Portafold reactions on holiday

[Gordon McLaren]

been on holiday last 2 weeks , first week with the portafold ,and was amazed by reaction to her . 2 or 3 campers took photos , some people asked what it was of course , and best of all just south of mallaig was when taking her down i became aware of people watching ? this was some of the german and scottish campers on site , must have impressed because got a round of applause when i'd completed putting it down ! on chatting and telling them that it was 36 years old , they were well taken with her (big smile on my face) . hope everyone enjoys their different portafold holidays this year. cheers gordon.

[txfsealord]

It's fun isn't it? First time out for us this weekend! Wasn't really ready of course, as the time got shorter & shorter I kept knocking jobs off the list "Could manage without". So we went with no roof lining, no wall linings, no panelling below thw wall-shelves & no cupboards at all apart from the lockers themselves. So much of the time was spent either moving things or looking for things - I was astonished how easy it is to lose stuff in a vehicle the size of an Ansfold, it's like a Tardis in there! On the roadworthiness side, 2 problems were: not enough brakes & casing failure on a tyre. I'd thought when reassembling them, the brake leverage was very low, but didn't want to mess with it till I'd tried it fully loaded & as I didn't finish the essential work on it till 10pm the night before we went, I never tested it. The van's anchors would be fine behind a modern car with discs, but behind a drum-braked Minor which was also fully laden (we took far too much stuff) they were inadequate. Whilst away I drilled another hole 1/3 of the way up the brake lever & moved the cable into it, which was better but still without sufficient reserve for safety under all unforseen circumstances. I'm going to re-evaluate the handbrake lever anyway (see 'disaster brake') so I'll sort it then. The tyre, bought secondhand, had a faulty casing which 'let go' on the M40. The Ansfold told me about it! Some cords ruptured, making it go very 'out of round' but it didn't deflate. Looking in the rearview mirror (I can see over as the car's high) the roof was suddenly dithering where all had previously been smooth! Slowing down to check the straps before it blew off, I saw one side of the van apparently "walking" bobbing rhythmically up & down, rather than rolling smoothly. Fitting the spare cured it. So that 2ndhand tyre was a false economy!

It's not boring though! We both loved it! Can't wait to get away again & learn more ways of being comfortable in an Ansfold. Must get some trim in it...

Steve

[Neil]

It's great isn't it? We've had ours for 6 years and we wouldn't be without it now. We use ours 10 to 15 times a year at different shows and even holiday in it, wouldn't even swap it for a modern caravan

[alexdundee]

We had our first trip in it this weekend and its great.
People come up to us to see what it is and want to have a sit inside,
and then telling us how big it really is compared with the outside...