Skiing in Val Thorens, did the winterisation work?

The Beauty never ceases to amaze me. 

Well after lots of work to get the van ready for another skiing trip, it was time to assess the work carried out.

We had initially agreed to go anywhere except Val Thorens this year, however we again managed to agree to go with others and again head for the coldest resort in Europe...

We set off on the Wednesday and via Calais & Annecy and picking up another few vans 5  motor homes arrived at VT....

We arrived up the mountain with a couple of the vans (both tag axles) needing to add snow chains. We however managed to make it all the way JUST....with the last two bends proving particularly difficult, However the brand new continental tyres obviously served their purpose.

We arrived in heavy snow and managed to secure a place on the aire which was much better positioned than last years..the tempretures at this point was -2 and about to get much colder. We hired ourselves 7 snowmobiles and set off snow mobilling, What a great laugh that was. One of them got rolled with my son on the back but, all were fine. 

By the morning we were to awake to temps that had been as low as -20 but glorious sunshine. The Geist froze, the swift kong-tiki lost its waist but we were still hanging in there with both water, cold water, hot water  and waist working well. The Hymer with us remained warm and had been fitted with an acti vent from truma which appeared to work really well in keeping the front of the Hymer warm.

We had the most fantastic days skiing in fantastic weather before spending a couple of hours out with some snow mobiles....another early night due to the exertion of the days events... The batteries holding up well due to the battery to battery charger working great...

Sunday meant some more skiing and some more glorious sunshine..yet still no problems with water freezing and still plenty warm enough here in the van.

Monday saw me unable to ski due to some sick bug that I appeared to of collected, yuk, still no problems with the van despite the temperatures dropping to -22 !!!!

Tuesday came, more glorious sunshine making it 4 days on the trot this time despite feeling a little poorly  four of us would ski right across the 3 valleys for the day. Across we went having a great days skiing before returning to the van. On arriving back at the van, 2 of our party decided to leave, leaving just 3 left, My Bessie, Rory's Hymer and Steve's Rapido.

More glorious sunshine on Wednesday meant more skiing, this time just an afternoon and a couple of crashes, nothing high speed, me just taking some girl out in the snow park who had stopped on a jump..... And then completely destroyed in front of my wife who had come to bring me food and was waiting at the bottom of the mountain, there whilst in full view of her a snowboarder practically destroyed me hitting me clean in the calf and leaving me in a heap on the floor.....

Thursday meant more glorious sunshine, but instead of skiing and in view of my bruises from the day before we decided to head off. We left heading for annecy and spent an afternoon walking around the town.  Nikki loved it very much and it is kinda quaint... We moved on and headed over the Col de Faucille stopping at a  ski area with a fantastic aire called Balancier  just on the French Swiss border.

A bit of skiing between France and Switzerland on the Friday stopping  and finally it was time for the journey home.

We spent time traveling nice and slowly, not touching a single toll road, eventually we hit Calais for our crossing before heading for home via Nikkis mums.

All in all another fantastic ski trip. This will be the last as a complete family though as George has decided he never wants to spend another night  in the van. Being as he will be 17 next time we go, I can understand his not wanting to come anymore. One more year of going with Harley though and then we can dump the February half term trips and go in the quieter periods.

The van performed spectacularly, much better than we imagined. The van performed like a German continental, so we can't complain at all. 

We spent a lot more money than normal but it was worth every penny. 

breakfast in bed made by me. 

Sultry teenagers contemplate there next whinge

The Rapido heads down the Mountain. 

Snowball fight time at the Van

 

New Year- Running - Motorhoming- And Motorhome tyres

top of the mountain. 

Well, again, its' ages since Ive ubdated my blog and we have been having such a good time -

we entertained over 70 funsters by holding a New Years Meet at Uttoxeter races. Such fun and I truly mean such fun.

I have been real busy concentrating on my running and entered the Anglessey coastal marathon. However it was when we had all that snow. We left early and made it to the event only for the organisers to cancell at the laasst moment. However, I stupidly agreed to run the course anyway with another runner. 

The bad weather however gave me a chance to check out our new screen cover and to test our winterisation. It was cold, with temps dipping to about -8 and the new screens worked perfectly. The screen cover the whole of the front of the van wrapping it up like a baby. It certainly made a difference to the van and we hope it will help further on our upcoming ski trip just next week.

