New additions for 2018

No, not another baby!

This year we've invested in two new things to make life easier...

New awning

After our old awning absolutely stacked it in gale force winds and awful rain, we decided to move to a "proper" family tent. After much research we opted for an Olpro blow up jobby with a two berth insert. 

On the first weekend of use our friend put it up single handedly so we took it to be a simple job! It's got ample space and a handy porch which is good to keep out the rain if you have the side vents open. 

We also took it on our recent trip to Dorset. The week started with huge winds and torrential rain, a long time coming in the current heatwave. Unfortunately our tent didn't fare brilliantly, one of the lateral poles for inside had malfunctioned with the one way valve breaking, so it was weaker than it should be anyway. The back pole over the bedroom collapsed from time to time but whereas a traditional pole tent would have broken, this simple popped back up. The next day when we came back from a day out it was looking a bit sad, but we had managed to get the pole fixed so once we got this in and reinflated the other poles with a few puffs we were back on and the tent was looking grand again.

We've been sleeping in the tent this time too as baby is now three and a half and too big for the baby bunk, so a parent and child has been in there this week most nights. There's been ample space for two campbeds plus the required amount of rubbish you take with kids; Lego, books, colouring, bike hats, towels, cars,   Etc. There's a handy storage section between the bedrooms too which is great for goggles, kitchen roll and some books.

Overall this is a great tent, perfect for is and up in a jiffy which is always a bonus.

Less interesting stuff

On the domestic front I've invested in a portable rotary dryer! I know, living the dream!

It's proving useful already with all the towels from swimming and the inevitable washing that comes from a family holiday.  

Blog revival - Interesting Exhaust Manifolds...?

Blog revival.

We've been far too lazy over the last few years and haven't updated this thing, so i've challenged myself to write a post each week until we're up to date. Here, in no particular order are some of the comings and goings of Trevor:

I've had a new engine fitted, and upon dismantling the old one, found this interesting exhaust manifold failure that was surely going to lead to big trouble fairly soon.

 Cracks just past the port on no. 2 and 3 cyclinder

 Crack runs all the way to the port

 Exactly the same but not so developed. Must be a (very long term ) casting weakness.

 The cylinders affected are severely crudded up

 And the pistons a bit, but it's all OK to clean up and rebuild to be a spare engine should there be any trouble with the new one.

More maintenance/improvements

A few more stories to tell on the maintenance side of things. After a period of OK starting, the battery failed again. It was a £220 odyssey extreme, and fair enough, I caused the failure by leaving the radio on it's own circuit (not automatically turned off when the van is), and that sort of parasitic load isn't good for any battery.

New one fitted, and better wires run to the starter, and continual use of the kill switch that disconnects the earth every time we parked up for any period of time has solved it.

Then as we planned to go away the other week, a new problem came about. Since last year there's been a small leaf on the rear wheel, and I assumed it to be another wheel cylinder gone. But the brake fluid wasn't going down, so realised it had to be diff oil coming through the axle to the wheel and getting past the bearing seal. I had the same problem on my MG Midget, and it's a pretty easy job to take out the half shaft, press out the bearing with a suitable sized socket as a drift, then replace.

In March i'd used the van to pull a full load of timber that i'd cut down, and on the journey home, there was a noise coming from somewhere that i'd not heard before. Then as I took it on a test run to work on the Wednesday before holiday, I discovered the problem. The noise (which got much worse by the time I got to the other side of town and turned back) was the wheel bearing failing. Therefore the seal wasn't the major fault, but the whole bearing.

I set about taking the half shafts out to discover they are a press fit and you need a slide hammer. haven't got one, so gave it to the garage to do. The problem was that getting a spare bearing is really quite difficult. Could only find Adrian Bailey stocking them, and it was now the Thursday and we are going on holiday Friday night. Massive thanks to Adrian who dropped everything and got the part in the post express delivery, and it arrived Friday lunch time. next big thanks is to Sheltune garage in Northampton who did a great job. You have to heat the old bearing ring with an acetylene torch to make it expand enough to hammer it off. It took the chap 45 minutes just to do that one bit. he eventually managed it and got it back together by 4.30 Friday afternoon!

