Відео

350,000 vans in the UK. I wouldn’t be surprised if full-time van habitation became more popular because it’s a wonderful way to live in my opinion.

I can't believe that anyone who has ever owned, used or lived in any type of caravan can forget to drain/ turn the water off before leaving it unoccupied for even a short time, especially in the winter, we always did this even with the touring van we kept on a site a few years ago, it was the first thing we did before every time we stored the Van, even in the summer.

Cheer up fgs.

It’s normal weather

So sorry for these people who have suffered flooding and loss , but good you were on site to report the problems but could have been a lot worse. Some people just leave without considering the change in temperatures and the consequences that follow burst pipes !!

Cheer up.

Oh how awful for people who own of those vans, of course the weather is not as predictable as it used to be , the area I live in Cornwall doesn’t get snow or very hard frosts or it didn’t used to but we had quite a lot of snow last week , Take care ❤️

Oh dear! !😮 Thank goodness you care enough to have a good look around. 🙏You would make a great site manager Ivan.

I hope the site manager or owner has phone numbers for the ones affected and can contact them to tell them to come back and sort their vans out and also send an email to all owners advising them to lag their pipes and “over Winter” their vans or in other words drain them down to eliminate this happening.!

when we had a van on a site, years ago, after draining it down we'd also put a large bowl of salt in each room because this prevented things going mouldy.

So sad Ivan but well done 👍

Try living in bulgaria in the winter -27c

I wonder if pool noodles would work as pipe lagging? You can use a sharp knife to cut it open and put the noodle around the pipe. Just a thought.

I can’t believe the mentality of these static caravan owners, we used to own one (holiday static) and every time we left to go home the main stop cock was turned off (even during the summer) and at the end of the season ( end of October) we paid £60 for the site operator to fully drain down the water systems including central heating and lift the kitchen/bathroom taps.

Insulated a 2m stretch of exposed pipe work a couple of weeks back, cable tied it on at every 150mm centres, no chance of it coming away. Has anyone had experience of there waste pipes freezing up too?

If you don't know how to drain your van down, get it done by someone who knows what they are doing. We did it ourselves once, but the boiler still had water in it and the micro pipe froze & split. A costly mistake and repair.

lucky they got a good natured person in yourself looking after the vans and site in general

does anyone know roughly how long a 6kg propane bottle last when only using blow air central heating in caravan

I hope people appreciate your vigilance.x

Heated throw, king size is superb for winter, love mine, very cost effective.

All year round when going home we turn off the water and open all the taps. Site owners drain the van down for winter. It must be heartbreaking to see your van flooded.

As I would expect another informative and well presented video of what we should be looking out for on our vans. Keep them coming

Surely the site manager/ owner has contact details of all the folks on there site. Maybe it’s something you could implement collect names and a contact number ,bless you for looking out for everyone. Keep warm keep safe.

Well done Ivan the world needs good neighbours like you. This is a timely reminder to all van owners, to turn the taps off,lag all pipes inside and out. All owners should create a check list and laminate it and keep it in view to tick off the jobs before they leave.❤

When we had a static caravan there was always a spare key in the site office. Luckily for us one time we'd driven 2.5 hours to get there only to fnd out we'd forgotten our keys 😢😮

Is this on a holiday park or is it a residential park…. There is a massive difference

Burst pipes can happen so easily. I lag all pipes very carefully (and, don't laugh, but I tie my odd socks on the corners). So sorry for your neighbors!

❤😊xxxx love Carol

Insurance is invalid if you don’t turn water off at the main.

Really nice of you looking after peoples vans. They should leave keys with you amd pay you to lok after them over winter. I would if i had a van on there.

Thanks Ivan, well done for being so vigilant and looking out for other people's caravans, I bet that it could've been a lot worse but for you. Take care and all the best. Stevie

In the winter you should always turn the water off. And if you got central heating have a stat fitted like a house. Set it to frost setting 7 degrees I’ve helped loads people on my site. I’ve never drained my van down. Never had a problem.

Get a dehumidifier Ivan...they work well

We've helped run a site a few years back, and regularly seen flooded vans.,were folk have left after a weekend, the weathers not been good so decided not come over the following weeken, or as youve pointed out, tured at tap on when the pipes are frozen, then left the van, and theirs vans flooded. What you have to remember these statics are only holiday vans, not residential so are not isulated, or designed for winter use,. We still have an old static and everytime we leave the van to go home, even in summer we turn off the water at the mains, it takes just seconds to do, I've seen older vans with older pipe work can leak even in summer, when the water pressure suddenly increases as half the folk on site leave after the weekend. This time of year after turning off the water, we open the drain valves, drain then attach a car pump and blow all the remaining water out of the pipes each time we leave, this does take 10/15 minutes or so to do. But it's better and cheeper that flooding the van or replacing a boiler, also flooding the site!! A lot of sites insist that they drain your van down, and then recommission it the following spring, and we can understand can why.

Doesn’t the site office have keys to all the vans ? Our site office does and they also offer a drain down service. Feel sorry for those owners let’s hope they have insurance

hello my fellow gardener yes the wind was real wild here to trees down every thing just every where its not getting any better

Thanks for the update Ivan, so kind of you to go round checking, the caravans. Hope the flooded vans will be ok. Thanks for sharing.

I feel so sorry for those people, poor chap who left his tap on must be kicking himself.

It's only the beginning of Winter and who knows what's to come yet. Thank goodness you were so observant around the site.

Heartbreaking for the gentleman who left his tap turned on 🙈 Think they’ll be some very thankful owners on your site for your kindness & proactiveness in patrolling & troubleshooting anything you found. ❤

A lot of caravan sites , offer a paid service to drain down your caravan . My experience , a DIY drain down is not good enough. You need to put a pump on to suck the water out. You can get low spots in your pipes . Where gravity does not do a proper job . Perhaps this could be a job for you. Earn a few quid whilst helping out.

I always at a minimum turn the mains water off if I leave the site at any time of the year, even in the summer. And always drain the water system down from Oct onwards until around April. I leave a couple of electric heaters with a thermostat to come on if the temperature drops below 5c. Yes, it'll use some electric when/if it gets too cold but that's better than a damaged gas boiler.

Always drained down in fact it was a requirement when we had our van to drain down in October - may affect insurance if people don’t . Harsh lesson . Also shower bars can freeze causing splits over night

Most sites will send out reminders to owners about doing drain downs before they close up for Winter. You can't claim on insurance without it.

You should turn off your mains water off every time you leave your van overnight or for a few days some insurance companies won’t cover you if you don’t if it’s turned off at the mains it can’t flood if a pipe does burst

We invested in a “floe drain down kit” - after draining down our caravan we still got another 1 1/2 litres out before we put the van away for winter.

I always leave my heating on very low to prevent freezing pipes as had it flood once. Thanks for the reminder. So sorry for the folk whose vans have flooded.

Hope they get it sorted soon.

HELP! Im a 29 year old male with a little family, a 5 year old and a 1 year old, my partner and i are stuck in this renting loop as my creddit history was ruined through my uni years. We would like to buy a house but currently we cant get accepted for a mortgage, we have enough to buy one of these and live on site. The plan is to live there between 5 to 10 years while i fix my credit history and save some more cash for a bigger deposit on a house. Do you think this is a good idea or there is better ways i can go about this?

Hi Ivan just seen on Lidl website 12L dehumidifier not sure when there is store, £79.99 RRP £109.99, it's a black Friday deal, hope this helps 😁