Keith Gooden: In today’s episode of the Motorhome Matt podcast…
Matt Sims: We discover a new motorhome and campervan club.
Keith Gooden: In the news, the Motorhome and Caravan Show starts tomorrow.
Matt Sims: And we answer your questions on immobilisers for insurance, a dealer experience and speed limits after upplating.
Keith Gooden: Welcome to the Motorhome Matt podcast. I’m Keith Gooden.
Matt Sims: And I’m Motorhome Matt.
Keith Gooden: Industry insights and expert advice for the world of motorhomes, caravans and campervans. And it’s brought to you by www.thatleisureshop.com and sponsored by Ripe.
Matt Sims: Now, I always say this, but if you’re listening, remember to follow on your favourite podcast app. And if you’re watching, please click subscribe and the little bell on YouTube.
Keith Gooden: Tomorrow it’s the Motorhome and Caravan show at the NEC in Birmingham. It’s not just on tomorrow, it’s on until…
Matt Sims: It’s until Sunday, actually. Yeah, it’s going to be a big week. Can’t wait. Now it’s worth pointing out though, and noting, we’ve cheated. We are recording this in September because you may remember, I’m in hospital at some point this month of October for surgery. So we are recording ahead of time, so hopefully I’ll be at the show this week and feel well enough to sustain the whole week. So fingers crossed – I’m intent on doing it and hopefully I’ll be there. If you see me being stretchered out, then you know what’s gone wrong.
Keith Gooden: And it’s a little bit more than an ingrown toenail, isn’t it?
Matt Sims: Just a little bit. I’m actually awaiting triple heart bypass surgery after discovering a blocked artery. So it was a bit of a shock when we found this out. So we have been recording podcasts a little ahead of time because I’m in for – well, probably a 5 or 6 week period where we may not be able to record any. We are going to try and do a Zoom one, aren’t we, as I’m recovering at home. So we’ll keep you informed on progress. So yes, we are cheating, but nonetheless, as this is released, we are at the show this week. The team will be there if I’m not and the orange bags are back. So we have two fantastic sponsors in Warranty Solutions Group and motorhome.finance, who have helped us fund the orange bags so we can give you them for free. So come on to our stand. 9.32 in Hall nine, right in the entrance. Mrs Motorhome Matt will be there as will Fliss giving out the bags, and hopefully you’ll be with us as well for a couple of days.
Keith Gooden: Hopefully, unless they cart me off and try and operate on me as well.
Matt Sims: There’s nothing wrong with you.
Keith Gooden: You might end up with parts of me in you, said the actress to the bishop. Sorry about that.
Matt Sims: What?
Keith Gooden: Now, there’s a ticket discount for you as well. It’s at mhmp.info/nec2025.
Matt Sims: So if you’ve not bought your ticket yet, you can get a discount if you buy it before the day you go. This episode is brought to you in partnership with a Motorhome Matt Approved brand, motorhome.finance, powered by Creative Funding Solutions. motorhome.finance offer straightforward personal finance for anyone looking to buy a motorhome, campervan or caravan with a service that’s, frankly, refreshingly human. In the run-up to and during the October NEC Motorhome and Caravan show they’re offering some cracking deals, too. Just 7.9% APR on lends of £50,000 and more, and 8.9% APR on loans of £15,000 or more. And if you complete your finance deal before the show, you’ll get two free tickets to the event. Terms and conditions apply. And as ever, finance is subject to status. So if you’re planning your next leisure vehicle purchase and want really competitive rates and someone who will actually pick up the phone, head to motorhome.finance. And that is their web address. Just go to www.motorhome.finance. I’ve got a bone to pick with you.
Keith Gooden: What?
Matt Sims: Last week we were talking about duct tape.
Keith Gooden: Yeah, yeah.
Matt Sims: And I said to you…
Keith Gooden: Gaffer tape.
Matt Sims: Or gaffer tape. I called it duct tape.
Keith Gooden: And I said no, it’s not.
Matt Sims: You said it’s duck tape.
It is.
Duck Tape is a brand like Hoover for a vacuum. It’s actually duct tape.
Keith Gooden: You buy this tape for your ducts.
Matt Sims: For your ducting?
Keith Gooden: Yes. Yeah. How many ducting have you used duct tape on?
