Installation and user manuals - Read this page to discover all the information you can buy from my website - FAR more than just the pdf or jpg copies of manuals that many ebay sellers provide. If you want to print out a manual - just use the high quality pdf files. No other seller offers you a huge range of strip-down and repair photographs (although others have tried to steal and resell my photographs!).

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Here are some 'original' comments from autumn 2008

A separate webpage details the unhelpful attitude of Truma (UK) towards owners of Carver heating products. Some material from the Patent Office is reproduced. A couple of patents on the Cascade 2 expired in January 2005 and new 'lookalike' units are now available, and despite everything that Truma and their lawyers tried to do to be unhelpful. More historical information will be added here later.

Almost everyone you speak to in the caravan world detests the high prices and/or non-availability of spares for many older products - in effect manufacturers are forcing consumers to buy whole new systems instead of a few reasonably priced spare parts. This is wholly against the tenets of reuse and recycling (an article on this is included on my website) yet, regrettably, a parallel situation exists in the automotive world generally.

Carver SB1800 heater - an example of poor installation. The Carver (Truma) SB1800 is one of the simplest caravan heaters. However, it suffers from some safety issues, the best known being corrosion of two steel gas pipes beneath floor level. These are the large pipe (supplying gas to the control valve) and the smaller one (feeding gas from the valve to the burner). The small pipe is the most likely to fail, and in the proximity of the burner. Many photos are available of repairs.

Carver SB1800 - internal components

Carver 1800 installation and operation instructions - pdf format (2 min download at 56k)

AL-KO towing hitches - repairs to a seized draw tube assembly (now working perfectly!)

Carver Cascade 2 water heater - strip down and repairs: The photos on this page show a Carver Cascade 2 caravan water heater being stripped down. The common faults with these units include frost damage (which is often easily repaired), corrosion of the aluminium cylinder (which can often be repaired or if not, replaced) and failure of the central tie rod. Electronic failures in the burner module may mean a service exchange or new unit (about £100) but repairs can sometimes be effected (see below).

Patent Office document discussing Cascade 2 - the behaviour of Truma (UK)

Carver Cascade 2 instructions - simplified version (no diagrams)

Repair of Carver Cascade and other water heaters - details of repair services

Corrosion of Cascade cylinders and repairs.

Gas leak testing for caravans and motor homes - procedures for competent owners. Low pressure leak testing of the fixed gas pipes in caravans is a good idea as part of annual servicing, and is readily undertaken at home if you know what you are doing (and if you don't know, then don't try it!). I use a standard set of procedures regularly. Commercial testing often costs £40 to £60 and consists of little more than a cursory inspection, a pressure check and the often unnecessary replacement of good quality flexible hoses. How to test these systems is outlined in detail. Remember -