What is it How does it work

MotorhomeFun Journal — Member's Manual​

A complete guide to your Motorhome Travel Journal. Read it from the top if you've never opened the app before, or jump straight to the section you need. The journal is a free benefit of your MotorhomeFun forum subscription.

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1. Welcome​

What the journal is for​

The Motorhome Travel Journal is a private notebook for your travels. It lives at

https://motorhomefun.co.uk/journal/

and works on any phone, tablet or computer.You can use it to:

• Record every tour you take, from a weekend at a CL to a six-month tour of Portugal.
• Keep a diary of where you've been, who you've met, what you've eaten, what you've seen.
• Log fuel fill-ups and track what your motorhoming actually costs you.
• Keep important documents like your MOT, insurance and passport details to hand wherever you are.
• Share what you discover with the wider MotorhomeFun community — campsites, aires, LPG stations, water points — so the next member down the road benefits.

Your notes, photos and diary are private to you unless you choose to share them. Sharing is always an opt-in, never the other way round.

Installing the journal on your phone​

The journal is a Progressive Web App. There's nothing to download from the App Store or the Play Store — it installs straight from the website to your home screen and looks and feels exactly like any other app.

On an iPhone (Safari):

1. Open Safari and go to https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/journal/
2. Tap the Share button (the square with the arrow pointing up, at the bottom of the screen).
3. Scroll down the list and tap Add to Home Screen.
4. Confirm the name (Motorhome Journal is fine) and tap Add.
5. You'll see the journal icon on your home screen alongside your other apps. Tap to open.

On an Android phone (Chrome)

1. Open Chrome and go to https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/journal/
2. Tap the three-dot menu in the top right.
3. Tap Install app (sometimes called "Add to Home screen").
4. Confirm and tap Install.
5. The journal icon appears alongside your other apps.

On a tablet or laptop: you don't need to install anything. Just open the same web address in any modern browser — Safari, Chrome, Edge, Firefox — and it works the same way. You can install it on a laptop too: most browsers show an install icon in the address bar.

Once installed, opening the icon takes you straight in. It remembers you between visits, so you only sign in the first time and after the rare occasion when you sign out manually.

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2. Signing up and signing in​

Creating your account​

YOU NEED TO CREATE AN ACCOUNT your regular forum password will not get you in. You do need to be a current MotorhomeFun forum subscriber. The journal looks up your email against the forum at sign-up time, so use the same email address you use to log into the forum.


To create an account:

1. Open the journal and tap Create a free account at the bottom of the sign-in screen.
2. Type your Forum email address — exactly as it appears in your MotorhomeFun profile.
3. Type a Display name. This is what other members will see on your community contributions. You can use your real name, your forum username, or anything you like up to 100 characters.
4. Set a Password. At least 8 characters. Many members use the same password as their forum login so that their phone's autofill remembers it — that's fine, but it's not required.
5. Tap Create account. You're signed in straight away.

If the sign-up gets refused​

The journal will only let in current paying forum subscribers, so you might see one of these messages:

• "We can't find this email at MotorhomeFun" — the most common cause is a typo. Check the spelling. If you're not a forum member at all, the message gives you a link to the MotorhomeFun registration page.
• "That email belongs to a forum account that is not currently subscribed" — your forum account is real but your subscription has lapsed. The message gives you a link to renew on the forum. Once you've renewed, come back here.
• "Our forum check is offline" — very rare. Wait a minute or two and try again.

Signing in afterwards​

After the first sign-up, you just need your email and password:

1. Open the journal.
2. Type your Email address.
3. Type your Password.
4. Tap Log In.

The journal will keep you signed in across visits. You'll only see the sign-in screen again if you tap Log out in your Account tab, or if a long time has passed and your session has expired.

Forgotten password​

1. On the sign-in screen, tap Forgot your password?.
2. Type your email address and tap Email me a reset link.
3. Within a minute or two, a message arrives in your inbox. Open it and tap the Reset password button.
4. Choose a new password (at least 8 characters), type it twice, and tap Set new password.
5. The journal sends you back to the sign-in screen. Sign in with your new password.

The reset link only works for one hour after it's sent — if you don't get to it in time, just request another one. The link can only be used once.

If the reset email isn't in your inbox after a couple of minutes, check your spam folder.

What happens if your forum subscription lapses​

The journal re-checks your subscription every time you sign in. If your forum subscription has lapsed, you'll see a message with a link to renew. Your journal data stays safely on our server — once you renew, sign in again and everything is just as you left it.

