me and my dandy

there I am wanting and needing a holls (cheep one ) and trawling E Bay for a camper van when a slip of a finger or bad spelling on my part this dandy appeared on my screen and I feel in love with her and then I bid,.. up and up it goes I stayed up over night to make sure I was at the top then it happened! I fell asleep and all was lost, my world had caved in I had lost the bid BY A POUND! gutted serves me right! sleeping on the mission, 9am I started to trawl the website to get another as I was now hooked,,, but even though there were others nothing compared to the one I lost ... Friends and family tried to console me ( my be secretly glad I might shut up now about the bloody dandy) so feeling low and four chocolate cakes later I got A MESSAGE !!! YEA the highest bidder pulled out " was I interested still" was I ever! and on the biggest high i ever had after the chocolate cake ... OK paid and arranged to collect on sun ... all going well and cant wait , friend comes by to give me simple map directions then wham it was a big slap in the face " um Caz you don't have a tow bar! " oh hell good one didn't think no worries as I noticed he did ha ha so he was arm twisted to collect her..got there and met lovely people tea and a chat and now it was time to see her for real ... like a kid in a candy store I couldn't wait .. garage doors opened .... ahhhh she big ... still pleased can't wait to get her home.. the chapie hitched her up said our good bye's off we went.... crash! a god awful noise ..as I looked in the rear view mirror I saw the dandy careering of towards parked cars............. oh my god everything went in slow motion phew no damage to truck she parked herself under.. we were lucky as we were on a steep hill going up.. cars behind.. hitched her back on smiled at the traffic jam i'm now causing and towed her safely home.. and love her to pieces ,watched u tube " how to put up dandy" ha ha with arms and legs in use and a broom put her up !!!! wow she is more than I could have expected , she is brown six birth with glass windows all in tacked and boy do I have plans for her ,, To follow the tour De France next year!! so best I get practise in with putting her up and down again next week is our first trip to Weymouth and the first experience living in the DANDY!

Your day sounds very exciting and traumatic, I was wanting chocolate cake yesterday whilst Dandying, did you save me some, lol.

Braked trailers from a certain age need by law to have a breakaway cable fitted. Ours is before this time, but after reading your story, we are going to fit one.

I'm sure you love your first dandy camp, we are still on our second, in the wind, rain and sun.

Um yea she did have a safety cable be it a bit frayed but on closer inspection it had been taken off the breaking system !. she now has a brand new (red) cable and placed on correctly . I did notice when driving to the shops this summer that Dyfed Powys Police ( our local bobbies) were stopping caravans and checking the safety cables phew as they can charge you with unsafe load

Caz1960 wrote:there I am wanting and needing a holls (cheep one ) and trawling E Bay for a camper van when a slip of a finger or bad spelling on my part this dandy appeared on my screen and I feel in love with her and then I bid,.. up and up it goes I stayed up over night to make sure I was at the top then it happened! I fell asleep and all was lost, my world had caved in I had lost the bid BY A POUND! gutted serves me right! sleeping on the mission, 9am I started to trawl the website to get another as I was now hooked,,, but even though there were others nothing compared to the one I lost ... Friends and family tried to console me ( my be secretly glad I might shut up now about the bloody dandy) so feeling low and four chocolate cakes later I got A MESSAGE !!! YEA the highest bidder pulled out " was I interested still" was I ever! and on the biggest high i ever had after the chocolate cake ... OK paid and arranged to collect on sun ... all going well and cant wait , friend comes by to give me simple map directions then wham it was a big slap in the face " um Caz you don't have a tow bar! " oh hell good one didn't think no worries as I noticed he did ha ha so he was arm twisted to collect her..got there and met lovely people tea and a chat and now it was time to see her for real ... like a kid in a candy store I couldn't wait .. garage doors opened .... ahhhh she big ... still pleased can't wait to get her home.. the chapie hitched her up said our good bye's off we went.... crash! a god awful noise ..as I looked in the rear view mirror I saw the dandy careering of towards parked cars............. oh my god everything went in slow motion phew no damage to truck she parked herself under.. we were lucky as we were on a steep hill going up.. cars behind.. hitched her back on smiled at the traffic jam i'm now causing and towed her safely home.. and love her to pieces ,watched u tube " how to put up dandy" ha ha with arms and legs in use and a broom put her up !!!! wow she is more than I could have expected , she is brown six birth with glass windows all in tacked and boy do I have plans for her ,, To follow the tour De France next year!! so best I get practise in with putting her up and down again next week is our first trip to Weymouth and the first experience living in the DANDY!

Welcome to the world of pvc hope you enjoy your first dandy experiance.

mike

Caz1960 wrote:Um yea she did have a safety cable be it a bit frayed but on closer inspection it had been taken off the breaking system !. she now has a brand new (red) cable and placed on correctly . I did notice when driving to the shops this summer that Dyfed Powys Police ( our local bobbies) were stopping caravans and checking the safety cables phew as they can charge you with unsafe load

That was good luck, lets hope your nice new cable won't ever be needed. I bet the police found a few unsafe loads one way or other.

