Club Arnage

Hi all,

I have been to LM for the last couple of years.  We stayed in Karting Nord.  For the last 2 years we have had the use of a motorhome.  We used the fridge to keep the beer cold.  This year we are in MB but will not have the motorhome with us so we need another way to keep the beer cold.  I assume we can buy ice from the Carrefour each morning and fill a couple of cool boxes.  Our problem is Saturday.  Last year it took us 4 hours to get back in to the camp due to traffic.  Is there anywhere on / near Maison Blanche where we can buy ice?  Or do you have any better ideas?  

A generator and a fridge and or freezer.

Gas powered camping fridge.

12V cool boxes (watch they don't drain your car battery.

Take lots of ice from the UK in a very good quality cool box.

Thanks for that.  We are a little short of space though  (only 2 cars) and were planning to put clothes etc. in the cool boxes to maximise space.  Can you buy ice from Carrefour?

I've not seen any ice for sale in Carrefour before. I've known people to blag some ice from the fish counter but sometimes they can be a bit stingy.

The supermarket (Intermarche I think) at Mulsanne sells blocks of ice, but they were quite expensive at about 3 euros per block IIRC and weren't very big.

We were on Karting Nord last year (although without the use of a motorhome) and managed to get a load of ice from the local Carrefour. Can't remember how much it was (it was fairly cheap though), and didn't come in small cubes, but instead was a solid block of about 2L - stayed solid for about two days in our coolbox, even in that heat.

 8)  Only two weeks to go...   8)

NEVER bank on being able to buy ice from the supermarkets in LM.

Like JPC says, buy loads in the uk and take it with you. So it's the old clean clothes/cold beer question for you guys, which goes back to time immemorial. I know which I'd rather have.

If you're short on boot space like us  :'( buy some buckets or a cheap pool and keep the beer cool in the water.

All the labels soak off so it's a bit of a lottery if you've bought different types of beer but it's better than nothing.

Call by our camp for a warm beer  ::)

Reps - I've NEVER been able to find the ice in the supermarkets - They sell out quickly.


Steve B -

If YOU take a couple of 2l ice cream tubs with lids, i will make the ice for you in my Frezer ( provided the TV system works  :-\ )

I think cold beers on Maison Blanche aren't going to be a problem this year are they Robbo. With your fridge/freezer and our chest freezer we should have have it sorted!!

Cheers Robbo, 2l tubs added to the packing list  :)

The other alternative is just to freeze some bottles of water. That way you know it's good enough to put in drinks too!!

We tried an aircon thing for fun in spain a few years ago I will try to make some sense of it.

Get a frame ie. two bread baskets.
Ideally make it in the shade
Get a large tray which the frame can stand in and fill with water.
Put the frame in the water and drap tea towels over the top into the water.
It is important that the top and the sides are covered by the tea towels.
Soak the tea towels and wait.

The evaporating water creates an aircon type system inside. We had it down below 5degC when it was 40degC but we were not stacking it full. I am thinking of trying it out again this year to see if it works again.

Nice trick, I'm sure it works (can't see why it shouldn't!)

A simple way to keep things cold is:

- Dig a hole in the ground (in shade, ie. under a car or a tent)
- Put a large pastic bag in the hole
- Fill the bag with water (cold! not hot)
- Put the beers in another bag and put it in the water
- Cover the hole thing by something (ie. a waiters-tray)

I can hear it it now.

In the middle of the of the night:-

Yep, it's pretty smart:

- You'll break a leg
- The leg gets cooled down
- You can't move, so You are forced to drink the beers  ;D

I managed to blag free ice from carrefour 3 times last year - I suppose it helps if you can speak the lingo.

IMHO 12v cool boxes are crap - they can't keep up with the heat - we took two last year and they both completely failed to produce anything resembling cool beer - we resorted to the "paddling pool" method.

FOr those that can remember as far back as last year, we had a major discussion on this topic which is here (http://www.clubarnage.com/yabbse/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=86;start=0).

THis year I'm hopefully bringing a disposable fridge as a present for the theiving Gypsy bastards which will be fully urined up on Sunday evening.

Yes Stu - I seem to remember Andy Zarse befuddling us all with this cold towel business also.  Personally, now being completely Americanized, I prefer my beer so cold that it causes a minor stroke with the initial few sips.  Therefore, ice is the only way to go.

Although we've got the whole thing pretty much covered by simply bringing vast quantities of ice and having the storage capacity to keep it through the weekend, I did notice that it has been sold from a van in Houx for at least the last 2-3 years.  Whether or not it's simply frozen urine, I can't comment on.  I would agree that trying supermarkets close to the track is a waste of time - but we've always had a bottomless supply at locations farther afield.  Depends on how desperate you are or comfortable carrying dumpies around in your pockets (urrghhhh!)

The last couple of years there's been a frog van doing the rounds in Houx Annex selling blocks of ice, but unless you're right near the entrance it'll all be gone by the time they get to you!  Plus its a bit of a rip off, but seemed worth it at the time!

