Keith Gooden: In today’s episode of the Motorhome Matt podcast…
Matt Sims: I share my winter products for storing and travelling.
Keith Gooden: We’re off to the big show at the NEC.
Matt Sims: And we answer your questions on a Malibu versus a Twin motorhome, keeping bikes secure whilst driving, and satnav speedometers.
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 with www.thatleisureshop.com and sponsored by Ripe.
Matt Sims: Now remember, if you’re listening, please follow on your favourite podcast app. And if you’re watching, click subscribe and the little bell on YouTube.
Keith Gooden: The big news this week – and it is big – it’s the big show at the NEC, Matt!
Matt Sims: It’s back. It’s our twice-a-year holiday in the Midlands. The Motorhome and Caravan show is here from the 14th to the 19th of October. If you’re looking for a new motorhome or caravan, this is the place to go. There are thousands of them on display. It’s a huge show. Halls 8 to 20. I think it’s the biggest consumer show that the NEC runs.
Keith Gooden: I’ve been to shows at the NEC and they’re nothing in comparison to this. And if you’re a new listener to the podcast, this is the big one in the UK, you know, and it is spectacular. And we’re going to be there, aren’t we?
Matt Sims: We have a stand, 9.32. So as you go into Hall Nine, we’re right in the foyer. Can’t miss it. Just look for the orange and the big picture of me. Sorry about that. And look for the huge banners in the atrium as well. They are hilarious! But we will be there. Mrs Motorhome Matt will be talking about me for the whole week. What a lucky young lady she is. And Fliss is helping to. So Fliss who does driver training is there as well. And we will be there gathering some content for future episodes. So we are really keen to get your voices on the podcast.
Keith Gooden: Talking to you.
Matt Sims: Your comments!
Keith Gooden: What have you got to say to us? It’s always great when you come up and say hello. It’s brilliant. And the bags are back.
Matt Sims: They are! Someone told you! The orange bags are back. Now, these were hugely popular a few years ago when we launched the podcast. We ran out by the end of the show and people for months after were saying, “Can I get an orange bag?” They are back. Bright orange. Brilliant for putting your shopping in after the show. And thank you to our two sponsors who have enabled this because they’ve become quite expensive to buy. Warranty Solutions Group and motorhome.finance are both helping pay for them so you can get a Motorhome Matt podcast branded bag with the help of those two great guys. We will have other members of the Motorhome Matt Approved directory on the stand throughout the week, so do come and say hello. If you see us wandering around, stop us. Don’t trip me up, but just say hi! And there is a ticket discount available.
Keith Gooden: You mean all that and you can save money?!
Matt Sims: You can save money! So if you’ve not bought your tickets to go yet, head to mhmp.info/nec2025 and you can get a discount on your ticket, so hopefully we’ll see you there. This episode is brought to you in partnership with a Motorhome Matt Approved brand, motorhome.finance. Powered by Creative Funding Solutions, motorhome.finance offers 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 do 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.
Keith Gooden: Okay. Our product, our feature of the week this week, is something very important. We had the most magnificent sunny summer. I feel the rhythm. Arriba, arriba! And then… you know it’s coming. The rain started to fall.
Matt Sims: Did you get caught in that thunder and lightning storm yesterday? It was horrendous.
Keith Gooden: It bypassed me. I got a warning on my phone, though. Not the one on Sunday that went, “Beep, beep, beep. Ignore this one.” This one said, “Oh, it’s going to rain where you are and it’s going to be very heavy.” But luckily it skirted around me – because you’re not the first person to say, “Did you get caught in the rain?” No, I didn’t.
Matt Sims: I did! Anyway, this is a moisture trap. This one is from Kilrock. There’s lots of brands. Kontrol, with a K, is another that we sell at That Leisure Shop, and we have a special offer for this winter. You can get one of these for £5.99. You get one free when you spend £25 at www.thatleisureshop.com.
Keith Gooden: That’s fantastic.
Matt Sims: That’s a brilliant offer.
Keith Gooden: What exactly does it do?
Matt Sims: It’s a rubbish maraca! So you literally unwrap it and it just starts absorbing moisture from the air. And these little ones are brilliant to put in the cupboard or the wardrobe, so you don’t have to keep the water cupboard doors open. It absorbs all the moisture and avoids damp forming and mould and stuff growing all over the walls. And they’re brilliant. They’re a must-have. They really are. They’re cheap and really effective. Just go in after a month or so and just empty the water out of them, and you can buy a bag to top them up and go again.
Keith Gooden: Really good – and free when you spend £25 www.thatleisureshop.com.
Matt Sims: Get yours now.
Keith Gooden: It’s the Motorhome Matt podcast with me, Keith Gooden.
Matt Sims: And me, Motorhome Matt.
Keith Gooden: Brought to you www.thatleisureshop.com and sponsored by Ripe. This week, it’s a list, but it’s a list that you need to listen to because it’s all about kit for winter.