Cazz not Caz

I'm sure you know all this stuff as you mess with engines and vehicles that have moving components, but.
Yes as you said your Dandy old enough to not legally need a safety cable.
There is no point in fitting the type of cable found on braked systems as you have no energy store nor a suitable ratchet to lock the brake.
The best you can do is fit the sort of attachment that is used on an unbraked trailer.
A chain or cable that keeps the trailer attached to the tow hitch. Sort of the exact opposite of a breakaway cable where the brakes are activated.

Caz

If your new to towing then can I caution you check all your couplings when you hitch up.
I'm sure after your little reminder you will give a good pull on the hitch every time now before you move off.
My own piece of genius was that even though I had raised the jockey wheel, I didn't realise you should wind it all the way in before towing. Somewhere along the M6 my jockey wheel unwound. It was a minor inconvenience to be without a jockey wheel, the trailers light. I don't like the mental image of a jockey wheel bouncing up into someones windscreen though.

Kevin.

And this was the second piece today that I previewed and did not send!

Congratulations on your Dandy Caz ................ we did that too bought a Dandy then had to get a tow bar fitted fast so we could collect

I did the same last year - my friend had to collect it in the end as Ian was shutting for a holiday before I could get tow bar fitted! But when you see 'your' dandy you just have to go for it no matter what !

today was a big day a bonding session you might say with my baby , needed to practise putting her up and the awning so a local camp-site said that I could put her up there free with full use of their electrics as I had to find out if she was working before our holls next week ......so we went got to the site wind and rain and started to set her up, helped was offered and dutifully declined as we have to get this erection down to a fine art (ha ha ) well know matter how many times I've watched the U Tube video we seem to struggle with the roof, the sides we finally got her up awning and all after an hour of huffing and puffing grunting and groaning the wind didn't help but glad to sit inside and drink a hot cup of tea proud of all our hard work now snug warm and dry and making mental lists of things to do to her when time and weather allows wash roof, fix Velcro, sort awning poles all hooks and brackets loose need allot of loving care and attention nothing immediate, little things but need to be tended to ooh and cushions and next time a big YES to offer of help sod trying to D.I.Y nearly broke a nail....I hope I'm not the only one that struggles with the dandy but it was only my second time im so looking forward to next week and sleeping in her for a week then the next stage and being more local is to introduce THE DOGS to camping

congratulations on getting your dandy and managing to put it up I must admit i've never had to put my dandy up on my own as i've always had people willing to help, have put it down on my own though, and although it's quite possible to do it on my own, i'm always glad of assistance

congratulations on you dandy 6 berth i have one very similer have put it up myself a few time but the 6 berth is much easier with 2 folk.

Caz1960 wrote: today was a big day a bonding session you might say with my baby , needed to practise putting her up and the awning so a local camp-site said that I could put her up there free with full use of their electrics as I had to find out if she was working before our holls next week ......so we went got to the site wind and rain and started to set her up, helped was offered and dutifully declined as we have to get this erection down to a fine art (ha ha ) well know matter how many times I've watched the U Tube video we seem to struggle with the roof, the sides we finally got her up awning and all after an hour of huffing and puffing grunting and groaning the wind didn't help but glad to sit inside and drink a hot cup of tea proud of all our hard work now snug warm and dry and making mental lists of things to do to her when time and weather allows wash roof, fix Velcro, sort awning poles all hooks and brackets loose need allot of loving care and attention nothing immediate, little things but need to be tended to ooh and cushions and next time a big YES to offer of help sod trying to D.I.Y nearly broke a nail....I hope I'm not the only one that struggles with the dandy but it was only my second time im so looking forward to next week and sleeping in her for a week then the next stage and being more local is to introduce THE DOGS to camping

1hour for camper and awning first time,think i would be pleased with that well done

A fantastic top tip I learned here, is clean the inside of the roof and spray it with silicone spray, clean and spray the metal bars as well. They bars will then slide nicely on the roof making it loads easier.

Our dog went camping for the first time when he was nearly 6, he loved it and still does, he is now 15 (we had him when he was 4 1/2 he had never been in house till then, he was a working dog and lived outside) i'm sure your dogs will love it too.

My dog loves camping too, he get's sulky if we go without him Setting up will get easier with practice....so they say, I would be happy with an hour the first time

It takes me 20 minutes to decide where to pitch and another 10 to decide which way around is best to get it level then 10 minutes to put the Dandy up, another half an hour for the awning and probably the rest of the day to put all of the stuff I take with me inside

helen wrote:It takes me 20 minutes to decide where to pitch and another 10 to decide which way around is best to get it level then 10 minutes to put the Dandy up, another half an hour for the awning and probably the rest of the day to put all of the stuff I take with me inside

We take a while to decide where and which way to pitch, we like the evening sun on the front, I have to get my compass out.