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3. The five tabs at the bottom of the screen​

When you're signed in, the bottom of the screen always shows the same five tabs:

• Tours — your travel journal: every tour, every campsite, every diary entry.
• Community — a shared map of campsites, aires, LPG stations and water points contributed by every member.
• Stats — totals across every tour you've recorded: nights spent, miles driven, money spent, places visited.
• Docs — a personal document store for your insurance, MOT, passport, emergency contacts and more.
• Account — your profile, photo storage, backups and sign-out.

Tap any tab to switch to that screen. The Tours tab is also your home — the journal opens here.

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4. Building your first tour (Tours tab)​

The Tours tab is where you spend most of your time. A tour could be a fortnight in France, a whole year's worth of travel an extended jaunt around the Scottish Highlands. A tour is where you record numerous trips away in the van. A tour isn't just one trip, it's a collection of trips, but the collection is up to you. It could be a month, a year, a country. It's up to you

Everything that happens on that trip lives inside the tour: where you stopped, where you drove, what you saw, the people you met, the diary you kept.

Your home screen​

The Tours tab opens with a forest-green welcome banner showing the time of day greeting, the headline numbers for your travels so far (tours, nights, miles) and a Log fuel shortcut. Below that, your tours are listed in three groups:

• Coming Up — tours you've created but not started yet. Each card shows a countdown until the start date ("Tomorrow", "12 days to go").
• On the Road — tours that are happening now or have no end date set.
• Past Tours — tours you've marked as completed.

Tap any tour card to open it. Use the Search field above the list to find anything across all your tours and entries.

Creating a tour​

1. Tap the round ＋ button in the bottom-right corner of the Tours tab.
2. Type a Tour name. Something memorable like "Dordogne Summer 2025" or "October half-term in the Lakes".
3. Set the Start date — defaults to today, change it if you're planning ahead.
4. Set the End date if you know it. You can leave this blank — useful for open-ended trips or when you'd rather decide later.
5. Add a Description if you want — a sentence or two on what the trip is about.
6. Tap Start Tour.

The journal saves your tour and takes you straight into it. The tour starts in planning state if its start date is in the future; otherwise it's marked active.

Inside a tour​

When you open a tour, the screen is laid out like this from top to bottom:

• Cover photo — a banner image at the top. Tap Add your photo (or Change photo if there's already one) to set or replace it.
• Tour name and dates, plus a coloured status pill (Planning / Active / Completed) and an pencil button to edit the basics.
• Eight themed sections, each shown as a card you can expand:

- Campsites and Stopovers — every site you've stayed at on this trip
- Travel Days — every driving day
- Tour Map — a map showing the trip with numbered pins for each stop
- My Diary — day-by-day diary entries
- Attractions — places of interest you visited
- Food & Drink — pubs, restaurants, cafés, farm shops
- People We Met — friends you made on the road

• Tour Status buttons — Planning, Active, Completed.
• Delete this tour at the bottom (a deliberately less prominent danger zone).

Each section card has two buttons inside: Add something new, and View what's already there. The View button shows a count badge of how many entries you have. Tap the section once to expand it; tap Add to add a fresh entry, or View to see the existing ones.

For sections with a date (campsites, travel days, diary, attractions, food) View shows a calendar by default — every day with an entry has a dot you can tap. The campsite section also shows a simple top-to-bottom list of sites in date order, which many members find faster when they can remember a name but not the day.

Editing the tour basics​

Tap the pencil next to the tour name to open the edit form. You can change the Tour name, Description, Start date and End date. Tap Save Changes when you're done.

Sharing a tour with family​

At the top of any tour, tap Share to make a public link to it.

• The first time you tap Share, choose Create share link. The link is generated and a confirmation appears.
• Tap Share again to see the link, Copy it to your clipboard,
• The link shows your trip's route, campsites, places and food to anyone with the URL — your diary entries, personal notes and people stay private no matter what.
• Tap Stop sharing this trip at any time to disable the link. Anyone who tries to open it after that gets nothing.

The PDF version is a full printed-style write-up of the tour, including photos. Use it for keepsake albums, sharing with relatives who don't use phones, or just to print out and keep on the dashboard. See the next section for more on what the PDF actually looks like and the easiest ways to turn it into a proper printed book.

Turning a tour into a printable book​

Every tour you keep in the journal can come out as a beautifully laid-out, print-ready PDF with two taps. members produce one book per tour and keep them on a shelf in the lounge like an old-fashioned photo album.

To download a tour as a PDF:

1. Open the tour.
2. Look Top Right
3. Tap Download as PDF.
4. Wait a few seconds. Your phone or laptop saves the PDF to your downloads.

