general safety tips

Having seen peridots excellent tip to make sure you fully unravel you power lead or it will overheat I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread for other safety suggestions, please add any you think worthwhile.

I always take a fire extinguisher with me just in case, what's your best safety tip?

Eilis x

Best tip I can give is to know where your fire extinguisher is ...... always keep it in the same spot and easy to reach.  

During the meet it turned out that although several of us have extinguishers ...... we didn't all have them in the best places for easy access  mine was buried under lots of other stuff but will now sit just inside the doorway where Terry keeps his.

I also have a carbon monoxide detector

The first tip isn't a safety tip but is a fire extinguisher tip. Make sure when you pack the extinguisher that the lock pin is secure. If you have a Designer the blue powder may well be contained within an underseat storage area but it makes a mess of that area.
If you don't have a fire blanket, buy one. If you do have one first unpack it from all the rubbish it's under, then hang it on the opposite side of the Dandy to the stove. The fire blanket is no use if you can't get to it instantly. If it's packed away or it's behind a wall of fire from your frying pan you might as well not have it.
If all else goes wrong there is no use by date nor components to fail on a fire blanket and they are particularly useful for dealing with people on fire.
Remember if your clothing catches fire to drop to the ground and roll to extinguish the flames.

Another tip ..... get a decent step with grips on the top. Terry had a bad fall at the recent meet, his step was a plastic one with a smooth surface and he slipped  

Oh poor Terry

He went with a real wallop, hit his back on the lights of the trailer ...... bought a new step the morning after. He is okay but had some nasty marks that looked really sore and the light cover cracked too. I think Jake had an incident last year twisting his ankle too ...... a good sturdy step that has a non slip top is a must  

A few years ago we stayed on a caravan site. One afternoon a caravan just erupted into flames. The site owner hitched his tractor on and dragged it clear of others and luckily someone unhitched him so he could save the tractor. As it was being pulled the flames just shot into the awning which went up in a fire ball. A few minutes later it was just a black smouldering chassis.

All they could do was go home. (Nothing to pack).

The chap had been cooking and left a tea towel hanging near the cooker while they were sitting outside. That's all and they lost everything.

Luckily no-one was hurt.

The rear entry dandies are best because escape is away from the cooker. Many caravans & the 6s/destinies, the escape is past the cooker. I guess the PVC smoke and fumes will be pretty noxious in a fire. We are always using alternatives for wiring now.

So, if recovering the seats etc make sure you use flame retardent or whatever material. Be very aware of the dangers of material or curtains hanging near the cooker.

Check your Leisure battery ....... I had a problem with mine in the caravan, sat on seat and it felt warm, opened the battery box and the heat was tremendous, luckily the nice man at the local shop was on site and came to take a look. He had to use an oven glove just to disconnect it as it was so hot ....... it was also leaking sulphuric acid  I was on EHU but the battery was still connected and the cells had broken down ....... was a bit lucky really it didn't blow. The battery in the Dandy was checked and working fine ...... caravan now has a new one  

This first one is a bit pointless as it will strike when you don't think. If you are stripping bits out of your Dandy make sure all the steadys are secure. Either the Dandy dropping as you step in or upending as you step to the rear can be unfunny. Even more likely with caravans.

The second is an electrical safety tip. Have fuses as close to both terminals of the battery as possible. Yes I do mean fuse the -Ve as well as the +Ve side. We covered this on a piece about Dandy wiring. Basically while you can't get a shock from 12V, batteries they are really good at causing fires. A fuse on both sides of the battery is a second, second chance. Can't be done on cars because of the starter motor but it is a practice used on some old motorcycles.