I have also opted to fit new tyres. Although the can is coming up 5 years old, teh tyres on the van were made in week 10 of 2006 meaning they are in fact 7 years old nearly. Not wanting to take the risk I opted to replace them. A hard job choosing motorhome tyres, many will opt for just ordinary load rated van tyres, but the thing is a nightmare. I after speaking to suppliers and to so called experts decided I would go with camping car tyres. More expensive by some margin but, inflatable to a much higher pressure van the van tyres. The previous tyres I fitted on my last van were Avon AV9's which were great tyres but my new van is much heavier and their tech department said they would not be appropriate.

I have therefore opted to go with some Continental Vanco Camper tyres. I will let you know how I get on in the future.

The Bear loves the Snow. 

The van buried in the snow. 

Winterising the Motorhome further.

Well not updated my blog since coming back from holiday. Seems like months ago we went and then I realise it is!!

The only way in was through that filler hole. 

Been away a couple of times, have been off to local places really for some R&R, also we went to Congleton for the weekend with a couple of friends in vans. The purpose of this was for me to run the Congleton half marathon. A truly enjoyable weekend a great race, great company and one of those you hope to replicate some time soon.

Anyhow, I digress. The purpose of this post was to give some updates that I have made to the van. First of all I needed to try again to get through a skiing holiday. Last year, despite my best efforts, the water froze then the waste water froze. Never a problem because at the time we are only 10 mins from a leisure club to utilize a pool and showers, etc and on top of that bottle water to wash teeth etc and jobs a goodun.

Note the access problems. 

So the first job was to install an anti frost element in to the fresh water tank. This proved extremely complicated, however only because the position and shape of my fresh tank. It sits between two floors, I initially planned to drop the floor and install the element that way. When I got underneath the van, clearly that was not possible. The chassis was preventing this from happening. I tried and tried ot find a way to complete the job. The issue here is that the element needed to go side in and be at the bottom of the tank and therefore nearly always covered. It appeared impossible to do this. Eventually I opted to have to put it up half way up the tank. This would mean that I had to get the water in the fresh tank at 50% full before it would work. I installed it this way and then went to bed. In the morning I thought I could not live with it like this and it needed changing. I thought about using mini drills through the access of the large filler, although I could get my hand in there I could not get a drill in there. Removing the floor remained a non starter, Im a nurse not an engineer. Alas at this point I had a brain wave. The tank being plastic would simply mean that I could use a hot soldering iron to create a hole. So with my hand buried deep in the tank, pushing and turning I eventually managed to make a hole at the bottom of the tank but sideways on. I then had to patch up the hole I had made previously using some specialist putty.

The wiring for the heating element was quite simple, well much more simple than the hole drilling…..

You can just see the element sticking out in its correct position 

work in progress. 

With this done, I then set off to cure problem number two. In this van when the temps really really fell, we ended up with frozen waste pipes. Despite my previous effort at making them all insulated they still froze. It got me thinking. It cant be that difficult? All that happens is water runs down the pipe, in to the  waste tank and straight out in to a bucket. However, my van has waste traps for all the sinks and shower. This would mean that when the water ran down it would sit in the waste trap, freeze and before you know it, the pipes would be frozen. Therefore I planned to actually remove the waste trap, replace the hose, and pretty much make it a simple downward journey to the waste bucket. This part of the process turned out to be quite simple, Im hopeful that now the water can just fall away without issue.

The trap removed.

The finished job

The only problem with all this stuff is that I have to wait until at least February when Im high up in the mountains with tempretures in the -20s to test it all. Then if it doesn’t work, I have to retest it the following year. I am as said quietly confident.

Next outing is a couple of meets we have set up, one in Chester and  one at the new year races. 

2012 Calais-Prague-Poland-Dresde-Harz mountains-Brugge express

So Wednesday came and off we set. An uneventful five hour drive to Dover followed by a quick hop and there we were, parked up for the night next to our friends the Lawsons in there bend new auto trail van at cite Europe. A good look around their van before returning into bed for the night and boy 1 was done.
Aire free

Thursday
commenced with a look around the shopping mall and a walk with Tara. Tara was on her first European adventure, she had survived the ferry well. However she took off on the car park chasing a rabbit and nearly went through customs and in to the euro tunnel.
Following this escapade we set off to our destination of Hammilberg - the German roads were appalling with traffic problems but eventually some 9 hours later our holiday has really begun. We arrive at a place called Lohr by a river, A nice setting. A proper stellplatz, very friendly or at least we think it is because Nikki and I keep getting spoken too In  German and understand none of it!!! A kind local.also brings over a bag of tomatoes from his garden especially for us ?.
Aire cost 5e

