Caravan Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Horton Common Campsite

When it comes to caravan and motorhome pitches the 'top of the line' is a fully serviced pitch. Here at Horton Common, all our pitches are fully serviced and many of our guests return each year due to the facilities provided. But what exactly is included and how do you take full advantage of the facilities? What is a Fully Serviced Pitch? A fully serviced pitch should provide an electrical connection, freshwater and a wastewater (greywater) connection. You will require either an Aquaroll mains water adapter kit/float valve or a mains water connection directly to your caravan/motorhome. You may also need a drain adapter depending on the design of the fully serviced pitch. We provide two mains water taps for each of our fully serviced pitches for caravans and motorhomes. Aquaroll/Waterhog Mains Water Adapter As part of the fully serviced pitch, you should be provided with a dedicated mains water tap. At Horton Common, we have provided each pitch with two taps, one for a permanent connection to your caravan or motorhome. The other available tap is so users can fill up separate drinking water containers without the need to disconnect the hose from the permanent connection topping up the Aquaroll/Waterhog. Tip: Make sure to buy a good quality mains water adapter kit to avoid leaks! : Image - Amazon.co.uk To take full advantage of a fully serviced pitch without having to manually move the Aquaroll/Waterhog to the mains tap when empty you will require a mains water adapter kit. These kits commonly include a length of food-grade hose, a float valve and various tap connections. There are many places online which sell these kits. However, I would avoid most of the cheapest kits as the quality of the plastic pipe/fittings tends to be very low quality. You also want to look for kits that provide a good length of hose, ideally between 5-10m. A good quality mains water adapter kit will provide a leak-free connection to keep your Aquaroll/Waterhog topped up. Therefore, for the rest of your holiday, you won't need to worry about filling up with freshwater! :) So that's one job taken care of, now what about taking the hassle out of dealing with wastewater? How is Wastewater dealt with on a Fully Serviced Pitch? With a Fully Serviced Pitch, you can leave your Wastemaster at home! Image - Amazon.co.uk Part of a fully serviced pitch for your caravan or motorhome is the benefit of not having to deal with your wastewater. In fact, many of our visitors to Horton Common actually leave their Wastemaster at home! It saves space in your caravan or motorhome not having to bring it with you. When we set up Horton Common and we looked at the fully serviced pitches at other caravan/motorhome sites we noticed a problem. They all provided a drain but no means for their visitors to actually use it! Therefore a visitor would need to carry long lengths of drainpipe with them. Furthermore, caravans and motorhomes can have drains on the left, right or rear of the van. So there can be no 'recommend length' of drainpipe to bring. Our Solution for Wastewater So with the above in mind, we thought, 'how can we solve this problem?'. How can we provide a fully serviced pitch to everyone and not require our guests to bring their own drainpipe? Our solution was to bring the drain to the caravan/motorhome. A quick DIY job using a commercial hosepipe, plumbing fittings and some trough planters from the garden centre and we had our solution! Our solution for wastewater removal from our fully serviced pitches. We have provided this wastewater solution to our guests since 2014, and it still gets many positive comments, even from repeat visitors. It's solved the problem of wastewater removal completely, and it doesn't matter where on the caravan/motorhome the wastewater comes out. Does a Fully Serviced Pitch have a 16A Electrical Connection? While many caravan and motorhome sites provide an electrical connection to their pitches, its always worth checking how much power they actually provide. As you may know, in Europe many of the pitches are 10A, with some even as low as 6A. The number of amps (A) available will dictate how many electrical facilities you can run in your van at the same time, if at all. Its always recommended to use a camping kettle, but on a 6A connection, even a camping kettle may cause the power to trip out. At Horton Common, we provide a full 16A of power to each pitch. In fact, unlike most small caravan sites that share an electrical connection with the owners home, Horton Common has a dedicated grid connection. Hardstanding Fully Serviced Pitches At the start of this post, I stated a fully serviced pitch is the 'top of the line', well that's not completely accurate. The real top of the line is a hardstanding fully serviced pitch. When we originally set up Horton Common we didn't have a road and hardstanding pitches. However, after a very wet winter between 2014-2015, it became obvious we needed a solution. Luckily we have a small quarry a few miles away. So several hundred tons of stone later with some granite chippings on top, we had our road and hardstanding pitches. It now means no matter how wet it gets our guest's caravans/motorhomes and cars won't get stuck. At Horton Common, we provide Five Hard Standing Fully Serviced Pitches. Is a Superpitch the same as a Fully Serviced Pitch? Generally yes, a superpitch is just another way to describe a fully serviced pitch. However, you may find some sites also provide a TV ariel connection or satellite connection to each pitch, potentially even WiFi. At Horton Common, our fully serviced pitches do not have TV connection points or on-site WiFi. I would happily provide WiFi if possible but due to our remote location, the landline broadband is exceptionally slow. However, I have