mrval.net and

Contact Information

Note, latest update July 2020 I have now retired and no longer sell anything. 
However I am now concentrating more on updating and writing more of my-
'Technical and not so technical information' articles, these have become very popular!
(I'm real chuffed, thank you for all your kind words and encouragement folks).

Sorry but I had to remove the contact phone numbers from this page.
I was being totally swamped with phone calls for most of the day, every day!
Same with the emails, I'm only one person, I just can't answer well over a hundred emails a day.

I am truly sorry for any inconvenience that this may have caused.

There is no need for you to read any further unless you are interested,
this has been my little mid-life crisis and certainly not anybody else's fault or problem.

However if you are interested I have tried to explain below the reasons why I had to close the main shop front,
and remove all phone numbers and email addresses from this website many years ago.
Please note that all my customers (past and present) do have my current contact details on their invoices.

Due to the extraordinary number of emails that I was getting each day, I have regrettably come to the conclusion that there is no possible way I can keep answering them any longer.  I had been struggling for many months, working until midnight most nights (truly) trying to keep up, and I physically cannot (and won't) do this any longer.

"Hah!!", I can hear some people saying, "why don't you put on staff if your so busy then!". And if that's what YOU are saying, then can I respectfully ask you to please tell me just where can I find these fully trained staff?? That is staff with real camping life experience, staff that can ask you all the right questions, staff can offer you the correct advice so that your hard earned money goes to purchasing equipment that you really need, and that will do everything that you expect of it, and is of a quality that won't let you down when your halfway through your dream holiday out the back of Burk?

Yes please tell me and a few others out there that are crying out for staff like this, and have been for years.
(Have you noticed just how incompetent some staff are at some of the other places?)

You know folks, this is going to sound corny, but it is true that over the years in this business one of the things I enjoy the most is being able to help people in one way or an other. It does make one feel good (you know the warm and fuzzes). I truly do believe in the saying "what goes around comes around".

I have always been passionate about giving people the best advice to suit their needs and circumstances. It has always been my intention to write more articles and helpful hints to add to my technical articles page on this website, thus helping people become better informed about the whole camping, caravanning, motorhoming and boating thing regarding essential appliances, necessary toys etc, and low voltage electrics.

But it has become a catch 22 situation spending all of my available time (and then some) answering peoples email questions, leaving me with no time to write the articles -- articles that may also help reduce the need for people to ask so many questions of me!

I hope that now I will get the time to write some more articles that may help people understand a little more about things they need to deal with while they are camping, or setting up to go camping, boating or rv-ing.

Collyn Rivers writes and sells really >>great books<< that cover all the ins-and-outs when it comes to recreational vehicle set-up and operation.
I would like to think that my short articles help people understand how to do some of the smaller jobs, and fix some of the problems encountered by many that venture in the outdoors.

As I have said by far my most time consuming job is answering all the questions that people ask. Some years ago I had to remove my phone number from the website. The phone was literally ringing most of the day, and many times when I would get off the phone there would be another 2 or 3 messages left on Messagebank.  It was way out of control so I just had to slow down the calls somehow.

I just hate the thought of letting people down, like not answering their calls in a timely manor, or their emails. But there are only 24 hours in the day, and I was working 16 hours a day most days. I can't make more time though I wish I could. And don't we all.

I have had people suggest "why don't you charge for your advice, that would slow down the emails a bit" but I do not want to go down that path at all.

Others have said "put your prices up Val, that will slow things down a bit", but I don't want to do that either. That's not what I'm about, nor are the high volume of sales a problem. I can handle that just fine (at least at the moment), but it's the email questions that are so time consuming, and that is what I now have to stop - at least for the time being.

I am so grateful for the outstanding success my business has had , and the many people that continue to say nice things about myself and the business. If you go to almost any camping, caravanning, motorhoming, or four wheel driving website or forum, and you will see Fridge & Solar mentioned favourably. And this is just great.

Oh -- and for those of you that have made it this far reading through all my moaning, and listening to the violins playing, well done and thank you :-)

Below is what I would like to be doing again real soon :-)

It was back in 1986 when I started to build this bus into a motorhome. This photo (below on the Left) was taken in 1990 on our first trip that took us half way around Oz. We sold the bus in 96 and I down sized a bit, to the camper on the Jeep ---->

I so miss my Jeep, the burble of the big V8, and it's pulling power :-(

On the right is the 4 x 4 camper as it is today, the pop- top camper body was a prototype I built back in 1996 (Above right).  I went into production for a few short years but found that staff were never going to be able to keep up the standard of workmanship that I insist on, so I closed the business down and kept the first unit for myself. It's now on it's third vehicle and still as good as new, but that's the way I build things :-) My wife and I now have the time to use the camper a bit more. The very best regards to all, Val Rigoli

Click on the photo to go to our Campers page.