Eriba Man

  I had the misfortune during my last trip to experience a broken roof clip, one of the front of the two clips used to keep the pop top secured down. This is how I solved the issue. Firstly, I’ll describe what happened. I was on my way south to Northumberland and just south of Edinburgh, I glanced in the mirror and noticed the front of the pop top was lifting. I pulled into the next parking place and discovered that the short ‘hook’ end of the roof clip had broken off, releasing its hold on the pop top. As a temporary fix, I turned the clip around using the longer grip side as the ‘hook’. I continued very cautiously with no further issue until I arrived at the campsite around an hour later. To get me home, I repaired the broken clip in a very ‘belt and braces’ manner. I glued the broken part back on with gorilla glue, I then bent a spoon handle to the shape of the clip and glued that on, I then reinforced it with T’Rex tape, and finally wrapped the grip end with paracord! I right o...

 The fitted Gas Heater was an option when buying and new Eriba Puck from a dealer.  In the later Pucks, the heater fitted was the small but efficient Trumatic S2200. Although a handy and compact means of heating the van in colder weather, it did mean the sacrifice of one of the cupboards in order to house the heater. As many caravaners limited their touring to the summer months, and with many visiting campsites with main hook ups, then many bought the caravan without the optional heater. Instead, small oil filled radiators, or fan heaters were used when heating was needed. I am a big fan of basic CL type sites, particularly the really stripped back sites which don't provide power. With my solar panel, I can last indefinitely living 'off grid'. The problem arises when the temperature drops and heating is required. There is no way that a solar system and leisure battery will provide any meaningful heat in cold weather.  I considered it, but decided against 'butchering...

There are a number of quirks in the Eriba Puck, and one which always amazed me was why in the later models a tiny 'tablette' was added under the rear window. The edge also holds the mounting hinge for the table. Not only does this restrict the bed by 6", the hinge is notorious for banging your head when getting out of the bed. Apparently, this shelf was considered a design flaw by Eriba, and it just never made sense. So, took my 5 mins to remove the shelf and bracket. I'll keep this in case I ever want to return the van to it's original state. When I made a new shorter table, I still had the hinge section left which I drilled and attached to the van wall. Works perfect! And the table looks good.  All that remains is to try it out on my next trip!