Matt Sims: There’s a lot of it as well. Do you know what? We were preparing this list. It went on and on and on. So let’s fly through this quickly, shall we? There’s going to be something in here that’ll make you think, “I never thought of that.” So let me kick off. This is a list of products that you should consider if you’re putting your motorhome or caravan into storage. The first one – lots of debate about this – is a cover. Should you buy and use a full cover? Now, I used to say no, they cause damp. They scratch the windows. Do you know what? We’ve had our van under a cover now for several years. Not a mark on it. I think if you buy a decent cover that’s got a soft lining inside and it’s breathable so they’re not waterproof… this means that moisture can escape through the cover. So yeah, rain will go through it. The van’s going to get wet, but it means it can dry. It can breathe. So a breathable cover I think is a good investment. Brilliant security device as well, because people can’t see what you’ve got.
Keith Gooden: So it doesn’t build up condensation underneath.
Matt Sims: Exactly that. Yeah. So it needs to be breathable and have a soft lining. Really important. And then there’s a new innovation as well which is called a topper. And this is just a cover that covers the roof and a foot down the sides. And then you use straps to hook it underneath the side panels. And that keeps the roof clean. So if you’re under a tree or somewhere where there are lots of leaves blowing around, it will stop everything getting into your roof. And of course, the covers stop tree sap, UV damage, rain, hail damage, potentially to a point.
Keith Gooden: Bird lime.
Matt Sims: Bird lime is a biggie because that can eat into the plastic. So I think they’re worth having. You can also buy bespoke covers. We’ve talked about this before – because people say, “Well, my solar panels won’t work.” You’re right. They won’t. That’s the downside of a cover. But you can buy covers from people like Specialised and TaylorMade. They are two companies that make them, and they will put a clear panel in the cover where your solar panel is on the roof. They’re more expensive, obviously, but they are worth considering. If you’re a caravanner, a hitch cover is also really useful because it prevents frost getting into the hitch and moisture getting into it, and drying the hitch out.
Keith Gooden: And the hitch is the thing that connects it to the car.
Matt Sims: The A-frame. Yeah. And you see them covered up, and people say, “Why do you bother doing that?” Often they’re branded. They’re a great advert for the caravan dealer, but they do serve a really useful purpose. And then we come to security. So on a caravan, a hitch lock is ideal. I love the little locks that go in the front corner steadies, so you lift the A-frame up into the air. So the caravan is almost doing a wheelie, and you lock the corner steadies in that position so they can’t be lowered. And that means you cannot hitch the caravan up and tow it away. A really useful thing to consider. Physical security is always the thing I talk about – a wheel clamp. Visible and physical. They are the two considerations.
Keith Gooden: Is that visible and physical? That’s good, I like that.
Matt Sims: It’s like a weekend with Keith.
Keith Gooden: That’s an Olivia Newton-John hit, isn’t it? Physical!
Matt Sims: It’s a rubbish song. But the more visible, the better. I know lots of people put steering wheel locks on as well, a great addition, and then they close all the blinds so you can’t see it. So just leave the driver’s window blind open and then a thief can peer in and see your massive steering wheel lock and go, “Okay, that is going to be hard work.” And a disk lock around the entire steering wheel is always going to be more effective than a single pole, because there is a chance you can cut the steering wheel and break the steering lock off. But any kind of security like that is going to be good. The pedal lock – so locking your brake and clutch pedal in position – is another great addition too. And a motorcycle chain threaded through an alloy wheel! Lots of our customers in our storage site do this. It’s a cheap, easy addition. A great big chain with a cloth cover over it. A big padlock – just thread that through the wheel. And if it’s an alloy wheel, it’s got bigger gaps than a steel wheel.
Keith Gooden: So what does that do, then?
Matt Sims: It’s just a deterrent. And the more you can deter a thief, the more likely they are to go. “Okay. The next one along the street, then.” It’s sad but true. But the harder it is to get a motorhome taken, the better.
Keith Gooden: And you make a good point that if you’ve got these things fitted, make sure they’re visible.
Matt Sims: Absolutely.
Keith Gooden: It’s all very well hiding the stuff away, but the damage has been done when they’ve discovered they can’t actually get rid of it. They might just do something extra naughty just because they’re feeling a bit hacked off. So make sure if you’ve got these deterrents that they are visible. Damp management!
Matt Sims: Yeah. Damp management is really important. We mentioned the kontrol boxes or Kilrock. These trap the moisture in the van. So important. Leave the fridge ajar as well. Leave an open lemon in the fridge or put a crystal box in the fridge.
Keith Gooden: An open lemon?
Matt Sims: Cut a lemon in half! As opposed to a closed one.
Keith Gooden: And what does that do?
Matt Sims: It absorbs damp. Keeps the fridge smelling of lemon.
Keith Gooden: Does it?!
Matt Sims: Yeah… I don’t know. It says here it does!
Keith Gooden: I didn’t know that.
