[00:00:00] Keith Gooden: In today’s episode of the Motorhome Matt podcast.
[00:00:02] Matt Sims: We’re back with another full Q&A where we answer your questions on.
[00:00:06] Keith Gooden: Plugging in your motorhome at home, getting a deposit back when buying a motorhome, getting independent checks done outside barbecue point setups, and Ford wet belts.
[00:00:19] Matt Sims: And in the news, we have a new giveaway and two upcoming shows.
[00:00:30] Keith Gooden: Welcome to the Motorhome Matt podcast. I’m Keith Gooden and.
[00:00:33] Matt Sims: I’m Motorhome Matt.
[00:00:34] Keith Gooden: Industry insights and expert advice for the world of motorhomes, caravans and camper vans. And it’s brought to you by ThatLeisureShop.com and sponsored by Ripe.
[00:00:44] Matt Sims: Now remember to follow on your favourite podcast app or if you’re watching on YouTube, click subscribe and the little bell. It’s your chance to win a Nomad’s Kitchen Bundle worth £120. The prize includes the amazing Nomad’s Kitchen, which includes loads of herbs and spices and everything you need for cooking on the road, including the cutest little cutting board you’ll ever come across. The family Lightweight Cutlery set, which has everything you need for cooking knives, forks, spoons, spatulas for the whole family. This brilliant thermal insulated mug which comes with its own coffee filter. It’s really cute. That’s just amazing. Plus, we’ve got the bottle set for storing your oils and this little set of compact flat pack containers. All of this is worth £120 and it could be yours for free. The competition will close on the 9th of June and will be pulling a winner on the 10th of June. To enter is dead easy and it’s free. Just head to mhmp.info/nomad. That address again mhmp.info/nomad. Good luck.
[00:01:57] Keith Gooden: We’re counting down to the Vanlove Festival. Matt, when is it?
[00:02:00] Matt Sims: It is Thursday the 18th of June to Sunday the 21st of June 2026. And it’s this year at Thruxton Race Circuit in Hampshire.
[00:02:10] Keith Gooden: So what’s included?
[00:02:12] Matt Sims: There’s loads going on. There’s a trade area. There’s live music and entertainment all weekend. We’re taking the podcast there. I will be doing some live interviews during the weekend, which we hope to release in the feed with lots of special guests. The big news, of course, is that The Stig and Ruby Rides are coming on Friday, and the Van Love team have rented the go kart race track at Thruxton. And I and several other influencers and YouTubers and the like will be taking on The Stig and no doubt following him around the track.
[00:02:44] Keith Gooden: Yes.
[00:02:46] Matt Sims: No doubt he’ll probably lap me.
[00:02:48] Keith Gooden: You’re also live on stage with your DJ double-deck set, aren’t you? Double decks.
[00:02:53] Matt Sims: I’m not taking me records. I’m a USB DJ. [UNCLEAR]
[00:02:56] Keith Gooden: Oh, you just stand there pointing pretending you’re doing so.
[00:03:00] Matt Sims: I am doing a set on. I think it’s a Saturday. An hour of my indie bangers. Yes, I’m back on stage deejaying, which is a whole new experience for the last 30 years, which was the last time I did it.
[00:03:11] Keith Gooden: How hard can it be? Anybody can do it.
[00:03:13] Matt Sims: Yeah, well, you did it for donkey’s years.
[00:03:15] Keith Gooden: How hard can it be? Easy.
[00:03:17] Matt Sims: It’s gonna be a laugh. It’s going to be great fun. And then, of course, on the Sunday is the big parade of all the motorhomes around the circuit. There’s loads going on throughout the whole show. That Leisure Shop will be there as well, so I’ll be there with them on our stand. You can get 10% off your tickets and there’s still time to get them. Just use the code Motorhome Matt. Head to mhmp.info/love.
[00:03:41] Keith Gooden: It’s the Motorhome Matt podcast with me, Keith Gooden and.
[00:03:43] Matt Sims: Me Motorhome Matt.
[00:03:44] Keith Gooden: And it’s brought to you www.thatleisureshop.com and sponsored by Ripe. This episode is all questions and answers Q&A all the way through where you ask the questions and Motorhome Matt will give the answers. And if he doesn’t know, as I say, every week, he will ask somebody who jolly well does. First of all, Richard Brown is on the Isle of Man.
