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[NEVILLE & TRISH]

G,day Simon, we read your mag and also Caravan World and are disappointed with all the reviews by both mags. The reason, they are all big vans needing a decent tug or off roaders. We are looking at buying a 17-18 foot full van to tow behind our Falcon wagon and would love to read some reviews.
Regards Neville

[J.REEVES]

Hi Simon,
As I am more a technical person I like reading the technical things, Old Dog and so on.

When a caravan is tested it would be nice to have a little more talk and photos on some of the tech stuff and admittedly that does happen at times. I realise that caravans are not just for blokes so you do need all the nice interior things.

E.g. some good under the chassis photos, electrics could be looked at more critical like have a look at the three way fridge 12V wire size, take the vent off the back and show if the fridge ventilation is done properly. Mention if lighting is all 12V or 240V, is outside lighting good and talk about the type of lights like LED fluro and are they doing a good job.

Plumbing and piping, show if the piping is exposed under the van. Describe if you have good access to the water pump and if it has a pump inlet strainer or does it have an accumulator. Look constructively at the water tank stone guards and make sure they protect the drain tap and outlets and are not made of tin foil. Try filling a water tank and see if the hose can run at full volume or you can only dribble the water in.

Specifications: when giving the layout and dimensions also include the overall length not just outside length. Quote from the back off the spare tyre to the coupling at the front as people need to know if it will fit in their garage or car port, quoting inside measurements is OK but total length is important.
Also measure the ball weight and enter the true value next to the quoted ball weight. I know it would not be always practical but if you get a van empty to test go and weigh it and quote the true tare weight next to the quoted weight.

Look at the TV and sound system and operate it and see if it is easy to use and tune the TV and comment if it is easy to do.

Van electric brake wiring have always been a weak point where the wire is run to the brake drum so mention if the wire is exposed or not and if bad take a photo.

I realise that if you get to critical the caravan manufactures will not want you to test their vans or advertise in the magazine so just start to pop in a few negatives don’t make everything so rosy all the time unless the van is exceptional.

The travelling section photos always quote where the location is with the photo.

When checking through old copies of the magazine it would be good to also have a date next to the number on the front of the magazine. On the DVD have the magazine number stamped on it, we take our DVD’s away with use and watch them when camping. It is hard to remember which ones you have see and sometimes you need to view the DVD for five or ten minutes before you realise that you have already seen it, so we always number them our selves.

The whinging JR

[cannylass]

When we see the photos of New caravans in some great looking spots it would be nice if it told where the photo was taken

[Old Techo]

JR, well done!

Simon van dimensions have always irritated me. There was never a standard till the Mag briefly adopted my suggestion. From my post of March 3rd 2010...

Some time ago I talked the magazine editor into including all dimensions in their reviews. Internal cabin, external cabin and tip-to-toe, plus external width. The length overall is important for parking in a shed or garage. Length also required by many van parks and particularly ferries. I also requested height as also needed by ferries and garage/car port owners. The mag adopted this standard for maybe a year but have now gone back to their old slack and somewhat useless ways.

[dnsoakeshott]

Hi Simon, Ditto what JR said, all that info helps us make more informed decisions.

[rvator2]

Personally, I think JR would make a top caravan reviewer.

The reviewer needs to be a 'hands on caravanner' who knows all the 'ins and outs' of caravan building and design and is not frightened to critique a product good or bad, with truthful narrative.

The caravan buying public are becoming a lot more critical of poor reviews that just look at the 'bling' and 'glitz'. Photos of what is under the skin is just as important as the finished product.

Totally agree with JR's comments, well done.

Cheers,

[rredbeak]

Second VOTE for Rvator2.

These vans dont come cheap so ACTUALL reviews including the bads and not so liked Will save us money and get the van builders to change things.Dont be afraid to name brands that dont meet the standards.

Van builders that get bling reports will only continue doing what they are..

Cheers Rod

[dieseltojo]

Some good whin... points made already.
A big issue with caravans is weight. I have never seen a review where the van was weighed to see if it matches the manufactures compliance.
No one has ever commented on wether the hand brake worked or that the cable had the required slack. I bought a book on caravans tested by Caravan and Motor home last week.
It had about 20 reviews in it. As noted by others the van measurements were non existent, and there were constant references to how good the decals looked. Or my favourite "the woodwork is smooth and you won't get splinters from this van"

A caravan sales man once told me you can pick the customer who is going to buy. The woman looks inside the van and checks out the lay out, and the blokes go check under the van for suspension issues, water tanks,and wiring.

[Bussy]

Thank god for this thread. You have just pressed my button!

I agree with OT, JR and others and in the past I had almost convinced CLYDE to be more technical and in fact last year he agreed to make the Caravan and Motor home mag a technical “bible” for van buyers both big and small. In fact I won a price from CLYDE for putting up some of these same suggestions now being cried out by others. He sent me a swag full of stuff which was gratefully accepted and it included a ball weight device which he was using at the time to write an article about weighing your van. Although he promised to send it to me later I never saw it (so it must have been a good bit of gear) and is still in his kit.
My suggestion was for the mag to have a template that is applied to all vans being reviewed and if the manufacturer or dealer did not have the specs to fill the empty boxes they should before it gets in the mag. This template should include the entire spectrum of relevant things like ALL the weights and lengths including the damn heights. No review of any van I have read includes the heights. Pop tops should show height up and height down so the poor bugger looking to buy one knows if it will fit under his carport or garage door. A template would be so easy once sorted out and I reckon every forum member in here will tell you what needs to be on it. Pehaps this thread is just the place to do that. A one page template with every spec on it, some things will be not applicable in some cases. Just take a look at a new car brochure to get some bloody idea.

Then you can pop in some photos and some of the usually “it very roomy for its small size” sales stuff.

Cheers
ALLAN

[dnsoakeshott]

Spot on Allan that's a great idea, it would certainly help any new to caravanning people. I would also like to see the same sort of reviews for camper trailers as thats where most of us start from.