Zitat

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Neil has a secret hankering after the dimple finish

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Talk him out of it Julie ............or get him to clean it

Don't panic Nev, it's just a hankering and there is no way I am parting with our PuckL, not unless she falls to pieces which is unlikely.

Quote: Randa france wrote in post #33

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We always took Neil to be a dimples man.

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Quote: Aaron Calder wrote in post #18

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I think it looks odd in this shot recently posted in the picture gallery:

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Quote: Randa france wrote in post #38

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When the photo was taken he was driving as though he was attending a fire so it was a "now or never" shot.
Randa

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We had been tent campers for any years, moved to a folding camper when more comfort was required but cold nights and damp canvas started to nag.

So we started looking at caravans, horrible polystyrene boxes. Tear drops or something a bit different. Then I stumbled across an advert for a small pop top caravan called an Eriba. Hazel took one look and decided to humour me, as she tends to.
It took about ten minutes to completely fall for them.

We're now on our second triton, brand new, white and dimpled and we love it.

June 2004, Silver wedding anniversary, touring through France, Switzerland, Germany (a bit) and into Italy
Equipment: 3 man dome tent, 1 airbed, single burner stove, 1 frypan, 1 saucepan, 1 kettle, 2 sleeping bags, keenets fishing umbrella, 2 armless chairs and the usual cups plates bowls cutlery etc etc and 1 bag of clothes each all packed into the very small boot space of a E Type roadster. (believe me it was a work of genius to fit it all in)
So France was lovely also Germany, the Swiss seemed to have gone away for the summer and it was freezing in the valleys over the top to Italy mmmm lovely. Down to Florence, Pisa, Siena, Lucca argggh too hot lets go back to France.

On arrival at a campsite the name of which now eludes me we spot a very shiny silver Volvo tugging a very shiny Eriba Triton. Ooooh I like that I drooled to Phil can we have one please, please, please. I'm tired of packing a quart into a pint pot and having to get dressed whilst horizontal on a leaky airbed. I'm tired of damp clothes, brewing up with a gas burner on the ground having to get into the tiny tent when it's raining etc etc.

So a quick call to one of our many children to do a search for Eriba caravans in the UK and we detour on our way home to call in at the now defunct Lechlade spent three hours there decided a 418 was the one for us but didn't have quite enough cash to buy new. Searched for 2 years at home and abroad for a 418 - nothing, not one for sale anywhere so in August 2006 called in at Leclade on our way to Devon and put a deposit down on a new one.

Collected it in Jan 2007 and have been away in her almost every month since then any regrets? Only wish we had borrowed money to buy one in 2004!

Might seem an odd thing to say but the I've never really been attracted to the Eriba at all in replying directly to the question put. I find them simply too small and in order to gain some space erecting an awning is a must. Our purchase was a case of going along with the wife's wishes as she has long fancied the ownership of one and as she grants me so many wishes in our out of caravanning life I went along with her. I have to admit feeling extremely jealous from time to time when we take an evening stroll around a campsite and see people sitting snuggly inside their non-Eriba type vans watching TV and with acres of space to move around.

and as for you Deeps just glad your better half has the final say

I seem to be the odd one out here. (Know what you're thinking Roger!)

We didn't camp with our kids so didn't do the tent progression thing. We had always fancied a Motorhome and eventually managed a cheapo old banger which we loved but quickly realised that we also needed a car and couldn't afford to run both. It occurred to us that a caravan could be an answer but only if we could get it into our garden which meant searching for something no more than 2m wide. In the first searches Frances flatly refused to consider an Eriba and it took much persuasion to actually get in one. This we did at Bowers of Takely near Stansted Airport and were quickly impressed. It took a lot of measuring to convince ourselves that we could get it through the garden entrance and I resorted to making a life size outline from roofing battens to try the necessary manoeuvres! That was about 20 years ago and we are now on our 4th Eriba. It was a bit of a shock to discover that Hymer had widened them in the current generation which necessitated some rapid work with an angle grinder on the house brickwork and there are some scars on the rear windows but it does fit.
Our first.......
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