Matt Sims: Never. But how many ducks have you gaffered up?
Keith Gooden: It’s gaffer tape. It’s the head electrician on a film set.
Matt Sims: And also – gaffa tape is the term used in the UK. Gaffer tape, so the gaffer on a film set, the electrician, is the American term.
Keith Gooden: I think you’re wrong there. A gaffer – this sounds like AI to me.
Matt Sims: Check last week’s episode to find out what on earth we’re talking about.
Keith Gooden: You were right.
Matt Sims: I’m always right.
Keith Gooden: But I was more right than you were.
Matt Sims: You’re not righter than me.
Keith Gooden: So the main point of today’s podcast is to talk to somebody very special about something very new.
Matt Sims: It is very new, and I love this. So I’m always trying to find innovation in this wonderful pastime of ours. And I bumped into a guy called James Forrester. And James had set up something called the Van Club. Now, that sense of belonging and sense of community within this pastime is really important. One of the best things for me about going to shows and going to events is meeting you – people with a shared love for motorhoming and campervanning, and there’s a real sense of community on a campsite. We’re always quick to help each other out. Quite where it goes wrong on social media, I’m not sure, but James set up a brand new club, which he’s called the Van Club. And it is growing at a heck of a pace. Now, it’s worth commenting that the Camping and Caravanning Club, long established, are celebrating 125 years next year, but they’re not going to be at the NEC show this week, which is, I think, a shame.
Keith Gooden: That was a big shock, wasn’t it?
Matt Sims: It was a big shock. And they’re not going to be at the show in February. So I was fascinated that James saw the need for a new club. He’s called it the Van Club, and I asked him why.
James Forrester: It was spotting a gap in the market, really. I’ve been motorhoming now since 2017. I think there have been a few changes. During lockdown, I think it changed the way people think and the way people act for all different reasons. Campsites have gotten very expensive. And I’m not here to knock campsites because I’m a member of all different clubs and I stay on campsites, but I want value for money all the time when I go away. You know, I want to go somewhere where I meet a community because I think if I just went with the Mrs., I would just argue all the time in the van. And I’m sure people listening in are probably thinking we do that all the time, because you don’t have a lot to talk about, really. We’re with each other all the time. So I want to be with other like-minded people where you can share stories, different personalities and then add a little twist to it. Bring back that community spirit, which as we’re probably filming this seems to be what is happening in the UK right now. The community is trying to bounce back and we want this to be in the motorhome campervan van world of exactly what it was like in the ’60s and ’70s and early ’80s when I was growing up and going out in vans. So that was the whole point of setting it up – to have great times.
Matt Sims: Let’s just focus on the gap. So you say you saw a gap in the market. What was the gap?
James Forrester: I think the gap is – you’ve got two massive clubs. I’m a member of both. They do exactly what they say on the tin from that. And then you look – what else is out there?
Matt Sims: So their business model, though, is they own campsites or manage campsites, and they drive membership to visit those campsites. Plus they have lots of other spin-offs. You know, Alan Rogers, which of course is a huge network. Campsites across Europe. That’s not what you’re building, is it?
James Forrester: No, we’re sort of doing a more affordable route, if I can look at it that way. So we do rallies, meetups, across the UK. So if you were looking pretty much from Newcastle across to the Lake District, right down to sort of Somerset, right across to the north of Essex would be our square if you looked of where we operate. Every other weekend we would have local rallies on that are hosted by the Van Club itself and our Van Club crew, as they like to be called. Live music at all the events. So that could be anything from show bands. It could be acoustic music. We’ve had line dances, proper American line dances for country-themed weekends. We may do themed weekends so people can dress up. People might not want to dress up when they come to this. It’s absolutely fine. People can either get so involved or not involved at all. The best compliment I’ve ever had at one so far is they left early during the live music, and I and you just think, oh God, what’s wrong? And in the morning they said, “We’re a bit older now. We can’t stay up all night. But what we loved was going back to our van and listening to you all singing songs, laughing and joking. We wish we could still do that ourselves.” And I thought, wow, that’s exactly what we are here to do. And that’s what we do, and that’s what we’ve set up. We’ve also got CL sites coming from 2026, so certified locations. We’ve had a lot of enquiries coming through already. Because this is a business, at the end of it, you know, I’m in business. It’s a social club, but it has to generate funds. It’s got to be able to pay for itself. And with the CL sites, one of the things that we do here, a lot of feedback is, there’s no marketing for them. There’s there’s no real drive to drive traffic to them apart from if you search for it online. So I’m going to put my marketing brain together with some others, and we’re going to start driving traffic to the CL sites that are with the Van Club under our licence.
