A French adventure
Posted: 10 Aug 2011, 22:22
Well I have just got home from my brief trip to France. Marginally over 1k round trip.
We visited Chateau Marais in the Loire Vally (Really great site if you have kids), Huttopia in Versailles (not my cup of tea. Expensive 'rustic' camping which made getting level a real sod and flippin miles to the hookup point) and finally Chateau Colmbier in Normandy (which was great shame about the weather).
The sites to one side the real adventure was our van. Once we got off the boat in Dunkirk I started noticing clutch problems only vague. By the time we stopped for our first refill, just north of Paris, I noticed that one of my bloody exhaust mounting brackets had broken so a wire coat hanger was brutalised to act as a stand-in. Pulling away from this fix all of a sudden the battery light pops on constantly. I must stress at this point that the van had been in for an extreem service pior to leaving. So as its dark and lights use power we stop at the next aire for the night. As our van is diesel and thus our reliance on the batt was minimal during daylight the decision was made to soldier on to the Loir and get it fixed there.
A few days later we visited a Renault garage (on recommendation) who diagnosed the problem as a snapped alternator pivot bolt which allowed the belt to ping off. So this was fixed yeay.
All the while the clutch is becoming more of a problem.
Two sites later setting off for home I hear a dragging sound as we leave our site. Expecting my coat hanger to have failed I get out. Surprisingly the coat hanger was still going strong but the other exhaust mount had snapped. Not one to be defeated I brutalised a second coat hanger and got on the way. Unfortunately by this time hills were a real issue due to the deteriorating state of the clutch!!
After a surprisingly uneventful trip up to Dunkirk (aside from cursing the lack of petrol stations on the motorway as you approach Calais) we nursed the van onto the ferry then into the arms of a vintage VW and Audi specialist in Sussex where she is now.
BUT despite (or even slightly because of) all this what a cracking holiday can't wait for next year.
We visited Chateau Marais in the Loire Vally (Really great site if you have kids), Huttopia in Versailles (not my cup of tea. Expensive 'rustic' camping which made getting level a real sod and flippin miles to the hookup point) and finally Chateau Colmbier in Normandy (which was great shame about the weather).
The sites to one side the real adventure was our van. Once we got off the boat in Dunkirk I started noticing clutch problems only vague. By the time we stopped for our first refill, just north of Paris, I noticed that one of my bloody exhaust mounting brackets had broken so a wire coat hanger was brutalised to act as a stand-in. Pulling away from this fix all of a sudden the battery light pops on constantly. I must stress at this point that the van had been in for an extreem service pior to leaving. So as its dark and lights use power we stop at the next aire for the night. As our van is diesel and thus our reliance on the batt was minimal during daylight the decision was made to soldier on to the Loir and get it fixed there.
A few days later we visited a Renault garage (on recommendation) who diagnosed the problem as a snapped alternator pivot bolt which allowed the belt to ping off. So this was fixed yeay.
All the while the clutch is becoming more of a problem.
Two sites later setting off for home I hear a dragging sound as we leave our site. Expecting my coat hanger to have failed I get out. Surprisingly the coat hanger was still going strong but the other exhaust mount had snapped. Not one to be defeated I brutalised a second coat hanger and got on the way. Unfortunately by this time hills were a real issue due to the deteriorating state of the clutch!!
After a surprisingly uneventful trip up to Dunkirk (aside from cursing the lack of petrol stations on the motorway as you approach Calais) we nursed the van onto the ferry then into the arms of a vintage VW and Audi specialist in Sussex where she is now.
BUT despite (or even slightly because of) all this what a cracking holiday can't wait for next year.