Matt Sims: Makes the fridge smell really nice. Leave the fridge door open. Leave it ajar. There’s often a catch on the fridge that means the fridge door can stay ajar – or prop it open. Fold the freezer box down and that will hold the door open. If yours doesn’t have the catch, that helps it breathe. The other big consideration is the batteries. So when you’re going into storage, batteries go flat.
Keith Gooden: Are we talking about the ones that are in the engine or are we talking about the other ones, or all of them?
Matt Sims: All of them. So the starter battery, if you’ve got a tracker and an alarm on the battery on the motorhome, and it’s wired to the starter battery, that could go flat in a week. That’s not uncommon. People think there’s a fault. No. There’s a tracker drawing a lot of juice and an alarm. Alarms are terrible for it. So you need to keep your starter battery topped up, but also consider keeping your leisure battery topped up too. Now, my advice is, with the starter battery, you can’t really disconnect it if you’ve got a tracker, because that could invalidate your insurance. So you need to either hook it up regularly or drive it regularly. Starting it needs a 20-minute drive to put the charge back in. Leaving it a tick over won’t recharge it enough. You need to rev it up and drive it. Either keep it revving up at 2,500 revs with the aid of a house brick or something like that, a piece of wood propping it up. And while you’re doing some other maintenance jobs, have the engine revving. That will put some charge back into the battery if you can’t drive it somewhere.
Keith Gooden: Just take it for a nice little round trip, you know, for an hour!
Matt Sims: Much better for it. Just drive off, get a takeaway coffee and go for a spin. That will do the brakes, disks, everything, all the running gear a favour, and put charge back into the batteries. Consider a second battery. So particularly a leisure battery, you can take the other one home, recharge it and replace it, or take the leisure battery off. If there’s nothing connected to the leisure battery, just disconnect it and take it home. And you can charge it with a battery maintainer at home. It doesn’t necessarily need to be on the van. Consider, too, removing the batteries from your clocks, smoke alarms, carbon monoxide detectors so they don’t go flat. In our storage site, I regularly walk around as we do an audit and there’s beep beep, beep beep, like that coming from a van.
Keith Gooden: What’s that noise again?
Matt Sims: Beep beep! A little chirp where the smoke alarm or the carbon monoxide alarm is going flat. Now eventually, that noise…
Keith Gooden: I’ll tell you a story about that. We bought our first home, me and my beautiful wife, and we’d been there for about a year. And suddenly the boiler… you know, it had a tank. This was in the days before combi boilers. The hot water tank started going beep beep beep. So I called the heating engineer out and he opened the cupboard and looked behind it. And it was an old smoke alarm which had fallen down!
Matt Sims: A carbon monoxide alarm!
Keith Gooden: It cost me £100.
Matt Sims: That’s quite a serious place for a carbon monoxide alarm. It’s a very sensible place.
Keith Gooden: Yeah. It must have fallen off a shelf or something like that. It’s just, you know, one of those things.
Matt Sims: But at least you knew it was there.
Keith Gooden: It was going beep, beep, driving me mad. What is that in the middle of the night?
Matt Sims: The problem there, though, when you put your caravan or motorhome into storage, it makes that chirping noise – I always make a point of ringing the owner and telling them. I say, “You need to know that one of the alarms in your van, the battery is going flat,” because by the time they come to it in March, it’s given up chirping and they go off on holiday with a carbon monoxide alarm with a flat battery in it. They don’t know. They don’t think to test it. So I always make a point of telling them. You need to know your batteries are going flat. Put new ones in before you go away. And my advice is before every trip, test them. I know it’s an annoying noise, but just test them.
Keith Gooden: Just press the button.
Matt Sims: Press the button.
Keith Gooden: Yeah, I don’t know about carbon monoxide, but certainly smoke alarms. Make sure you wear gloves when you’re changing the batteries because there are radioactive components in there. It’s what makes it work. Not dangerously so, unless you know you’re handling it and then licking your fingers!
Matt Sims: I lick the battery to test it.
Keith Gooden: That’s all right. Licking the battery, the contacts on the battery. But it’s just the gubbins inside.
Matt Sims: Don’t lick the smoke alarm!
Keith Gooden: Yeah.
Matt Sims: I’ve never done that!
Keith Gooden: I’m sorry, officer, I was just licking my smoke alarm…
Matt Sims: I won’t be doing that, that’s for sure! But, yeah, batteries are important. They’re a big debate and topic for conversation. Rodents – they’re another one.
Keith Gooden: You mean rats and mice?
Matt Sims: Rats and mice! Squirrels as well. They’re a nightmare. Squirrels are the worst. They do loads of damage. They are very, very damaging to motorhomes.
Keith Gooden: What do they do?
Matt Sims: Chew everything. They’re a nightmare. They’ve got really strong teeth. And they get a taste for fibreglass or some kind of component in your wall, and they’ll eat the whole thing.
Keith Gooden: Well, I think I’ve told this story before, but we were having a new kitchen fitted a couple of years. About five years, actually.