The PDF includes:

• A title page with the tour name, dates and cover photo.
• A route summary showing all your campsites and stopovers in order.
• Each campsite with all its facilities, your verdict, your observations and the photos you attached.
• Every travel day with mileage, time, weather, ferry details, notes.
• Every diary entry in date order, with photos.
• Your places visited, food and drink and practical notes, each with photos.

Adding campsites, aires and even laybys​

This is the form most members spend the most time in, so it's worth knowing well. Open any tour, expand Campsites and Stopovers, tap Add Campsite.

Site type — pick one of three tabs

The first thing the form asks is what kind of stop this was. The picker has three tabs:

• Touring sites — commercial campsites: Independent campsite, Caravan & Motorhome Club site, Caravan & Motorhome Club certificated location (a CL), Camping & Caravanning Club site, C&CC certificated site (a CS), Small private site.
• Motorhome stops — short-stay or informal stops: Aire, Overnight parking, Off-site parking, Pub stopover, Service point, Daytime parking only, France Passion, Motorway service point, Brit Stop, Camping Car Park (the French network), Portugal Passion, Easy Camp, CAMpRA, Rally.
• Utilities — points you stopped at to fill or empty something: LPG, Water, CDP (chemical disposal point), Grey waste. Tapping any of these takes you straight to the Add to map form instead, because a utility stop isn't really a campsite — see the Community section below.

Tap a row to select it. The choice is mandatory — without it, the form won't save.

Site Details — the fields

• Site name — required. Whatever the site is called. Lower-case and ALL CAPS both get tidied to nicely-cased Title Case when you tap out of the field.
• Arrival date — required. Defaults to today.
• Departure date — optional. Must be on or after the arrival date; the form blocks a save if it isn't.
• Cost per night — what they charged in pounds. Optional.
• Extras — anything on top: tourist tax, EHU charges, dog charge.
• Address — optional, used to plot you on the map if there's no postcode.
• Postcode / code — required if you can possibly fill it in. UK postcode, foreign postal code, or a numeric code (French aires often have one). The journal looks this up automatically when you save and places a pin on the map. UK postcodes get uppercased on save.
• Country — if not the UK.
• GPS coordinates — latitude and longitude. Only fill these in if you genuinely don't have a postcode (wild spots, foreign aires with no code). Tap Use my current location to grab the coordinates from your phone's GPS — you'll need to grant Safari location permission the first time.
• Telephone — the site's phone number.
• Website — the site's web address. The journal will add https:// for you if you just type the domain.

Pitch

• Pitch type — Grass, Hardstanding, Dirt, Mixed.
• Pitch level — Level, Gentle slope, Bring an anchor!
• EHU (Hook-up) — Available, Not available.
• EHU amps — 6 amp, 10 amp, 16 amp.

Site Facilities

• Greeting — Excellent, Good, Indifferent.
• Toilets — Clean, None, Don't go there!
• Waste disposal — On pitch, Close by, Miles away.
• Ambience — Peaceful, Okay, Loud/lively.
• Security — Good, Poor.
• WiFi, 4G/5G, TV signal, Laundry, Pets, Adults only? — yes/no or good/poor toggles for each.

Motorhome Facilities

• CDP (chemical disposal point) — Yes, No.
• Fresh water — Yes, No.
• Grey waste — Yes, No.
• Service point — Yes, No.

Photos

• Tap the ＋ Add photo tile to pick photos from your phone's camera roll, or take a fresh one with the camera. You can pick several at once.
• Each photo appears as a small tile. Tap the × in the corner to remove one.
• Acceptable types are JPEG, PNG, WebP and GIF. The journal automatically resizes and converts to a smaller format on upload, so don't worry about huge file sizes.

Your Verdict

• Star rating — tap one to five stars.
• Would you return? — Yes, Maybe, No.
• Observations — anything else worth remembering. Free text.

Sharing the site with the community


At the very bottom of the form, just under the Save Site button, you'll see a line that says "This review will be shared with the MotorhomeFun community." with a small link below it that says Keep private.

• By default, every site you record is offered to the Community map for other members to see (rallies and untyped sites are the only exceptions).
• Tap Keep private if you'd rather this particular stay stayed in your own journal only. maybe you're stopping at a friend's house or visiting your mum The link flips to Share with the community so you can change your mind.
• When you save, if you've left key information blank (cost per night, EHU, water, would-you-return) the journal asks "Share without filling these in?" so you have a chance to top it up first. You can always proceed if you want to.
• Shared submissions go into a pending queue for admin review before they show up on the community map. You'll see a small message confirming that.
• If a member has already submitted the same place at the same postcode, the journal recognises the duplicate and tells you so — no extra pin gets added.

