Gas and Electric in europe

[lesstatt]

Planning a european roadtrip in a motorhome soon and after reading a couple of books im a bit confused about the Gas bottles available in france and spain, apparantly one type we have here is available and one isnt (calor gas etc), can anyone please enlighten me. Also on the electrics they mention checking the polarity before connecting, now i thought you connected the big blue plug, connected your normal sockets and it was fine, or am i wrong

[Kneetrembler]

You can just buy the different Calor Gas connections anywhere from the Ironmongery shops in France and Spain.

Just fit a polarity switch in your van so that when you plug in if the polarity of the electric is round the wrong way you just flick the switch and its done.

[lesstatt]

Ok thanks, how do you check the polarity and if it is wrong will you damage anything before you switch it round

[lesstatt]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EU-Europe-Caravan-Campin...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UK-Mains-Socket-Tester-P...

Ah like these you mean

[nutsytvr]

lesstatt said:

Planning a european roadtrip in a motorhome soon and after reading a couple of books im a bit confused about the Gas bottles available in france and spain, apparantly one type we have here is available and one isnt (calor gas etc), can anyone please enlighten me. Also on the electrics they mention checking the polarity before connecting, now i thought you connected the big blue plug, connected your normal sockets and it was fine, or am i wrong

Many sites in France & Spain don't have the "big blue plug". They still use the normal continental 2 pin plug, hence often getting reverse polarity. You need to make a converter - easy enough - get a French plug, a blue socket (can't remember without checking mine whether you need male or female - check your blue plug and get the opposite so they connect) - join with a meter or so of orange cable and hey presto. Also make a polarity reverser - get male & female blue plugs and join t hem up, but cross the live and neutral wires on one of the plugs.

NutsyTVR

[Vladimir]

We spent five weeks in Spain and France and had no issues with hook up or getting gas.

[lescombes]

In EU I have 2 converter hook up leads.... one proper polarity and one reversed. The reversed is marked with tape.
What I do is to plug in with the proper polarity connector then to the usual 16 amp blue lead socket and have a polarity checker plug (as has been shown in this thread).
If the polarity is reversed I opt to use my reverse polarity lead.

Beware too that most EU campsites are only 6 amp unlike the majority of UK sites at 16 amp. The caveat is that some are coming up to speed with 16 amp upgrades

I don't use electric hook up much abroad these days as I now have a solar charge kit and 12v appliances.

Gas.... I use Camping Gaz in EU but in reality a Calor will do for the little consumption I have, lets face it...we BBQ as often as not

[sulli]

Been to France a few times in the motorhome, and only issue has been gas. We ran out of Calor at a remote aire and on going to change the bottle found their bottles have different connections and regulators. Despite going to various hardware stores/briccolages, their equivalent of halfords, camping shops etc nowhere could I find a conversion kit. Spoke to several other UK motorhomers there who had had similar issues over the years. I was saved by a fellow camper who had bought an international LPG adapter kit that enabled me to fill the bottle at one of the few garages within 50miles that had LPG! Managed to do it without blowing myself up, but before we go over again we are getting something like this: http://www.gaslow.co.uk
It was a complete hassle though as we had no car, all kit at site, 3 kids, so hunting for a solution was something I could've done without.
As for the electric, only issue is the odd aire that still has 2 pin, the wife picked up an adapter for the hook up in The Range the other week for £2!