Friday
Well we enjoyed our night in Lohr, we had the most amazing thunder and lightening storms through the night , we had a walk in to town, long enough for Tara to attack some Germans for riding bikes, and then later this morning set off for Hammilberg on the scenic route. After about 1 hour 55 mins we had achieved the 20 mile drive !! On arrival we found the stellplatz no problem, a nice place right next to the river and a short walk in too town. After a bit of a cycle in too town for ice cream and BBQ food , I shot off on my bike for a good ride. I opted to go up a 1 in 10  hill for about 2 miles to visit some old fort. After coming home Nikki demanded I cook BBQ food so I did. What we ate I would love to tell you but I don't know,  then about 6pm we were hit by the most amazing electrical storm. I know for some that would be off putting but for Nikki and I who are no sun worshippers it was great to watch, bolts of lightening and thunder claps so loud you needed earplugs. A few Germans have spoken with us but sadly I have no understanding of the language. Tomorrow though gets worse on the language front as we head off to Prague capital of Czech republic. Aire cost 5£- 6-50e

Saturday-Up and away nice and early and on our way to Prague. We again opted for a scenic route and a mixture of motorway and country road. The plan today is to go via Nuremberg to have a quick look through that city. On the way, the journey was going fine and again I am amazed at both how modern and how clean Germany is. When we hit Nuremberg We can really start to see the old communist block country that it belonged to. The buildings are very grey and the city is also on the grey side. We managed to find the  stelplatz next to a really nice park, however being underneath a train line in what looked like a dodgy drug dealing park im kinda glad we never stopped the night there. Any how I walked the bear round a spectacular park with runners cyclist and roller bladed folk and my opinion changed somewhat, it was a really nice place.
Any how Prague was calling, our destination for this holiday , we set off to complete the final few hundred miles of our journey. Again mixing country roads for scenery and motorways for speed. The German motorways remain an experience to behold. In a camper you look to move lanes to over take a lorry and by the time you move there is a car there. They drive so so fast!!! But with no aggression, they just let you do your thing then take off again.

Eventually we arrive at the Czech border or what of course used to be. We have to stop here as we need a a PREMID box as we are over 3-5t and that's the law in Czech. It's a sort of toll system and cost £50 deposit and then 60£ to load it with credit. When we leave the country we 

get our deposit back and any unused monies.
We continue heading down the Czech motorway and head in to a mammoth traffic jam, this time it's serious, a motorcyclist has lost his life and his bike clothing and all sorts of other bits are left laying in the road marked by numbers as crash investigation people try to establish what has happened.
Being an x motorcyclist, our moods change for a while, but as we reach the city of Prague we start to become very excited.
The traffic is driving very slowly through the city which is a change since my last visit,  we blindly follow the sat nav until eventually after being missed by the odd tram we arrive at what we think is our camp site. It's err a scrubby sort of place in the  middle of what appears to be a block of flats. However the people seem friendly enough and we check in, the pitches are a laugh the facilities just about usable and strangely the place has a great atmosphere.  We are a 18 min tram ride away or 10 Min cycle to the very centre of the most beautiful part of Prague the old town.
After a few drinks we head off in to town, we hit a few bars and pubs a well as the odd tat shop. After some food and swerving the odd wannabe pickpocket and subway drug dealer we manage to get the tram back to the site. Arriving back at 11-30 and fully vodkad out we opt for one final one at the bar, again a real friendly place with great people but at £18 per night a premium is paid for a scrubby bit of land so close to the centre of Prague but IMO well worth it.

