Hi, We just purchased our first caravan, 18ft coromal shes an oldie but will do what we need it to do until we are ready to hit the road fulltime.
I am making curtains for it atm, tv stereo system, ready for our first trip in 3 weeks time. Needing to buy an aerial for the tv, not sure what to buy yet.
any tips and hints from exp GMs would be greatly appreciated .
Have a great day.
-- Edited by PVEJOY18 on Tuesday 7th of August 2018 07:14:24 AM
I personally have an older Coromal as well and it is a brilliant van. looks like a nice tidy van, I'm sure it will bring you plenty of enjoyment and plenty of memories.
The old happy wanderer T bar works well and can be adjusted for vertical and horizontal signals in seconds,I have a modern aer ial on the new van and honestly its not much better than the T bar...
On the Jayco pop-top I settled for a pipe clamp on front tow bar - a telescopic tent post and normal household aerial clamped on top - no extra weight to put up top threw aerial on bed when travelling seconds to put up, handy - it does help to have second person when putting up - to watch TV to set aerial for best picture.
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Possum; AKA:- Ali El-Aziz Mohamed Gundawiathan
Sent from my imperial66 typewriter using carrier pigeon, message sticks and smoke signals.
We had a 1990 model Coromal pop top back around 2001/2002 which looked the same as your van. It was 5.8 m long (body length)with a couple of spares mounted out the back etc. With ours we started to have a problem whereby the chassis started to sag towards the back end of the van.....basically it was going a little bit banana shaped which became evident when the door wouldn't shut properly and had a bit of a gap at the top.
It never really stopped us using the van and we sold the van before it became a extreme problem. At the time it was a known issue with Coromal vans of that era. We decided not to use it on rough/dirt roads and in the end the kids out grew the bunk/bed setup hence the sale.
I was told it was possible to support the chassis with the addition of some steel sleeves but I never bothered. Other than that it was a good family caravan with many memorable holidays to look back on.
Hi Al
The chassis support shelves are they easy to find and purchase? Sorry for the silly questions but want to have our old girl for a few years yet.
It had a new poptop canvas installed not long ago, so far no leaks. It only has the queen bed in it with a lounge and dining table, the grandson sleeps on the lounge. He loves going away with us and setting it up.
Weve had to install an airvent to be gas compliant, new brakes, new fridge and new tires but we are still happy with it.
Thankyou for your reply.
Don't buy too much 'stuff' until you have been out in it a few times. As long as you have towing mirrors and the brakes set up right, power lead, water hose, waste hose, something to cook on and in, something to eat off, some bedding and some clothes and a first aid kit you should be right. See what stuff you find you need as you go, buying and packing too much is usually the first mistake most people make with their caravans.
I have no idea re availability of these supports these days as your van is getting on in years now, I was only told about them in passing...to be honest never really researched them even back then. I had the attitude I will worry about it if and when I need to.....I knew it was doing it slightly but as the door only locked in the middle I didn't think about it to much.
Maybe a reputable caravan repair enterprise could supply more information......in hindsight possibly I should have not told you about this as I don't really want to worry you.
It never stopped us using our van and it hung together for the 5 years or so we owned it and never seemed to get any worse.
Just don't put to much weight on the rear, use the rear stabiliser legs when parked up to support the chassis and all should be good.
Hi, I'm unsure what TV areal would be the best for you, but if you want to spend a bit more money you could do what we did and bought a free to air satellite kit, they cost about $600 to $650 depending on where you buy it but it will give you reception in most areas as long as you have a direct line of sight to the satellite but just make sure that you get the 95cm dish and not the smaller one
We had a great time away in our van, except for the tv reception. We bought a 50$job off of ebay.. waste of money really.
Just watched movies on the usb instead.
Have a couple of things we have to sort out but she is a great van to tow behind the patrol now the new brakes are on it.
Happy days ahead for us again soon.
We had a Wineguard arial fitted to our Coromal pop top and while they were at it they fitted a bracket for the TV to the overhead cupboard near the foot of the bed so that it can be viewed both in bed or at dining table. It works a treat.
I was recommended and fitted a Wineguard and it has been very good so far not needed to use the sat dish at all, but do have an inbuilt DVD and a couple of dozen series sets to keep us happy when no TV signal.
Hi, We just purchased our first caravan, 18ft coromal shes an oldie but will do what we need it to do until we are ready to hit the road fulltime.