Here it is at 3pm in sheltune:

So off we go that evening, and the other minor fault that i'd been suspecting shows it's head. The fuel electric fuel pump makes a banging noise when it's pulling through air, but goes quiet once fuel comes through. On some recent journeys it had been making noise on and off at random times, so I guess the pump was failing and bought a replacement in case. As we left for Cromer it started to make the noise more often, and then found the engine was being starved of fuel at high speed. I pulled over to replace the pump, a fairly simple 20 minute job, but upon starting up again, nothing. No fuel coming through at all.... So is the new pump a dud? Switched them back and the same... so it's not the pump, must be something else. A blockage in the fuel line between the tank and the pump maybe? I blew down the fuel line and it was absolutely clear. Then I realised the problem. There's a split in the fuel pipe at the tank exit, and rather than pull fuel through, the pump is pulling air through the split. That's where I ended up at 11pm at the side of the road with the fuel tank out, but in the dark realised it wasn't going to be possible to repair there and then, so got a tow home (Autoaid, £42/year for full recovery, excellent service, much better than the big names). Saturday morning I had new fuel line throughout and we were off again by 10am! The rest of the trip went without any faults, so just some improvements to make this summer...

Not the best start....

10pm on a dark, chilly night in East Northamptonshire.  Kneeling at the side of the road, a woman cradles her baby wrapped tightly in a blanket and hugs her small son into her chest.  There are no streetlights here, the smell of fuel is abhorrent and she's in pain.

Sound like a nice start to a story?

Nope, it wasn't!!

This was us a few weeks ago on our first big trip of 2016 in Trevor the van...it didn't start well. We set off after dinner on a Friday night but only got 16miles down the road before running into trouble. We pulled into the entrance to a country park and the husband got to work trying to figure out why fuel wasn't getting to the engine.  A new fuel pump, hastily fitted, didn't do the job and he quickly realised something more was afoot; our fuel tank pipe had split.

With a bit of a fuel leak on the go, I was ordered out of the van with the kids (only 2 as our daughter had gone ahead with her Grandma) and sent 100 yards up the road.  It was cold and dark, the poor baby was in his PJs and my son was super super tired. I had a splitting headache from chronic sinus pain. I was not amused, shall we say, and even muttered the words "shall we just get a bloody caravan"...which my husband politely decided not to respond to!

Our wonderful neighbour came and got me and the kids and we traipsed into bed. That was 1030pm and it was another couple of hours before the camper van and husband were retrieved by the rescue truck. 

With the morning came a warm day, a trip to the out of hours doctor sorted out the sinus pain, and with an hour's work replacing the fuel tank pipe, we were ready to give it another shot...

We rolled up in Norfolk a good time later into the afternoon and immediately sought out the beach, getting the sand between our toes and sploshing in the shallows; little knowing that this was the last time in our week's holiday we'd be in tshirts let alone on the beach!

What followed was a daily grind of gale force winds, horizontal rain, gloomy sea mist and chilly weather. Not the best May half term break you might say!!  We were camped right by the sea but for three days basically didn't see it because of the fog.  Our awning took an absolute battering and I was peeking through the curtains whenever I woke at night to see if it was still there! 

Not the best looking tent structure I've seen

We were lucky to get away with one shattered pole and two broken guy ropes I reckon. If it wasn't for the army-issue industrial tent pegs that husband hammered in, we'd have lost the whole awning!  Some other camper vanners weren't so lucky and packed up early after their awning was wrecked.

As you do, we gritted our teeth and with the mantra "fun doesn't have to be fun" we got on with our week away.  With the ground sodden we couldn't turn the kids out to run around so made our own fun with bingo and books in the camper van at night.  We had a great day at Weybourne Station for the Dad's Army event and I even got a pic with Captain Mainwaring! What a highlight!

legend!

 We explored local museums (Sheringham particularly good), visited the Muckleburgh collection, ate fish and chips and flew kites when the skies were clear.

We survived although we'll be checking the awning out once we can face putting it up in the garden.  Next trip is August so a bit of time to get it sorted, thank goodness!  Another eventful trip in our beloved Trevor!!

Over 700 miles covered...and no European breakdown cover used!

Back in October 2015 we took Trevor on his most adventurous jaunt. We've done a few different countries (Ireland, Scotland, Wales) but never south of the UK.  This time we were going for it with a high risk trip to Northern France for a family holiday.


In a fashion expected of us, we made the trip down to the Eurostar terminal the night before our ferry and opted to camp up in the queue. The top was popped, and we got some sleep, all waking right on cue for a quick coffee before boarding.  We were travelling with other family members (who were in cars) so a convoy the other side was the plan.

There isn't too much to write about with this holiday as things with the van went right to plan - no hiccups or any mechanical traumas.  It was our health that was dodgy with most of us falling foul of a sickness bug at some point in the holiday; we were tag teaming it! Not pleasant but luckily for us my parents were on the same campsites as us but in chalets/caravans so we could take it in turns to try and rest.

The campsites in France were superb as you'd expect. Many were closing down for the holiday season so were really quiet but great facilities, kids areas, nicely maintained. Definitely we'll be back when it's peak season to give them a try again (when the pools are open!!)

Out and about in Northern France was fantastic. Lots of day trips, sightseeing and visiting the D-Day landing beaches.