Tap Save Site to save. The journal shows a clear "Site saved" confirmation panel with two buttons: Back to tour or Add another site.

Travel days (Journeys)​

A travel day records a single driving day. Open the tour, expand Travel Days, tap Add Travel Day.

• Travel date — required. Defaults to today.
• Weather — free text. e.g. "Sunny, 22°C".
• From — where you set off.
• To — where you ended up.
• Departure time and Arrival time — optional.
• Mileage start and Mileage finish — the journal works out the day's miles from these.
• Toll charges — anything you paid in tolls.
• Ferry details — if you crossed by ferry, jot down the operator, route and cost (e.g. "Dover–Calais, DFDS, £180"). The journal also counts ferry crossings in your Stats.
• Notes — anything else worth remembering about the day's drive.

Writing diary entries​

Open the tour, expand My Diary, tap Add Diary Entry.

• Date — required. Defaults to today.
• Weather — optional.
• How was your day? — pick a mood: Great, Good, Okay, Tough. Optional.
• Title — a short headline. Optional.
• Diary — required. Write as much or as little as you want. Many members write a paragraph; some write whole pages.

Logging fuel fillups​

The Fuel log lives off to the side of any individual tour — it's a single running record of every fillup, with quick monthly summaries.

To get to it, either tap the bright Log fuel shortcut on the Tours tab, or open the Stats tab and tap View log → in the Fuel section.

To log a fillup:

1. Tap ＋ (or Log fuel from the Tours tab).
2. Choose the Fuel type: Diesel, Petrol, LPG or AdBlue. The journal remembers your last pick.
3. Type the Litres you put in.
4. Type the Total cost £ at the pump. The journal shows the cost per litre live as you type.
5. Set the Date (defaults to today).
6. Optional: Mileage (your odometer reading), Location ("Tesco, Truro"), Notes.
7. Optional: tap the ＋ Add photo tile in the Receipt section to attach a picture of the receipt — handy if you claim mileage back or just want a record.
8. Tap Save Fillup.

The Fuel screen always shows your current-month total (litres, spend, fillups) at the top, then your fillups grouped by month going back as far as your records do. Tap any row to edit or delete it.

Recording attractions, food, people and practical notes​

These four kinds of entry all live in the tour and work in the same way. Expand the relevant section card, tap Add ..., fill in the form, save.

Attractions (places of interest):

• Place name — required. The name of the attraction, walk, viewpoint, etc.
• Type — Attraction, Walk, Viewpoint, Hidden gem, Beach, Castle, Museum, Other.
• Date visited — optional.
• Entry cost — what it cost to get in, in pounds.
• Location — town, region or country.
• Star rating — one to five stars.
• Worth revisiting? — Definitely, Probably not.
• Notes — free text.

Food & Drink (pubs, restaurants, cafés, farm shops, takeaways):

• Venue name — required.
• Type — Pub, Restaurant, Café, Farm shop, Takeaway, Other.
• Date and Approximate cost — optional.
• What we had — free text.
• Star rating — one to five stars.
• Motorhome friendly? — Yes — good parking, Okay, No.
• Worth revisiting? — Definitely, Probably not.
• Notes — free text.

People We Met:

• Names — required. "Dave and Janet", "the family from the next pitch", whatever you'll recognise later.
• Where from — Yorkshire, Edinburgh, etc.
• Date met — optional.
• Van make and Van model — Autotrail Tracker, Swift Escape, etc.
• Contact details — optional. Email, phone number, or a forum username if they're on MotorhomeFun.
• Notes — how you met, what you talked about, anything you want to remember.

Practical Notes are for the little bits of useful information that don't belong anywhere else — where you filled with LPG, a brilliant water tap, a repair garage, an out-of-the-way bit of free parking:

• Type of note — LPG refill, Fresh water, CDP, Grey waste, Service point, Repair/garage, Useful parking, Other.
• Location name — optional. The name of the place.
• Address — optional.
• Date and Cost — optional.
• Notes — free text.

Attaching photos to anything​

Every entry form (sites, travel days, diary entries, attractions, food, people, practical notes, fuel, documents) has a Photos section. The behaviour is the same throughout:

1. Tap ＋ Add photo in the photos grid.
2. Either choose photos from your camera roll or use the camera to take a new one.
3. You can add several at once.
4. Each photo appears as a small thumbnail. Tap the × on a thumbnail to remove it.
5. If you're adding photos before saving a new entry, they're held safely on your phone until you tap Save — then they upload one after another with a small "Uploading photo 2 of 4…" status line so you know what's happening.
6. Photos are JPEG, PNG, WebP or GIF, up to 16 MB each. The journal automatically resizes and re-encodes them to a smaller format on the server so they don't eat up your storage.