Matt Sims: That’s your age.
Keith Gooden: We were having extra electricity points put in. So they were routing out the wall. And when they took the old kitchen out and they took the pattress off the power unit, there was a, a mouse with his…
Matt Sims: Oh. I thought you were going to say you found your wife!
Keith Gooden: With his teeth still around the wire! It was dried out. And like that…!
Matt Sims: You can’t see Keith, if you’re listening – he’s doing this…! What, an electric shock?! That’s awful. Poor mouse.
Keith Gooden: Poor mouse.
Matt Sims: Oh, well, one less.
Keith Gooden: But rodents do like to chew through the insulation, don’t they?
Matt Sims: They love the rubber. Yeah. So putting a humane trap in is one way. The problem with a humane trap is they don’t last long in them. And we get lots of mice at home where we live.as it gets colder, and they struggle to survive the night. Sometimes they just sweat it and they go mad inside the trap. And we do try and release them a mile or more away – down to the neighbour we don’t like. But yeah, of course then there are sprung traps. You can get lots of deterrents. I know people who put peppermint-soaked hankies in the van. Mice don’t like that, and nor do elephants. They’ve never had an elephant in their van either! So whether that works, I don’t know. But there are all sorts of deterrents. There are audible deterrents as well. My advice would be to remove all foods from the van that are not tinned. Even in a plastic Tupperware box, mice will eat through that. They love the plastic. If it’s tinned, fair enough. But otherwise, remove all the food except for one lump of chocolate on the floor. So I’ve always advised to put a piece of chocolate on a piece of tin foil in the middle of the van on the floor, and if it’s still there when you come back and there are no teeth marks in it, you have not had mice. If it’s gone, you need to do some further investigation. And people say, “Well, Matt, you’re just going to attract mice with a piece of chocolate!” I don’t think so. I would rather know the mice had been in. And then I can start checking seatbelt mounts because they often come up through the cab. I can start checking on the engine bay. The number of times we’ve taken air filters out, and there’s been a mouse nest in the air filter… probably 2 or 3 times a year if we’re getting a van serviced. So check everywhere, check your wiring.
Keith Gooden: And mice are tiny. So when Matt says remove all the food apart from that little square of chocolate, really, they can exist on tiny amounts.
Matt Sims: They get through a hole the width of a pencil. Very flexible bone structure in a mouse, and no nutritional value for us. And then cleaning it. It always seems daft to clean your motorhome or caravan before you put it away into storage, but my advice would be to give it the best wash of its life and then coat it with a protective covering. You can buy the whole range of cleaning products from www.thatleisureshop.com. Autoglym make a brilliant wax called an HD wax. There are loads of others available as well. We do favour and sell the Autoglym HD wax. It’s always on my Christmas list as it’s a guilty pleasure having a half a day to spend waxing the car.
Keith Gooden: You can do mine if you want!
Matt Sims: No, you’re all right. You should wax it. You should give it a treat.
Keith Gooden: Well, that’s why you should come round and do it!
Matt Sims: I’m not doing it. And then the other thing is to consider sealing up all the vents with cling film or tape. Careful of glue if you’re using gaffer tape – I call it kidnappers’ tape – because it leaves a gluey, sticky remnant behind.
Keith Gooden: It’s called gaffer tape because if you look at the credits on a film, it always says gaffer and that’s the head electrician!
Matt Sims: It is. It’s the tape they favour.
Keith Gooden: They call it duct tape in America.
Matt Sims: Duct tape is the Americanism. Yeah. But consider Vaseline on electrical plugs. Covering them up, sealing them.
Keith Gooden: Quack, quack.
Matt Sims: Duck?
Keith Gooden: Because it’s water-resistant.
Matt Sims: I thought it was duct.
Keith Gooden: No, duck.
Matt Sims: Is it really?! Okay. Gorilla tape is another one. But that’s a brand.
Keith Gooden: Yeah, but if you’ve got gorillas, then… you know, if I were you, I’d put more than chocolate down.
Matt Sims: Never mind the squirrels. Watch out for them gorillas! But Vaseline up electrical connectors, particularly on a caravan, can help prevent water and corrosion. So, yeah, really important.
Keith Gooden: Products for travelling, though – a safety and emergency kit. Even if you’re not thinking of travelling in the not-too-distant future, it’s always good getting this checked and stocked up, isn’t it? Because these are the things that when you need them, you need them. And if you haven’t got them, it’s a right old pain in the gorilla.
Matt Sims: Absolutely, yeah. Ouch. So consider blankets and snacks. Now, I know these are obvious, but they only become obvious when you break down, as I did in that Alfa Romeo and waited 15 hours for the breakdown recovery service to come. An extra blanket is a sensible thing to have in the boot, and some kind of non-perishable snack that will live happily in the boot and not go off. Just in case, consider taking your V 16 beacon. So the rules in Spain – January ’26, you have to have one of these.
Keith Gooden: You can’t use the warning triangle anymore.