Matt Sims: So you’re building a community of people and members of this entity you’ve called the Van Club, who then meet up at various places throughout the year throughout the country. And you’re utilising campsites and other venues to get together, camp out in your vans, and you’re laying on some entertainment as well. And presumably there’s a cost for this weekend event every time. I suppose it’s a bit different to the Warner Shows where we met.
James Forrester: Yes.
Matt Sims: And you’re doing all the Warner shows where you’re exhibiting to help drive membership sales, but it’s different to that. There’s no trade area.
James Forrester: Yeah. There’s no trade area. We don’t want it to be that people get mixed in with trade and feel they might have to buy something or anything like that. This is purely getting together. There could be a two-day rally. There might be a three-, four-, five-day rally that we put on. If we are doing longer than a weekend rally, we allow people to choose two, three or four nights. Yeah, everything’s priced per van as well, rather than per person altogether. But the key thing for me is people can come and they can have live music. They feel involved, they feel part of it, rather than just maybe being a spectator. Now, don’t get me wrong, Warners is great value for money. I’m a very big Warners fan, so I think they’re great value for money and it’s very hard to beat them. We’re not looking to compete with them. What we do is on a much, much smaller scale, much more intimate. We get a lot of enquiries from single people or people who maybe now travelling on their own and they’re a little bit anxious, they’re a little bit nervous. You know, they’ve just bought a motorhome or a campervan or a van conversion because we don’t discriminate of what type of van you have, and they just want to meet other like-minded people and they can start to join in the fun. And I have always said this to friends of mine who have said, “We’re going to buy a motorhome.” I say, well, when you’re going to go away, go with somebody who’s got one first, because the experience is a lot better than if you just go on your own first.
Matt Sims: So this is a way, then, for people to find community and make new friends?
James Forrester: Absolutely.
One of the things I often hear is people say, “Well, we’re buying this motorhome, but we don’t really know where to go in it. Where do we go? How do we plan a trip?” So you’re giving people purpose with their travel planning and giving them destinations and events to go to.
James Forrester: Yeah, exactly. You know, regardless of what type of van you’ve got, they’re designed to put mileage on! You know, that’s what they’re for. They are designed to get miles on the clock. They’re not just fixed in a certain area. They are all over, you know. And people like it. It’s taking you to different areas of the UK that you may not have seen. You’re meeting different personalities. That’s why I said we don’t discriminate on the van. We’ve got everything from a Postman Pat van, where a lovely gentleman, Andy – he’ll probably be watching this. I think he has just sold it and he’s converting another one at the moment. But we’ve had that right through to not one but two double-decker buses who are members and everything in between. So your large motorhomes, campervans, you know, your typical van conversions.
Matt Sims: You’ve got a big Dethleffs, haven’t you?
James Forrester: Yes.
Matt Sims: So they’re welcome as well.
James Forrester: Dethleffs owners are welcome!
Matt Sims: I mean coachbuilt, factory-built motorhomes. It’s not just about self-built. It’s anything.
James Forrester: Anything, anything that’s self-contained as a van can come. And we have a lot of VW owners as well. And that’s nice because what we do see is people might have bought VW, they then think they want to upgrade and they see what other people have got. So they might think, “Well, I just want to get a self van conversion and convert it myself.” Some people are quite happy keeping their VW, but they don’t just always want to go to VW shows all the time. They want to meet other different people and different personalities and that’s what we bring in.
Matt Sims: So you say self-contained, so you have to have a toilet on board and your own water. Is that right?
James Forrester: Take your own water and your own toilet.
Matt Sims: Because you’re not always on site with facilities. That’s true, isn’t it?