[00:04:07] Richard Brown: I have a question relating to the podcast. You’ve just issued with regard to the power packs, the question is that at the end of your podcast, you mentioned your home with an external point connected to the van exactly like I have and have had for over ten years without any issues. But apparently there is an issue potentially, and I didn’t understand it, but I do have E&P levelling. So therefore my van is standing on four steel legs. Does that mean that my van is okay because it’s grounded, or am I missing the point entirely? That does lead to a second question, though. Maybe your experts could help with E&P levelling in a thunderstorm. Should I retract those legs? Because of course, lightning is an issue or could be an issue. I don’t know. I don’t understand, and I’m afraid you lost me with most of your technical stuff. Thanks a lot and thanks again for your wonderful podcasts.
[00:05:12] Keith Gooden: Cheers, Richard. Yeah, I’m with Richard on this one. That podcast back time and time again. I couldn’t get to the bottom of it. I mean, you did a fantastic job explaining it and the experts did as well. But it is a very technical subject. First of all, what’s an E&P levelling system?
[00:05:27] Matt Sims: Oh, they’re a brand of levelling system. So let’s rewind back to his first point about hooking up at home. And I did drop this bombshell at the end of the episode. Yes. And we are going to revisit this with an electrician because it raises so many questions because there are so many different scenarios. Is your house earthed via a rod in the ground like ours is at home? Is your house earthed via the neutral at the grid, which is very different if you then connect the motorhome to that. What is the impact if your motorhome is on tires? It’s not earthed, but if it has levelling, as Richard points out, it is earthed. What’s the impact of all of these different types of scenario? And hooking up at home is fundamentally different to hooking up at a campsite. The fundamental difference is that a campsite hook up point is earthed via a ground rod and tested very regularly. Now, I don’t want people going out and banging a stake of metal in the ground and earthing their hook up point at home and creating what’s called a TT earth into the earth. We’re going to wait and get a professional electrician on. I’ve been talking to several, and a chap has agreed to come on who is not in the motorhome world.
[00:06:40] Matt Sims: He is a qualified electrician. He’s CEO of quite a big electrical business and has been for decades. And he’s agreed to come on and have a chat with me about it and unpack this in layman’s terms. And he is an electrician, I believe can do that. So stay tuned. That is coming over the summer, but we need to get things organised and discussed and researched before we can present all the facts to you, because there is a lot of information out there and some of it is incorrect, so bear with us on that. On the point of levelling, it’s a really valid point. What if you are in an electrical storm, a lightning storm and you’re earthed to ground? Are you safe if the levelling jacks are down? Now, I’ve tried to get an answer definitively for this, and we’re still waiting for the levelling companies to come back to me with some answers I could not find anywhere. Any advice from any of the levelling manufacturers on what you should do in a thunderstorm when there’s lightning? Should you raise the jacks? I think it’s a perfectly good question.
[00:07:42] Keith Gooden: And is this because the jacks are metal and.
[00:07:45] Matt Sims: Touching the ground.
[00:07:46] Keith Gooden: Touching the ground. So you so you raise them up. So you’ve got tires on the ground which are largely rubber.
[00:07:52] Matt Sims: Yes, yes. And so now you’ve bypassed that potential insulation, right? And created a conductor that is touching earth. Yes. What’s the impact of that on hooking up at home and being in a thunderstorm? So we are going to dig into this. I am waiting for some answers. So we will revisit this in a future episode, probably when we’re covering the electrical topic of earthing and hooking up at home. But on the topic of levelling, you can find our really useful guide to levelling, where we unpack all of the levelling systems and their features and benefits. You can get it for free. You just need to give us your first name and an email address. We produce this in conjunction with Bristol Caravans. So thank you again to Oakley and his team for helping me pull this together. You can find it for free at mhmp.info/levelling. So go and check that out. And then we will come back to you with this definitive on best practice for using levelling in lightning and at home if you’re hooking up.
[00:08:48] Keith Gooden: Yeah. You want some Motorhome Matt podcast flow diagrams, don’t you? You know the things where you ask the question, am I such and such? Tick. Then you go down to the next bit.
[00:08:58] Matt Sims: Somebody somewhere may have been in the Motorhome Matt chat Motorhome Matt group that somebody did ask me, could we have different scenarios spelled out? And then the impact of hooking up at home, hooking up at a campsite, using a portable power pack. But there are so many, it could get very complicated. So we’ll see.
[00:09:16] Keith Gooden: Yeah. The problem with this is, you know, it could be and I’m not overdramatising, but in an extreme case, it could be a life and death situation, particularly if somebody’s got a pacemaker or something like that, which can be affected by.
