Caravanning - Carver Cascade 2 water heaters and SB1800 heaters - manuals, some technical advice, repair details, testing gas systems and gas safety warnings.

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!).

Before you buy on ebay, please read the following email - it is typical of the thanks I receive. The SeeRed website contains far more caravanning technical information than you get from ebay sellers. It is written by a PhD scientist who just happens to have an interest in caravannning!

Full details of how to pay for access to my caravan webpages are on this page. Updated 2019.

Hi Steve!

Thank you very much for your wonderfully helpful resource. It was well worth the money - unlike the £1.49 I paid for a copy of the Carver Trumatic SB1800 User Manual (from that rogue ebay user '
xxxxxx'), and actually received just an emailed, poor quality (diazo print) pdf file of the Fitting Instructions!
In view of the horrendous features of the SB1800 that you have brought to life, perhaps it should be re-named the 'Traumatic'!
Best wishes,

P.S. Your website is priceless!

Full details of how to pay for access to my caravan pages are on this page. Updated 2019.

Here are just a few examples of my ebay feedback - from before the time when ebay banned digital download sales. You can now buy this same material only direct from me - no longer via ebay.

What a fantastic piece of information, well worth having, Thanks

well worth the money my heater is now working, thanks

EXCELLENT exactly what I wanted deal done within the hour def do biz again!!! A+

Perfect! Very helpful informations for very little money! Thank you very much!

Excellent, worth every penny and more A++++++++++

Brilliant information, extremely useful, A1 ebay seller, thoroughly recommended

Very detailed and just what I was looking for. Excellent service.

Great site, all the info I need for my new caravan and quick with the details

Excellent communication and very useful information. Has helped no end

Here are some 'original' comments from autumn 2008

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Information includes full details of Carver SB1800 and Cascade 2 water heaters. Also some details of AL-KO towing hitches. This section of SeeRed was originally produced simply to be helpful to other caravan owners and to highlight the business practices of some dominant companies. Installation manuals are provided in various formats including high quality pdf - simply download the one most suitable for your needs.

Full details of how to payfor access to my caravan webpages are on this page. Updated 2019.

READ THE GAS SAFETY NOTES ON MY WEBSITE BEFORE UNDERTAKING ANY WORK.
Only 'competent persons' must work on gas systems.


These pages, including over 50 detailed images and diagrams of strip down and repair procedures, used to be 'free to view' on the web - then certain individuals on ebay started stealing and selling the photos. Ebay were slow to react and the people involved did not have their accounts suspended. Furthermore, ebay refused to allow me to give my webpages away for free via their systems. Other sellers argued that as my webpages were free to view they could not be copyright - which is incorrect. However, in order to stop people profiting to excess, I have had to alter my website. The pages are no longer free but are for sale as genuine 'SeeRed' webpages and for a lot less money than the people made who stole them! If you know of my webpages and images being sold elsewhere please tell me about it. A few of the dozens of images available are shown below as small thumbnails.

smallburning.jpg (5363 bytes) smallcarcomp.jpg (5247 bytes) smallcargas.jpg (5464 bytes) smallcasleakfrom.jpg (4063 bytes) small1bar.jpg (5272 bytes) smallcarbu.jpg (5400 bytes) smallcarst.jpg (4917 bytes)
smalllargen.jpg (5030 bytes) smallcaleincyli.jpg (4497 bytes) smallsthermo.jpg (5161 bytes) smallnewbott.jpg (5661 bytes) smallrodse.jpg (4742 bytes) smallxca8.jpg (4719 bytes) smallca6.jpg (3551 bytes)

Help keep the SeeRed site on the web.

Full details of how to pay for access to my caravan webpages are on this page. Updated 2019.


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.


Index for this section - you will get access to all of these webpages!

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 SB1800 - repair, reassembly and possible problems.

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 installation and use manuals - copies of the original as large jpg files

Carver Cascade - instructions, pdf format (5MB,  28 mins on slow modem)

Carver Cascade - user instructions, pdf format (1MB,  7 mins on slow modem)

Carver Cascade - template to cut wall, pdf format (0.6MB - 5 mins on slow modem)

Carver Cascade 2 instructions - simplified version (no diagrams)

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

Photos of flame and pressure testing - DO NOT try this unless you are fully competent.

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 -

READ THE GAS SAFETY NOTES BEFORE UNDERTAKING ANY WORK.
Only 'competent persons' must work on gas systems.


Full details of how to pay for access to my caravan webpages are on this page. Updated 2019.

If you buy my Caravanning pages you get access to all of the above pages and all the images.

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