A day out in Caen - amazing castle and a top lunch!

Apart from a quick check on the diff oil levels before we headed home, we didn't need to do anything major with the van - what a total relief!!

Trevor you were a star!!

This year's trips (and baby number three joins us!)

Been very slack on the blog lately - we've been busy!

We welcomed our third child into the family in January, which meant he was old enough to come along with us when we went on our first trip of the year in the van back in May.  It was a super weekend in Skegness with family.  Fitting three kids in the van was "interesting" - we settled on putting our middle child in the front car seat with the eldest and youngest wedged in the back, with the non driving adult sat in the back too to keep an eye on things! 

Next up was Swanage in July for the town's festival week, and what a brilliant time we had. Great, traditional entertainment for the kids including 'wacky races', a tots disco, fancy dress, sandcastle competitions and for the grown ups a fun run, darts, pool competitions and of course the infamous wheelbarrow race! Mentioning the pool competition brings me onto the most dramatic van moment of the holiday - Dave entered the pool comp and as it got later I took the kids back to the van (we'd driven into town) to put them to bed and wait for him to get knocked out...

Hours passed....it got darker...still hours went by...kids were asleep and I was bored...I saw a lone pool player walking home with his cue...still no Dave.  Has he walked home to the campsite, I thought?  About 1130pm I decided to start the van and drive up to the venue to check - however there was absolutely nothing happening when I tried starting it.  Great.  I couldn't ring Dave as my phone battery had died, so eventually spotted some girls going home and asked to borrow their phone - it was now 1230am, and I got through to Dave who had literally just won the pool competition!  (thank goodness - I wouldn't have been happy if all that waiting was for nothing!)

Dave returned victorious to the van having also won the wine in the raffle (my pay off for babysitting I think!) - there was no starting the camper so in the back streets of Swanage at 1am we pushed the campervan and eventually managed to restart it - thank goodness! Could have been interesting for local residents to see us brushing our teeth on the pavement come the next morning....

Dave's written a separate post about all the maintenance jobs from this summer - a long list as usual!  My job is going to be to repaint the van - the paintwork is looking decidedly tired now and some bits are peeling off. We are off to France in October so I'm hoping to have it spruced up by then...I'll be checking our European breakdown cover too....

NVH (noise) in a 40 year old van

My day job is designing the metal structure of Nissan cars, most recently doing the engine compartment metal of the Mk 2 Qashqai. Part of my responsibilities on top of the metal are dash insulation, carpets, battery brackets and all sorts of other bits and pieces. Having commented a couple of times on noise concerns on CF's on the forums, I thought i'd make a post explaining how to make it possible to have  a conversation with your passenger without having to shout/resort to megaphones.

When we first bought the van, the noise while driving was deafening. Having spent years just getting it running, the noise was never the priority, but a couple of years ago I took one of our NVH (Noise Vibration and Harshness) experts out for a run around the block to diagnose the cause and suggest a solution. He was immediately clear on both - there are gaps between the engine bay and the cabin allowing engine noise to come through unchecked, and there are gaps from the cabin to the outside world allowing wind, road and engine noise to come in. The main problem as well was a blowing exhaust manifold to down pipe joint, but that's the easiest to solve with a new gasket.

All the leakage to the engine bay is through the engine cover. Around the edge there may have been a seal once, but there's nothing there now, so noise goes straight through the gap. I fitted some sticky backed foam sealer with immediate results. Here's a picture of it in place, it runs all the way round the opening

I've lifter the cover up here and you can see i've got two beads of sealer running around. Before being compressed they were 5mm high, but are compressed to ~1mm when the cover is screwed down.

The difference in engine noise was amazing. From shouting to each other and having the radio on full volume, we now drive along in comparitive peace....

Next was a problem that only really shows up at high speed. At high speed the pressure outside the van reduces as the wind rushes past (like an airplane wing), so the pressure of air inside the van is higher, sucking the doors and windows open. The Sash on the front doors is very weak, and can be sucked outwards so much that a gap opens up between the door sash and the seal on the body side. I used the same sealant in this area, in some places with two beads of seal on top of each other the gap was so big.

That was enough to completely close the gap and eliminate the problem. before, I could actually see daylight through the gap like this:

(i've opened the door a fraction to show the effect). Now that i've made those simple changes, the van is so much better than I could ever have expected. in the future I might go further and add some insulation to the actual dash metal panel. The theory here is that you add a soft layer (foam or felt with air in it) that absorbs higher frequency noise, and you add mass tat blocks and reflects lower frequencies. In Nissan we do that with multiple density felts or Polyurethane foam along with 'heavy layer' - a plasticy  gooey substance that's found in the dash insulator. If I get round to it, i'll make another post, but there are more pressing issues to attend to for now...!