[00:09:27] Matt Sims: But then that begs the question, has this ever gone wrong? Has anyone ever been killed?
[00:09:31] Keith Gooden: Has it ever happened to anybody?
[00:09:32] Matt Sims: I don’t know. Not to my knowledge. But that’s not the point, is it?
[00:09:35] Keith Gooden: Facebook’s not your friend on this. Online is not your friend. So what we have to do before we do anything at the podcast, we have to research it and make sure we’re absolutely right. And so that’s why Matt has to talk to proper electricians who know their stuff. So we’re not sitting on the fence, particularly if it’s an electric one. I tell you what. I tell you what.
[00:09:56] Matt Sims: You’re here all.
[00:09:56] Keith Gooden: Day. Oh, thanks for the question, Richard. And the Isle of Man.
[00:10:00] Matt Sims: There’s your chair. You sit there and I’ll plug it in.
[00:10:03] Keith Gooden: Now, as you know, Ripe are one of our sponsors, and we’re very happy to have them. Steve Banks is asking a question of Ripe, and he says, hi. Is there a customer service direct number to get a quote? Well, what did Ripe have to say?
[00:10:19] Matt Sims: Ripe said, hi, Steve. Yes, the Ripe customer team is based in our office in Greater Manchester. You can contact us in a variety of ways, either via our website, email or our phone number, which is reach for the pen. 0800 781 5310. That’s 0800 781 5310. Our online process to get a quote is designed to be really straightforward to enable people to buy their insurance quickly and easily, but we get that sometimes you might just need to check the detail with someone. We aim to be as efficient as possible on the phone too and aim for calls to be answered within 60s. So either way, we hope you have a positive experience and we can resolve your query. We look forward to hearing from you. That was Mel and the Ripe team. Thank you Mel.
[00:11:05] Keith Gooden: Yeah. And that number again is 0800 7815310. Within 60s it’s pretty good. I was on the phone to the taxman the other day, 25 minutes waiting for them to answer. That was.
[00:11:15] Matt Sims: Quick. I was on to HMRC for nearly an hour.
[00:11:18] Keith Gooden: Woohoo! You’ve mystery shopped them haven’t you?
[00:11:20] Matt Sims: Yeah, several times. And I have to say the service has been fantastic every time. Even when I was deliberately trying to be difficult.
[00:11:29] Keith Gooden: No. Not you.
[00:11:30] Matt Sims: Yeah. So the mystery shop of Ripe does continue and it will be continuing. So if you’ve had a great experience with them, please tell us. But if you’ve had a less than great experience, I’d also like to know so we can feedback to Ripe. They really are genuinely fantastic at trying to address issues, so do let me know.
[00:11:50] Keith Gooden: Don’t forget to quote Motorhome Matt and you’ll get 15% off your premium. Or if you’re getting a quote online, just head to the link in this episode. Description. Rachel’s in Merseyside.
[00:12:03] Rachel: So we put deposit around about a month ago on a 2024 CV80 with a dealer in northern England. Basically, we got to see it for about an hour, but it didn’t have all of the paperwork with it, really liked it. We got back to them the next week via email and asked them about the warranty. On the website it said warranty six, so we thought that was six years that would have been left with the water ingress warranty. We didn’t get a reply for about two weeks, kept chasing and finally caught up with them. And it turns out that it hadn’t ever had a habitation check, so the Elddis warranty was not in place. I’m now trying to claw back my two k deposit because it was not worth the money without that warranty, and they’re refusing to return my calls or reply to my emails. I appreciate any help you can give me. Thank you.
[00:12:53] Keith Gooden: Well, there you go. Rachel’s in Merseyside, and it sounds like she might be dealing with people who aren’t clearly playing the game.
[00:13:04] Matt Sims: Could be. Yeah. It’s a difficult game to play for some dealers, but I’m disappointed to hear this, Rachel. I really am. You need to check out our episode on deposits. And should you get a deposit back if you’ve paid for a motorhome, which you’re trying to buy, if you just Google Motorhome Matt deposit, you will find it. It’s all about the terms and conditions of the sale agreement that you signed when you were at the dealership. If the dealership are refusing to contact you and you pay using a bank card or credit card, you may be able to get the bank involved and they will reclaim the deposit for you as you’ve not received the goods. But if you are the dealer listening to this and this rings true for you, please do the right thing. Get in touch with Rachel. I am a fan of dealers refunding the deposit. There may be some conditions applying to that, that they want you to get into a different vehicle. That may be an option, Rachel, that you could put that deposit onto something else, or they might refund it when they’ve sold it again, or they might refund part of it. But either way, communication needs to happen first. It is about persisting to get hold of them. I would go back and visit and turn up, but it’s not automatically the case that you are going to get your deposit back. I’m afraid it is about those terms and conditions on the order form that you signed.
