We went to Canterbury for a short rip today to go to Marks & Spencer to look at trousers for me, for the upcoming birthday party for Claire's cousin. It's not until June but we will be barely back from Spain and France and we go in in about three weeks.
One of the downsides of a Peugeot/Fiat based van is that there is a known problem with the passenger airbag ECU. This is caused when the engine battery gets too low andthe unit fails. It seems on the face of it that maybe they need to change the ECU to have a fail voltage lower than 11 volts! But I guess it's an earner with the unit being anything between £300 and £600 to relace, depending on where you get one. #
So I like to make sure that the engine battery is kept topped up.
We have a single solar panel on the roof and this charges the leisure battery and also, via a split charger some of the sun's rays trickle charge the engine battery. So far so good. Touch wood and other superstitions etc.
We decided to go to the Park and Ride in Canterbury and take Molly.
The one at New Dover Road has a dedicated motorhome/campervan area and also an expansion area should it get too busy. It has services such as grey and black water dumps and fresh water.
We went into the city on the bus. It's £4 to park for a day. The day is 0001 to 0000 or maybe 0000 to 2359... So anyone staying overnight pays £8. It's pretty cheap I think. The charge includes use of the bus into the city centre.
When we had done the shopping we returned to Molly. Nothing for me as it seems that M&S no longer cater for a the chunkier lad, but did sell pretty decent prawn mayo sandwiches.
Before eating I got my black rubber gloves on and emptied the cassette into the grid. As we had no solids the plan was simply to pour but when I got to it.... Well.
The black and grey water wastes ae the same grid. It's large and it fitted with two rope handles. Using gloves it's no problem. But it seems a van before didn't bother judging by the paper and "solids" stuck on top of the grid. There is a hose and a "not drinking water" tap nearby so wash the detritus away. The previous owner was too bloody lazy to use that judging by the evidence. I rinsed the the cassette and managed to clear most of the drain with the water turned full on. There are signs asking people to keep it clean!
It's a positive move by the city council to provide this service, it's a shame that some tossers abuse it.
Once done I degloved and washed my hands and then used a nice blob of hand sanitiser! Ans then ate my sandwich!
The drive home was a retrace of the way we got there via the M20 and Hawkinge to the A2. Not a long drive, maybe 40 miles but it should ensure that the battery has charged up a little.
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