Motorhome & Caravan reviews, articles and news
We wish A Happy New Year 2009 for all our readers! The year 2008 was a great success for us. It was the first whole year for our English site. Currently we reach already 25000 visitors per month.
We’ll continue to develop the site to be more useful for all caravan and motorhome travelers. One new feature that we’ll be launching soon is an event calendar.
Tommi & Niina
Cobb is a lightweight and portable charcoal grill and it weights only 4 kg. It is made out of stainless steel and all the parts are really high quality and also dishwasher safe. There are several add-ons available, so Cobb can be used to grilling meat & vegetables, roasting large pieces of meat, smoking fish & meat, and also baking bread or making pizza. Cobb is equipped with a frying dish and a dome in the figure above.
8 to 10 traditional charcoal briquettes can fit into the fireplace, which gives maximum of 3 hours cooking time. 4 to 5 briquettes equals 1.5 hours cooking time.
Easier way is to use Cobblestone, which gives 2.5 hours of cooking time. Fuel efficiency of Cobb is really good. Cobblestone does not need any liquid to fire up. It is ready to be used in three minutes once it starts burning. Traditional charcoals take around 30 minutes to burn before they are ready for cooking. Cobblestone stays in one piece after use, so it can be put into a trash without having charcoal dust all over the place. The figure above shows the fire grid with a Cobblestone. Fat and juice drip into the inner sleave that goes around the fire grill. I have used oven cleaner to clean it time to time.
The innovative design prevents fat and juices dripping onto the charcoal, which eliminates flares and smoke. The heat transfer works like in a convection oven. The best part of this is that the lower mesh part of the grill surface stays cool, so Cobb can be even moved while in use. The interior can heat up to 250 °C.
I have used Cobb in several different ways to prepare wide range of food. I have used it in a cold weather (-4° Celcius) and the grill has always provided plenty of heat to prepare the food. I have been able to grill some chicken, do wok vegetables and fry halloumi cheese in just 45 minutes. It’s good to remove the dome cover and the standard grill plate after cooking and let the charcoal or Cobblestone to burn out. That way the fat does not burn and get sticky.
Cobb is a really excellent miniature kitchen while traveling. It’s high quality, so it is super easy to use and clean after use. It’s also made to last. Versatility and innovative design to provide the best cooking experience of portable grills.
Cobb comes with a bag, so it’s easy to pack into a motorhome and great for picnics. The add-ons also fit inside the bag if it is packet in a correct order:
There’s also additional room to put meat in the bottom of dome if you wish.
The frying pan has a non-stick surface and it’s perfect for making pancakes, eggs, bacon, etc. What ever requires an even surface. Lifting forks shown in the figure below are provided to handle the hot add-ons.
The stainless steel frying dish is good for wok food.
The griddle accessory can be used for example to grill halloumi cheese.
The roasting rack helps with chicken and large pieces of meat. The rack sits on top of the standard non-stick grilling surface and let’s the heat to circulate around the chicken.
Cobb is Highly Recommended.
It has become a standard accessory on my motorhome and I have even started to use it at home.
There are so many accessories that make a perfect gift for a caravan enthusiast. Choosing the right one is a real problem. Here is our wish list of goods to help you narrow down the choices and save the trouble during the upcoming shopping weekend.
Huhtalo cockpit cover. Absolutely necessary during the winter. Approximately 250 euros.
Triax Ufo antenna. Excellent little antenna. Approx. 100 euros.
Inverter. Gives 230 VAC electricity from battery. 300 W is enough for most uses. Approx. 200 euros.
iPod. An excellent MP3 player on the road. Starts from 50 euros.
USB-charger for navigator. If the original one is in a bad shape third party accessories are cheap. Approx. 10 euros.
Tivoli Audio Model One. The best compact radio receiver. Approx 200 euros.
Nokia N95 8 GB mobile phone. Excellent multimedia phone, with good still photo and video capabilities and sharing via Share on Ovi or Flickr. Approx 500 euros (phone only)
Nokia Maps license. One year license makes the mobile phone do turn-by-turn navigation. Approx. 60 euros.
Foldable hair dryer. Can be used even with a 300 W inverter. Approx. 10 euros.
Shake light. Never runs out of battery. Approx. 15 euros.
DVB-T tuner for a laptop. Sometimes this is a better alternative for a fixed TV installation on a motorhome or caravan. Approx. 50 euros.
Battery igniter to replace manual piezo. This adds ease of use. Approx. 20 euros.
Map update for car navigator. Approx. 50 euros for Scandinavia and 100 euros for Western-Europe. Tom Tom has 30 % discount currently.
Telescopic snow brush. It must be telescopic with motorhomes. Approx. 15 euros.
Fiat offers roadside assistance that is especially tailored for motorhomes. It is available for models max. 3500 kg and it can be purchased for 3, 6 or 12 months. The service is provided together by Fiat Professional and Europ Assistance and it’s currently available in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and United Kingdom. Link to order page.
The new version of Nokia Maps uses ovi.com service to provide online route planning with a computer. The planned routes can be then synchronized into the phone. Users can also share their location information and all the related content with their friends later on.
The new Maps has high resolutions aerial images and 3D landmark of 216 cities. Pedestrian navigation has been improved and it uses beeps and vibrations to indicate when to make a turn. Straight-line guidance allows to walk the shortest distance between two points. The new NAVTEQ maps are improved and coverage is better.
The new Maps 3.0 is available from Nokia Beta Labs site. The online service is available from Maps on Ovi. They are both still in Beta phase and this means limited support e.g for browser compatibility. I tried to access the Maps on Ovi with Mac and Firefox 3.04 and Safari 3.1.2 browsers, but it did not work. The only supported combinations are Windows + Internet Explorer 6 and 7 or Firefox 2 and 3. PC Suite is needed to update the old version of Maps on your phone, so this requires also Window PC. Nokia.
Nokia has released the ultimate device for mobile lifestyle. The new N97 combines the high performance multimedia capabilities of Nseries with personal Internet services. The device has large 3.5″ touch display and full QWERTY keyboard.
It is an interesting twist from Nokia to combine touch input with full QWERTY. This has taken place before in the N810 Internet Tablet. The physical feedback from the keyboard is better than what touch displays can provide, so sometimes this is an asset.
N97 can intuitively understand where it is by using A-GPS sensors and electric compass. This information can be used to automatically update status in social networking applications. The user interface can be customized with widgets that download information from web sites and social networking services.
Multimedia capabilities include 5 megapixel camera, support for Share on Ovi photo sharing and Nokia Music Store, 32 GB of on-board memory and support for 16 GB microSD. WLAN and HSDPA provide fast connection to Internet. Nokia expects to start shipping N97 during the first half of 2009. Estimated retail price is EUR 550 before taxes or subsidies. Nokia.
Update: Thursday 4.12.2009
There are couple of demo videos posted by Nokia.
Video 1.
Video 2.
Caravanuutiset.com
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