Matt Sims: No, they’re no longer legally recognised. Loads of content about that on the podcast, but I’m going to turn it on. So it’s going to flash. So with this you just twist it and it flashes orange. That makes it a V 16, that colour and speed. Or you apply it to a magnet. The second time you put it on, it becomes a torch, which is dead handy under the bonnet. But the first time you press it… It’s not working. Now, why is it not working? There it is.
Keith Gooden: Is it metal?
Matt Sims: It is. Yeah. So on a car, you don’t even have to get out. That’s the point. You just put it on the roof. On a motorhome, you put it on the roof of the motorhome if you can reach, or on the floor behind you. One of these in the winter – all year, actually, but in the winter, obviously, it’s much darker for longer. And one of these could save your life. In my little Alfa Romeo I had run out of power. Battery went flat, alternator failed. Had no lights at all. One of these would have been absolutely a godsend, I have to say, as I felt really quite vulnerable – to the point I rang 999 and the police came and moved me. You can buy these at That Leisure Shop. They’re £20.
Keith Gooden: In Spain the warning triangle isn’t recognised anymore after January ’26. But it’s still a useful item in the UK, isn’t it?
Matt Sims: It is. Yeah. You’re still allowed to use a warning triangle, but I think a beacon is much more visible, much safer. Take a power pack, either a little portable one – because you want to keep your phone charged, especially if you break down – or take one of these portable power packs. One of the bigger ones that you can run appliances on. Run all your electrical stuff on. There is a huge debate going on at the moment, which I’m party to, around how safe it is to run an appliance on a portable power pack, because the power pack isn’t earthed. I’m going to cover this in the future. So this is a big topic. If you’re running a double-insulated appliance, so it’s got two little squares, one inside the other on it you’re fine, you’re safe. But if it hasn’t, there’s a metal appliance like a kettle and that kettle shorts out and you’re running the electric kettle on the power pack, you could get an electric shock. We’re going to revisit this in the future, so be mindful of that. If you’ve got questions about this, send them to me and I’ll try and answer it. And take a torch. A head torch is dead handy because you can keep your hands free. And if you’re walking the dog in the evening or going for a walk, a head torch is great. You can buy some really quite funky LED ones nowadays. Really good.
Keith Gooden: And you can go, “I am a Dalek!”
Matt Sims: You can do your Dalek impression if you want! Keeping online as well. So I would suggest a Pathway 4G only because – full disclosure, this is ours. You can buy these at www.thatleisureshop.com. We have sold thousands of these.
Keith Gooden: It’s fantastic because what you do is you get yourself a data SIM and pop it in there, and it’s got stickers on the back. You can just stick it to a window, but it gives you broadband connections.
Matt Sims: Lick and stick.
Keith Gooden: A great idea, Matt.
Matt Sims: It is a great idea. And it’s SIM ambivalent, so you can put any UK SIM or any European SIM in it.
Keith Gooden: SIM-bivalent!
Matt Sims: You’re making it more words again. I’m never going to get away with that, am I? Coagulant! See, I know it now. So you just lick and stick this to the wall of the van, the window – we’ve driven around for weeks with one stuck in the roof light, and we’ve used it all over the UK. Kat, Wandering Bird, she used one all over France. I know people have been all over Europe with one to great success. So yes, www.thatleisureshop.com, Pathway 4G. Really, really useful. And of course, you’re going to spend more time in the van because it’s dark, possibly raining and cold. So you want to be connected!
Keith Gooden: This is a fantastic pastime! Welcome to motorhoming and caravanning. He’s really going to set it up for you!
Matt Sims: Honestly, a motorhome is the cosiest place on a cold, wet night. Get the heating on. You’re connected to the internet. You can watch whatever you want on telly or YouTube. Whatever. It’s brilliant. And board games, we love them. Our overcab cupboard in our van has a huge box and it’s full of loads of playing cards. Board games. My new favourite card game is Phase 10. I have become a bit addicted to it. Have you ever played that?
Keith Gooden: Never even heard of it.
Matt Sims: Right, okay, we’ll do that. I’ll play you at it. I promise I’ll beat you. It is brilliant. No skill involved! Phase 10. Brilliant card game. My kids love playing it as well, so it’s a great game for all the family. As I say, I’ve become a bit addicted. And then there’s some practical stuff for the van itself. Check your tyres. I’ve said this before – make a pact with your tyres. P.A.C.T. So check the pressure, check their age, check their condition and check the torque.
Keith Gooden: Nut torque?
Matt Sims: Check the torque on your nuts! Yeah, I knew you’d go for that one. I expected you’d say, “How can you check the age of your tyres?” But no, you went for nut torque…
Keith Gooden: Well, how can you change the age of your… how can you check the age of your tyres?
Matt Sims: You can’t change it! There’s a little pill on the side wall and it has four numbers on, for example, 0422. And that means that tire was made in week four of 2022. And the rule of thumb is seven years old and five years of use. So if your tyre is more than seven years old – we’re recording this in 2025. So if your tire has 2018 or 18 as the last two numbers, your tire is seven years old and it’s therefore time to change it.
