| NEW WIRING STANDARDS FOR TOURERS AND MOBILE HOMES |
The Modern Approach of caravans closer to houses as regards electrical installations is reflected in the withdrawal by the Institution of Electrical Engineers of its brochure on recommended caravan practice.
Instead, a 6-page section on caravans and sites is introduced into a completely revised edition of the general wiring regulations.
This emphasises that caravans should conform to the regulations for buildings, subject to the qualifications in the new section.
The complete regulations are obtainable from The Institution at Savoy Place, London WC} for 17s 6d post paid.
Site installations as well as caravan electrical equipment are covered, and both high and low voltages, and residential and touring caravans. Points of special importance are; If the site wiring does not lead directly into the caravan, it should end at terminals or a socket outlet inside a weatherproof box, with means of isolation in the form of a switch, circuit breaker or other automatic cut-off. There must also be means of earthing the caravan installation. The socket outlet must be rated for 15, 30 or 60 amperes and be so designed so that the plug can be inserted only the right way and cannot accidentally be withdrawn or incompletely pushed home. If it is intended for a touring caravan it should bear a notice stating the voltage, frequency and maximum load.
The type of cable to be used between the caravan and the socket outlet, individual meter, or other installation on the pitch is specified, and the method of connection to a caravan inlet, where the cable is not integral with the caravan wiring.
That applies to all touring caravans. They should have a single inlet with recessed pins and provision for earthing, accessible only from outside the caravan and located where it will not be damaged in travel or by weather. The inlet must not allow the plug on the cable to be withdrawn accidentally or incompletely pushed home.
There must be not more than 6ft of wiring between the inlet and the main switch inside the caravan.
Instructions on what to do when arriving at or leaving the site end this section of the regulations, which should be studied in full by every caravanner and site operator concerned.
The increasing use of electricity for various purposes in touring caravans and the inadequacy of many mains connections to tourers have been subjects of comment in more than one recent issue of THE CARAVAN. |
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| WHY FIX TOWING BALL HEIGHT |
A Member of the trade who writes in the club journal En Route under the pen-name Tuf-Tuf asks why the FICC Caravan Commission describes attempts at international standardisation of coupling height as misguided
The Commission, I know, was primarily concerned to encourage bolt-on couplings, which can be adjusted up and down, and discourage balls integral with the bracket. It thinks the standard ball height a mistaken aim because no one height can suit all cars and all caravans. To concentrate on this superficially attractive objective diverts attention from practical difficulties, not just the usual sort of difficulties that obstruct standardisation, but design factors that cannot wisely be ignored. If so keen a worker in the cause of standardisation as Tuf-Tuf dismisses ignores them it seems worthwhile to look at them.
There are no fewer than five heights which we have to get into a right relationship. The first two are (a) the height of the bracket fixing points on the car, and (b) the height of the bumper (because buyers want the bracket to be concealed. Now we cannot standardise (a) or (b) because cars vary from minis to giants of four litres or more.
Manufacturers of towing brackets can do something to compensate for variations in (a), but their brackets must allow more clearance beneath a large car with long tail and soft springs than is necessary on a small car, must extend to the rear no farther than is unavoidable, and must not obstruct access to the boot or the spare wheel. Consequently variations in (c), the height of the point of attachment of ball to bracket, can be reduced but not eliminated. I pass over for a moment the height of the ball centre (d) and come to (e) the height of the caravan chassis frame to which the cup is indirectly attached. This cannot be standardised because of variations in trailer chassis height. That depends on wheel size, frame and suspension design, and what clearance the designer thinks necessary. The longer the caravan the greater the road clearance it needs when pitching or negotiating a ramp or gulley, and the greater the ground clearance it needs when stationed on a sloping site.
Against this pattern of variables it would aggravate the problem, to try and fix (d). It would demand of the manufacturers of the car (or bracket) and the caravan (or chassis)compromises in design which for good reasons they would not be willing to make. It is surely significant that though Britain has had a standard for the height of coupling fixing bolts for nearly 30 years it has been widely ignored, in spite of the fact that it allows so much latitude (a range of four inches) as scarcely to deserve the name 'standard'.
It seems wisest to let the designers of the car and the caravan elements do the best they can in all the circumstances, and then level up at whatever ball height best suits the particular combination of vehicles. That is more easily and cheaply done by varying the mounting of the ball on the bracket than by varying the mounting of the cup (and all its associated brake gear) on the drawbar. |
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| TOURING VAN SITES IN CORNWALL ARE NOT FULLY USED SAYS CPO |
Enormous growths in Caravanning and camping in Cornwall are detailed in an exhaustive survey of the holiday industry in the county prepared by the County Planning Officer. Mr H. W. J. Heck. Between 1954 and 19&, visitors who stalled in static caravans increased by 210 Per cent, touring caravanners by 123 per cent. and tent campers by 369 per cent. Only rented rooms matched this growth, total growth for all traditional accommodation being merely 22 per cent.
In terms of people, letting caravans gave holidays to 384,300 people in 1964. touring caravans to 51,600, and tents to 159,300. There were. however. Considerable numbers of touring caravanners and campers who stayed outside organised sites and whom it was impossible to count.
The increases in Cornwall are much greater than for the United Kingdom as a hole, where caravanning increased in these ten years 74 per cent, and camping by 100 per cent. Letting caravans were by 1964 providing 2l Per cent of all holiday accommodation in Cornwall, being surpassed only by bed and breakfast accommodation with 29 per cent. Static caravanners are reported to have paid an average of £2 - £3 per head per week during the summer peak, and for touring caravans the weekly pitch charge at the peak is given 30s - 40s average.
Mr Heck states that for some years it has been county policy to insist on one third of pitches at caravan sites being reserved for tourists, but says this accommodation has not all been taken up. While the letting caravans is over 100 per cent(explained by larger families fitting in than a caravan is designed for), use of touring caravan pitches is only 76 per cent, and of tent pitches 69 per cent. Mr Heck attributes the slower growth of touring caravanning (124 per cent) compared with 240 per cent for static caravans partly to the increase in sporadic caravanning.
It is not clear whether the failure to use the reserved touring pitches is due to their being in places which do not appeal to tourists, to the growing attraction of the continent for long distance tourists, or to lack of publicity for the fact that Cornwall has room. In Devon the situation of the touring caravanning has worsened, and may be discouraging visits to Cornwall. It is significant that touring caravan holidays peak more sharply than any other kind - 59 per cent in July and August, compared to 5O per cent for all other types of visitor. This is probably because the long tow is for most people impracticable except for the main summer holiday.
Cornwall has designated four "saturation areas" where it intends to allow no new static caravan sites or privately occupied touring sites, although some new touring sites may be allowed if run by the local authority or by the Caravan Club or the Camping Club. The areas are St Mawgan - Newquay - St Ives, the Fal estuary, Mevagissey Bay, and Polperro -Whitesand Bay.
Sporadic caravanning and camping on unlicensed sites has been reaching excessive concentrations in some areas, and the County has, with ministerial approval, extinguished the exemptions from licensing in 22 small areas by Article 4 directions. More directions are likely. Although future growth is considered, the report makes no mention of the need for transit sites along the main roads.
A sideline point of interest is in a population table which shows that retired and unoccupied males in the different local council areas of Cornwall are 15-24 per cent of the whole male population, against an average of 12 Per cent for England and Wales. These figures are from the 1951 census, and must be appreciably higher now. It would be interesting to know what plans Cornwall has for accommodating the increasing number of retired people who wish to live in caravans.
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| NOVEMBER. 1965 |
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