James Forrester: Yeah. It’s the way the licence works, effectively. You’ve got to be self-contained. Nearly everywhere we do an event we’ll always have toilet facilities, though. We ypically don’t have showers. So that’s why ideally you’re able to shower obviously in your own van. But even if there’s not one in the van, I’ve seen people put their tents up at the back and have showered and do what they need to do. There are so many different accessories out there.
Matt Sims: Fresh wipes are the answer.
James Forrester: Fresh wipes as well!
Matt Sims: They’re brilliant. You can buy them at www.thatleisureshop.com. Shameless plug! They are superb. So you say this is a business? I just want to unpick that a bit. You are a businessman. You’ve been in property a very long time. And not just here in the UK. But you’ve done property worldwide, haven’t you?
James Forrester: I’ve sold property in 36 regions in 18 countries over my career.
Matt Sims: So what possessed you then to launch the Van Club?
James Forrester: We came back from Spain because I used to live in Spain for quite a while, which is where I met my wife and where my kids were born. We came back and we went on tent holidays. You know, we’d come out of financial crash. You are sort of starting again to rebuild. And obviously coming back from a different country, you are changing your habits. And we were down in the south of France with friends of ours camping at a Yelloh! campsite. Great value for money, by the way, for them. Great entertainment. Our kids were quite young at the time.
Matt Sims: Great for the kids.
James Forrester: Great for the kids. And I’d gone to a vineyard, as you do over there. I bought a few boxes of wine, and the last 24 hours they’d all gone up to the pool and asked if I was coming up. And I said, “No, no, I’m just going to rest. I want a bit of James time just to chill out before the long journey back.” And my wife said, “He’s panicking about how to fit everything back in the car and what’s not coming back to save the wine.”
Matt Sims: The wine was taking priority.
James Forrester: The wine, I think, takes priority over everything. And she basically just turned round and said, “I think we should buy a motorhome.” And I was like, “Idiots buy motorhomes.” Being in property, I said, all I see is, motorhomes sitting in storage yards all the time. And I went, what a waste of money – until I watched the French family beside me pack up. All the pop-up tents got chucked into the garage and I think he was gone within half an hour. And I thought, maybe there’s something to this. So, like any sensible person, you go to the NEC to tell everyone that you’re not buying a van and you end up getting one.
Matt Sims: So what did you buy? What was your first one?
James Forrester: My first one was an Elddis 255. Lovely van. I had the Alde heating, and that’s what we were always told. Get the Alde heating for the winter in the UK. One of the best bits of advice I’ve ever had. Lovely van. Did what it needed to do. We racked up about 50,000 miles on it. And then I changed it for another Dethleffs to the one that I have now.
Matt Sims: Okay. And now you’ve got a Dethleffs Alpa.
James Forrester: I have, yes.
Matt Sims: Which was designed by a Formula One driver. Did you know that?
James Forrester: I did know that, yes.
Matt Sims: That’s a lesser-known fact. You probably knew that because I already told you.
James Forrester: I think it was you who told me, actually!
Matt Sims: So tell us then, as a business venture, for you, the finances are important and you know how to crunch your numbers. And the landscape is challenging. You know, it really is for clubs, but you somehow think you can bypass that and circumvent that and build this. And you are – to be fair to you, you are growing this at a pace. You’ve hit a spot. Because I think people crave community. They crave a sense of belonging, and they crave that kind of comradeship. And I take my hat off to you for innovating in this way. I’m always craving innovation. But what does it actually cost to join the Van Club?
James Forrester: It’s £35 a year currently to join and as I say, that’s per van. So that includes two adults, two, three children, a couple of dogs. Don’t worry if you’ve got extra, just let us know. We’re not going to sort of restrict you on buying another membership in regards to that.
Matt Sims: Or leaving the least favourite child at home.
James Forrester: Yeah. Or on that one! And then you pay for the rallies and the rallies can range – it all depends on what we’ve got planned. Typically over a weekend, they would range from £40 a weekend up to, say, our New Year one because it’s coming up, which is also our birthday, which is £100. But on that one, for example, for £100 per van, you’ve got two nights of live entertainment and a great big buffet and some special gifts because it is the birthday. We did our launch at 12:00 on New Year’s Eve.
Matt Sims: Did you? Well, happy birthday for then. So the £40 weekend, that’s two nights – is there entertainment as well?
