Interviewing Dan Trudgian: Caravanning In UK

so today I'm with Dan cause I when I first started caravanning I searched on YouTube and all all your videos came up and then a lot of people as I've kind of grown the YouTube channel keep suggesting your videos to me so it's it's a bit serial meeting you thank you well I suppose one of the first things I was struck you know meeting someone in person was how tall you are you're taller than me and the one of the first things everyone always says when they meet me is carrying a really tall yeah that is really that's really interesting actually because one of the very first people I met in real life yeah said exactly the same thing she is tiny when did you start caravanning so I've been caravan with my mum and dad way back in the early eighties nice and we had a swift Conqueror and we used to go away in it all the time and I lived most of my youth in my life in the caravan every single holiday either in the forest of ding or in France ok and that's where we spent most of our time and my dad used to turn it with an old Cortina an old Ford Cortina and we used to go everywhere in it and that's my that's my happy place you know when mum and dad were together and we were happy together we were doing all sorts you know that was where we would be in the caravan of doing things and I'd wake up in a most uncomfortable bed at the back of the caravan you know it was a canvas bunk bed and it was and we used to carry on caravanning in the winter and new you through new years and what have you and I always remember waking up freezing cold but that's my happy memories yeah and really happy memories so when we bought a caravan it was 2014 I think it was we bought the care of our first Caravan and that's that's where we started as as the Trojans we would start it we started them of course to get to that point I've done everything incorrectly because all my memories based upon the early 80s of waking up at Frost on my sleeping bag and being freezing cold that's that's what I had as a as my memory so I went and kitted us out for every eventuality based upon my experiences of the early 80s so so consequently we had all these SuperDuper sleeping bags the lasted one night because we absolutely roasted the technology change so that something and that's when I realized at that point I don't know anything about caravanning only I need to research it and that's really well started at all what was their motivation for a channel that it was it was conversation that Tom and I had had my oldest son and he said to me said you know why don't we video some helpful tips because he could see me getting frustrated who's not being able to find information on how to do things and the first topic was how do I clean my Caravan hmm it's really simple but there was lots of adverse of our product is the best product and this is that this you know what have you but there was no guide or there's no help when there's no information on how do you clean a caravan and what other things to look out for so we just thought I'd just well a few times to the caravan coffee you know routine set up and works out what would worked for us and then we create that video and that was the very start we we started at that point cleaning a caravan and then I think we fixed the toilet which was the one after that um you know we just carried off from there so yeah and then it's snowboard it really snow yeah all right next question okay this is more for what I struggled with on my trip around the UK okay has been the roads and figuring out the right route how do you find how to get from A to B with a caravan what do you use war that's a really good question and it starts with Google Maps Street View and then I'm put to memory the route I want to take to memory and I am I am i zoom out in the roads which they illuminated the moral is ooh I think that's your main roads that's the ones I want to be going down as you go and zoom in that they fill in more detail but I I try to commit as much as I can to memory of where I'm going and how I'm getting there and then up at the sat-nav one because I just I you know I as much as some types of great and I've got a son of dedicated field caravanning you know when you put your unit length width and height where pull that info into it I still cannot get over the fact that at some point it's going to decide to take me down a road but I don't want to go down and I still have I still have this fight with that map that says you want to go down that no I do not want to go down that way and I have this fight my I will take the longest route but I know I'll get there safely yeah yeah I'm like slowly learning to research first yeah in the UK and New Zealand I just put on my destination don't even care yeah and get me there safely no problem and you know the one thing I always research the one thing I always try to do is Street View the entrance to the campsite hmm so I want to see what the access is like to the campsite yeah so if I can work out which is site is it best to come in from is it left or right do I have a big enough to swing you know till about there there's another channel legs down who you just started doing it again now they used to do site arrival videos so they will take you from a major road like a motorway or major a road and they would