Yes we have now completed our second winter and now back in Dorset we our starting our third year of wandering around with 'Eva the Eriba'....
To celebrate the start of this third year of fulltiming we have bought a new awning for summer use....
We decided to go for an inflatable model in order to cut down on the time we spend putting awnings up and also in taking them down.....
A couple of minutes of pumping and this one is up leaving just the pegging out to do....
Open the valve and it deflates almost instantly.....
Below are a couple of images of the new awning at our current location near Verwood......
Over the past few days there have been a couple of other Eribas on site and at their owners request Anne and I showed both couples around Eva and the new awning......
Their models were both about twelve or more years older than ours so they were eager to compare theirs with a newer model....not that a lot has changed over the years other than minor cosmetic details and seat fabrics etc.... after all why change a near perfect design....
One of the couples we spoke to had travelled up from Cornwall and had attended the Social Event on Saturday held at Automotive Leisure the main UK Eriba dealership based in Bournemouth the same as we did.....
They had just purchased an inflatable awning from the dealer for their Eriba Triton which although slightly smaller than our Eriba Troll is a popular model with a popular internal layout..... He said that he wasn't going to put it up on site as he would be leaving the following day.
Although the dealer had a awning on display at the 'event' our Triton owner was keen to see what it was like erected on site in real camping conditions and he had a number of questions about the awning which I was able to answer for him...
Owning an iconic caravan like the Eriba is almost like joining an exclusive club....
Because of the longevity of these little caravans and the various internal layouts Eriba owners always want to talk 'Eriba' when they meet other owners on site and compare their vans feature by feature.....
This got me thinking about why people might decide to purchase something like an Eriba in the first place instead of a much larger van.
It's not about the cost because these little vans don't come cheap and there are any number of much larger caravans that you could purchase for about half the price of an Eriba.......
No.. It goes much deeper than that and I will expand on my thoughts of this in my next post when I look back at our reasons for deciding to set out on this little fulltiming adventure and how we feel two years in.......
To celebrate the start of this third year of fulltiming we have bought a new awning for summer use....
We decided to go for an inflatable model in order to cut down on the time we spend putting awnings up and also in taking them down.....
A couple of minutes of pumping and this one is up leaving just the pegging out to do....
Open the valve and it deflates almost instantly.....
Below are a couple of images of the new awning at our current location near Verwood......
Their models were both about twelve or more years older than ours so they were eager to compare theirs with a newer model....not that a lot has changed over the years other than minor cosmetic details and seat fabrics etc.... after all why change a near perfect design....
One of the couples we spoke to had travelled up from Cornwall and had attended the Social Event on Saturday held at Automotive Leisure the main UK Eriba dealership based in Bournemouth the same as we did.....
They had just purchased an inflatable awning from the dealer for their Eriba Triton which although slightly smaller than our Eriba Troll is a popular model with a popular internal layout..... He said that he wasn't going to put it up on site as he would be leaving the following day.
Owning an iconic caravan like the Eriba is almost like joining an exclusive club....
Because of the longevity of these little caravans and the various internal layouts Eriba owners always want to talk 'Eriba' when they meet other owners on site and compare their vans feature by feature.....
This got me thinking about why people might decide to purchase something like an Eriba in the first place instead of a much larger van.
It's not about the cost because these little vans don't come cheap and there are any number of much larger caravans that you could purchase for about half the price of an Eriba.......
No.. It goes much deeper than that and I will expand on my thoughts of this in my next post when I look back at our reasons for deciding to set out on this little fulltiming adventure and how we feel two years in.......
4 comments:
I look forward to your next post. The Lessons Learnt, the unexpected surprises, both good and bad. happy Exploring !
Thanks Peter..... I promise it will contain the bad as well as the good.....
How much time did you save putting up the awning Trevor. Did you go for the electric pump or "man up" for the manual one. Do you like it. It looks good we absolutely love ours.
*Gideon Howe*
Probably saved about 2.5 hrs in real terms.....
Threading the beading through the rail took about 5 mins and pumping the awning up took about 2mins...
The longest job is pegging it down which on very 'hard' hardstandings such as at Verwood can take up to an hour....
As I look on all things as exercise I went for the manual pump... It is actually easier to pump up the awning than it is to inflate the tyres on my 'Felt' bike whose tyres go up to 140psi.....
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