If a photo fails to upload — usually because of a weak signal — the journal tells you, and your entry itself stays saved. Re-attach the photo later when you have a better connection.

Editing or deleting an existing entry​

Tap any entry in any section to open its form again. Make your changes and tap Save Changes, or tap the red Delete button at the bottom to remove it. Both ask for confirmation first.

For sites with GPS coordinates, the top-right corner of the site screen shows a small icon. Tap it to open Google Maps with directions straight to the site — handy when you're returning somewhere.

Tour status — Planning, Active, Completed​

At the bottom of the tour screen, three coloured chips let you set the tour's status:

• Planning — for tours that haven't started yet. They show on your home screen with a countdown.
• Active — for tours that are happening now (the default).
• Completed — for tours that are finished. They move into the "Past Tours" group on your home screen and stop adding to the "currently on the road" totals.

Tap the chip you want — the status changes immediately, no Save button needed.

Working offline​

The journal is designed to work even with no signal. If you create a tour or write a diary entry while offline:

• The save panel shows "Saved offline" with a small ⤴ arrow, instead of the usual ✓ tick.
• A grey Offline — entries will sync when reconnected banner appears across the top of every screen.
• Your work is queued safely on your phone.
• When your signal comes back, the journal syncs everything in the background. The badge on the Account tab counts down to zero.

Photos can't be queued offline because they're big. If you save an entry offline, any photos you attached are dropped — re-attach them once you're back online. The text part of the entry survives.

You can force a sync by going to the Account tab and tapping Sync now.

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5. The Community map (Community tab)​

The Community tab is a shared, member-built map. Every campsite, aire, pub stopover, LPG station, water tap and dump point that members have added shows up here. It grows month by month as members travel and contribute.

Browsing the map​

Open the Community tab and the whole screen becomes a map.

• Drag to pan.
• Pinch to zoom in and out (on a laptop, use the +/- buttons in the corner).
• Tap any marker to see a small pop-up with the site name, a View details link and a Navigate link.

The header at the top of the screen tells you how many sites are loaded in total.

The map toolbar​

Along the bottom of the map (or top, depending on your screen) you'll see a row of five buttons:

• Compass — Sites near me. Tap to drop a marker at your current location and zoom the map in. Your phone needs to give Safari permission to use Location the first time.
• ☰ List — Sites in view. Opens a slide-up panel listing every site that's currently visible on the map, with the closest to the centre at the top. Tap a row to open that site's details.
• ▼ Filter — Filter by site type, and search. With nothing typed, you get a list of every type with a coloured dot — tap one or more to show only those on the map. Type into the search box at the top of the panel and the panel switches to results matching by name, postcode or address. Use ✕ Clear filter to remove any filters you've added.
• + Plus — Add a site to the map. See "Submitting your own site" below.
• ⓘ Info — Map key. Shows what each marker colour and icon means.

Submitting your own site​

There are two ways to put a site on the community map:

The easy way — when you record a stay: When you fill in a campsite or aire inside one of your own tours, the Share with the MotorhomeFun community toggle at the bottom of the form is on by default. As long as you've ticked a site type and given it a postcode or coordinates, it goes into the moderation queue when you save the site.

The direct way — from the Community map: Tap the + button on the map toolbar. You get a fuller form where you can add a site (or a utility POI) without it being tied to one of your own tours. Fill in the same fields as the site form — name, type, location, facilities, photos — and tap Add to map.

For utility-only stops (LPG, Water, CDP, Grey waste even Veterinary surgeons), there's a simpler quick form with just four fields plus an optional photo and notes:

• What is it? — LPG, Water, CDP, Grey waste.
• Name — e.g. "Tesco Truro — LPG pump".
• Address — optional.
• Postcode — optional but recommended; the journal looks it up to put it on the map.
• Latitude / Longitude — optional, if you have them.
• Notes — opening hours, payment method, how to access the tap, etc.

If somebody has already added the same place at the same coordinates, the journal recognises the duplicate so we don't end up with two pins.

What gets reviewed before it shows up​

Every member community submission goes into a pending queue and only appears on the public map after a moderator approves it. This keeps the map tidy — the moderator checks the location, fixes any typos and approves. You'll usually see your submission on the map within a day.

You don't see a separate "pending" view — once it's approved it just turns up.

