Monday, September 11, 2017

Comparing our UK Motorhome with our US one.

When we picked up the Motorhome in England we started running around getting all the stuff we needed for living in it.

Immediately the differences between the UK and US became obvious.

Sewer.
Our US rig has a 3" hose that runs from the outlet of the tank to the sewer connection in the ground provided for it.
Our UK rig seems to have a sewer tank and an outlet similar to our US rig. BUT NOBODY HERE KNOWS WHAT IT IS! 

Further more there may not be any connections to suit it and the RV parts places don't have hoses for it or know where to get them!! They suggested replacing the toilet entirely with a "Cassette" type. 
Eventually we figured a way to dump the tank into the type of drains they have in European dump stations but it wasn't pleasant and we minimized the use of the on board toilet as much as we could.

Grey Water
Our US rig has a grey water tank and a pipe that connects thru the sewer hose to dump the tank. We can also use a "Dump Station" at campgrounds etc to empty out tanks.

Our UK rig has a tank. There is no hose just a valve, when the tank is full you drive to the "Chemical Disposal Area" where there is a drain and you park over it and open the valve on the tank.

Water
Our US rig has a water connection via a hose that we leave constantly connected to the faucet located next to the camp site (Pitch in UK), There is a water tank and water pump when there are no "Full Hookup" sites available.

Our UK rig has a tank. You drive to the water spigot and fill the tank by hose. There is a water pump that moves the water around the rig. When the tank is empty you drive back to the faucet and refill it.

Electric
Our US rig has a 30 amp service, when we pull into a campground we plug it in to the pedestal next to the site. If we had a 50 amp rig we would ask for a 50 amp site.

Our UK rig has an electric connection. Don't know what amperage  is, then again we don't have an AC or anything with a big demand, just the fridge and a couple of lights. Some cheap campgrounds had meters that you put money into and got so many amp hours of power per euro!

Propane
Our US rig has a propane tank built in. It holds enough for several months depending if we need to use the heater. When we want to fill it we either drive to a propane supplier or we get a delivery made to our site by a propane tanker.

Our UK rig has a separate portable tank. It's connected to the rig BY A RUBBER HOSE that pushes on to the end of the pipe secured with a hose clamp! Apparently the suppliers across Europe all have different bottles and connections AND WON'T REFILL OTHER COMPANIES BOTTLES, so you have to buy THEIR bottle if you need a refill, plus their regulator and fittings!! EXPENSIVE.

Refrigerator.
Our US rig has a single width fridge with a freezer in the top. It's about 5' tall, 30" wide and 30" deep. It runs on 110v AC, propane and 12v electric. We set it to "Auto" and it switches to whatever is available.

Our UK rig has a TINY fridge. About 3' high 24' wide and 12" deep in places. It has a tiny little freezer inside that might hold a small ice tray or 1lb of frozen peas! You manually switch the 240v AC on. If you have no mains voltage you manually turn on a propane valve, open the door of the fridge and look in a little round window then operate a manual igniter to light the propane pilot light!! If none of those works there's a separate 12v switch. We only managed to get it to work on mains voltage

Stove/microwave
Our US rig has a propane 3 burner cooktop with an oven under it. Over the cooktop there is a combination Microwave/Convection oven. When we get bored with that we have a gas grill in a storage bay under the rig.

Our UK rig has a 2 burner cooktop.
That's all. There's no storage under the rig so nowhere to keep a gas grill.

Tables and chairs
Our US rig has a table and 2 chairs, a recliner and an L shaped sofa. If we want we can rotate the driver and passenger seats so they act as additional chairs. In another storage bay under the rig we have 4 camp chairs and a folding table. I keep my 2 art easels in yet another storage bay.

Our UK rig has a table with 2 bench seats. We bought 2 camping chairs. They have to be stored in the shower.

Bed
In our US rig we have a queen size bed in the bedroom, it has a nice "sleep number" mattress with infinitely adjustable firmness. The sofa in the living room pulls out for a second bed.

Our UK rig has a cab-over bed. To access it we have to put a ladder up and climb in. There is about 30" headroom at the highest point, not enough to sit up in. The mattress is foam rubber on a solid board. It's surprisingly comfortable. The table in the living area spans the gap between the bench seats and 2 spare cushions make up a mattress, it isn't long enough for an adult to sleep comfortably 
in.

Closets
Our US rig has a closet each side of the bed and a large closet (about 5' long) opposite the bathroom. There are draws under the large closet and a dresser each side of the bed. More cupboard space is in the kitchen area and around the overhead of the living area.

Our UK rig has one closet. It's about 30" wide and 48" high. There are a total of 5 cupboards in the overhead and 3 drawers in the kitchen.

Campgrounds
In the US in a commercial campground you may have a large area, usually gravel, with electric, sewer and water right there, and a bath house somewhere. In some parks there might be tennis, shuffleboard, maybe a small store and a rec center.

In Europe the campground is likely to be grass and each site is surrounded by a hedge to isolate it from the neighbors. There will be one electrical outlet for that site but it may be up to 75' away! Long extension cords are a must. There will be bath houses around as most people use the bath house rather than the facilities in their campers which we found small and inconvenient. Water and a dump a station will be at one spot somewhere on the campground and you may have to wait in line to use either on a busy day. 
The campground is very likely to have a restaurant and a licensed bar on the premises. 
Most campgrounds have a sign up sheet for fresh bread every morning if you want it.

Quiet times are very late and very lax in Europe, if there is a sign stating the times it is usually 11pm to 8am.

TV
Our US rig has a TV in the living room and one in the bedroom. Both can pick up a signal from either the antenna on the roof or if the campground has cable TV we can attach to that. We can also stream TV and movies from the internet.

Our UK rig has no TV and in fact there is no space to put one either! We have Kindles and a laptop and can connect to the internet in most campgrounds but there is usually a fee. We read a lot of books!

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