £Customised forthe dog
In yourmost recentpublication, you asked fortips
oradvice on travellingwitha dog in amotorhome or
campervan. Ithought you maybeinterestedin our
solutionto this issue.
Wepurchased anew motorhomefromVantage in
Leedslast year.Wehadset our hearts on theMed model
asit met allour requirements apartfrom where our black
lab, Paige, couldsleepasthe vehicle is only ashort-
wheelbase andshe would not beable tolay inthe rear of
the vehicle asit’s too narrow.
Richardat Vantage suggested that the workshopcould
builda plinth thatwouldcreate aflat areabig enoughfor
Paige tolay. Not only that, it could beremovedif required.
When wecollectedour ’vanin Novemberwecouldn’t
havebeenhappier withwhat theyhad done! You can see
from the attachedpictures that it wasn’t an afterthought,
but a well engineered item that works a treat.
Robert Stapleton