Monthly Archive for January, 2009

Hospitalist restaurant, Riga Latvia

Published
by
Tommi
on January 31, 2009
in News and Places to visit
. 0 Comments


Hospitalist is a very special restaurant situated in Riga Latvia. The whole restaurant looks like a hospital and the look continues even in the finer details. Even the waitresses are dressed like nurses. This is so weird place that there’s no point explaining it. Check out the photos from Fun Fever blog.

Wine cask hotel rooms

Published
by
Tommi
on January 28, 2009
in Hotels
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De Vrouwe van Stavoren hotel in Netherlands offers very unique places to stay. There are four rooms that are originally Swiss wine casks. They are converted into two person hotel rooms with TV, radio, shower and a bathroom. The casks used to contain Beajolais wine from the French chateau area. The lowest rate for one night is around 120 euros.

The hotel is the only one in Stavroen and it is located at the old harbour. The address is Havenweg 1, Stavoren 8715 EM. There is also a restaurant that offers traditional dishes and a selection of fish specialties. Breakfast is Dutch style. The hotel has a website, which is quite messy, but it provides the basic information. There are also some room photos.

Caravan Show & Camping photos - part 4

Published
by
Tommi
on January 26, 2009
in Exhibitions
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Knaus, Eifelland and Wilk were strongly present at the show although Knaus is having serious financial problems. Low profile Sun Ti was stylish inside and out. The table extension was implemented quite simply with hinges. The S-liner was one of the largest and most luxurious motorhomes at the show.

Deseo is a modular box-shaped caravan. The interior was really special with L-shaped sofa and a bar table. Most of the visitors were positively surprised when they stepped in. Deseo interior can be customized to suit individual style by using the modular furnitures.

Solar panels were advertised to provide free electricity. 80 - 100 W panel was around 700 - 1000 euros. It is good to notice that you cannot get the advertised power out of the panel and to store it into a battery even under a bright sunny day. So you have to take a larger panel than what’s your average electricity need per day. Solar panels must be also coupled with a good battery capacity to survive through rainy days.

Telair gas generator was a powerful energy source. It used Yamaha engine and noise level was reported to be 58 dB. It was not running, so I cannot comment about the noise level in. Gas consumption was 800 g per hour and maximum power output 2.5 kW. Price was quite high at 3795 euros without installation.

Frankia has the same layouts available as over-cab, low profile and integrated. Fiat and Mercedes-Benz base is available for all the low profile and integrated models. Over-cab models use always Fiat. Frankia offers similar cockpit bed mechanism for integrated and low profiles. This is a really unique feature. Another Frankia specialty is a large garage door at the back wall in addition to the door at the side wall.

Knaus Sun Ti
Knaus S-liner
Eifelland Deseo

Solar panel
Telair gas generator
Finnlines

Frankia Holiday Class
Frankia's central service unit
Arto


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Caravan Show & Camping photos - part 3

Published
by
Tommi
on January 21, 2009
in Exhibitions
. 0 Comments

There were a lot more motorhomes than caravans. Motorhome volumes are growing while the caravan sales stay flat in Finland nowadays. Still the show was too much focused on motorhomes. Many visitors were disappointed, because they were looking for a new caravan for the next season. Hobby was one of the exceptions and presented many caravans - also some large ones.

Solifer presented their motorhome line-up with Emotion and Action models. Both of them are manufactured by Hymer. Actually the Action is sold also as a Carado and Sunlight. Emotion is based on Hymer Tramp.

Eura Mobil motorhomes were large and they had more height than most other brands. The reason for that was a large double floor structure. The double floor height was nearly 50 cm! The front of the Eura Mobil Terrestra is still futuristic after some years.

There were too many dealers selling stuff that had nothing to do with caravans or motorhomes. Many visitor did not like that. Hair sprays and things like that does not belong to caravan shows.

The small Poksi was one of the most interesting caravans of the show. It was so small, but still the interior looked like very functional and also the style was updated from the older Poksi caravans.

Solifer Emotion
Solifer Action
Eura Mobil's high double floor

Clothing sale
Hobby presented the largest caravans
New Poksi

New Poksi interior
New Poksi interior
Eura Mobil Terrestra


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Caravan Show & Camping photos - part 2

Published
by
Tommi
on January 17, 2009
in Exhibitions
. 1 Comment


Dethleffs showed off Globeline with Mercedes-Benz base. The quality looked high in every detail. Dark colors were used inside. There were a lot of spots and LED-light strips to overcome the darkness. Heating was based on Alde and the heat tubes were installed also under the dashboard.

The integrated Globebus presented the Magic Edition accessory package. It contained accessories with a list price over 20000 euros. The Magic Edition is approximately 13000 euros, so savings are 7000 euros. The package does enhance the style and also add some functionalities.

Fiat cockpit from LMC
Dethleffs Globeline with MB base
Dethleffs Globeline with MB base

Dethleffs Globeline with MB base
Dethleffs Globebus Magic Edition
Dethleffs Globebus Magic Edition

Dethleffs Camper Edition
Adria Twin
Kabe TravelMaster 700


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Caravan Show & Camping photos - part 1

Published
by
Tommi
on January 11, 2009
in Exhibitions
. 1 Comment


Here’s the first set of photos from Caravan Show & Camping organized in Turku Finland. There were most of the major brands presenting their 2009 line-ups. Motorhomes dominated over caravans, which was to be expected concerning the Finnish markets. There were only few small accessory stands, which was a disappointment.

European proof Monaco from USA
Monaco's slide out
Bürstner Argos

Baron 350 L
Baron 120 L
LMC Tourer

LMC Liberty Explorer I 720 G
High quality body work from LMC


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Inverter eats up leisure battery

Published
by
Tommi
on January 4, 2009
in Accessories and Carado T 135 diary
. 0 Comments

I was walking our dogs one night and noticed that there was a high pitch noise coming out of my motorhome. The noise was not originated from a fire or security alarm. I opened the door and looked under the table. IT was the inverter and there was an orange warning light on. The warning was about low battery voltage.

The battery voltage was so low that the electric step or lights did not work anymore. I had forgotten to turn off the inverter after our last trip. Inverters have typically high idle current consumption. It took five days until the battery voltage dropped under the warning level.

Good test for electroblock

I though that this was a good test for the electroblock module that is located under the passenger’s seat. It takes care of controlling the charging and discharging of vehicle and leisure batteries. This means that the leisure battery gets charged while driving and the vehicle battery is separated from the 12 V leisure network most of the time. This separation should guarantee the inverter cannot drain the vehicle battery. The electric step and the main ceiling light are normally powered by the vehicle battery if 12 V is turned off from the control panel.

The engine started with ease so the vehicle battery was fully charged. Carado’s electroblock passed the test, so it operates as it should.

What about the leisure battery?

Too deep discharging may harm a battery. Discharged battery also freezes more easily than a charged one. That’s why it is always good to keep batteries in a charged state even if they are not used for a long time. I connected Carado to 230 V mains to let the 85 Ah leisure battery charge. It takes 5 hours to fully charge the battery with a 17 A charger in theory. A bit longer time is needed in real life due to charging losses.