Sunday
Well after the hangover dies down a bit we set off on a good dog walk around the camp site and after a good dog walk we come up with a plan. With motor homing it's never good to have plans but ours went something like we would leave early Monday to avoid the Czech and Prague LEZ issue. Firstly though we had another plan, get back in to Prague drink plenty, visit all the spots,like the old town and castle and then be in bed for an early night. I can't remember what happened that Sunday but it sort of went, The old town, the castle the Irish bar, sausage egg and chips jagermasters and then a brief chat with some new arrivals on the campsite and bed.
Cost x2 nights £36

Monday arrives
Up we get and out of the city before the LEZ kicks in, off to a place called Liberic for no other reason than my auntie facebooked me to say it was a nice place. On arriving there I had no Idea what to look for and headed off up a road. This road kept climbing and Nikki then pointed out that we were only 50 miles from the polish border. So nothing more said we were off to Poland via the Czech mountains and ski resorts in a motorhome with some roads only wide enough for a push bike. The mountains were simply stunning and green and we drove some pretty tight roads before we were to see a petrol station and fuel up. In the station it became quite obvious we were now in Poland. We asked regarding returning our go box and was told to head for the town Jelenica Gora. Arriving there it became apparent, we had entered a time warp, Poland was very very dirty and poor looking, well the bit we saw had rough sleepers in as well as people begging us. There certainly is some work to be done there and one can only hope that the work happens quickly so the people there can enjoy life like the majority of Europe.  Having been to Jenica we suddenly realised that there was no where to take our go box back to. This oversight would lead to a detour from Germany back in to the Czech border to get out deposit of 50e back.
Having completed this mission we set off for Dresden. On arrival we managed to avoid being hit by the various trams and push bikes and then locate 1 of 3 stellplatz. A quick early evening walk in to the city soon revealed what we were on for, Dresden is fantastic, there are no other words o describe it. We returned to the van dead excited .
Stellplatz no facilities 10e

Tuesday
up in the morning and on our way to the city again but this time on our bikes . Wow what an experience and what a city. I can not explain it, you simply have to see it, as in my mind it is indescribable. Off we went again and with a sad heart we said goodbye Dresden .

Now for the highlight itself, my boy hood dream of visiting Colditz castle, we arrive and my heart misses a beat, the place is amazing, commanding all the landscape of the town it's just too impressive. Nikki strangely takes an instant like to it, the stories behind it move you close to tears but this should never prevent a visit to this place. Dogs are allowed in, 4e for the museum 8 e for a 1 hour tour and I would pay 10 times that. Parking for motorhomes can be difficult so best borrowing Lidel and walking up although we did  manage to park at the castle.
Following Colditz we set off heading for a place called Quedlinburg in the Harz mountains. After another uneventful journey we arrive and locate a stellplatz. No water though and we are now desperate but hey ho we opt for a walk to see what this town can offer. wow wow wow, this place is the prettiest place I've ever seen. It's all medieval with amazing timber buildings and again not an English tourist to be seen , quiet as a mouse. We spend a couple of hours walking around this enchanting place before opting to move on and find a night stop and desperately seeking water we head for Thale only to find a campsite that wants 22e for the privilege of our company. We hit the road again and almost by mistake we find a place called Blankenburg that shows signs for stellplatz and all of sudden we are in with a choice of two. We opt for the private one which is www.parkplatz-am-scenappelberg.de . The guy speaks no English but fills us up with water and we are all sat down tasting bockverst sausages and drinking polish vodka before you know it.
stellplatz private 5e + 1e for water

Wednesday
Sees us awake with a plan of visiting two more historic towns-to be honest we are just nice towned out and feel like just settling down somewhere for a night. We head for goslar, again an extraordinary nice town full of timber buildings in the Harz mountains. We send a couple of hours wandering around looking at the glorious scenery before opting to find a campsite. We locate one just 2 miles out of goslar and get the chairs BBQ and vodka out for an afternoon of relaxation, having first paid Frau miserable her 16e or the privilege of our company.

Thursday
We decide for a bit more tat shopping so return to Harz where Nikki is in her element, then it's off to the vets to get Tara wormed. We find a real nice vet that only charges us 22e for taras treatment and with a smile we set off on the long journey west towards Brugge. On the way we visit many places of no interest looking for a place to stop until eventually we arrive at a place called Olpe - a fantastic stellplatz down by the swimming pool with all facilities but just manage to squeeze on. After some local pizza and a good walk with the bear it's off to bed and think about our 4hour drive to our final destination of Brugge.

