First night

graeme · Dec 2, 2012

hello all,

Joined your club whilst i was looking for a van (many posts were helpful). But now that i have one, I felt I could make a post. Got the cali on Friday and made a short twenty minutes drive to the top of the South Downs for an evening out las night. Quite a test, was -5 C over night, but we had good sleeping bags. Had to use the diesel fired heater as we sat and cooked our lamb curry followed by card games. My kids are 11 and 13 years and didn't think myself and the wife stood a chance of sleeping upstairs - but certainly was colder up there so up we went. All slept soundly including the Jack Russell. Had a glorious sunrise this morning. A quick cuppa and back home in time to get my youngest to the rugby club. Done lots of camping in the past, mainly wild, tiered of setting up/setting down and unpacking when get home, certainly made a change. Cali a bit muddy inside, but we are certainly not going to be precious about that, it is all about doing it. A great first night, looking forward to many more.

Paulro · Dec 2, 2012

Sounds great. Mine's sitting outside and hasn't even been started for 2weeks. It's good to hear owners using them in the winter.
How cold was it upstairs?

calikev · Dec 2, 2012

Welcome Graeme
Brave man camping last night but good work I'm glad you enjoyed it :thumb

just shows you what a versatile van the Cali is. I also have two kids :doh well teenagers and have slept in the van at -5
In the Forrest of dean. You don't get a view like that in a hotel room :thumb

may you have many more great day's and nights away in your new van :thumb

T5WOB · Dec 2, 2012

nice one graham .worth having a look at a sliver screen for the roof .makes a big difference .keeps it warmer up there and cooler in summer .also look at the ones for the windscreen to .pucker screens do the roof ones .i use taylor made for windscreen ones .i am up london for 5days in the van week after next . :bananadance

graeme · Dec 3, 2012

We did have the silver shades for the windscreen and side windows, but not for the roof comparment. I heard these exisited, so would be interested in others views on this vs the overtop cover or the internal gortex cover. I am guessing the silver thermal sheets will be the cheapest option. but are they easy to use and do they work? have ideas to head to the Alps in february for ski-ing thinking of camp sites etc. Any body know any good camp sites close to the slopes?

Also does anybody know if there is a way to guage how much water you have left in the tank?

TwentyOneThirtyFive · Dec 3, 2012

We use a silver tent screen on ours and it is very effective. Is easy to use, takes less than a minute to put on. Keeps the van warm in the winter, cool in the summer.

Downsides are that it's quite bulky when rolled up and in it's bag, and that we oversleep because it's now much darker in the van...

dan

Calimark · Dec 3, 2012

Hi Graeme, there are a few threads on ski camping in then Alps over in the Europe section of the forum. We are heading to Le Grand Bornand in Feb which has been recommended by a few others. From memory the campsite is L'Escale. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Freeley · Dec 3, 2012

Re gauging water levels the display on the overhead control panel should give you a rough idea as it displays in thirds (i assume this is the same on the facelift cali?)
Other than that the tank holds 30 litres so if you could keep track of what you use that might be more accurate.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

graeme · Dec 3, 2012

Thanks for all your tips. Will look into the roof shades and the sections on skiing.
Feel a bit of a numskull with not knowing about the water gauge :headbang