Just bought a new caravan

[squirrel996]

This is our first ever caravan and we (rather foolishly) bought a brand new one.
We have been away twice now and are going away again to Wales next week then we are going to France for a fortnight in August. I love it but we are still trying to get to grips with everything you have to do when you get to the site. Things like filling the water and priming the taps have been a night mare because we discovered we were doing it all wrong causing the water pump to be on continuously! I think we have worked it out now though!
Does anyone here have any advice on the best way to do things and in what order?
tia x

[rockinghorseShit]

I cant really help you, but we are the same as you! Bought our caravan last oct, been away for a few weekends, and a week at easter, and loving it so far!

We have friends with a caravan who know what they are doing, so they have helped us and advised, but when we've been on our own, we have made mistakes similar to you, I don't understand the water pump/ heater at all, leave that to dh. Last time we went, the electric cable fried and we didn't even notice, we have forgotten to empty the waste water tank and it came up through the shower floor...
also mistakes with towing such as forgetting to take the brake off on the hitch and leaving the jockey wheel down

We are going to cornwall this weekend for 2 weeks (with our friends) and next year planning on going to france (already worrying about getting on the euro train!)

its great through isn't it? The kids love the freedom, and so much cheaper. Downsides are you cant escape housework!!
Happy camping

[rockinghorseShit]

ps- of your brand new one. Ours is 10yrs old, still nice, but would love to get a brand spanker in the future.
Is it all singing and dancing? How many berth is it?

[squirrel996]

Its a 4 berth with a fixed bed and end washroom, it's lovely :)

We tried to move the motor mover with the handbrake on! Luckily I've towed horse trailers for years so I'm quite confident about hitching up and unhitching luckily! That's about the only thing I'm sure about though.
We also didn't empty the waste tank but luckily there is a little red light on the toilet that lights up when it's full otherwise we wouldn't have realised.

Thank god we haven't had to use the heating yet! Also my dh has been going on and on about levelling it and talking about buying ramps and chocks etc. But I have no idea about anything to do with that.

I really love it, the girls have been off playing and made loads of new friends and it's just so lovely to sit outside with a drink and relax.

[millimat]

Get a mini spirit level so when parking you know if ramps are needed - its very rare we use them. But if you do need them reverse onto it whilst still hitched up - too hard to do pushing the van.We tend to do parking, levelling, jockey wheel up, legs down,water (waste and clean one). Then electrics so kettle can go on. Priming water takes a while getting through the pump.
We don't tend to use water from van for the kettle but just fill from the tap. We tend to travel with empty toilet cassette and always drain water from the pump.
All heating systems seem different. What make van have you got?

[millimat]

We also turn the pump off at night (no idea why!). A porch awning is very quick to put up and stops dirt coming inside.

[squirrel996]

We have a porch awning but haven't put it up yet except for at home to have a practice! We've only been away for 2 nights so far and it didn't seem worth it.
We have a little spirit level that shows front/back and left/right so that's what we have used so far, although if you are on a site with hard standing they should be fairly level anyway shouldn't they?

It's a special edition one that is called an Ace Statesman but it's based on a sprite major 4 fb.

[BensonBunny]

You still need to check levels front to back on hard standing and not all are level side to side either but we never bother to correct this. We bought ramps when we got our first caravan, don't think we've ever used them...

When setting up we line the wheel up for the lock then level, put the steadys down and block the jockey wheel then connect power, get the toilet set up and set the water up. Most of the jobs to set up are a series of steps that should be done in the correct order but you always forget something! When we arrived on site on Friday I remembered to close the drain taps before turning the pump on, still feeling pleased about that as I almost always forget!

Caravaners are mostly a friendly bunch and happy to help if you get stuck with something, our heating is pretty simple though there do seem to be some new fancy systems now.