Keith Gooden: My son actually, and his little Ford KA or his… **** box as he likes to call it, he had 2017 tyres on it and we had to spend the money and get all four of them changed. I went to the mechanic local to us, and he said, what’s caused this, lots of people going around on old tyres – it was the pandemic, he said. Because during the pandemic, it was two years long, and people just didn’t…
Matt Sims: Didn’t change their tyres.
Keith Gooden: And, you know, you find now, he says, a lot of people are driving around on tyres which are too old, he says, which is fine if you’re going down the shops, he said. But when you get on the motorway, you can’t guarantee that they’re not going to…
Matt Sims: It is a guideline introduced by and endorsed by the tyre industry. No surprise there. That’s my cynical view. But I do think you should be mindful of the age of your tyres and check their condition. If they’re cracking in the tread or on the sidewalls, then yeah, it would be very sensible to change them. And always consider campervan spec tyres for your motorhome or caravan. You can put van tyres on them. They run at a lower pressure. So be mindful of that. The tyre pressure that might be indicated in the door surround might be too high for a van tyre. I prefer campervan tyres because the sidewalls are thicker. The tread pattern is better for all-year use and the sidewalls are thicker. That’s better because the van’s stood around. And of course it’s stood around at full weight. It’s not like a van which is emptied out every day or every so often. A motorhome is at full weight all the time. There is no harm in putting a van tyre on a motorhome. But there is a camper van spec you can consider. They are more expensive, of course. And then for winter, specifically, consider a winter tyre. So you can look for the three-peak mountain snowflake logo. And it literally is three little mountain peaks. And it has a snowflake on. And if it’s got that three PMSF. three-peak mountain snowflake logo on there, they have been skid tested. There are some tyres that are just winter tyres with a snowflake on, and they fulfil the criteria required for winter tyre spec, but they’ve not actually been tested, whereas if they’ve got the full three PMSF logo on, they have been skid tested.
Keith Gooden: But you don’t have to fit winter tyres.
Matt Sims: Unless you go to a place that requires you, by law, to have them. So if you go to Europe and you’re going up into the mountains, they may require snow tyres. They might require snow chains!
Keith Gooden: I was just going to say that – if you’re going 50 miles to the site down the road in England, and the weather isn’t too inclement, you don’t really…
Matt Sims: Inclement as opposed to inclement?
Keith Gooden: That’s the one! You don’t really need to have them.
Matt Sims: No, of course you don’t.
Keith Gooden: Don’t splash out on winter tyres. But if you’re going up the side of a mountain in Norway…
Matt Sims: Yes, definitely worth considering!
Keith Gooden: Nor-wey…
Matt Sims: You might call it Nor-wey.
Keith Gooden: Norway.
Matt Sims: You may legally have to fit them, so you may not have a choice. I know loads of people who change their tyres over the winter and they’ve got different tread pattern. So they dispel the water from rain showers better.
Keith Gooden: Squirt out the sides.
Matt Sims: Basically. And I’ll be honest, if there’s a foot of snow outside, I’m not going away in the motorhome!
Keith Gooden: You’re staying indoors anyway!
Matt Sims: Yeah. I won’t be going. Check your antifreeze. Really important – and your coolant as well. You can buy a tester for that. Or many garages will do it for free so you can get that checked. Gas is a big conversation too. Propane has a much lower freezing level than butane, so propane freezes at -28. Butane freezes at zero, so that’s why the red bottles are more prolifi if you’re buying a refillable bottle. And we use propane gas in those. If you’ve got the yellow refillable bottles, they’re designed to be used with propane. And that is why.
Keith Gooden: Right. Okay then. And a gas regulator as well?
Matt Sims: Yeah. Make sure you’ve got the right regulator, a propane regulator if you’re using a propane bottle, not a butane one. So it will say LPG propane on it. And consider water. So this is the big issue when you’re away in the winter – that your water freezes, particularly your waste water because it’s usually outside the van. We pour a boiling kettle down the plughole in the sink and a little bit down the shower, too, when we’re away in the winter. We leave the tap open. We either have a bucket outside or just onto the ground if it’s appropriate to do that and near a drain… I’ll get criticised for saying that.
Keith Gooden: I saw that there were some comments last time you mentioned that, leaving it draining onto grass. People didn’t like that, did they?
Matt Sims: They didn’t, no. But it depends what you’re putting in your waste tank. If you’re only putting water down it, what’s the issue? You know, we’re at a show, we’re not washing up in it, and we’re not putting loads of horrible stuff down the sink. Anyway, that’s a different debate for a different day. But the point is, we pour warm water into the waste tank to keep it from freezing. You can buy water tank blankets that stick to the underside and they’ll warm the waste water tank.
Keith Gooden: Tanket?
Matt Sims: A Tanket! Tanket – that’s a really good name.