James Forrester: Yes. There’s always entertainment on one night. And then there would be games and some sort of quiz or some sort of Van Club twist, as we like to call it, that would be put on as well.
Matt Sims: And is that always a surprise? You’ve made it sound very mysterious.
James Forrester: Yeah, well, you’ll have the basics of it, and then we put the twist in between it.
Matt Sims: Okay. I mean, there’s not a bowl with loads of keys in it going on, is there? There’s none of that…?
James Forrester: I’m not sure most people have keys anymore.
Matt Sims: That’s true. So that gets you live entertainment. How many people have to go, then? Because, I mean, you must have to sell quite a lot of tickets for that weekend to pay for the venue, the music…
James Forrester: This is where the number crunching comes into it/
Matt Sims: Yeah, exactly. It’s a challenge.
James Forrester: You’ve got to be a firm negotiator. Naturally, the venues have got costs themselves. It’s also about their community as well, because I’m a big believer in shopping local rather than using all the big chains. And I think a lot of these places we could go to could be local rugby clubs, cricket clubs, village halls, you know, that really want to bring revenue into the area for their community as well. So normally we can strike a good deal with them, which then allows us with the pricing that we have to put the music on. But we’ve learned a few things along the way. You know, when you’re applying for music, for example, there’s certain words not to use because people – musicians might shy away from or sort of steer away from that because it’s taken the wrong way, as we’ve just learned!
Matt Sims: Go on, give me an example!
James Forrester: So rowdy is not a word to use, I’ve been told! So rowdy – being from the northeast, to me, that just means having good fun. And, you know, being up there. But rowdy to a lot of musicians, I’ve been told, means that they’re a bit too much.
Matt Sims: Heckling?
James Forrester: You don’t want to go to that type of gig.
Matt Sims: Okay, well, interesting. I never knew that. So what’s the plan for the future then? How many do you have a year?
James Forrester: So for 2026 coming up, because we’re already in the real planning now, with that, we’ll be doing between 50 and 60 rallies. And that’ll include some festivals in between this and some collaborations with some festival owners, as well as the trade shows on top of our club camping areas and our overseas rallies. So this year we have France, where we’re doing a wine festival tour.
Matt Sims: You’re off to Dunkirk, i understand.
James Forrester: We are. Yes. So I’ve been going to the same wine festival since 2017 altogether, apart from the two years we couldn’t go. So a lot of members have seen the photos. They’ve had the wine at my van and they like it. So they all want to come and find out where I’m buying it from! And then in 2026, we’ve got Portugal in January and then Greece later in the year in September, October.
Matt Sims: So ’26 is going to be a big year for the Van Club.
James Forrester: It’s a huge year. As you mentioned earlier, we’ve been growing at pace. It’s like anything – you start it and 20 or 30 people join immediately and you think, oh, we’re on a roll here, until you realise that they’re all your friends. Probably when you put this out, we will have just hit a thousand members within the space of ten months.
Matt Sims: That’s incredible. James, that’s really good. I take my hat off to you. I’m always craving innovation. And I always say, if you don’t innovate, you evaporate in business. And it’s the same in this pastime. And I welcome your innovation. I love the sense of community that you’re trying to build and the offer you’re giving people that makes their planning actually much easier for them to say, “Well, let’s go to that region. We’ve never been there and let’s have a weekend here.” And presumably if people go and they find it’s not quite what they thought or not for them, they can just head off and do their own thing, can they?
James Forrester: Yeah. We have people who do turn up and, you know, we always give them an itinerary. So we have what we call the Coca-Cola model. Everything should be the same. So it doesn’t matter which rally you go to, it will be exactly the same, what you get. So when people turn up, they’ll be handed an itinerary to show exactly what is going on that weekend. For example, are there dog-friendly pubs in the area? Can they do boat trips if it’s in the summer months, for example? Are there local museums or something that could be going on in the area so people could feel that they go and they go, oh, we could go and do that ourselves, if they wanted to. And we always say, you can be involved as much as you want with what we put on as the hosts or not be part of it at all and just use it as a base. It’s entirely up to you. You’re under no commitment whatsoever, and we do find that we have people who want to be involved in every little part of it and want to be in all the games, the dressing up. They might have 3 or 4 costumes throughout the whole weekend. You know, they’re up dancing first and the last ones off the dance floor. And then we will have people who just have high-pressure jobs and will be going, “We’re using this. We’re walking the dogs. We’ll listen to a bit of music. That’s good enough for us.” Absolutely fine for what we offer.