have dashcam footage if you go all the way to the slide and their idea of community was to ask people to send them in their dash cam footage so they get this an online library so you get more more yeah oh okay so I know how to get there and I can know what to look out for and people's experiences of how they got to that site that's been the biggest challenge for me the roads here yes yeah or some of them have a yeah these roads are really good on they okay narrow it's a lane and a half count but two cars down there listen major a yeah okay I grew up on this area so I think that's all wise yeah no moats me was a really popular because yeah noticed we've got fear of not being able to reverse I've already driving down these crazy narrow roads I've been stuck where I've had to reverse that someone else through and if I had to rely on no mover I would mean staffed yeah you hit the nail on the head so many people jump into a caravan and go use it without a clue on whether they can legally tow it we've got some really queer yeah yeah we're really all licensing issues here in the UK whereas me I could go and get a really big Caravan a huge car and have no experience at all and go 400 miles that way yeah whereas my wife has to pass a test to do that exact same thing yeah and the only difference is is that we passed our tests at different times right so she was after 97 99 7 miles before and that's the only difference I actually I email before I came over to check that I could actually totally see license because I something had a fear that I wouldn't be able to that was ok good are there any things that you want to see changed in the future yeah loads laws it's really things you feel comfortable sharing yeah yeah I mean we just touched on you driving licences that needs a huge reform yeah because there are people driving who haven't got a clue and you know frankly it can be dangerous and I think that the younger the younger people who want to have a caravan and want to experience the great outdoors I think they're being penalized yeah sure they need to go through some extra tests but I don't think it needs to be to the extent of the legislation it is at the moment it's going too far it's going too far and it's putting a lot of people off it's given them the fear factor yeah and the second thing I'd like to see is that manufacturers actually listen to people because at the moment the industry is really good at not listening to what customers actually want they're greater telling us what we think we want right so not listening to us and then and then finally the other thing of what see is maybe bigger investment into the infrastructure you know we're on the here in the UK were on the cusp of switching over to electric vehicles and you know hybrid vehicles more so than diesel and petrol and there at the moment there's a new investment or very little investment into making that ready you know making campsites ready to take that on board and also shouldn't we start with a caravan you know if I was going with the caravan and I'd pull up somewhere and I plug this into their tricks surely this should be able to accommodate charging a car up as well good price you know yeah and we should be thinking the industry not we the industry should be thinking about how does evey vehicles and this how can they all operate together düsseldorf in Germany there'll be lots of people with innovation and in ideas I think maybe again the industry should listen to those people with really good ideas haven't even thought about that area it's a scary one but it's also really exciting because it's now that opportunity could really do it well things are always changing like my experience and driving this car I could ask you about my cars like 20 years older than this car and there's quite a jump technology by the cab in this car how are you actually gonna want to go home one day there's no truck with this kind of this peril for a while see you next year before you go careful we wrap up you know I've got some quick four questions okay you ready for this yeah okay one-word answer right right beach or countryside country say northern or southern hemisphere southern North or South Island South Island England Scotland or Wales Scotland book or TV sunset or sunrise that's it and in one word sum up England that you've seen so far sorry sum up the UK that you've seen so far oak trees oak trees oak - I'm sorry obsessed with stone walls and stir bridges you know you're not that far away from a memory oh yeah yeah oh so stone circle oh yeah yeah you're not far away from that so that's the point is it's what was the one thing we always do on my holidays lookey dog my dogs so we're going to clear that bottles and then of course and I want to see this on your channel very masculine strong oh really you don't want to see that what yeah it's strategically poison [Laughter] you

Channel: Travelling K

Views: 25,721

Rating: 4.8951612 out of 5

Keywords: dan trudgian, interview questions and answers, caravanning, caravan life, rv, rv life, recreational vehicle, caravan, #vanlife, #homeonwheels, #homeiswhereyouparkit, solo female, Bailey Phoenix, Bailey Phoenix 640, Peugeot 3008, Caravanning in UK, Towing in UK

Id: wCx3TC9l5R8

Length: 12min 28sec (748 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 19 2019