[00:14:23] Keith Gooden: But it’s not good, good business practice is it for people to just blank you?
[00:14:27] Matt Sims: No, of course not. No. And then what happens? Your only option is to go to your bank. As I say, and start leaving one star reviews, which that’s just depressing for everyone. So this is an annoying feature of our buying cycle that we go through as consumers and as dealers. It’s really important that they are communicating to you the terms around that deposit. If you pull out, are you going to get it back? A dealer can keep the deposit and it’s perfectly legal for them to do that. Doesn’t seem very fair to me, but that’s my view. And I’m a dealer. So we would refund a deposit unless we’d spent money preparing the motorhome for you. So say we had had it serviced or had it MOT’d or fitted, a very specific accessory for you. We would, I feel, be in our rights to charge you for that and refund the rest. But lots of dealerships act differently, as you will find in the episode where I spoke to several and we got comments from them. So Google Motorhome Matt deposits and you’ll find the episode.
[00:15:27] Keith Gooden: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it’s something to be said, isn’t there for, you know, using what’s known as an escrow, you know, for things like deposits, isn’t there instead of it going straight into the, the dealership’s bank account and aiding their cash flow, you know, where it’s held until the deal is done. Now, my dealers might not like that, but it is protection for the consumer, isn’t it?
[00:15:48] Matt Sims: Yeah it is. And that’s why I say if you pay with a Visa protection or Mastercard protection, then they will have your back, whether through your bank or through one of those credit associations. Then they will potentially be able to reclaim it for you as well.
[00:16:01] Keith Gooden: Claire’s in Dorset. Hi there. Don’t giggle at this question please. But could you possibly advise if we stay in our motorhome, on a site in a county with a hosepipe ban in place, will it stop us filling up the water tank on the site? Thanks for your podcast. Good question.
[00:16:19] Matt Sims: I think it’s a very interesting question. I’ve never encountered this. We are about to get some very hot weather, aren’t we? As we record.
[00:16:25] Keith Gooden: This because is it a hosepipe ban? Is it about not using hosepipes at all or is it what you’re using the water? I know you can’t wash cars and you can’t do do your lawn with them. But is it banning all hosepipes? I suppose it’s a bit like allotments. I’ve got an allotment and hosepipes are banned 24/7 on our allotment. You know, we have to carry the water to and from the allotment in watering cans. Right. So I suppose you got the option of doing that.
[00:16:52] Matt Sims: I wonder if the caveat for the hosepipe ban is that it’s for watering plants and just using a hosepipe to do something other than drinking it. So with a motorhome, you’re refilling the water tank to drink water. Now a local council or water board can’t stop you drinking water, can they? We can still run the.
[00:17:10] Keith Gooden: Tap and they don’t want to either.
[00:17:12] Matt Sims: No, of course not. But I wonder if you could prove that you were filling the water tank with a hosepipe. That would be acceptable. But if you’re washing the van, that would be wrong. And outside of that ban, and I wonder if common sense needs to play a good role here. So I think probably I’d like to think that if a councillor was to turn up on a campsite where you were using a hose, highly unlikely. And they could see that you were filling the water tank, I think you’d be fine.
[00:17:39] Keith Gooden: And of course, you do use different hoses, don’t you, for your water tanks?
[00:17:42] Matt Sims: Yeah, we should use food grade hose, which would be sensible anyway for different reasons, as you don’t get bacteria like you do in a garden hose. Ultraviolet can’t penetrate the water hose. A food grade hose. So yeah, that would also evidence that you’re filling a water tank.
[00:17:57] Keith Gooden: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, so somebody who worked in journalism for the BBC and local radio for a couple of decades, I dealt with councils. I can tell you wherever you go, each council will have slightly different rules. So there might be a hosepipe ban. But it’s not it’s not a central thing. The councils will declare that all the water companies will declare their their hosepipe bans for the area that you might be in, and it might be different for Somerset than it is for Essex, you know. So yeah, so Greater London.
[00:18:27] Matt Sims: Well, but a common denominator for all councils is that. No it’s not, I mean.
[00:18:33] Keith Gooden: Essex.
[00:18:35] Matt Sims: Essex. Now one common denominator is they never blooming reply to emails. That’s my experience of any council.
