St Anton ski bus and skiing / snowboarding...

[k9xky]

Hi, I will check out the Panorama Camping website if they have one, however it is nice to be spoilt by the cabins. The fridge and 12v situation does still confuse us. When I read he instructions in the manual it did state to only have it running off 12v if the engine was turned on. Another thought is that the batteries have had it and they have been used whilst this vehicle was in use for demonstration purposes. We are not using the vehicle between our skiing holidays and will check the battery levels. If they have lost charge then they may need replacing.
As far as the fridge is concerned, I assume that if you are not on a hook up, you have to use your fridge on gas which would use alot of gas. Having said that, to date we have not motorhomed in that way much. However we were hoping to go in that direction with this particular motorhome.
As I said, the gas situation caused us concern and on my return I did research other mh forums to try and work out what connections/gas to consider in the future. I am still confused. We currently have propane gas and would have liked to have purchased a gas bottle from the site but did not have the right connections. Another person who we met did visit a local diy store and purchase some ' things' but he is a plumber by trade and knows what he's looking at. As we will be going to France/Spain in the summer, I don't know whether any advice is only useful for the countgry you are intending to visit???
The stellplatz we stayed on as in the Bord Atlas book, at Bad Schonborn just above Karlsruhe. It was great and cost 8 euros. There was electricity but we did not use it, we were just happy to get off the motorway and park safely. We paid in the morning at the manned cabin near the entrance. Apparently when it is closed the process is to take one of the slips of papers next to a box attacheded to the cabin, fill in your details and post it with your 8 euros, simple. The staff were very helpful. It was approx 10mins off the motorway, it was very quiet and flat and next to a Wellness centre.
If we return to Austria we may take a different route but we would still like to avoid the French tolls if possible.
Sue

[Austin_Hind]

Hi Sue,
I use 2 x 11kg bottles from gaslow which are LPG. Our experience is that these will allow us 10 days of unsupported camping in Alpine conditions. My previous van had standard 2 x 13kg propane bottles which lasted about the same. The issue with the gas regulator is common as it seems that every country in europe has a different connector - Please note Mr EU commissioner! Stick with the Propane as it's freezing level is well below Zero degrees centigrade, whereas butane will freeze at zero. Not ggod in the Alps - or Peaks in Nov!!

I wouldn't worry about the gas consumption of your fridge, unless you think it's not performing correctly. Normally a fridge uses very little gas once it's achieved it's normal operating temp. The vast majority of your gas will be used with cooking/waterheating/heating. If you have a combi-boiler/heater, when the heating is on so your hotwater is being heated. I've got a Truma combi heater which heats the water when the blownair heating is on. I can't change that.

Hooking up to electricity shouldn't really be necessary unless you plan to stay in one place for more than say 3 days, and you don't have all your lights on at a time and the TV and hair dryer etc etc. So far Austria is the only country i've encountered that charges you per K/Wh - mind you Parorama-camping chrged us only €6.50 for 5 days use - but i was unplugging when we were away during the day.

One final thought about your flat batteries; Mine used to run flat until i worked out that the fan on my transformer was still whirring away when unplugged but not switched off. Have a look at your transformer, does it have a on/off switch? This could be your problem too.

Anyway, best of luck on your future trips.