# Our New (10 year old) Motorhome



## anteater (Oct 29, 2009)

Hello everyone, and a very merry Christmas to you all. Just waiting for the other half to come back from friends' place, and thought I would do a post.

Firstly, we would like to let everyone know that we now have our motorhome and therefore feel we really belong on MHF! Can anyone tell me how to change our profile - I can't seem to do it by clicking on profile.

Secondly, we are planning to go to France for two weeks in Feb/March (after a few practice runs near home) and we are nervous that our 2x 6kg propane gas bottles will not be enough for some of the heating and cooking most nights. We will be on EHU probably every night and use our electric heater, but we know it can be very cold out there in a MH!

We have bought a halogen heater but it is very bright, and does not circulate heat, so are thinking of getting a fan heater too. We need one that is going to be very very quiet if it needs to be left on at night. Price should be as low as possible. I know about the Euroelectric one but I expect that is expensive, and am thinking of one from a cheaper store.

Very grateful for any help after the festive holiday. Happy New Year to you all!!


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## bigbazza (Mar 6, 2008)

Go to accounts at the top then click on "your account page", then click the change info button.
Don't forget to save the changes after.  

Can't help you with the gas querie and we have electric heater as part of the system.


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## CliffyP (Dec 19, 2008)

Brilliant. what did you buy ?
France in a motorhome is superb, you will find its a whole new way of life.

France has lots of great places to stay. and gas lasts a lot longer than you think it will, we had three weeks in March and used about half a bottle.

Merry Christmas


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## DABurleigh (May 9, 2005)

Rather than a fan heater, consider an oil filled radiator. They are small enough, give silent heat and if you get one with a frostat thermostat you can leave it unattended for weeks on end over winter to keep freezing water damage at bay, quite economically.

Dave


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## anteater (Oct 29, 2009)

Thanks very much for your replies - did not expect to hear so soon!!

I have now changed our details, so if someone could now explain how to upload our (soon coming) picture of the MH, that would be great.

Our MH is a Swift Sundance 590RS, end kitchen layout. We love it!!

For Christmas we have bought each other all the books we think we need for setting off in February, including ACSI and All the Aires in France. Now comes the momentous task of trying to plan the trip, stopovers, routes, things to see and do etc. - will we get it all done in 8 weeks?! (plus the dummy runs round here to make sure we know how to do things)!!!

Feel rather better about the gas now, thanks. I think we will have most nights on sites as it is winter, so we can use the electric fire(s), and when there is not a site where we want to go, we can overnight on an aire without EHU. (if I can cope without an electric blanket which I would not be without here at home because my bedroom is very cold!) I'm trying to understand how my electric blanket could run off the inverter for short periods or the leisure battery for short periods, and find this complicated. If anyone can explain this, I would be grateful. If you don't have EHU, does your power come first off the leisure battery and then off the inverter/engine? Don't want to find we can't start up in the morning!!


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## AndrewandShirley (Oct 13, 2007)

The best heating is an oli filled rad. Small, not too heavy but ideal for taking the chill of whilst you are sleeping with or leaving on when you are out.

As for touring just seach the French toruing forum, we did and just were overwhelmed with the volume of info.


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## DABurleigh (May 9, 2005)

anteater,

I think you need the basics of what an inverter is and what it isn't. Here's an MHF guide:
http://www.motorhomefacts.com/ftopicp-450452.html#450452

Dave


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## anteater (Oct 29, 2009)

Thanks, Dave, for the inverter info. It does seem clearer now someone who knows what they are on about, has explained it! Thanks also to other MHFer, I will go onto France Touring! It is easy to feel overwhelmed when you have a time limit on learning.


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## CaGreg (Mar 28, 2007)

Instead of bringing elec blanket, consider hot water bottles X 2. Low tech, small and cheap to run.
France is great. We are planning on going there in April for a month. We spent 24 days last year in France/spain mostly wildcamping and aires and didn't even finish 4.5kg, cooking most of our food in van.

Have fun,
Ca.


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## lalala (Aug 13, 2009)

Hi Anteater
great to hear of your plans.
You might want to cosider the France Passion scheme, you will see places that are totally different to Aires and campsites.
We try to get to a stopping place before it gets dark, and to have a back-up plan in case we don't feel happy with the first place we get to. 
It's a lovely way of seeing different countries,
lala


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## anteater (Oct 29, 2009)

Yeh, France Passion is in our plans from April, as we will be back in France in September. It must be lovely to stop right by a vineyard. What we seem to be finding is that not a lot of Aires are open in winter, and some of those do not have EHU.

Hot water bottles! I love them! But if it is chilly in the early hours, the thought of having to make more... that's why I love my electric blanket on overnight settings.

I should probably explain that Steve (the Stick) is a gardener and we are obviously below retirement age, and therefore we take two hols in winter, and one in late summer when the mowing slows down. Having this van is a dummy run to see if we like it enough to get into longer-term trips in about 14 years' time! We haven't got time yet to get into southern Spain for winter hols, and are wondering if 16 days can get us comfortably into and around some of s. France (we're doing it anyway), but when there is more time we will be like a lot of you on MHF, and be able to go where it is always reasonably warm, and then I won't have to worry about being cold!

We were going for a run out today but it is such miserable weather down here, that we are putting it off till tomorrow. I want to try out the bedding situation too. I think I should be called hamster rather than anteater (which is because of my big nose).


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## CliffyP (Dec 19, 2008)

anteater said:


> Yeh, France Passion is in our plans from April, as we will be back in France in September. It must be lovely to stop right by a vineyard. What we seem to be finding is that not a lot of Aires are open in winter, and some of those do not have EHU.
> 
> Hot water bottles! I love them! But if it is chilly in the early hours, the thought of having to make more... that's why I love my electric blanket on overnight settings.
> 
> ...


Please dont run yourself down, thats our job


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## anteater (Oct 29, 2009)

Have always been able to make fun of myself, which I think is a positive asset??! :lol:


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