An hour for the first time is good, you'll be experts on your holiday.

Thanks for the tip I will spray out to get a tin now , Yea defiantly except help not short of being offered help as she seams to be a novelty around here but it was me thinking that I must learn to put her up ....as there are woods around here that you can just pitch up and camp (with permission of owner) so I would need the Knowledge but defiantly be grateful for help offered next week as got up this morning finding muscles i didn't have before

My official first outing in the Dandy , destination Little sea Devon Haven holls with heated indoor swimming pool yea can't wait. 4 nights pitch with awning, elec hook up.£56. bargain set off from home weather good arrive gale force wind.... panic didn't rehearse enough .. we placed her side on and girded our loins and got stuck in all hands to the pump at one point think I went horizontal but still holding on, we did it awning and all in quick time very scary . sat down in her for the well deserved cuppa and she rocked shuddered groaned and I felt very sea sick. but at least we were warm ,dry and ????safe. the gales kicked off bad duing the night worse than ever and I wanted to go home it felt as if she was getting lifted up so my friend went out and tied her down not a wink of sleep did I have .Looked at her in the morning and couldn't stop laughing as she looked like something from gullivers travels didn't know we brought that much rope so we not going anywhere another two nights of wind the it just stopped silence and two blazing hot sunny days .
problem's
1) the roof didn't know to tie it down as I have read today on the forums now I do was going to have shares in Velcro but now bungees are the ticket
2) wet under the mattress on the beds ????
3) noted allot of work to do to her laminated flooring lifting
4) allot of little things but makes along list
so while winter is coming she is going through a re fit and tidy up complete scrub top to bottom, new flooring vinyl ( saw the picky's) would like to change the kitchen units but we will see
all in all I had a very comfortable stay and if she stood up to gale force winds she can stand up to anything I will admit I should have got a 4 birth for my first dandy as It would be easier to put up and down but as we are 3 separate sleepers the 6 gives us a comfortable double beds each and the privacy

I will admit that I was very proud of her she stood proud and different amongst the tents caravans and de luxe camper vans saw 2 other trailer tents canvas and didn't like them oops snobbery creeping in but cant wait to go out in her again

caz,
glad you had a good time as for the long list thats what makes having a dandy fun and the sense of satisfaction when you start crossing them jobs off

well lets face it, if you've put your dandy up and it stayed up in gale force winds you know it's good and solid.

so pleased that you enjoyed it and the things you mentioned that need doing don't sound too difficult (ooh get me like i know what i'm talking about lol)

be great to see your improvements on one of the meets next year

and i'm really pleased you got some warm days after the windy start

Congratulations on erecting her in adverse conditions, sounds like you've had a baptism of fire but managed well.

Damp under the mattresses can occur even on the newer Destiny's, we haven't suffered from this to date but others have and I think Mike will be able to point you in the right direction to a solution as we do have a thread somewhere on here about it.

Roof Bungees make all the difference and are a must in windy conditions, we put them on anyway just in case it gets windy during the night rather than start to run around half naked in the dark.......... although only because we had to once As for the awning, we sometimes think it's going to blow away but it sounds worse than it really is and we do occasionally use a storm strap but to be honest I don't think it would go anywhere anyway.

Now the good bit is that we are in for a mini heatwave and you get to enjoy it

Have fun. x

I'm pleased your first trip was good after the wind died down. Our second trip was very windy, I think I put I felt sea sick or something boat related, lol.

We treated ours to some nice thick green bungee for the roof, it's makes a huge difference.

Looking forward to the updates as you progress through your jobs list, our camper list, I cross one thing off and bed two more on, lol.

QUOTE

2) wet under the mattress on the beds ????

We had this in the early days have cured it completely now though,you just need to stop your body heat going through the mattress we use self inflating air beds,with them having an insulating foam in they hold the heat back,after saying that Nancy gets too warm in bed so she has just changed to a proper air bed on top, one of the old fashioned type orange and blue with inflated tubes in,they are not as thick as the normal ones and this works but keeps her cooler as well.

As for as for roof bungees may just cut helens if we are going to be treated to her running around half naked

thanks mike thats helpful and on my to get list at first thought my son was going back in childhood then when i checked my friends bed same thing then thought it was a man thing as I had the table bed very comfy so thank god I asked coz it would be awkward asking them to wear adult nappy's must protect my baby

You could always use the Silver foil type insulation to cover the bed boards this is also supposed to work

Mike .............. If you cut my bungee's I will send John out half naked to repair them

helen wrote:Mike .............. If you cut my bungee's I will send John out half naked to repair them