Reading site details​

Tap any marker (or any row in the Sites-in-view list, or any search result) to open that site's detail screen.

Across the top you'll see the site name, address, postcode, the type pill and the current rating average if anyone has reviewed it.

Below that:

• Quick facts row — per-night price, nights stayed by the submitter, EHU amps. Cells only appear when there's a number to show.
• Facilities — coloured chips for every facility: EHU, Fresh water, CDP, Grey waste, Service point, Pets, Adults only, Laundry, WiFi, TV signal, 4G/5G. A solid chip means it's available; a faded chip with a strike-through means it's not; missing chips mean the submitter didn't say either way.
• What the submitter said — the original observations from the person who added the site.
• Photos — any photos attached to the site, in a row you can tap to see full size.
• Aggregate score — a single out-of-ten number, with the total number of reviews underneath.
• Reviews — every member who's reviewed this site.
• More details — tap to expand a list of every field on the submission (address, postcode, phone, website, pitch type, EHU amps, greeting, toilets, etc.).
• Comments — short discussion thread underneath, member by member.

Leaving a review​

Below the aggregate score on each site detail screen is a Leave a review form. Reviews are public to other members.

• Tap stars in the four categories: Price, Facilities, Location, View. Skip any category that doesn't apply — for example a layby doesn't really have facilities, and a roadside aire might not have a view to rate. Use the small × next to a row to clear that category.
• Your motorhome length — pick whole metres in the first dropdown and either .0 or .5 in the second. Useful for other members deciding whether the pitches will fit them.
• Visit date — when you stayed.
• Your review — up to 2,000 characters of free text. Optional.

Tap Post review. Your review appears below with a per-review score out of ten, your name and the date you visited. The site's overall aggregate score recalculates.

If you've already reviewed a site and want to change your mind, the form is pre-filled with what you wrote last time and shows "Your review". Make your changes and tap Update review. The Delete my review button below removes it entirely.

Adding a comment​

Underneath the reviews is a Comments section — a simple short-form discussion under the site. Type into the Add a comment box and tap Post comment. The comment is posted under your display name with the date.

You can delete your own comments by tapping the small Delete button next to one. Other members' comments can only be deleted by admins.

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6. Stats tab​

The Stats tab shows you the cumulative picture of your motorhoming — every tour, every site, every mile, every penny.

The screen is laid out from the top down:

• Headline numbers — Tours, Nights, Miles, Total spent (sites + fuel + tolls combined).
• Lifetime totals — Average cost per night, Site costs, Fuel, Tolls, Ferry crossings.
• Fuel — total spend, then a breakdown by fuel type (Diesel / Petrol / LPG / AdBlue): litres, fillup count, total cost, average pence-per-litre. View log → in the corner takes you to the full Fuel log.
• Where you've stayed — a count of how many nights you've spent at each type of site (touring parks, CLs, CSs, aires, Britstops, pub stopovers, wild stops and so on).
• Longest day on the road — miles and date of your longest single travel-day, with the from–to.
• Countries visited — tag chips for every country you've recorded a site in.
• Year by year — a card per year with that year's tours, nights, miles, total spent.
• Site Index — every campsite you've ever recorded, grouped by year, in date order. Tap a row to jump straight into that site's screen inside the relevant tour.

If you haven't recorded any tours yet, the screen shows a friendly empty state and explains that the figures will build up as you travel.

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7. Documents tab — your travel paperwork​

The Documents tab is a private store for the paperwork you might need while you're away. You decide what goes in. The journal supports twelve different document types, each with the right fields for that document.

Adding a document​

Open the Documents tab and you'll see a row of template chips grouped under four headings:

• Insurance — Motorhome Insurance, Breakdown Cover, Health Insurance, GHIC / EHIC Card.
• Vehicle — MOT, Service Record, Habitation Check.
• Identity — Driving Licence, Passport, V5 Logbook.
• Other — Emergency Contact, Other Document.

Tap a chip to open a new document form pre-filled with the right type. Different types ask for different things — for example a Passport asks for a passport number, issuing country, place of issue and expiry date; a MOT asks for the test number, test centre, mileage at test and expiry date; a GHIC card asks for the card number, issuing country and expiry; an Emergency Contact asks for a name, relationship, phone numbers and address.

Each form has a Title (always required), a set of type-specific fields, and an optional Photos section so you can attach photos of the actual document — a scan of your passport's photo page, a snap of the MOT certificate, the front and back of your driving licence. Photos are stored privately and only you can see them.

Tap Save Document when you're done.

