Another Off Road Caravan Update
Thursday, June 11th, 2009
Following has been updated to our main page re: Jurgens Xplorer and Off Road Caravans
Training
Again on the advice of Loftus from his June 2009 newsletter where he offers training specific to off road caravans, we reckon familiarity with the following advisable to know:
Emergency chassis repairs - how to splint a broken chassis, Emergency suspension repairs, How to build an emergency welder using car batteries if required, How to replace caravan/trailer wheel bearings and greasing techniques, How to adjust brakes and handbrakes, How to do tyre repairs, a look at tools and emergency tools as well as spares, A look at electrics - especially replacing trailer plugs, Common breakdowns.
We wish we could fly to South Africa or bring Loftus to the UK to show us!
Agan from the bible of Loftus:
Fire Extinguishers
“Fire extinguishers ….
When you buy a new caravan you will find that it comes equipped with a fire extinguisher, usually a 1-1.5kg unit. Having a fire extinguisher in your caravan or trailer was always a worry or concern soother for “just in case of a fire”
Have you ever used or tested it to find out its effectiveness?
How often do you check these fire extinguishers to see that their gauges are in order and that it has not passed its expiry date? We normally take our units for a check up every 12 months.
Well normally you would only “test” a fire extinguisher in a crisis situation where there is a fire, but we recently had to put 5-6 of these units to a test when we tried to contain a fire.
To us having one of these fire extinguishers in our car or on our trailers were a comforting thought, until now: what we have experienced was that they are only effective to contain a small fire [and mostly in a limited space]. These units gave us a blast of powdery substance for only about 15 seconds and it could only cover an area of about 1 square metre. For one square metre these units were effective and then it ran of gas [figuratively spoken] or “powder”.
To contain a veld fire on an Erf we came up with the following: the same water container we use on our 4×4 safari trips to purify water is used with our 12volt tyre inflator and switched it on only when we needed water. This may not be the ideal fire extinguisher for veld fires, but in an emergency this will work. See photo below. As an alternative to create more water pressure we use our this unit with our Karcher pressure spray and to give 220volt for the Karcher we put our 2.5kva generator on our bakkie. A veldfire usually starts very fast so you need to keep equipment like this ready at all times.
If you have a better idea of building a fast emergency “fire extinguisher” please let us know”.
and talking:
Gas geyser for caravans/trailers
”In the past we have had certain manufacturers who thought they can bully us with gag court orders to prevent us from saying something negative about their products whilst other regarded it as positive criticism and used our comments to improve their products.
Two of the major problems consumers with off-road caravans or off-road trailers has is their geyser system and their fridges.
Geysers may become explosive if you fail to service your geyser properly.
We do not believe placing a geyser right in the nose cone is a bright idea, we believe it is dangerous. Just think of the following scenario: your wife and/or kids are laying on of the bed of the fold out bed-tent of a caravan (newer models) and you decide to take a shower - the next moment the build up of combustion and gas in the geyser causes a major explosion blowing away the nose cone of the caravan as well as a portion of the bed above it.
All the dust and debris that are kicked up by the tow vehicle accumulates directly into the vent of the geyser and builds up in the gas supply chamber of the geyser. Even the geyser that is installed on the side of the caravan will pick up debris and substances that can cause an explosion. Installing “filters” at the vent will not solve the problem as it will let through smaller substances with more powerful combustion ability. Sometimes you will find insects and spiders making nests inside the geyser with can result in the same calamity.
When you bring your caravan to Ngonyama for a service we take care to clean out the substances from the geysers similar to the geyser above”.
Meanwhile, our main priority is to try and get the caravan at the very least serviced which, is proving to be easier said than done.
More information to follows as we get more familiar and experienced.