We managed to find a small grocery shop last year and bought their entire stock of frozen petit pois and carrots, which did the trick very nicely!  8)

The answer is so simple I'm suprised no one has thought of it by now.
Don't give it time to get warm, get it down your neck ASAP. Hope this is of some help.

Hi all,

Thanks very much for all your help ( not too sure about the hole in the ground though!  Big potential for disaster  ;D )

I think we have decided to go for the gas powered fridge option.

To all those who responded, please feel free to drop by for an ice cold beer ( hopefully! )

Cheers!

How will we recognise you??  There's quite a few of us on MB this year!

As my user name suggests, we will be in company cars!  

One is a golf, the other is a superb Mondeo diesel!! It is black with red flames down the side!!  I am sure you will agree it won't look tacky at all!!

Just to make it look even better, both cars will be wearing Reps on Tour stickers on the back!

Oh dear.

 8)

By the way..

Does anyone know how to keep your tent cool?

I am sick of waking up at 7 o'clock in an oven!

Erect your tent on a glacier  8)

Driving home this evening I saw the perfect solution for next year (not enough time to change the ferry ticket).

You can hire a 10ft long refrigerated trailer for £150/week (£20/extra day). They can cool down to between -2 and 8 deg C.

Simon

We take a multi function camping fridge and dustbins.....which we fill with water on the campsite on a daily basis for the beers!!!.......not the fridge tho .....that is for beers and food as well

Wishy

Where did you find that Simon??  We saw them at the Derby last year but everywhere we've looked wanted a hell of a lot more than that for it.

I found that price from a quick google...

http://www.barlowtrailers.co.uk/hire.htm

Simon

Cheers Simon  :D

Just need a consortium of people wanting their beer cooled and your sorted. Or just turn up with it full to the gunnels and sell each crate with a pound cooling surcharge. I'don't think you could get enough beer in it.

It's definately on the cards for next year!

Simon

The other year our nice neighbours on MB had a small freezer, which they ran of a generator.

When they where on the campsite they had it plugged in and cooled/froze the beers, when they went around the circuit they unplugged the generator and put in the back of their car - so it would not get nicked.

System worked well, so good in fact they let us have some cold beers, the spirit of Le Mans.

Hope this helps -  now I’ve got a 750w generator - what size freezer will it run? -  off to comet  I think.

I bought a vcheapy  from a second hand shop last year, and "aquired" this years. You can get them for as little as £20.

Oh the Genny will power it and more, stereo, lights, or a kettle ?

We are planning to do the exact same thing - gene (1kw) plus a small freezer - run during day to cool beers / freeze freezer blocks to put in cool bag. Freezer blocks keep everything cool at night.

As for lights, yep that works, although so as not to be too anti-social to our neighbours we run 80Ah leisure battery for some decent 12v lights at night, which is then charged by the gene during the day.  We've messed around with solar panels and the like,  but nothing really beats the flexibility of the gene.

Kettle, not really a goer. Even the lowest power ones are about 800w or so. The average domestic is 2-3 kw. Back to the camping stove for that one!

For Gennys try looking in exchange & Mart .

For instance a company called

www.energen.co.uk (http://www.energen.co.uk) have 2 stroke models for £70, which have a rated output of 650W (max 800W) and noise level of 64DBa (at 7 meters) which probably means that its noisy when its right next to you.

Maybe some of the more technical members can elicit on what to look for when buying a generator, this one for instance wouldn't power some electric drills these days.

red

I managed to get a 2.8kVa genny of eBay not so long ago. That should keep the beer, and us cool in the camper!

Simon

Thanks for the heads up about the kettle, One of our lot CANT be without his PG in the morning. sad really, even for a few days once a year.

Guys, check out your power requirements for your fridges/freezers.

Although it may only need 800W to run it, it may need up to double that top actually get it started. We had a 900W genny a couple of years back and it couldn't get a standard larder fridge started.

Last year we took a 2kW genny and it ran the fridge, TV, lights and kettle. This year we are up to a 3kW as we have a fridge and freezer!!

link from above should have been

www.energenpower.co.uk (http://www.energenpower.co.uk)

I just looked at Friday, June 11 accuweather forecast.  High 62 and low in lower 50's.  May need to look at electric blankets or down comforters rather that fridges.  It's supposed to be 90+ here today, so 62 will feel downright cold to me.  It will be a nice break from the heat.  It's interesting that the Germans and English never really understood why americans want good air conditioning in their cars.  Now that BMW and others make cars here, they get it.  
I just hope the rain holds off for the race.  Pray, Pray, Pray!!!!

That's strange John. I looked at their site today and it was high of 21 Centigrade, Low of 11.  So I make that approx 68 F and a Low of 51 F

http://www.accuweather.com/adcbin/public/int_8to15day_local.asp?metric=1

It's looking better all the time.

Wednesday 9th: 22degC Mostly sunny.
Thursday 10th: 23degC Mostly sunny.
Friday 11th: 26degC Sunny and warm.

When the long range forecast is good, it's correct. When it says it's going to be nasty it's clearly wrong!

Simon

I just checked again for the 11th and now it's 79 for the high.  NO RAIN.  and a nice 63 or so for night.  Looking good.