Community Forums

John Downes · 12-19-2011, 07:17 AM

Hi,

Fell over this site from the Forest River forum and looks to be a good site with everyone helping each other just what RVing is about.

We own a Forest River Georgetown 340TS of 2007 vintage and it is our first RV, we have owned it for about a year now and love it. Having been a firefighter for most of my working life I thought that driving one of these "Yank Tanks" would be a piece of cake how wrong was I, driving one of these beast's in the UK is a real challenge only because we drive on the opposite side of the road to you.

We have the Ford V10 Triton petrol engine which has been converted to run on LPG (Propane gas). LPG is readily available in the UK and is about half the cost of petrol, we spend 6 months in the UK and 6 months in Southern Spain which I suppose makes us your equivalent of Snowbirds, we are currently in La Manga, Spain and heading up to Alicante, Spain in about two weeks.

We communicate with the world via sattelite internet and voip telephone, we did use Skype but found the delays to be intolerable so have found a UK based company called Freespeech which are faster and cheaper than Skype.

John Downes

Freebird23 · 12-19-2011, 07:59 AM

Welcome,and keep posted about your travels,we enjoy seeing deferent types of RVing from around the world.Post about your camping areas and rallys.---Good Stuff.
Warm Fires---Cold Drinks
Bill& Juanita

bsirby · 12-19-2011, 08:16 AM

Hello and Welcome! Please post pictures of your travels. Most of us will never make it to your part of the world. Happy Travels.

frankdamp · 12-19-2011, 08:21 AM

Welcome to the forum from an ex-pat. DW and I are originally from Leyland (Lancs). Now retired and living in Anancortes, WA (top LH corner).

336muffin · 12-19-2011, 08:22 AM

Welcome to the forum! And yes, please post pics. What are other little hiccups are there? Is the volts the same, door to MH on wrong side? How about water connections?

MSHappyCampers · 12-19-2011, 08:28 AM

Hi John! Welcome to IRV2! Sure glad you found us! Congrats on the new rig. Merry Christmas & God bless!

John H... · 12-19-2011, 08:42 AM

John, Welcome to the forum...

John Downes · 12-19-2011, 10:17 AM

The electrical voltage in the UK and europe is 220/240 volt so any RV imported in to the UK has to have a 240 volt conversion. Our coach kept the 12 and 120 volt system operational and had a220/240 volt system added. The electrical outlets in the UK are mainly 16amps but where we are now it is 10 amps., I can hear the sudden intake of breath at that statement but the only thing we are not able to use when on electrical hook-up is the air-con and in the UK that would be for only two days in the year.

As for the door being on the wrong side it really is not a problem when we are in Southern Europe which is for 6 months in the year but in the UK you have to be careful where you park which makes me wonder if we do drive on the wrong side of the road over here, I might have to give that a bit more thought.

The above has led me to thinking about our coach door, we only have one door for getting in and out of the coach and yet Forest River put a sticker above that door saying "EXIT", do they think that we are going to climb in and out using a window.

The camp sites in Europe are a lot more RV friendly now with most offering full hook-up facilities for black and grey waste, fresh water and electric but some as low as 6 amps. Freshwater connections are the same as in the US and we are on city water at the moment and will be at the next two campsites.

John Downes

SarahW · 12-19-2011, 03:04 PM

Hello John and welcome! Very interesting to hear about RVing in Europe. Some pics would be great!

historyljc · 12-19-2011, 03:18 PM

Welcome John. How about posting a few pictures as you travel. Most of us will never get over there and would like some first hand pictures.

sdennislee · 12-19-2011, 11:33 PM

Hi and welcome to the forum. Enjoy hearing about the differences in RV'ing in Europe

chaunclm · 12-20-2011, 12:08 AM

John, you are a brave man driving a rig in GB. We spent 16 wonderful days on a Narrow Boat wondering around London on the Grand Canal and went up the Thames as far a Windsor. What a great experience. What a great way to see London and Great Britain. I was so intimidated by British traffic that I wouldn't even drive a small car.

How do you move you rig from GB to Spain through the Chunnel?

John Downes · 12-20-2011, 02:31 AM

Hi

Driving in and around London can be a bit daunting the first time you do it and driving a Big Rig even more so but it is all about commanding your road position i.e. taking a bit more of the road than required in order to make a turn or negotiate a junction, this was a trick we were taught when learning to drive Fire appliances. This was something we used to practise on a regular basis when we were mobilised to a fire and a Police (cops) car would come up behind you a try to beat you to the job, they practised their pursuit skills and we practised our command the road skills, needless to say we always won because of our size, oh how I miss those day's.

When we travel to Spain we are not allowed to use the Chunnel, the train tunnel under the English Channel, because we are powered by LPG so we use a ferry from Portsmouth to Santander, Spain, this is a 24 hour crossing and is quite cost effective about £750 for the rig, toad, cabin plus 2 pets. The other way is to go through France but it is very expensive with fuel cost's and toll roads. We went back home that way last year and stayed on a site just outside Port En Bassin, this was the area for the "D-Day" landings, we have been there many times but always find it a very humbling part of the world when you see what our forefathers endured in order to give us free world, they were very BRAVE boys. If any of you can afford a trip to Europe than this is one place to visit first.

I will try to post some pictures of where we are staying at moment.