[00:18:41] Keith Gooden: Oh well yeah. Yes yes. Okay, then. Thanks for the question, Claire. Very interesting one. That one. Peter. Peter, let me get this right.
[00:18:50] Peter Hoyland: Peter Hoiland from North Wales. A year ago last September, I purchased a card from IQ Go so that I had internet access for a month in France. I want to do the same again in the near future, but I don’t seem to be able to find out much about IQ Go and I wondered if you knew whether they are still in business. Okay, thanks a lot. Keep up the good work. Bye.
[00:19:17] Keith Gooden: He’s gone. Forget the IQ, Peter. He’s gone. Okay. Weren’t they a fairly new company?
[00:19:25] Matt Sims: No, they’ve been around a while. So we had.
[00:19:27] Keith Gooden: Are they still.
[00:19:28] Matt Sims: Around? They are still around? Yeah. James was on the podcast and we were talking about their product that could enable you to get data on a SIM card when you’re in Europe. And then two weeks after we released the podcast, their provider changed all the rules. So suddenly the episode was out of date.
[00:19:44] Keith Gooden: It was because of Brexit.
[00:19:45] Matt Sims: Yeah.
[00:19:46] Keith Gooden: Well yeah it was yeah it was because it was because of Brexit.
[00:19:49] Matt Sims: You said the B word. I did. They are still around very very much still around. They have reinvented their product. But you need to go to helloiq.co.uk. That’s their website. I spoke to them yesterday actually and James is no longer with them. He’s moved on and doing something else. But they have changed their model significantly since we did the podcast with them. They now offer a UK SIM card that, like many, has a 25% data cap if you’re using it in the EU because of the fair usage policy. But they also offer an EU SIM, which is £20 a year, and then you can buy data for it. Typically it’s 100GB is £75 and that will last. I think it’s for that year. But head to helloiq.co.uk and you’ll find all their UK and EU SIMs on there.
[00:20:35] Keith Gooden: I read that as helloiq.co.uk. helloiq.co.uk get it right. I always criticise people whenever you ask somebody like in an interview and you say, well, they always sort of pause or get that their website wrong. And I’ve just done it, haven’t I?
[00:20:53] Matt Sims: You have just done it.
[00:20:54] Keith Gooden: helloiq.co.uk.
[00:20:57] Matt Sims: Now, a little hint of something that’s very exciting is happening here at That Leisure Shop. Many of you have got the Pathway 4G and we’ve had lots of people asking us. It’s gone from your website because we’re out of stock. We have sold them all. And as we record this, about 3 or 4 left for sale online in the UK.
[00:21:14] Keith Gooden: That’s a great gadget.
[00:21:15] Matt Sims: Other resellers. But there is a new one coming soon, so stay tuned to find out some of its new features. And when it’s here, we hope early summer. They are on the way. International troubles are causing delays. That’s an understatement. So stay tuned for Pathway 2. It’s coming soon.
[00:21:36] Keith Gooden: Dean Holmes is in Stornoway. Hi. I will be buying my first motorhome soon from a dealer. Should I get an independent habitation check and RAC mechanic check, or should all of these checks be done? Your advice would be appreciated. Thank you, says Dean Holmes in Stornoway. Matt.
[00:21:57] Matt Sims: So it depends on the dealer. So if it’s a decent dealer, they would have done a full habitation check and a mechanical and chassis check. But that is going to be led by the standards that the dealer operates. You may want to seek peace of mind by having an independent inspection done, and again, a decent dealership will allow you to do that. So have a third party come to site and inspect it. My personal view is that an engine inspection by someone like the RAC or the AA is of pretty low value, unless the motorhome is very high. Mileage has been stood for a very long time, and you can see there’s gaps in the MOT history, or it’s maybe over ten years old. Then I would say there’s little value in having that done. We actually had a customer have an AA inspection done here of a vehicle they were buying for their peace of mind, and we were very happy that they did it. And even the AA guy said, this is an absolute waste of my time. He said, it’s four years old. He said, I bet it’s got a full service history.
[00:22:59] Matt Sims: It did. It had an oil change, at least I think it had three in the 15,000 miles it had travelled. And he said this is pretty pointless. He checked the VIN number, didn’t even check the engine number. He opened the bonnet, checked the oil, checked the other fluids, looked at the tires, looked at the brakes and said, well, that’s it, I’m done. And he said, this is really a waste of money for your customer. I said, well, they want the peace of mind. I’m happy that you come and do it. No problem. And it had all its habitation checks as well. And we were able to evidence those. Now we use a third party to do our checks on vehicles we’re selling. We don’t do them ourselves. But if the dealership have done it and you’re concerned, then feel free to ask them if you can get an independent inspection done. I would say the most important thing is a damp check. Make sure that the damp check is up to date and has been done recently. So that would be my advice.