Matt Sims: It’s just a break from the norm, isn’t it? It’s brilliant, and I’m delighted that you are Motorhome Matt Approved as a result of this effort you’re putting in. And I’m really, really happy to put my name to this. So if you’re looking for places to go or people to meet and you want that sense of community, then I commend the Van Club to you. And I think it’s definitely worth joining. And there is a special offer too. You can find out more about the Van Club. Just head to mhmp.info/thevanclub. And if you enter the code Motorhome Matt on the website link to the Van Club, membership is not £35, but £30.
James Forrester: And a membership gift.
Matt Sims: And a membership gift. There we are. So you heard it there first. James, thank you so much for coming in and sharing that. I wish you every success for 2026. And I will be coming to at least one, if not several of your events next year, once I get over a few health challenges of my own. And I wish you every success with your health, too, because I know we’re both sharing a few challenges at the minute. Just don’t get old.
James Forrester: No, I think that’s the key. Live the Peter Pan lifestyle. Unfortunately, yeah, we’ve got to shed a few pounds this side for me and look after my health a little bit better.
Matt Sims: Seize the day, though, isn’t it? You know, we put off going on these trips in our motorhomes. Just do it. Just get away. And the Van Club is a great way of doing that. Thanks again for coming in.
James Forrester: Thank you.
Keith Gooden: That’s James Forrester. He’s the founder of the Van Club. Why do we need another club, Matt?
Matt Sims: There we are. So it’s all about growth of the community and choice for you, the consumer. So it’s a great way to engage with people who love this pastime. You can find out more about the Van Club on the Motorhome Matt Approved directory.
Keith Gooden: I’m not very technical, Matt. So would NordVPN be a faff to set up for me?
Matt Sims: Not at all. Download the app, tap one button and you’re connected. Simple. It works on phones, laptops, tablets, even your smart TV. And with threat protection built in, it blocks pop-ups, trackers and dodgy sites before they even load, so it makes browsing quicker and cleaner.
Keith Gooden: That sounds easier than setting up the sat nav.
Matt Sims: It’s much easier. Head to the link in the description to try NordVPN, and you’ll get a few months free on the two-year plan and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Keith Gooden: It’s the Motorhome Matt podcast. I’m Keith Gooden.
Matt Sims: And I’m Motorhome Matt.
Keith Gooden: It’s brought to you with www.thatleisureshop.com and sponsored by Ripe. Time now for our Q&A, questions and answers, where you ask the questions and Matt, the expert, answers them. And if he doesn’t know – and let’s face it, we demonstrated earlier on in this particular podcast that he was wrong a lot – he will ask somebody who does know the right answer.
Matt Sims: I’m going to use my gaffa tape on you in a minute.
Keith Gooden: So first of all, Adrian Hudson got in touch.
Adrian Hudson: Hi, Matt. Hi, Keith. It’s Adrian from Hampshire here. Matt, really great to meet you at the recent Newbury show. Really enjoyed our discussion around lithium batteries and all things motorhome related. I promised at the time that I’d drop you a good news story because the industry does take quite a bashing sometimes, but not always. I’ve got a really positive story for once. We’ve got a Coachman motorhome. We’ve dealt with three dealers over time owning motorhomes, and two of them are no longer in business. And we had some issues with their Coachman after delivery, normal warranty work, nothing major, but things that needed fixing. Unfortunately, we were high and dry. I spoke to Simon at Coachman at the NEC and within 48 hours he had put John, their field Engineering manager, in touch with me. John stepped in and has made sure the warranty work was all done with another dealer in the Coachman network, and has been absolutely fantastic in supporting us in getting everything resolved. Really grateful to Coachman and a massive contrast in our previous vehicle in the manufacturer standing behind their product and helping get customer issues resolved. So thanks very much. Keep up the good work, love the show and can’t wait for the next podcast.