Keith Gooden: I know, I know.
Matt Sims: Let’s look at that. And often the Truma heating system and the Alde heating systems offer waste water tank heaters as an option. So you might have that so that you can keep your waste water warm. And normally the fresh water is inside the van where you’ve got the heating on so it doesn’t freeze. But in some British-built motorhomes, the fresh water tank is outside. And you don’t want to be warming your fresh water. I suppose if you warmed it above zero to a few degrees, it would still taste cold. But really, you want to be away in the winter in a motorhome or caravan that’s built for it.
Keith Gooden: Okay. Sunglasses for yourself. Useful when the sun is low and people do forget that!
Matt Sims: Well, you head out the door and it’s cloudy and raining, but if it clears, the sun’s often much lower in the sky. So keep a pair of sunglasses in the van. That glare can be really difficult to drive in. And a glass cleaner too!
Keith Gooden: Yeah, because when the sun is low, you see all the imperfections and the dirt on the windscreen.
Matt Sims: Where you’ve sneezed all over it… clean the inside and outside of the screen and the side windows and your mirrors. We sell a glass cleaner at www.thatleisureshop.com, and it’s fantastic. It’s really, really effective. It’s literally a few quid. Just keep one of those in the van and a microfiber cloth and give the screen a clean before you head off. As you say, you don’t notice how dirty it is until the sun is that low in the sky and it’s causing you an issue.
Keith Gooden: So we’ve got to the end of the list and the message is – be prepared. Don’t leave things to chance.
Matt Sims: Absolutely. Yeah. I hope that’s useful. A lot of this and loads more you can find in an e-book I wrote. It’s at www.thatleisureshop.com/winter. You can download it totally for free. We just ask you for your first name and an email address so we can send it to you. It’s a PDF, so you can download it and there’s a checklist as well. You can tick things off. So it’s a really useful guide we produced a little while ago. It’s still valid today. So go and get that!
Keith Gooden: How much does that cost?
Matt Sims: It’s free.
Keith Gooden: Free!
Matt Sims: www.thatleisureshop.com/winter.
Keith Gooden: So I’ve heard some people say, “I’ve got nothing to hide online. Why would I bother with a VPN?” So what do you tell them, then?
Matt Sims: I say it’s like locking your motorhome door. You don’t do it because you’ve got gold bars inside! You do it so no one pokes around and takes things that matter to you. NordVPN does the same for your online life. It keeps your banking safe, blocks dodgy websites, and stops your internet provider tracking what you’re doing. It’s quick, easy, and runs in the background. You don’t even notice it’s there until you need it.
Keith Gooden: I suppose that’s a pretty good way of putting it.
Matt Sims: So just click the link in the description and you can give NordVPN a try risk-free with their 30-day money-back guarantee.
Keith Gooden: It’s the Motorhome Matt podcast with me, Keith Gooden.
Matt Sims: And me, Motorhome Matt.
Keith Gooden: It’s brought to you www.thatleisureshop.com and sponsored by Ripe.
Matt Sims: Get 15% off your premium with Ripe. The discount applies automatically if you click the link in the description.
Keith Gooden: It’s our Q&A, the questions and answers, where you ask the questions and Matt, the expert, gives you the answer. And if he doesn’t know, he asks somebody who does! First of all, just one word. It’s Michelle.
Michelle: Hi, Matt. Could you tell me which one, in your opinion, is the better campervan – the Malibu 640 Sky View twin room or the Adria 640 Supreme? And which is best value for money? Thank you.
Keith Gooden: Cheers, Michelle. Much appreciated. By the way, when you send a question, it’s nice to know where you are. So do say where you are.
Matt Sims: Who was that in the background?
Keith Gooden: Malibu or Adria, Matt?
Matt Sims: They’re both great vans. It’s really hard to answer this specifically. Both are very, very attractive vans. They both have a massive following second-hand as well, which is a big consideration when you’re buying any motorhome or campervan. I would suggest one thing to consider is how close the Malibu or the Adria dealer is to you at home. You haven’t said where you are, so I can’t have a clue as to where the nearest dealer is to you. But whoever you’re buying it from, you’re going to be going back there to get it looked after and serviced. So it might be that you can persuade a local dealer to look after it for you. That’s always a big consideration with any brand, but both are really popular and both have a pop-top in the roof. So they have a bed in the downstairs and a pop roof, and hence the twin room thing. It’s a very popular design recently, so it’s difficult to say. I imagine the Malibu might be a bit cheaper, but it’s whatever suits you best!
Keith Gooden: It is. It’s whatever suits you. You know what you want to do, where you want to go. How tall, short…
Matt Sims: Would I buy either? Yes, I would. I’d have both. They’re both great.
Keith Gooden: Andy Stevenson is in Thailand.
