What I've learned.

[dripster]

Back from our first trip longer than a weekend. Thanks to the sage advice of many experienced Cali owners on this forum (@Borris, @WelshGas, @GrannyJen and @Amarillo to name but a few) it was a wonderful trip and we fell in love with the Beach all over again. Still a lot to learn, but here's what we now know:

1. Having a small awning for us was great. Being able to dump stuff in there, set up a little kitchen, and sit in there when it got a bit nippy without whispering because the kids were getting to sleep in the roof was perfect.
2. Using the Maxxcamp Compact sink unit worked really well in the awning, and freed up space in the van, especially at night with bed out.
3. We also had a power to the awning and the van with two cables and a socket unit, which was a game changer, and besides being able to use the induction hob (so easy!) and wash up in the awning, it meant we could leave the fridge in there when we went out for the day.
4. Speaking of fridges, the Dellonda 50l did the job nicely, whilst also allowing us to switch one section to freezer mode and bring home some of the delicious ice cream from the campsite ice cream parlour!
5. The Bullihackers design DIY show box was great to bring out the 12v power socket and give somewhere to pop shoes etc when hopping in and out of the van.
6. The Thais roof liner made it much darker up top, so the kids had a much better sleep, both getting off at night and sleeping later in the morning.
7. The Vanessa window bags are fantastic! So much storage and not taking up any space where you could put anything else.
8. It took a couple of days to get the "morning shuffle" of putting the beds away etc off to a fine art, but once you have a routine it's no hassle.

Except for the fridge and the roof liner, everything else we bought second hand from this forum, so that together with the hints and tips has made membership of this forum the best thing since buying the Beach (and sliced bread of course)!

Thanks everyone, still more to learn, but looking forward to our next trip!

 

[Perfectos]

Great write up, glad you enjoyed the trip.

I can see a bit more room under the multiflex!

loving the pac man & ghosts

 

[dripster]

Great write up, glad you enjoyed the trip.

I can see a bit more room under the multiflex!

loving the pac man & ghosts

Yes, we were surprised that we could have squeezed more in! Our next trip is 10 days long, so expect we'll find a use for that space!

 

[Wildcamper]

Gosh, all that kit! If this works for you then great. It would never work for us, we keep taking stuff out. For us space to move about uncluttered is key - less is more. I wonder how close you are to being overweight with all that kit.

 

[dripster]

Nowhere near overweight I would think, there's not as much as many people take.

There's less kit/weight there than we used to take with our 8-berth tent plus kit in our Tiguan!

 

[dripster]

Longest trip so far (both distance and time), 10 days in Cornwall, 1000 miles covered. And what did I learn from this?

We took the awning AND the Cinch hub (I know what you minimalists are thinking), plan being of using the hub like a gazebo if the weather was poor. Also have bought the Cadac Safari Chef since our last trip, so this replaced the gas cooker and the BBQ.

We also took the chairs out of the tailgate and used that space as more storage as we've never used the chairs. Not sure that entirely made sense, looking at getting 'better' chairs that may fit in there.

Weather was great except for storm Evert (a bit windy! ), so we hardly used the hub and probably wouldn't take both next time. Cadac was great and did most of the cooking, along with the single induction hob. It ended up mainly as storage for an enormous inflatable ring that we bought to use in the pool. TBH I have no idea what we would have done with that if we didn't have the hub!

Next trip is for four days in Norfolk, so will be taking less stuff again.

 

[dripster]

Now I've learned more!

Back from our longest trip so far (2 weeks, I know that's nothing to many on here), but here's some new stuff I've learned.
We used three combinations of awnings:

1. The Comfortz awning room on its own for a single overnight stay.
2. The Outwell Darlington drive-away for a three day stop over.
3. The drive-away connected to the wind-out awning with the room sides, inspired by @Amarillo.

This worked really well, with quick setup and packup for the shorter stays and the extra space for a longer stay when we met up with some family.

We just put the fridge in the awning room for the single night and ran the power lead from the boot with the tailgate held open with the fresh air stand-off. The longer stays we had 240v in the awning.

We also found out that when it's driving rain, you can get water in the small gap when the tailgate is slightly open!

We left our sink unit in the Beach for the shorter stays, which was ok but meant going backwards and forwards between the van and the awning to get the water and milk for the essential tea, so may need to rethink that.

We also packed even better, finding new places for various bits and pieces, e.g. behind the sink unit for hook-up cable, beach shelter and picnic blanket in the recesses either side of the boot, some small bags under the driver's seat.

New purchases were a stand for the bin bag and a rotary washing line. Yes, I know that may sound excessive to the minimalist of you, but with two kids away for that time you generate a lot of rubbish and need to do some washing!

Still need to refine our plans but get better at this every time, thanks to all the tips and advice everyone.

 

[Perfectos]

a stand for the bin bag

Great for longer trips and helps stay organised and helps reduce the trips to the waste points. Takes up next to no room (presumably it’s a flat back bin base lid and frame ? )

Tip: Make sure the bin is either inside the awning or empty at night otherwise you may fins that you’ve invited a few foxes onto your pitch with the resulting “party mess “ to clear up ! (Happen to us previously when we accidentally left the bin outside the awning)

 

[dripster]

Great for longer trips and helps stay organised and helps reduce the trips to the waste points. Takes up next to no room (presumably it’s a flat back bin base lid and frame ? )

Tip: Make sure the bin is either inside the awning or empty at night otherwise you may fins that you’ve invited a few foxes onto your pitch with the resulting “party mess “ to clear up ! (Happen to us previously when we accidentally left the bin outside the awning)

Yes, it's a collapsible one.

We learnt that tip the first time we camped in a tent. Left the bin bag outside due to lack of space, much to the delight of the local gulls.

 

[dripster]

Still learning!

So this was a quick trip away, no awning (didn't even plan to use the wind-out), no sink unit. We got some more smaller RUBs (35l and two 18l) to keep stuff in that we need to move from the boot to the living space, but other than that just used stuff we had. We took the 11l Dometic between the seats instead of the 50l Delonda in the boot. So what we learned this time:

1. We can fit all that the fours of us need for a weekend in about half of the boot space below the multiflex, besides bedding which of course can sit on top. We also added the Cadac and the Comfortz awning room, just in case, as we had space to fill it up!
2. The RUB boxes with all the cooking and eating stuff, food etc can sit in the living space and act as a temporary work surface, and the table will drop over them to eat off of. At night they can stack on one of the front seats, then get popped back in the boot for travel.
3. We missed the additional privacy and weather protection that the awning gives when you open the sliding door (especially on a busy campsite with torrential rain!). We did wind out the awning about a foot to reduce rain coming in, and it's not something that would change the way we did stuff, but definitely another good reason to take an awning on a longer trip.

So another successful trip, and another way of using the Beach.