Friday
We awake early and I set off to walk the dog, whilst out I notice that the other motorhomes all have tickets that they have purchased from somewhere or someone. I quickly inform Nikki that we have to pay to park and I suspect that someone will be around in a moment to collect our euros . In typical tight Nikki fashion the van is packed and ready to go in a flash and we are on our way heading further toward Brugge. On the way I spot a sign for Koln, at this point Nikki informed me that she thought that was actually Collogne. I just had to visit the place as I had heard so much about it. We set off in to the city to find the aire which is solid with motorhomes. Eventually we find a spot and I take tara out for a walk where we meet another Newfie. She has great fun trying to catch a couple of magpies and we get her back to the van. We can't on this occasion be bothered to go right into Collogne so opt for a drive through the city centre. We stop at a set of lights where an old boy spots that we are English and becomes quite abusive in his looks towards us waving his walking stick. We remind him that the war is over and that it was him that started it before carrying on. In all our time in Germany we have been treated quite decently by almost everyone we have met. We  have not particularly found the people rude just quite abrupt but in a way that they are all like that and It is not aimed at us it is just the German way.
We carry on to Brugge diving in to a couple of towns for supermarkets along the way until at last we finally arrive. We find the aire and at that point I call an ambulance for Nikki, this is due to her immediate heart attack at seeing the price for one nights stay at the aire, a whopping 22.50e for one night, more than what we have paid on campsites this holiday, there is electric and there are facilities, like water for an additional 2e or empty your loo for another 2e...
Anyhow we make our way In to the city for a night and day out, I was told to come here as it was so beautiful and it is Ok, but a little disappointing compared to what we have seen this holiday, but more so because of its expenses and it's duty to rip the tourist off.

Saturday comes and off we go for a little wonder on the bikes around Brugge, we have a great time and once more the city improves as we explore it more. We are sad to leave especially as we bump in to a fellow runner and cyclist and gett chatting, he is on the start of his holiday and sadly we are at the end. We pack the bikes back on and pay our fee before heading off back to Calais. With a bit of time to spend we shop at cite Europe where we bump in to some motorhome friends of ours Sonja and Kevin who are out with their son and just returning from a long trip in to Germany. We have a brief chat with them which is never long enough as Sonja's really interesting to listen too and then, away we go back home .

We have completed 2100 miles, spent a bout 100£ on night fees and got about 25 to the gallon. More importantly we have seen some great places and had such a great time together as one. 

Status Quo, Rocking all over Eastnor castle

Eastnor Castle My next house

big breakfast

10cc get the action going

Well, after some discussion a way back we were asked if we would like to go and see status quo. We were told they were playing at eastnor castle and were being backed by 10cc. Well, then we were told there was camping there. What the heck we thought, we would go and give it a try. So another couple of vans opted to join us and there we were 5 motorhomers going to rock all over the world. It wasn’t cheap with each ticket costing £35 and then a £10 to camp. We set off on the Friday night to stay at a pb called the Trumpett on the corner. We met the others, watched the Olympic opening ceremony and then went to bed. In the morning all excited and early we set off in convoy to go to Eastnor castle. Once there we were camped up on a very rutted field, fortunately the weather was holding on to some sunshine and this stayed throughout the day. On arrival at the camp ground I cooked us all an Olympic breakfast, not many athletes would have it mind!!  The day flowed on and so did the alcohol. Then it was time, it was time to see some Quo, so off we went to the concert.  I have to say that 10cc were amazing, we knew so many of their hits it was unreal. Once they finished playing it was time for the Quo. OMG, I thought it would be a laugh going to see them, well they were brilliant. We rocked all night, Nikki and I

The quo

dancing queen 

 

the firework finale 

thoroughly enjoyed it every little moment of it. So much fun throughout the night. I can honestly say that I have not laughed or enjoyed a night like this for so so so long. In total we worked out it cost us about £200 but I would pay it again and more fantastic night and a Motorhome, the only real way to see a rock band. 

Knutsford Show

Well a quick and easy bit of marshalling at the Knutsford show was requested. It meant a few days away in the van. As most of you would of course know, summer disappeared and has not been seen since. On top of that when it rained at Knutsford it rained and rained and rained. I kid you not it was just so so so muddy.

Still we had a nice time, purchased a new cadac, the new type that simply opens up on two burners with a grill plate and a plain plate. It is really cool, works a treat and allowed me to keep cooking for some time for about 8 people.

Enjoy the photos of the mud !!!

Installing a battery to battery Charger.

Nasa BM1 with Engine running showing charge going in

Problem, our charge or battery discharge is to high. It means that Nikki can never dry her hair, and it means that we are constantly having to get the generator out. Also Harley is a gamer, using his laptop to game on means that regualy he drains the batteries quick-

Things carried out- I have installed solar panels, result, if lucky 4 amps in full hot sun, result no good.

