First ever trip in our A/S

We are getting ready to travel to Glen Affric - our first ever trip in our Amethyst!  It's still a week away yet!

We'd love to hear your favourite tips, do's, don'ts and just some advice from experienced travellers, please.  We are SO new to this new adventure! 

(PS - do most sites provide a hose for filling up with water?)

My tip is to spend a night in your new motorhome close to home, maybe even on your drive, This will help you familiarise yourself with the habitation side and make sure everything is working OK, also highlight if you've forgotten to pack anything essential onboard. That way, you won't have far to go if needs be.

Campsites often have hoses but not always located in a sensible position for every motorhome's inlet; also some may not be the cleanest.  As well as a hose, we carry a 10 litre plastic container; some folks use a new, clean watering can kept for this purpose.

Main thing is to relax, have fun and enjoy!

cheers
Roger

As a newcomer to motorhoming myself, I have to agree with Roger, I read lots of stuff on here, had a couple of nights locally, then off to France for three weeks.
Been home a week now, had a great time, can't wait to get away again.

Well, we are all set to try a night in our new van.  It's only 3 miles away from home and we have managed to get an EHU! So, we'll see how it goes before our big trip to Glen Affric.

What's the betting that we forget the simplest of things? 

Foubies wrote:What's the betting that we forget the simplest of things? 

You probably will, but that's why Roger suggested the front drive - but three miles away is fine.

My tip would be not to buy any of the loft or garage fillers you find at shows or accessory shops until you are definitely sure you need them. We have all done it, and may do so again even with years of experience. You see something and think it will be great, then carry it around unused for several years before consigning it to the loft.

As for the hose, I gave up carrying one ages ago. The trusty watering can works fine, and you don't have to move the van to top up.

(If the site did provide a hose I wouldn't use it. Having more than once seen some disgusting people shoving the hose into their toilet cassette to rinse it out, I would never risk it. I should say this happens far more on the Continent than here, but you never know????)

Definitely use your own hose or containers to fill your fresh water.

I'm the first to admit that for years I accepted that others filled their fresh water with watering cans, but that method wasn't for me. My last van had a '2 pin' 12v outlet next to the water filler, so I rigged up my own submersible pump and plastic jerry can, which worked well. Then I realised that my aching back was worse after carrying a large jerrycan of water, lopsided across the site. 
Then came the expense of a folding trolley and bungee, which stopped the back ache and was fine in a larger van with loads of spare room, but along came the downsize to a PVC.

Long story short, I am now the proud owner of a 5 litre watering can and used in conjunction with a used 5 litre spring water bottle, it doesn't take long at  all to fill the fresh tank 

Fit like    Good luck with your first trip Foubies. Notwithstanding the good advice from forum members, we use a hose to fill up and a £1.99 watering can from B&M to top up when required. I toyed with getting a fancy food grade hose but settled on a 7 to 8m bit cut from a cheap garden version at Lidl. It gets used for water filling and nothing else.

You will work out what you need pretty quickly as you get to use the van. Sort out the eating and sleeping and the rest will follow.

Foubies wrote:Well, we are all set to try a night in our new van.  It's only 3 miles away from home and we have managed to get an EHU! So, we'll see how it goes before our big trip to Glen Affric.

What's the betting that we forget the simplest of things? 

Enjoy your first weekend away,      Are you taking your new cushions with you .
Boaby

Thanks Everyone for the invaluable advice.  We now have a hose which will only be used for the fresh water fill.

Boaby - "customs"?  Not sure what that means?  Excuse me, please. 

Askit wrote:Fit like    Good luck with your first trip Foubies. Notwithstanding the good advice from forum members, we use a hose to fill up and a £1.99 watering can from B&M to top up when required. I toyed with getting a fancy food grade hose but settled on a 7 to 8m bit cut from a cheap garden version at Lidl. It gets used for water filling and nothing else.

You will work out what you need pretty quickly as you get to use the van. Sort out the eating and sleeping and the rest will follow.

Askit, nae bad - fit like yersel'?  From Aberdeenshire, by any chance? 

