RoadPro

A: There isn’t one! It’s a nice idea but there is no connection at all between the Curtiss-Wright Corporation whose history goes all the way back to the time of the Wright Brothers’ pioneering aviation work and Curtis Wright who started making “travel-trailers” in Los Angeles before the Second World War.

Wally Byams worked with Curtis Wright but left the company to set up his own Airstream manufacturing facility. Curtis Wright sold up in 1949 but the trailers continued to be made under the name Silver Streak into the 1970s.

Curtis Wright trailers (as the Americans say) are as rare as a very rare thing indeed but, at a secret location in the very heart of rural England, I found two today, along with what seemed like dozens of Airstreams in various states of repair.

Although it’s just a shell at the moment, one of the Airstreams is being fitted out with the very latest in caravan technology – a Crystop Internet system, a Rolls AGM 145Ah battery, a Sterling inverter / charger combination and a 2kW iNEO generator. I couldn’t take a photo of it so this one of a Curtis Wright model will have to do.

When the Airstream is finished, we will hopefully be able to put up a post showing it in its finished glory.

Respected magazine Auto Express gave out its annual awards recently, featuring products ranging from screenwash to tyres, top-boxes and GPS navigation systems. CTEK’s Multi XS3600 model won the best battery charger category but, things got even better for CTEK; the range as a whole was selected to be “Product of the Year” award. This is what the magazine said:

“Innovation has always been at the heart of the premier prize in our Product Awards, and the CTEK range of smart battery chargers are groundbreakers.  When the units arrived from Sweden, they spelt the beginning of the end for the big, boxy units we had relied on for decades.  By comparison they were tiny, barely bigger than your hand, and many found them hard to take seriously.  How could something that small be better than the traditional large box of tricks?  Plug one in you soon discover it can – and that these little marvels can revive flattened batteries considered beyond hope.

CTEK was the first specialist to bring smart chargers to motorists in big numbers, offering a compact device that could not only rescue batteries from low levels conventional rivals could not touch, but also condition and maintain them once revived.  Don’t look for big charging numbers on the packs, as the key to this new generation is how the current is delivered – precisely matching the power to what the battery can take to avoid gassing and long-term damage. This same precision also pays off when maintiaining power packs on little-used cars such as classics, constantly varying the current to keep the battery healthy and ready for use.

While CTEK chargers have been around for a few years, new pricing makes them a realistic prospect for even more drivers.  The latest XS4003 moves the technology on even further: it can rescue long-dead power packs through an innovative eight-stage process monitored via a series of lights.  Also incorporating the long-running, test-winning XS 3600, the range easily merits our Product of the Year Award.”

Our new range of SDMO generators is generating a lot interest! They’re a great compromise between expensive models and really cheap ones which are noisy, unreliable and come with little or no parts back-up or technical support.

(C9805) 900 watt SDMO generator

SDMO is a French company with a long history of designing and producing generators and we are confident that we can supply any technical support that our customers might need. There are three models: 900 watt, 1,850 watt and 2,600 watt and all are designed specifically with boaters, caravanners and motorhomers in mind.

The 900 watt and 1,850 watt models are in stock at RoadPro now (we expect the 2,600 watt model shortly)  and, if you visit us at Daventry, you can see them working for yourself. If you prefer, ask your local dealer about them and tell them that you saw them here first!

Just got an e-mail from EdExcel – one of the organisations that arranges GCSE and A-level exams in British schools. They want to use some material from our website in exam papers and we are happy to oblige. I think a few new subjects should be added to the school syllabus: Operating a satellite TV system on a boat or in a motorhome, Calculating which inverter would be needed to run a hairdryer and, maybe, healthy cooking and eating in a truck.

The product that EdExel want to incorporate into their test paper is our 12V beverage heater.

At RoadPro we were giving away Camos sat-domes this week. Well, just one to be strictly accurate. The lucky people who we gave it to were Terry and Muriel Rickson who won a competition in the Caravan Club magazine.

We installed it for them too on their 1997 Eccles Diamond 2-berth caravan. Terry and Muriel chose from RoadPro’s range of auto satellite systems and decided on the Camos sat-dome because of its light weight, ease of use, performance and the fact that it’s completely unaffected by wind. The only downside they can think of is having to explain to curious folk why they have a white bubble on top of their caravan.

Caravanners since 1984 and VW combi campers before that, Terry and Muriel will be travelling all over France as well as in the U.K. and, although they don’t plan to spend all their time watching TV, they’re now fully prepared for those occasions when the weather keeps them inside or when they want to catch up with what’s happening, no matter where they are.

On a recent trip to Wales their current aerial couldn’t pick up anything at all. That won’t happen again!