Extra Batteries 2 good batteries brand new 120 amp batteries,  still no good.

Both the panel and extra batteries help, but do not give us what we need.

Therefore after extensive research I opted to install a battery to battery charger. Most use for this will come when Skiing. During the morning the answer will be to run the battery for 1 hour allowing 50 amps to fly in to the batteries and then have the solar panel kick in for a few hours high in the mountain sun.

This is how I completed it, only how I did it, doesn’t mean it’s right but I know it was the correct way based on the research that I carried out.

switch to allow everything to work whilst engine runs

First problem was that I wanted to move the batteries so that I could keep everything in one place. The Bessie has a couple of batteries in a special compartment underneath the twin floors. I also wanted to use this space to store my generator should it be required. Moving batteries I thought would be the simple job, wrong, I had to carry out some pretty extensive wiring add on’s to move the batteries less than 12 inches to underneath the seats.

That carried out the next thing I concentrated on doing was to install a Nasa BM1 this is a comprehensive very special bit of battery monitoring commonly found on boats. It would be used to establish how many amps were going in coming out, what my inverter would pull solar panels would put in etc etc. The installation for this is really quite simple although I did have a little trouble understanding what a shunt does and how it should be wired. A quick call to the manufacturers helped me understand that one bit goes on the neg post and everything you want measured goes on the other post hence measuring the output. So with that carried out and wired in, I was ready and able to carry on with the main job in hand.

So, Batteries installed to where I want them and safely strapped in, battery monitor installed, oh and then a quick rewire of the solar panels and I was finally ready for my parcel from Mr Charles Sterling.

The Sterling Battery to Battery charger arrived in the post with some very simple instructions. One wire to the starter battery, one wire to the Battery to Battery charger then the wire on to the Leisure batteries and the negative to the negative post. Simple right? Well yes and no, time consuming running cables around the place for sure, fidely beyond belief. The starter battery is located under the floor in front of the passenger seat which is difficult to route from there to under my habitation seats.

 Having done this part, I then made sure that I had my Inverter installed before the job of positioning and installing the Battery to Battery charger. With all this done I then came across a little problem that some say is not there. This is the fact that the van already has a split charge relay system in place. Therefore with this in place the likely hood would be that in mine and others opinions you would be creating a circuit within a circuit, coupled with the fridge drawing at least 15 amps I believe the leisure batteries would not be able to be monitored correctly by the battery to battery charger. Therefore I believe it would still work and throw a lot of amps in to the leisure batteries but at risk of a power spike or a continued charging even when the batteries are actually full. Others I know have installed it without this worry but I just wanted to  make sure and go on the advice of some people that I have spoken to. For the sake of £7 for a relay I thought it worth doing. Threrefore with some advice and help from an elecky techie motorhome friend he set about installing the relay. Basically we located a live feed from the back of the sergeant unit, connected this to the relay along with the Solar panel input and positive from the battery cable. This would mean that when the engine was running the split charge relay would not run and the battery to battery charger would do the job of charging the batteries, then the fridge would run from them ensuring that the Battery to Battery charger would be able to monitor all that was happening efficiently. We even connected up the solar panel so that any charge coming whilst driving down the road would not be misread by the B2B charger.

So all done? No not quite, there was another thing that I would need to do that owners of british vans may find useful. For some time I have owned forighen vans. When in one, you start the engine and it makes no difference to the electrics in the back, the lights work without a problem and so should a passenger need a quick visit to the loo it could be done, or if the kids wanted to read, the lights in the back could be used. On British vans there is some caravan council building regs that mean that when you start the engine, everything in the back goes out. So what I opted to do was override this feature as when the B2B charger was running we could still sit in the van and use everything in the back. I therefore had to locate the wire in to the back of the sergeant unit, on mine it was the smaller brown and white wire. I found this by turning the lights on and pulling plugs out one by one until when starting the engine until the lights stayed on. That meant a block of 4 wires and then I had to locate the correct one by using a volt meter and starting the engine. Then with the wire found, I cut it, installed a switch under the seat so that when Im on a site, or skiing and want to stay in the van and charge the batteries via the B2B charger, I could just switch the switch.

solar regulator being rewired

So all done, and bingo, with the batteries nearly drained I started the engine, within a couple of minutes (the B2B ensures the starter battery is full first) the Nasa BM 1 started to show the amount of charge flowing in to those nearly flat leisure batteries.  Within a couple of mins we were throwing in 50 amps and the B2B was kicking its fan on….