The document list​

Below the templates strip, the screen lists every document you've added, grouped under the same four headings. Each card shows:

• The document icon (the same as the chip you used to add it).
• The title you gave it.
• The document type and any reference number you supplied.
• An expiry chip:

- Valid (green) — more than 30 days until expiry.
- Expires soon (amber) — less than 30 days until expiry.
- Expired (red) — the expiry date has passed.

Tap a card to open and edit it. The form is the same as when you added it; tap Save Changes or Delete to remove it altogether.

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8. Account tab​

The Account tab is where you manage your own settings and your data.

Your profile​

Across the top of the tab, a card shows your avatar (the first letter of your name), your display name and your email. If you're an admin, a small Admin pill appears on this card.

Tap Edit on the right to change either your Display name or your Email.

• Changing your display name is straightforward and applies immediately to your community contributions.
• Changing your email is a bit more involved — the journal re-runs the MotorhomeFun forum check against the new address. The new email must belong to a paying forum subscriber, otherwise the change is refused with a friendly message. This protects you from accidentally locking yourself out by typing the wrong address.

Tap Save to apply the change, or Cancel to back out.

Photo storage​

The next card shows how many photos you've uploaded and roughly how much they take up in megabytes. Photos are stored in our cloud and there's no per-member quota — use as many as you like.

Sync now​

The first row in the next group is Sync now. Tap it to force the journal to send any entries that were saved offline to the server. The small badge on the Account tab counts how many items are still waiting to sync — when it's 0, you're up to date. The journal also syncs automatically every time it reconnects to the internet, so you only need this in unusual situations.

The same group also shows the app Version, a link to the MotorhomeFun community website, and (if you're an admin) an Admin operations link.

Backing up your journal​

Under Your data are three options for keeping your own copy of your records:

• Download backup — generates a complete ZIP archive of your data: every tour, every entry, every photo. The ZIP also contains a README.txt explaining the format. Save it to your phone, your computer, your cloud drive, anywhere you keep important files. If you ever want to move your data elsewhere or just keep a belt-and-braces personal copy, this is it.
• Download spreadsheet — an Excel-compatible .xlsx file with every tour, site, journey and entry in tabular form. Open it in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets and slice and dice as you like.
• Restore from backup — the opposite of Download backup. Pick a previously-downloaded ZIP from your phone and the journal replaces your current data with what's in the backup. This is a deliberate, one-button "undo": the journal asks you to type your email address to confirm before doing anything. Use it cautiously — anything you've added since the backup is overwritten.

Logging out and the danger zone​

• Log out — signs you out and takes you back to the sign-in screen. Your data stays on the server; just sign in again to get it back.
• Delete my account — the very last item, in the red Danger zone. Tap to reveal a warning panel; type your password to confirm; tap Delete forever. Everything you've recorded is permanently removed: every tour, site, journey, diary entry, photo, document and fuel record.

What about reviews and comments you've left on other people's community submissions? Those stay where they are, with your name swapped for "Former member" so other members don't lose useful information just because you closed your account. This is deliberate: when you write a review, you're contributing to the community as well as yourself, and your contribution should outlast you.

The action is final — there's no undo.

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9. Privacy and your data​

The journal is run by the team behind MotorhomeFun. We treat your data with the same care as our forum.

• Where the data lives: every word and number you type, plus your account itself, lives on a server in the UK/. The server is operated by the same hosting provider as the MotorhomeFun forum.
• Where the photos live: photos are stored on Cloudflare R2, a UK/EU object store designed for media files. The originals never leave that store; what you see in the app is served straight from there.
• Forum subscription check: when you sign up, change your email, or sign in, the journal looks up your email in the MotorhomeFun forum's user list to confirm you're a current subscriber. We don't copy anything from the forum into the journal beyond a reference back to your forum user, and we don't share anything from the journal with the forum.
• What's private vs. shared: your tours, diary, people, practical notes and documents are private to you. The bare campsite details you record in your tours; submit to the Community map unless you choose not to.
• Cookies: the journal uses session cookies to keep you signed in. There are no advertising trackers, no analytics scripts, no third-party JavaScript. The only third-party content the app loads at all is the map tiles in the Community tab — those come from OpenStreetMap as plain pictures and can't track you.
• Deleting your data: the Delete my account button in the Account tab is a one-tap GDPR-compliant erasure. It removes every record we hold about you, as described above. We don't keep a copy of your data after you delete your account, with the deliberate exception of the reviews/comments you've left on other members' submissions, which are anonymised to "Former member".

