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zarnd
Member Since: 23 Apr 2010
Location: Kent
Posts: 794
  
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| Looking for hints, tips and suggestions |
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I am trying to convince my wife that next year we should go on another driving holiday. We went on a camping holiday to Croatia which my wife enjoyed everything apart from sleeping in the tent. I like the idea of a roof tent, but don't want to fork out for a roof tent and only use it once etc... My wife is Czech so we do drive over there and back which is quite a nice drive.
Does anyone have any tips or suggestions on where to go and visit? Does anyone know of any companies who hire roof tents and fridges etc...? I'm really up for it, and my life loves the D3 as it is such a good car for touring but I want to try something completely different in it to just sitting on the motorway for fourteen hours and arriving at a destination.
I appreciate what i am asking will cover almost everything to do with touring, but there are a lot of people who do this regularly and could hopefully give me some tips and advice 
Thanks in advance! Alex
2007 D3 TDV6 HSE
2009 Caterham Supersport
2005 FFRR Vogue SE 4.2 Supercharged
2004 SL55 AMG
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 4th Oct 2011 8:03 pm |
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leeds
Member Since: 30 Aug 2010
Location: West Yorkshire
Posts: 4314
 
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Hi Alex, I do not know anyone who hires out roof tents. However if you keep en eye on ebay you will see that good quality rooftents (i.e. Maggioline/Airtop range by Autohome) consistently go for good money. For instance someone sold a Autohome roof tent recently, they bought it second hand when it was 5 years old, used it on a year long trip and sold it for £850!! So buying one, using it and then selling it on might be worth considering
MPS4x4 hire out Engel fridges, have just checked their website for hire prices but it is currently offline. Keep an eye on it. Personally we prefer the ARB fridge over the Engel
HTH
Brendan
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| 6th Oct 2011 6:16 pm |
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zarnd
Member Since: 23 Apr 2010
Location: Kent
Posts: 794
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Thanks for the heads up reference the fridge hire. I suppose to really get the benfit of having the fridge I would be best off fitting a second battery to run it from so that it can be on all the time when travelling etc...? Also a very good idea about buying the tent secondhand and selling it on again after we have used it if we don't get on with it!
cheers Alex
2007 D3 TDV6 HSE
2009 Caterham Supersport
2005 FFRR Vogue SE 4.2 Supercharged
2004 SL55 AMG
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| 7th Oct 2011 9:52 am |
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leeds
Member Since: 30 Aug 2010
Location: West Yorkshire
Posts: 4314
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Hi Alex, it is not essential to have a second battery for a fridge especially if you intend just hiring a fridge for a short period of time.
The ARB fridge has a built in battery monitor so that the fridge will cut off at a predetermined battery voltage. I believe that for the Engel the battery monitor is an additional option. If just parking up overnight and your battery is in decent condition a fridge should not flatten your starter battery. If going down the single battery line consider a good starter/leisure battery such as the Odyssey 1500.
We have both the Engel and the ARB fridges. Currently the ARB is sat in the dining room as the house freezer as one day we will get around to sorting the kitchen out! 
There are many ways of charging twin batteries from just putting them in parallel, simple isolator switch etc all the way up to a decent battery management system such as the IBS system. A decent twin battery set up is not a cheap option.
HTH
Brendan
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| 7th Oct 2011 3:57 pm |
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zarnd
Member Since: 23 Apr 2010
Location: Kent
Posts: 794
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Thanks for the information. Got to think about it all and consider it really properly from December onwards as we have bought a house and should be moving next month and I don't think it would be appreciated if i sat the wife down and presented her with a list and some costs with what we could need etc...  I think her head would explode!
cheers Alex
2007 D3 TDV6 HSE
2009 Caterham Supersport
2005 FFRR Vogue SE 4.2 Supercharged
2004 SL55 AMG
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| 8th Oct 2011 7:22 am |
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leeds
Member Since: 30 Aug 2010
Location: West Yorkshire
Posts: 4314
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If you did you might well be in a new house. The DOG house that is!
Consider carefully your NEEDS first rather then your wants.
Do you need a fridge? Will you be far from fresh food/supermarkets? Will you be in very hot climate? Would you be able to cope with buying fresh milk everyday?
IF you consider electric cool boxes think very carefully as they have a much higher current draw and there is a serious risk of draining your starter battery overnight/weekend. OK if you are in convoy, but not a good idea if solo and off the beaten track. Yes they are much cheaper then a fridge say £100 compared to £700+
A decent fridge is around £750+ mark. Two good batteries could be £400+, split charge system + ancillaries could be another £400+
Think carefully of YOUR needs. They would be a good investment on long/multiple trips, however a one off trip in convoy when you can put your milk in your mates fridge?????
Brendan
Brendan
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| 8th Oct 2011 10:29 am |
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