I am a shorter arse than you at 5’6” in my socks, and I too am feeling the cold but have overcome that over night by using an electric blanket in the van! Half an hour before bed and it’s toasty for most of the night.

Wuss +1

Colin

All I can say is wait until you actually get old instead of advanced middle-aged, and then you will really feel the cold........................................!

Mike

Peripheral polyneuropathy has meant my toes have felt cold, despite actually being warm, for the last five years. My fingers aren't so badly affected but the fingertips do get cold unless I wear gloves in temperatures I wouldn't have dreamt of wearing gloves in before. Having permanently cold toes, even in the hottest weather is not a nice thing. It's not that they're actually cold, but the nerves in the toes are shot and tell the brain they're cold. It's a weird sensation.

Memories of Totnes.

Waiting in the station car park for my parents to arrive from Paddington, with my company Talbot Alpine on a rescue trailer, having succumbed to an overcharging alternator at Sedgemoor MSA. The trailer was pulled by a LWB Defender fitted with a Rover V8. As we powered up the hill out of Totnes heading for Kingsbridge, the Defender's top hose blew off and we ground to a halt in a cloud of steam in a farm entrance. The recovery driver managed to get replacement water from the farm and refitted the top hose. He then deposited us all at our holiday cottage in Churchstow. On the Monday the local Kingsbridge Talbot dealership collected my car and we hired a replacement to get around during our week break.

I wish you better vehicle luck in Totnes

We frequently sleep with the roof down because of cold and or noise. I also have a cosy supply of snuggly fleece blankets to supplement the bedding ....got to be toasty!

hot water bottle - radical idea I know

Essential kit at our place for winter vanning

Denise & Phil

At 5'2" I can do a pogo dance with the roof down. We have the Truma electric element and leave this on low tick over during a cold night. I also made a thermal poptop blind which keeps the heat in. I think all this coupled with the Famila been small it doesn't get cold at night with the roof up. I will only drop it when it's blowing a hooley.

Got to say we or I am firmly in the camp of being a wuss Bev is the other way likes to sleep with the top up. But I like it down mainly due to the cold but also because of the noise. I thought I was/well I was 5.10 but I went to one of them well men clinics. After being weighed then measured I saw the nurse writing 5.8.

I said wow hang on there a minute I am 5.10 a argument then started although it being friendly. Eventually the nurse agreed to measure me again this time I watched carefully the outcome. It was true 5.8 I apologised of course. It was a shock to me someone had pinched two inches which may not seem a lot to most people. But in my book two inch is two inch and it was my two inch that has gone! As Roger says old age the only thing in my opinion you get with old age that is wisdom.

However even in our older Troll I could walk about top down with just my hair touching on the roof. On the new Troll even that should not be a problem as I now have less hair and probably shrunk a bit more. Morphy

In really cold weather we keep the little oil-filled radiator on to give background heat and take the chill off.

We're never cold in bed as we sleep on the things that you lay on top of the mattress whose name has gone completely from my head. Then we have sheets and we each have our own quilt. At the bottom of the bed we have an old fashioned king-size woollen blanket that we pull over in the middle of the night so we are warm as Islay's toast.

Except for one area my ears that seem to be cold detectors. I have a bobble hat but then my head gets too hot. Unless of course it is really freezing outside and drips start from the aluminium trim round the pop top right onto my head......! All part of the joys of camping.

We have stopped using the gas heater and instead have a small fan heater with a thermostat that blows warm air to the back of the van, where we sit if the bed isn't made up..

We like Islay are normally toasty.

MikeT

Oh and we are still toying with Poptops draft excluder thingy, given how expensive the Hymer draft excluder is.

With regards to height, or my lack of it. I was at a routine check up with the nurse a few years ago , when she measured my height (4ft 10 1/2" ) she said that if i shrank much more I would legally need a booster seat in the car 😮

It’s probably an age thing. I’ve found myself considering an electric blanket, last had ones of those in the early 80’s.
As for height, 6ft husband, daughter is 5’11”, me a mere 5’3” last time I checked, could be shorter 🤔

Kath is 5'2" and glibly says that she doesn't understand all this Eriba kiss on the head fuss............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is until she hears me howl with pain and then start to wimper like a puppy........................no sympathy at all

MikeT

All this talk of height has made me get my Stanley tape measure out.

Oooooo, like Steve, I've shrunk, but only by an inch and it's not accounted for by the hair that's disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

At age 73 I'm down to 6ft 1ins, which means I can fit nicely in a 6ft 4ins berth. Asking for 6ft 5ins in a caravan was always a likely to be met with a blank stare. I don't believe most manufacturers believe there's anyone over 5ft 10ins in the world. As it happens 5ft 10ins is the height of the average UK male. So if caravans don't provide beds longer than 6ft 1ins they aren't catering for about 25% of the UK adult population (on the basis that most UK women are shorter.