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Caravanning and RVing in Australia
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A SIMPLE MARRIAGE SAVER
Have you ever heard this? "Not that way - go the other way!!!!” How often have you had to back on to a site from the wrong (blind) side and wished there was something to let you know if you were getting anywhere near the edge of the concrete annexe pad. Coming in the other way on to a grassed site you wonder if you are going in the right direction to line up with the boundary. Despite the frantic efforts of wives to indicate which way you should go - including the blood-pressure-building exhortation to “go the other way” when you don’t even remember which way was the first way - this manoeuvre is probably the reason the divorce rate is soaring. Enter John, our South Australian neighbour for a while in a caravan park this year at Bowen. John is one of those people who believe there has to be a simple solution for any problem and the solution to this problem is so simple I can’t think why someone hasn’t come up with it before. (OK - so I’ve stuck my neck out and I just know there will be a flood of people writing in to say they thought of it first!) All you need is a length of brightly coloured light rope or tape twice as long as the width of your caravan and three tent pegs, nails or similar. Let’s look at the annexe pad situation first. Fasten a peg or nail half way along the rope so that the first length is as wide as the caravan and the second section is the same length. Peg the rope with one length from the half way mark along the pad from the front corner and the other piece at a right angle to it from the corner. You can do it from the back corner if you prefer. Now move the corner peg across the block so that the first section of the rope is parallel to the annexe pad but an accurate van’s width away. Move the second section to make a straight line with the first and there you have your simple and excellent guide. If you reverse the van so that the wheels are just inside the line made by the rope then the nearside wheels will be perfectly positioned alongside the annexe pad. I told you it was simple! When there’s no annexe pad and you want to use the rope as a guide to the left-hand boundary looking from the front of the block, you do the whole exercise in reverse. No 1 rope parallel to the boundary with the corner peg where you want the back off-side corner of the van to finish up and No 2 rope at right angles to it. Move the corner peg across the block and you’ve got your line and then re-positioning the second piece in line extends it to become the guide you need to place the van accurately coming in from the blind side. John is an inventor and has lots of other ideas on the same principle such as using nails instead of pegs, different coloured rope or using brightly coloured ribbon or tape with eyelets for the pegs. He’s thought of all sorts of variations but I guess all you handymen out there will have your own tricks for improving this simple but effective idea. If it saves a few marriages as well that’s a bonus. = = == |
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