[00:23:49] Keith Gooden: Yeah. Read the small print. As we pointed out to Rachel in Merseyside earlier on in this podcast. But ask, ask, ask if they look like they’re getting annoyed. Remember, you’ve got the money and they want it. James is in Whitstable. We’re looking moving from a caravan to a motorhome. But I’m wondering, should we avoid ones with the Ford wet belt engine? I’ve looked at Fiat, Mercedes and Volkswagen instead. Any help would be very much appreciated. Thank you. The wet belt is where the timing belt goes partially through the oil sump, doesn’t it? Yeah, and it lubricates it. And for some reason they’ve got a really bad name because people haven’t been keeping up with replacements or with servicing, have they, Matt.
[00:24:34] Matt Sims: Well, it’s not even that they are a ludicrous idea. They are a cost effective way of putting a timing belt in an engine. So to keep the top and the bottom of the engine in sync, they’re inside in oil and they’re made of rubber. So they decompose and ultimately they snap a cambelt will snap. Cam chain less likely to. But a a wet belt is very likely to snap if it’s not serviced.
[00:24:57] Keith Gooden: Got to be serviced, got to keep up with the service.
[00:24:59] Matt Sims: So yes, and Ford have stated to me that 0.1% of motorhomes on a Ford Transit with the wet belt have had an issue. That’s a very tiny amount of motorhomes that they’ve sold or chassis that they’ve sold with vans, delivery vans. I have no doubt it’s a very different statistic. Would I buy a motorhome with a wet belt? Yes I would, the transit is brilliant to drive. It’s fantastic. Drives, lovely ride. They are great, but I would be changing it early. So I think Ford originally said 70,000 miles. I would be changing it at 40,000 miles. I would service it every year. I change the oil every year, regardless of mileage. Probably the service interval is 20 something thousand. You’re not going to do that in a motorhome, probably. I would be changing it every 12 months and make sure you’re using the right oil as well as recommended by Ford. This is really important. So they have said to me that the reason a wet belt will snap is because people have not serviced it, not changed the oil, done very high mileage or used the wrong oil. But there is also an issue, I believe, where with motorhomes they’re sat around. So the wet belt is sat in the oil for long periods of time and not being started, and that can cause the wet belt to degrade. And there are people around who have had this issue, wet belts snapping after very little mileage because it’s been stood around. So my advice would be, and I would buy one if I owned one, I don’t. But if I did, I would be starting it regularly and making sure the oil warms up, making sure the belts moving and changing that oil frequently, maybe every 5,000 miles or once a year, and changing the belt early as well.
[00:26:39] Keith Gooden: Yeah, my son’s got a Peugeot, which has got a wet belt in his car. It’s a car. Yeah, not a motorhome. And Peugeot are at pains to say you’ve got to keep up with the servicing schedule. And they reduced the belt change, I think down from 80,000 to 60,000 a couple of years ago because they didn’t want to see belts degrading. But your point about motorhomes and them being sat for long periods and not really doing a lot of mileage is a good one. But as far as wet belts are concerned, you’ve just got to pay attention to the servicing schedule and you can’t say, oh, well, we didn’t use it much last year, so let’s forget this service. It doesn’t matter if we don’t get it serviced at 30,000, we’ll wait until 35. It doesn’t matter. It does with wet belts doesn’t it?
[00:27:23] Matt Sims: I’ve done our cambelt on ours. We have a Fiat Ducato and it’s done now probably 40,000 miles. And we’ve just done the cambelt last year and that was ahead of time, but I’ve done it. It’s nearly at the age where it needed doing. I’ve done it anyway as part of that service. This is the other rub though, with the wet belt is they are not cheap to replace. So you are going to spend 1000 or £1500 depending on where you go to get it done. Some people are getting quoted a lot more than that, so it’s not cheap exercise to replace the wet belt. But if you say, well, I’m going to do it in five years and you spread that £1,500 over that five years, it’s not really a huge sum of money per week, not really. Not in the scheme of motorhome ownership. And it’s just it has to be a factor that you build in to your cost of ownership, of owning that particular type of vehicle.