written two relevant posts on how to enjoy modern comforts while at our site. One post discusses how to get a caravan internet connection using the 4G/5G mobile networks. I've also written a post on how to get the best caravan TV experience, including how to access streaming services such as Netflix. Mains Water Connection Kits I'm now going to cover some of the options you have to connect your caravan or motorhome up to a fully serviced pitch freshwater supply. The two main options are either a Float Valve Kit or a Direct Connection Kit, each has its own pros and cons which I'll discuss below. Before purchasing a kit if your caravan has a water filter I would encourage you to check if that needs replacing. Float Valve Kits Most of our guests use float valve kits to connect up to the mains water supply provided as part of their fully serviced pitch. This method uses your existing Aquaroll and a float valve is fitted into the side port. It works exactly the same as how your toilet cistern fills up at home. When the water is low, the float is also low which opens the valve letting water in. Once sufficient water has entered the Aquaroll this lifts the float closing the valve and the water into the Aquaroll stops. Float Valve Kit Example One of the most popular float valve kits currently on Amazon is offered by a company called Big White Box. It comes with 10m of food-grade pipe. Now, this is a standard pipe, not a flat pipe. Personally and from the feedback I've had from our guests, standard pipe generally appears to be of better quality. Some flat pipe appears to be very fragile and splits quite easily. However, I personally think all of the float valve kits come with rubbish tap fittings, and ill discuss that more below. This is currently one of the most popular float valve mains water kits: Image - Amazon.co.uk Float Valve Kit Pros and Cons + Kits using Float Valves are cheaper than Direct Connection+ Does not put the caravan water system under pressure- Still requires you to bring you're Aquaroll- Some kits use cheap pipe and plastic fittings Direct Connection Kits The alternative to a float valve kit is a direct connection fully serviced freshwater supply connection. So, as the name suggests with the direct connection method you do not need to bring your Aquarol. This obviously has the benefit of saving space within your car, caravan or motorhome. However, there is a potential downside. With a direct connection kit, there is the potential risk of flooding the caravan. Below I've provided an example of a direct connection kit from Whale which features a regulator. However, if this regulator was to fail and let the full mains water pressure into the van that's likely going to cause problems. As I mentioned above, the vast majority of our guests use a float valve kit and their existing Aquaroll to use our fully serviced pitches. This way your caravan or motorhome water system is not under mains water pressure. Direct Connection Example Whale produce a direct connection kit for fully serviced pitches and if you do want to go down the direct connection route its the best product available in my opinion. The kit features a 7.5m flat food-grade hose and adapters to suit Truma Ultraflow sockets. The Whale direct connection kit for fully serviced pitches: Image - Amazon.co.uk Direct Connection Kit Pros and Cons + Saves space as an Aquaroll is not required- More expensive than float valve kits- The potential risk of flooding the caravan Improving Mains Water Connection Kits While I encourage guests to take full advantage of our fully serviced pitches with a mains water connection kit I obviously don't want to see water wasted through leaks. Typically, leaks occur due to poor plastic fittings, therefore I recommend two solutions. Hozelock Fittings From my experience and from feedback from my guest's none of the fittings that come with the mains water kits compare to Hozelock fittings to stop leaks. Therefore I would recommend considering swapping the tap fittings from any mains water kit with a Hozelock fitting. I would advise swapping the tap connectors that come with mains water kits for a Hozelock fitting: Image - Amazon.co.uk PTFE Tape Now, with some of the fittings (especially the float valve on the Aquaroll), it's difficult to get a good leak-free seal. Don't be under the impression that the tighter you go that will solve the leak. Often, the tolerance on the thread is too high to make a good seal. Therefore, the solution to this problem is to source some good quality drinking water grade PTFE tape and wrap it around the threads a couple of times. This will make it slightly more difficult to screw on the fittings but provides a much better seal to stop leaks. Conclusions on Fully Serviced Pitches We are very happy with the feedback we get from our guests with regards to our fully serviced pitches. Guests often comment on how easy it makes their time with us not having to worry about freshwater and wastewater. Something quite a few guests mention is the benefits when it comes to having a shower. This is especially true when the weather outside is not great. Typically on other sites guests have described wanting to have a shower, but not wanting to go out into bad weather to check if there is sufficient freshwater or if the wastemaster is full. With a fully serviced pitch, you can have a shower in your caravan or motorhome whenever you like without a second thought. Just to clarify though, on a fully serviced pitch you still have to empty your Thetford toilet cassette at the CDP. Thanks for reading this post on 'what is a fully serviced pitch?', we hope you found it useful. I've also written posts on how to set up a caravan on site for first-timers, and how to level a caravan or motorhome. If you would like to come and stay at Horton Common please click here to find out more. :)