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10. Troubleshooting and FAQ​

"I can't sign in"​

• Double-check the email address. The journal looks for an exact match — small typos and trailing spaces will get a polite "those details didn't match" message.
• Try Forgot your password? — even if you don't think you've forgotten it, the reset link is the quickest way to confirm whether the email address is right.
• If the message says "Your MotorhomeFun subscription is no longer active", renew on the forum and try again — the journal re-checks every time.
• The journal blocks sign-in after 8 wrong attempts in 5 minutes, to keep your account safe. Wait a few minutes and try again.

"I forgot my password"​

See the Forgotten password section above. Tap Forgot your password? on the sign-in screen, type your email, watch your inbox for an email with a Reset password button. The link only works for one hour after it's sent and only once — request another if you miss the window.

"My photos won't upload"​

The usual cause is a weak signal. The journal will tell you with a small message like "Photo 2 timed out — your entry is saved, retry the photo later." Your entry itself saves fine — open it later, when you have a better signal, and add the photos then.

• Make sure each photo is under 16 MB. Modern phone photos are usually well under that, but some "raw" formats from cameras are not. Save as JPEG before uploading if you're not sure.
• If the journal accepts the photos but you don't see them on the entry afterwards, tap Sync now in the Account tab — they may be in the offline queue.

"Why does the app sometimes say 'You're offline'?"​

The journal is designed to work even when your phone has no signal. When you go offline, a grey Offline — entries will sync when reconnected banner appears across the top. Anything you save while offline goes into a queue and syncs automatically when your signal comes back. Photos can't be queued — re-attach them once you're back online.

The journal opens straight from your phone's cache when offline, so you can still read tours, see your site list, check your insurance details and write diary entries without a signal.

"Can I use this on a tablet or laptop?"​

Yes — the journal is the same web app, so any modern browser works. Go to

https://motorhomefun.co.uk/journal/

and sign in. On a tablet you can install it to the home screen just like a phone; on a laptop most browsers offer an Install button in the address bar. Everything you do on one device syncs to all the others as soon as you have a signal.

"How do I share a tour with my family?"​

Open the tour. Tap Share at the top of the screen. Tap Create share link. The journal generates a public, read-only link to the tour. Tap Share again to Copy the link, send it via WhatsApp / Facebook / Mail, or Download as PDF.

The link shows your trip's route, campsites, places visited and food. Your diary, personal notes and people stay private. You can revoke the link at any time by tapping Stop sharing this trip.

"I added a site to the community map and I can't see it"​

Member submissions go into a moderation queue — they appear on the public map after an admin has reviewed them. Usually within a day. If you submitted yesterday and still can't see it, post a quick note in the forum and the admins will check.

"How do I move a site to a different tour?"​

There isn't a direct "move" button. The simplest approach is to open the site in the wrong tour, write down (or photograph) what's in it, delete it, and re-add it in the right tour. Photos would need re-uploading too. We don't expect this to come up often — most members get the tour right at the time of recording.

"Can I have multiple tours active at once?"​

Yes. There's no limit on tours, and you can have several Active at the same time — useful if you split your travelling into themes ("UK trips" and "European trips" as parallel ongoing tours, for example). Tour status is purely there to help you organise; the journal doesn't restrict what you can do based on it.

"Where do I report a problem with someone's community submission?"​

For now the best route is to leave a comment on the submission itself (so other members see your note), and post in the MotorhomeFun forum if it's serious. Admins keep an eye on the community map and can edit or remove submissions when needed.

"Does the journal work without a signal?"​

Yes, see "Why does the app sometimes say 'You're offline'?" above. Most things work offline; photo uploads need a signal.

"How do I change my email address?"​

Open the Account tab, tap Edit on your profile card, type the new email, tap Save. The journal re-checks the new email against the MotorhomeFun forum — it has to be a current subscriber email. If you've changed your forum email recently, change it here too so the two stay aligned.

"What happens to my data if I stop being a MotorhomeFun subscriber?"​

Your journal data stays safely on the server. You won't be able to sign in until you renew, but everything is preserved in the meantime. The first sign-in after renewing brings everything back exactly as you left it.

"How do I delete a single entry?"​

Tap the entry to open its form. Scroll to the bottom. Tap the red Delete button. The journal asks you to confirm; once you do, the entry is gone (along with its photos).

"Help — I can't see the bottom tabs"​

The bottom tabs are hidden during form screens (so you don't accidentally swipe away mid-entry). Tap Cancel or the back arrow at the top to leave the form, and the tabs reappear.

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This manual covers every feature in the Motorhome Travel Journal as of the most recent release. If you spot something that isn't covered, or you find a feature that works differently from what's described, let the admins know in the MotorhomeFun forum and we'll keep this document in step.