Keith Gooden: Cheers, Adrian, thanks very much. March. Now, Ripe is a sponsor of this podcast. Mike from Nottingham’s been in touch. He says Ripe declined to quote him as his immobiliser was factory-fitted and not aftermarket. He says he thinks that’s very strange, and, “Many thanks. Keep up the good work with the podcasts.”
Matt Sims: Yeah, well, Ripe have actually just changed this and they came back to us with this response and said, “Thanks for letting us know, Mike. We talked about immobilisers in our recent episode with Matt. It’s a hot topic, so we’re always keen to answer any questions about this. When you did your quote, you will have been given a choice of two options for your immobiliser – factory-fitted or Thatcham.”
Keith Gooden: Ripe went on to say, “Depending on the make, model and value of your van, if you selected factory fitted and were declined, there will be a valid reason for this. However, a lot of people aren’t aware that a lot of factory-fitted immobilisers are actually category two Thatcham and therefore Ripe would accept that.”
Matt Sims: Yeah, that’s very true. “As this is something that’s really important, we’ve listened to the feedback and as a result we’ve made some changes. During the quote process, if you enter your registration when prompted and you select factory-fitted, it will now automatically recognise if it’s Thatcham-approved based on your vehicle details.”
Keith Gooden: Yeah, which is handy. They sa, “We are hoping this change helps customers so they don’t need to find the answer themselves.” And Mel from the Ripe team says thank you for the question.
Matt Sims: That’s a brilliant change. Well done, Ripe. Essentially, these two options were confusing people and causing them to select factory-fitted without them realising that their factory-fitted immobiliser may actually also be Thatcham approved. So they were declined and they didn’t need to be. So I’m really happy that the feedback from our listeners has helped drive this change, and that Ripe are once again ready to listen and adapt to make it easier. And remember, you can get 15% off your premium by clicking the link in the episode description.
Keith Gooden: Phil Richardson’s in Manchester. “Hi Matt, I have a speed question after upplating to 4,000kg. Previously because the unladen weight was below 3,050kg and still is, it was the same rules as a car. Now it’s plated to 4,000kg but the declared weight is unchanged. Have the speed limits dropped and can I still use the fast lane,” the overtaking lane, “On a motorway? Thanks.”
Matt Sims: Are you one of those? Everyone calls it the fast lane.
Keith Gooden: They’re wrong. And you see people on the motorway. I’m in the left-hand lane.
Matt Sims: Get the duct tape.
Keith Gooden: I’m diddling along at 70 miles an hour, and then you see somebody, usually in a red German car, come shooting up with a lane between you and them shooting up. And they’re doing it because they think they’re driving fast so they should be in the fast lane.
Matt Sims: Because they’re in a BMW.
Keith Gooden: It’s not a fast lane. It’s the overtaking lane. You go into it to overtake and you move in. For heaven’s sake, it’s not complicated.
Matt Sims: Can someone lift his soapbox away, please? So it’s actually lane one, lane two and lane three. No such thing as an overtaking lane. Lane one. Lane two. Lane three.
Keith Gooden: I was always taught it was a two-lane road with an overtaking lane.
Matt Sims: Okay, that’s when the world was black and white. Anyway, back to Phil… so the reality is, yes, because your kerb weight of 3,050kg has not changed, that’s what determines your speed limit and whether you can use the outside lane. In fact, it just determines your speed limit. So because that’s not changed, nothing’s changed for you. So I also did check this – and a shout out to Fliss, the trailer lady. I said, “Can you just help corroborate this for me?” And she’s a driving expert, despite the fact her husband crashed my BMW Z4 the other weekend. But we won’t talk about that… And she said, “Yes, Phil can still travel at the same speeds as a car.”
Keith Gooden: So how do people get in touch, then?
Matt Sims: We would love it if you did. If you’ve got a question, please ask it because I have no doubt that it’s shared by many others. Head to mhmp.info/askmatt. Fill in the form and we’ll read it for you. Or record it with the orange button. But please tell us where in the world you are!
Keith Gooden: And if you’re looking for trusted brands and services, then make sure you visit the Motorhome Matt Approved directory. It’s at mhmp.info/approved.
Matt Sims: And if you’re listening, please remember to follow on your favourite podcast app. Or if you’re watching on YouTube, click subscribe and the little bell – and we will see you in Birmingham.
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 www.thatleisureshop.com.