Foubies wrote:

Askit wrote:Fit like    Good luck with your first trip Foubies. Notwithstanding the good advice from forum members, we use a hose to fill up and a £1.99 watering can from B&M to top up when required. I toyed with getting a fancy food grade hose but settled on a 7 to 8m bit cut from a cheap garden version at Lidl. It gets used for water filling and nothing else.

You will work out what you need pretty quickly as you get to use the van. Sort out the eating and sleeping and the rest will follow.

Askit, nae bad - fit like yersel'?  From Aberdeenshire, by any chance? 

No, I'm just multi-lingual as long as it's Scottish English  

I was raised in a small residential area of Glasgow called Possilpark  

Multi-lingual 

We took all your advice and had a night in the van yesterday - about 3 miles from home.

We forgot Salt & Pepper and our wee radio.  Not too bad for beginners!  Oh - and cosy socks!  Boy do your feet get cold 

We scratched our heads trying to find both taps for emptying out the water before we came home!

So, the big trip is on Thursday but the mini trip was invaluable for finding what goes where .... and what doesn't!!

Thank you.

Boaby - yes. We tried out the Quishions  - couldn't believe how cosy they were.  Well chuffed with them.

Foubies wrote:We forgot Salt & Pepper and our wee radio.  Not too bad for beginners!  Oh - and cosy socks!  Boy do your feet get cold 

Well done that man.   There's a lot to learn, but none of it is very difficult and you'll be advising other newcomers in a month or two!

Cold feet????? Come down here for your next trip - it was a fraction over 34 degrees yesterday, and only dropped to 21 degrees overnight!

Well, we made it!!  4 nights at Glen Affric and we survived!  Beautiful spot and we thoroughly enjoyed it all.

We did have a disaster though. Got the EHU done and fridge switched over - all smooth.  Filled up with water, put on the immersion switch and then turned on the water pump.  It made a noise! But, it did pump water to the taps.

We noticed water pouring out from under the van so we switched the pump off.  Later that evening, we noticed our carpet from the rear of the driver's seat, all the way along to the end of the bench seats was absolutely drenched.  The water was puddling at our feet when we stepped onto it!

My questions are (and I really appreciate the help I'm getting here):

1. Should the pump make a noise?

2. Does the pump need to be on the whole time and should it be silent?

3.  Any idea what happened with it pouring out? (My husband assures me the water valves were switched off, after he filled up).

4. Why would it come up through the carpet?

5. Is there a valve somewhere which we SHOULD have turned on before engaging the pump?


I feel quite helpless to sort my own problem as I do not have a vehicle manual/handbook.  We're also SO new to the motorhome life that we don't have a knowledge base to fall back on.

Apart from that wee upset, we had a whale of a time. The scenery is to die for.  The midgies were tenacious!!

Thanks in advance.  I'd like to get my hands on a manual, though.

I've suggested this answer as a possible cause of wet carpets a number of times, as it happened to us in our old Executive, but it's always previously turned out to be something else - so, maybe this time?

The Shurflo pump may well be under the driver's side bench seat somewhere (ours was) and it may have a leak when pressurised from the join between the plastic pump housing and metal motor housing, (ours did), which spurts water out when the pump is running. The floor under the bench seats is carpeted and thus the water soaks into the carpet between the seats.

The pump should only run when pressurising the hot water tank after it's been primed and when the taps are opened. It shouldn't run continuously.
The Shurflo pumps do make quite a bit of noise, especially when they're mounted on a chipboard resonator like the seat casing or wardrobe casing.

You probably need to run the water pump while looking into the space under the bench seat (or wherever else it's mounted - follow your ears to find it), and see whether its leaking somewhere.

Let us know what you find, we'll advise then.

Thank you so much, meanchris.  We'll have a look when we next fill up with water - which may be a wee while.  I'll definitely update when we've done so.  

Perhaps you should have a look ASAP, water on or even in the floor of your AS is the last thing you need, it needs to be diagnosed and sorted to avoid future problems.

Thanks.  We have mopped up and have the dehumidifier running.  We'll try our best to do it in the next few days - fingers crossed.