On the Road Again!

The job is done. Thanks again to Invicta Caravans mobile engineer who came and did the fitting. It needed the internal gas line inside the wardrobe and next to the gas locker to be disconnected. It has its own tap to turn off the supply. The bottles are also off when not using gas.  Plus. There's another tap in the external bit too!! You can never be too careful with gas! It took awhile and I doubt whether I had the tools nor the skills to do the job. Hopefully, this one will last longer than 5 years. We never use it anyway! I did stick the 30 mbar sticker on... Whilst he was here I got him to sort the fresh water drain tap out.  That's done. We now have the bracket secured with two longer screws. Not the 1/2 inch ones used by Elddis. Or rather the one they actually used. The bracket needs a bit of scrubbing with a wire brush, some rust cure and a spot of black paint.  So we are all systems go for the next two weekends away!

After five years the flap has failed.  Plastic gets brittle over time so it seems doubly amazing that Truma make this part without any metal pins for the hinges.  I saw it flapping about and when stopped pressed the bottom to kick it and it fell off. The "locking" part at the bottom was worn away. We never use it..... My solution would be to super glue it and forget it... But it needs to work if we come to sell Molly. We don't have a gas BBQ nor a Cadac of other eternal gas equipment and probably never will. So today Invicta Caravans mobile service guy is here. The whole unit needs replacing. Aarrghh.

I have had a few days off as there were other things to look into. The rear bumper fix for Molly being one of them - more on that elsewhere. So whilst I was playing with Max (the TomTom Go Camper Max satnav/GPS) I decided to let her/him/they calculate a return journey from Alcoceber/Alcossebre with the dimensions slightly altered to make the van wider.   If you have read the earlier blog about the journey to Invicta Caravan Services you will get an idea how even the best laid plans can be ruined by Google having the wrong information in their Maps application! Plus the roads chosen were too narrow for Molly to pass trucks and buses safely without one (usually me as truck drivers know the size and weight always wins!) of us diving to the left to avoid contact. On the summer trip in May we started coming north from Valencia.  This time Alcoceber is around 110kms to the north of Valencia.  The route though looks pretty much like the one we did on the way ...

... and back. The first part of this blog was written on Thursday and then left as a draft so that today, when I got back from collecting Molly I could upload in one blog! Thursday 8th August To get Molly up to Staplehurst for a 9am arrival meant leaving home around 8am. It's merely 40 miles max buty it would be during the morning rush hour.  With the M20 currently deployed as a contraflow, called Operation Brock , and a reduced speed limit, I let Max (Satnav!) choose a non motorway route. Not a non-toll as there aren't any toll motorways around here. The route on paper and on screen didn't look too bad.  It was. Once off the A20 after Ashford the route to Pluckley and Headcorn was on shitty little roads. At one point I had to avoid a lump of tree hanging onto the road. It was around a blind bend and luckily nothing came the other way. Car drivers that have no idea which side of the painted centre line they are supposed to be on!  Once in Staplehurst Max took us to where ...

We took  Molly the Motorhome to the dealers today to get the rear bumper fixed. It was a horrible journey down too many lanes where the road way was so narrow and lined with bushes banging against the mirror.  In one place a semi fallen tree was overhanging the road and I had to drive on the wrong side of the road to avoid it. Luckily nothing coming the other way! Once nearby the satnav indicated that we had arrived when in fact the site was 200 yards further up on the right.  The entrance was a little difficult to see and I overshot. Turning around at the end of the road I managed to reverse into a road sign!  F***!!!! This bloody van is jinxed.   This time the bumper cracked completely and fell off along with the rear light cluster leaving it dangling on the road.  Luckily, I suppose, that was the part of the repair it was in for!!  But 😠!!!!! It's supposed to be ready to collect on Saturday morning and I hope they have done a good job. It's no...

Lying under Molly today to check out the damage. It doesn't look as bad as it did. Hopefully Invicta Caravans can sort it!

After some looking about I have found someone localish that can do the replacement of the damaged sections of the rear bumper. It's not going to be cheap but at least it will make the van look better than having duck tape covering up the damage.   On top of that they are going to replace the external gas outlet as the cover dropped off on Friday and it taped on! So Molly goes to the Invicta Caravans bodyshop on August 8th.  It should be two days there and pick up again on the 10th. Earlier post:  https://invictamoto.blogspot.com/2024/07/molly-needs-new-new-bumper.html