[00:28:09] Keith Gooden: Hope it’s been some help. James Graham-Hughes is in Portsmouth. Outside barbecue points. What’s the best setup? Orange pipe from the barbecue point? Do we use jubilee clips then? Do we fit a regulator to the pipe, then to the gas barbecue? Do we need a regulator? Many thanks. What’s he talking about? Don’t. Don’t you just use, you know, a gas drum and you connect the.
[00:28:33] Matt Sims: Gas.
[00:28:33] Keith Gooden: Drum? Yeah. What do you call it, a bottle. A Calor bottle to you don’t just use one of them.
[00:28:40] Matt Sims: Yeah. You could.
[00:28:40] Keith Gooden: So barbecue point is at the side of the motorhome.
[00:28:43] Matt Sims: Exactly. So Graham, thanks for asking this because this is really important. So there’s a number of factors here. I’m about to get a gas barbecue point often called an external gas barbecue point. So it’s connected to the outside of the van and connected to your gas bottles on the van or your gas tank. That’s fixed.
[00:28:56] Keith Gooden: So you don’t have to move the bottles about because they’re heavy.
[00:28:59] Matt Sims: So currently I’m lifting the bottle out and connecting that to my barbecue. And on the end of my barbecue, I do have a gas regulator, so I can the gas bottle is high pressure and you have to convert that to low pressure, typically 30 millibar and that’s what the regulator does. So I’ve got a gas bottle top regulator that I screw in, and I connect it to my barbecue and I’m running then at 30 millibar perfectly safe. If I’m going to connect a gas barbecue point to the van that would normally be connected on the low pressure side. So the installation is going to look like a gas bottle, the regulator fixed in the gas locker, and then all the pipes off to the appliances, which run at low pressure, and you run a gas pipe from that point. Now, where do you install the gas connection? Many installers will tap into an existing gas pipe, often by the fridge, because that’s easy to get to and split there. The risk is there’s not enough pressure getting to the fridge and the gas barbecue anymore. So you could impact the use of the fridge because there’s not enough gas pressure. So the idea, I think, and talking to an engineer about this is you connect the gas barbecue point to the manifold. It’s called where all the taps are, and you can turn everything on and off. And ideally you’ve got an isolator as well for the gas barbecue point. So you can isolate that point. Makes sense so far.
[00:30:16] Keith Gooden: Yes.
[00:30:19] Matt Sims: Thank you. The other consideration is where you put the gas barbecue point, and I’ve Miles to thank for this at MJB Tourer Services. And he made this point. He said many people just put them inside the van by the habitation door. If you put an awning on the side of your van. So a blow up tent, a drive away awning, and you’ve got a gas barbecue point inside the awning. The temptation is to connect your barbecue to it inside the tent. You are then creating a carbon monoxide poisoning.
[00:30:46] Keith Gooden: Risk.
[00:30:47] Matt Sims: In that environment. Yes. So he said, we always make sure that people are aware that they shouldn’t be using a barbecue inside an awning, which doesn’t exist when they’re fitting the barbecue point. It’s later on. So he would advise considering that and maybe putting the barbecue point outside of where the awning would go. I also want to shout out to Oakley at Bristol Caravans, whose brain I also picked about the jubilee clip point, and he said, yeah, they’re fine to use. The purpose of a jubilee clip is to stop the pipe coming away. It’s just to hold it in place. The pipe should bite onto the barbs itself on the metalwork of the brass fitting and the jubilee clips just there to hold it. But, he said, I would advise using ones that don’t have the holes in that bite into the gas pipe because they are safer. So a top tip there from Oakley and I asked Oakley, how long can my orange flexible hose be? So I struggled to find any regulation for this apart from the one in the gas locker where you go from the regulator to the bottle and the maximum they can be is 450mm.
[00:31:52] Matt Sims: Now that’s not very long. Half, less than half a metre. I want my barbecue further away from the van than half a metre, because I’m going to risk setting fire to the van. So how long can it be? Well, we managed to get an answer from the MCEA on this, the Mobile Caravan Engineers Association and they suggested two metres max. Now, interestingly, we regularly as That Leisure Shop sell gas pipe. That’s 3 or 4m long because that’s what people ask for. They order it online and we deliver it. We don’t ask what they’re doing with it, but they advise that it shouldn’t be more than two metres long. That’s still very close to your van. So I don’t know what the safest route is for a gas pipe. I remember talking to one guy who said, I want to connect to the gas bottle at the front of my caravan, but I want to use it at the back of the caravan and the caravan is eight metres long, so he wanted to buy ten metres of gas hose. Now, I said, I’m not sure that’s a clever idea.
