Dan Trudgian | Meet the Trudgians

Posts by Dan

Vango Awning furniture

Posted by on Oct 2, 2017 in Featured, Reviews | 0 comments

Vango Awning furniture

Its always nice to have a sneaky peak into someone else’s caravan. Just to see what accessories are in use, how the caravan is laid out and how the space is utilised. The awning is one such area where given a blank canvas many have different needs and requirements for this use of space. Broadly speaking everyone has a similar set of requirements from an awning. A place to store things, an intermediate “shoes off” zone and quite common is an extra room for relaxing, eating and perhaps sleeping. Personal choice and lifestyle really dictates what an awning should or could be used for. Our set...

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Competition time

Posted by on Sep 3, 2017 in Featured, Trips & Adventures | 0 comments

Competition time

Win tickets to the UK’s largest leisure vehicle event From 17 to 22 October, the Motorhome and Caravan Show 2017 at Birmingham’s NEC showcases all the new-for-2018 products from the motorhome and caravan industry. With vehicles on display from leading manufacturers and dealers including Swift, Bailey, Hymer, Hillside Leisure, Auto-Trail and Opus as well as celebrity chef appearances from household names such as Antonio Carluccio, Lisa Faulkner and Rustie Lee, there’s something for all to enjoy. Launches at the show include the return of the iconic Airstream. The show also boasts a special VW...

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Holiday Audio books

Posted by on Jul 27, 2017 in Featured, Reviews | 0 comments

Holiday Audio books

When away in the caravan there are a number of activities that can be enjoyed to pass the time, unwind or invigorate the mind. For me, its audio books. I love them. For years I have listened to plays, dramas and comedy shows on the radio, but now im moving into the audio book realm too I recently started a subscription to Audible. Where for £7.99 a month I get a credit each month that allows me to download to my phone, tablet or Kindle an Audio Book from over 200,000 titles. The library is vast. And apart from some old favourites I have previously downloaded – there are some great titles...

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Caravan Servicing

Posted by on Jul 7, 2017 in Featured, Technical | 1 comment

Caravan Servicing

A caravan should be serviced at least once a year. But what actually happens in a caravan service ? With a car its fairly obvious. Fluids are changed, the filters are replaced and that annoying service indicator is reset. But in a caravan it is not so obvious. Recently we took our caravan in for its annual service. We visited Swindon Caravan group who have always serviced our caravan. This time however, I was able to film the whole process, ask questions and follow the caravan from the moment of booking in to the caravan being ready. Whilst there I was also able to spend some time with John...

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Lock ‘n’ Level

Posted by on Jul 1, 2017 in Featured, Reviews | 1 comment

Lock ‘n’ Level

Some time ago I created a video showing the basics of levelling a caravan. It was, and still is well received. It did raise some questions from those who struggle with manoeuvring a caravan and those who have an ALKO Secure wheel lock. The idea of the wheel lock is that the alloy wheel on the caravan needs to be perfectly aligned to allow the ALKO secure plate to be positioned and locked in place. This is a challenge when on flat, level ground but, when attempting to level a caravan its almost impossible. This is where Lock ‘n’ Level really does work out well. The system can be...

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Campsite Arrival Videos

Posted by on Jun 24, 2017 in Featured, Trips & Adventures | 2 comments

Campsite Arrival Videos

One of the many questions I have when booking a campsite is “what are the access roads like ?” Many of the sites we want to visit are usually in rural locations which means unless we know the area well we actually have no idea what the access roads are like. Google Maps and Street view offer some help, but in many of the cases the camera cannot quite give full picture of the access roads, width or turning circles into the site, which in some cases is down a private road. Such an occasion was Three cliffs bay, where the Google Street View car, simply bypassed the narrow lane that was the only...

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Tewkesbury & Friends

Posted by on May 16, 2017 in Featured, Trips & Adventures | 2 comments

Tewkesbury & Friends

May day bank holiday saw us visit a site just on the outskirts of Tewkesbury. Croft Farm Water Park offers hard standing and grass pitches for touring and camping, seasonal and cabin accommodation all situated around a lake. The site contains a boathouse, that offer a wide array of water activities along with a gym, shop and small café area. We decided that this site would be a great place to visit with our closest friends and have a long weekend together. We arrived on the Friday and despite some confusion about the one way system, how to get the caravan from one side of the lake to the...

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Nextbase 412GW Dash Cam.

Posted by on Apr 10, 2017 in Featured, Reviews | 4 comments

Nextbase 412GW Dash Cam.

If you spend any time on YouTube you will see a whole section of clips dedicated to Dash cam footage. You will be amazed at the collisions, close calls and random events that unfold right in front of your very eyes. I too have experienced close calls and a variety of random events while driving, but the level of badly behaved drivers right in front of me has escalated since I have been towing a caravan. A few years ago I did install a dash cam for this exact reason, and while the camera was good, it didn’t last. In fact when I did need the footage, I couldn’t get anything from the memory...

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Our announcement

Posted by on Mar 31, 2017 in Featured, Reviews | 1 comment

Our announcement

I’m delighted to announce that we are teaming up with Swindon Caravan Group to produce some excellent content in the coming months. As our YouTube channel grows we feel that some topics we want to cover need input from the industry and it makes sense that we team up with the dealership that we have a good connection with, after all, It was Swindon Caravans that we purchased our caravan from back in 2014. We found Swindon Caravans were fair, honest and above all extremely easy to deal with when we purchased our caravan. The ethos of non-pushy yet a professional and helpful service is a...

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Caravan & Motorhome Wi-Fi

Posted by on Feb 28, 2017 in Featured, Technical | 2 comments

Caravan & Motorhome Wi-Fi

Apart from shelter, warmth food & water possibly next most important thing to have while camping is Wi-Fi. Well, maybe not, but if you are a teenager these days the Wi-Fi is pretty high up the priorities list. Getting a connection to the digital world can be summed up as problematic at best and impossible at worst when on site. I have shared our method of getting on-line in the video at the bottom of this post and in it I show what devices we use to get on line. We use a HooToo Trip Mate Titan as our primary connection (Here is our original review of the device), we do this to take...

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Caravan and Motorhome Club

Posted by on Feb 21, 2017 in Featured | 2 comments

Caravan and Motorhome Club

Today the Caravan Club has announced a rebranding from “The Caravan Club” to “The Caravan & Motorhome Club”. This is a really important step forward incorporating Motorhomes into the Clubs brand & identity. Motorhomes are well catered for by so many of the Clubs sites and loved by so many of the Club members, it seems only logical that the Club updates its name and brand to align the Caravan & Motorhome communities together. Just last week, Angela & I looked on as a Motorhome arrived, reversed in, hooked up to the Electrical hook up and the owner then made a cup of tea....

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Mug & Glassware storage

Posted by on Jan 29, 2017 in Featured, Technical | 3 comments

Mug & Glassware storage

Since we have had the caravan our wine cabinet has been a mess. We only really use the cabinet for holding the glasses when we are in transit. While on site the glasses and mugs are usually on the side ready for instant beverage relief. Transporting the mugs has always included a process of packing them in a way that they won’t move around or worse break while being bumped about. I have always thought of creating a nice mug and glassware container to fit the wine cupboard and now I have finally gotten around to completing it. I used the same material I used when mounting the LEDs. This...

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