Result.

my little ultra reliable honda genny, will it ever get used again?

So to get 100 amps in to my batteries via my little Honda 10i I would get about 16 amps, meaning a full 6 hours to recharge the batteries against 2 hours of running the engine.

Solar panel? Wouldn’t even guess it as there are too many variables.

Only thing I would do is get my self some traction batteries next time round.

Happy touring. 

Bring and Buy

Nikki and I cut the cake 20 years on

Well the time was here again for the bring and buy. Now in it’s fourth year at the cotton arms Wrenbury. On this occasion though we were able to have a very special celebration, we were able to celebrate being married 20 years. We therefore decided to host an extra special party.

Our Cakes

Elvis is in the building

On the Friday Nikki hosted her normal cocktail bash, and I and a few others nipped to the pub to watch the England V Sweden match. On the Saturday we nipped back home to celebrate Harleys birthday, a massive 14 years old.

 I cant believe when we started with a Motrhome he was a little tiny 7 year old. Due to his birthday we missed much of the bring and buy but im sure bargains were had by all.

the hall awaits Elvis

0300 hours and hanging in there

So to Saturday night. A spectacular is all I can say. We had an Elvis impression and a bit of a George Formby, as well as having a party in the pub hosted by the Motorhome fun band. I had a fantastic time and we really enjoyed ourselves, and what a way to celebrate 20 years of marriage. We had that much champagne that we will be drinking it till we have been married 40 years. The one thing for sure is that we will not forget this anniversary and that is what we set out to do. 

Cheshire View

the glorious moon and Jubilee beacon 

Still blogging still touring still spending so still Working.

That about sums it up at the moment. However, I managed to arrange a meet for a few people in Cheshire at a lovely place called Cheshire view. Essentially it was a freemasons hall and it was arranged over the Royal weekend. We were initially due to go elsewhere but there was some confusion about that going ahead so went on to organise something by our selves.

some funsters chilling whilst I work

Just 3 miles from Chester and about 30 mins from my work I had managed to work on the Monday and Tuesday and have the weekend away. This meant, being they were bank holidays Nikki could stay at the van and I could work get extra for the bank holidays and then go and spend time in the van

a glorious night at last

The weather  this weekend was awful and I mean awful, however with great company we relaxed well, had a nice pub meal and then a few drinks each night. Nice walks with Tara were to be had and again great company.

On the Tuesday, typically as we were ready to leave, the sun came out for the first time, we still managed a great jubilee party before retiring for home. 

Chester Half Marathon and Wild camping

Well, as some of my more regular friends will know. I have become massively involved in running over the past 4 years. I have completed so many raaces now that I lose count. I have completed about 10 half marathons 1 marathon 1 20 mile race and quite a few extreme events. 
As the kids are no longer wanting to come with us I started to combine the two hobbies. Motorhoming and Running, 
Having entered the Chester half marathon in preperation for my ultra marathon on the 27th May, I thought I would put my theory in to practice. We therefore opted to wildcamp in Chester having known a place where by this can be done safely and legally. We left on the Saturday and spent the day wondering around Cheshire Oakes retail outlet. Or should I say Nikki did but myself and Harley stopped in the van. Following Nikki's marathon shopping expedition we headed for Chester city centre to get to our wild camp spot. PROBLEM---- the car park had be taken over by the Fairground, 40 years they had been coming there I was told, well why on the  night I wanted to stay there!!!

me waving

Any how, a pizza later and a bit of exploring with the staff we opted to stop on the law courts car park. Being it was the weekend I did not think it would be a problem and as this was where I had arranged to meet the other members of the running club I thought in for a penny and drew the blinds. We were not disturbed all night, and in fact has a really cozy night in. We were however awoken by the sounds of giggling and laughing as various runners of the 5000 entered started to arrive in Chester. 
I promptly got up and headed to pay the car park attendants that were already at the entrance to the car park. I explained my problem to them and they said no problem and took my £5 for my days parking. Chester is a really motorhome friendly place, I just hope people do not spoil it. 

me with the running club

I ran the race finishing 10 mins longer than I did last year, although to be fair I was only using it as a training run for the big event on May 27th. 





We enjoyed our night away, good fun and nice to combine the two hobbies.