Andy Stevenson: I’m coming back because the weather is just hot all the time. 24 hours a day. And I’ve had enough. I want seasons again. I’m gonna come back and get into the motorhome life, buy a nice motorhome. I don’t know which one yet, but I’d just like to say to you that you are a mineful of information and you’ve done me proud. Believe it or not, I’ve got so many videos of you that have taught me a lot and shown me right from wrong. So just a word going out to say thank you. See ya.
Keith Gooden: Cheers, Andy in Thailand. He’s got a lot of videos in that country of you, Matt. Nice to hear.
Matt Sims: Wow. Thank you so much. Hopefully we’ll meet you one day face-to-face. If you’re passing, do pop into one of the That Leisure Shops down at Chelston and in North Somerset at Hewish.
Keith Gooden: Ken Dawson’s in Mexborough. “Ay up, Matt and Keith,” he says. “What I was wanting to know was when I’m driving in my motorhome, I use a Garmin camper satnav. This unit shows the speed limits taking into account my vehicle’s dimensions. When driving on the motorway, I stick to 60 miles an hour to be just quick enough to keep out of the way of HGVs. Now, my satnav shows 60 miles an hour. My vehicle shows about 60 miles an hour. Is there any data – I know you love data – to show that a satnav measures speed more accurately than a vehicle speedo? Thanks, Matt. We love your unique show. It’s much more than a vlog, and we love the banter between yourself and Kevin.”
Matt Sims: That joke will not go away.
Keith Gooden: It will not go away. He says, my mis-answer actually helped a few people, but thanks for clarifying. It’s awfully complicated. Is his satnav showing the correct speed? Is his speedo showing the correct speed? One thing I do know is police vehicles have much more accurate speedos than the ones we have in our cars and motorhomes. So anyway, which one should you trust, is what he’s asking!
Matt Sims: Car speedometers are designed to overstate actual speed slightly. They’ll never show a speed lower than the true speed. So this is actually a legal requirement. So a speedometer reading 70mph actually means you’re travelling around 65mph, whereas GPS devices measure actual distance over time. That’s the critical difference, and they are generally more accurate. I used to be, or still am actually, a member of our local charity called Freewheelers. You see these motorbikes riding around and they’ve got, “Blood,” written on them. Every one of those is ridden nationally by a volunteer. And I used to be vice chairman of our local region, and we would have a big Garmin satnav on the dash of the motorbike and it read live speed. And we were always, as a team, comparing the Garmin with the speedometer of the motorbike. And there was always a difference. The motorbike was faster than the Garmin, so the Garmin would say we’re doing 45 miles an hour and the motorbike would show we’re doing 41. And it is a legal requirement, so it’s a good mix of both. There is an app for your smartphone. I’ve got an Apple device and it’s called Speedometer, and we recently changed the wheels on our motorhome. And I thought, “Has it made a difference?” And so I used that to correctly read the speed and compare that to the speedometer on the dashboard of the van. And there was no difference. So it means it probably has made a slight difference. But I now know I’m not travelling too fast. Confused?
Keith Gooden: Speed limits are limits. That’s the fastest you can go.
Matt Sims: Are they not a target?!
Keith Gooden: And drive to the road conditions, is the advice. And the one thing I do know is that the satnavs and the satellites that control them in Earth’s orbit have to be adjusted every day because of Einstein’s theory of relativity. Time ticks slower up there than it does down here, and if they didn’t adjust it every day, it’d be about half a mile’s difference locating you with the satnav. That’s the difference it makes.
Matt Sims: You’ve been on ChatGPT again.
Keith Gooden: No, I don’t use it. That’s AI.
Matt Sims: Killing creativity.
Keith Gooden: There’s enough artificiality about myself. My wooden leg…
Matt Sims: Enough artificiality and no intelligence.
Keith Gooden: Matt, if someone’s after a motorhome or just needs theirs looking after, where would you send them?
Matt Sims: Well, I’ve gone to RV Supercenter for years whenever I’ve needed Roller Team spare parts in particular, so I know firsthand how helpful they are. They’re not just about parts, though. They’re the UK’s one-stop shop for motorhomes whether you’re buying new or used or even an ex-hire if you’re after great value.
Keith Gooden: And they do servicing as well, don’t they?
Matt Sims: Full service centres, parts, accessories, bodywork, repairs that are insurance approved and they’re NCC accredited workshops too. What I like is it’s a small and super friendly team, but with nationwide sites in Toddington, Edinburgh and Belfast. So they’ve got that local feel but with a huge reach.
Keith Gooden: Sounds like the full package.
Matt Sims: Exactly. You can find out more at www.rvupercenter.co.uk, and we’ll stick the link in the episode description too.
Keith Gooden: So, Matt, how do people get in touch?
Matt Sims: We’d love it if you did. If you have a question, please ask it. Because I always say it, and it’s true, I guarantee hundreds of others have probably got the same question. Head to mhmp.info/askmatt. Just fill in the form and we’ll read it for you. Or record it with the orange button. But remember, 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 remember to follow on your favourite podcast app. Or if you’re watching on YouTube, click subscribe and that little bell.
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.