[00:32:46] Keith Gooden: That’s a lot of gas in transit at any one time. I wonder how much in cubic feet that is once you take the length of that hose.
[00:32:53] Matt Sims: Yeah. And the other risk is that the pressure drops as it goes down.
[00:32:55] Keith Gooden: Yes.
[00:32:56] Matt Sims: Of course. Distance of hose. So I advised him not to do that. And he did. I recall by 2 or 3m. So best practice would be get a gas barbecue point professionally installed, make sure it’s on the low pressure side and you can isolate it. Consider where that point is in terms of your environment that you’re going to be cooking in. So you don’t risk giving yourself carbon monoxide poisoning by having it the barbecue in an awning. And consider the length of the hose as well. Keep it as short as is reasonably possible. And as I say, two metres is what I’ve been advised.
[00:33:29] Keith Gooden: Little suggestion from me. You’ll probably scoff. Laugh and point.
[00:33:32] Matt Sims: Cook on an induction hob.
[00:33:34] Keith Gooden: No. I some years ago got a little. I’ll mention the name of it. Outback Portable Barbecue, which is fairly small, about a foot long by six inches wide. But it takes the gas bottles you get from DIY shops. Yeah. You know the little ones? Yeah.
[00:33:49] Matt Sims: Cans. What? Little like the aerosol.
[00:33:50] Keith Gooden: Yeah. And they last a fair 250.
[00:33:52] Matt Sims: Yeah.
[00:33:53] Keith Gooden: Just buy two of them.
[00:33:55] Matt Sims: Well, it depends on your barbecue isn’t it. Yeah.
[00:33:57] Keith Gooden: But what I’m saying is you don’t have to have the big bottle. And if there’s, say, three of you or four of you in the van. Yeah. Two adults, two children. Two of those barbecues would be the same grilling space as a large one. And you wouldn’t have to carry the huge bottle.
[00:34:10] Matt Sims: No, it’s very true. You could have an independent one, but there’s something very convenient about having the ability to connect to your existing gas bottles. And also, if you’re going to go for a posh barbecue, you need an external gas supply. So brands like Cadac make a fantastic range of barbecues, and we have a little safari chef, and that needs to run from a bigger gas bottle than the one you refer to. So we do connect to our Calor bottle, or you might have a refillable tank that you can connect to. So it is very convenient to be able to do that.
[00:34:39] Keith Gooden: How do people get in touch then? Matt.
[00:34:41] Matt Sims: We love it. If you did, please, if you have a question, you can send it to us at mhmp.info/askmatt. You can record it on the orange button. Please remember to tell us where you are or fill in the form and we’ll read it for you.
[00:34:53] Keith Gooden: Or you can join our new Facebook group chat with Motorhome Matt. It’s at mhmp.info/chat.
[00:35:00] Matt Sims: And remember to follow on your favourite podcast app. Or if you’re watching on YouTube, click subscribe and the little bell.
[00:35:07] Keith Gooden: Matt, tell me, what’s the actual risk of using public Wi-Fi, such as if I’m in a cafe?
[00:35:13] Matt Sims: Honestly, it’s bigger than people think. Public Wi-Fi is a gold mine for hackers. They can snoop on what you’re doing, steal your passwords, or even get into your email or worse, your bank.
[00:35:23] Keith Gooden: Well, even if I’m just checking the weather or booking a campsite.
[00:35:26] Matt Sims: Yeah, all it takes is one dodgy connection. That’s why I I use NordVPN on the road and at home right now. It encrypts everything so your data is locked up tight and their threat protection pro blocks malware and scammy websites before they even load.
[00:35:43] Keith Gooden: So it’s doing a lot more than just hiding your location.
[00:35:46] Matt Sims: Yeah, exactly. It’s like a digital deadlock for your devices. It runs in the background, no faff and no slowing you down.
[00:35:53] Keith Gooden: Okay. Where do people go to get it?
[00:35:55] Matt Sims: Just head to nordvpn.com/motorhomematt, where you’ll get four extra months free, and there’s a 30 day money back guarantee if it’s not for you.
[00:36:06] Keith Gooden: Not bad for a bit of peace of mind.
[00:36:08] Matt Sims: Exactly. Yeah, it’s a no-brainer.
[00:36:13] Keith Gooden: Thanks for listening to the Motorhome Matt podcast. Remember to check back here for more episodes full of hints and tips and helpful advice. We’ll see you soon for another Motorhome Matt podcast brought to you with ThatLeisureShop.com.
