The Big List

It’s been a while since I took to the keyboard (I could find out exactly, but I’m going to guess at least a week), for anything other than finding information, or ordering stuff. And for this absence of virtual presence we have some real results, in no particular order.

We have the Motorhome back, it’s MOT’d, it has five new all season tyres, the hand brake has been tweaked because everything went slack while it was off the road fro conversion. I have sold the Golf, I have sold the fridge from the previous motorhome, I don’t have broken scaphoid bone, but my right arm is still not quite right. We have a super new Snooper Ventura Pro 8500 satnav system with DAB digital radio and TV built in (small TV 7” but more than we planned on having).

We’ve acquired a spare wheel cover ... why you ask? Well because the fab little box Paul made inside to house the spare wheel was far too useful to have a spare wheel in so I found these people

http://www.vanbitz.co.uk/, these people http://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/ these people http://www.magnummotorhomes.co.uk/ these people http://wheelcover2u.co.uk/page4.htm and these people http://www.sealantsandtoolsdirect.co.uk/ to put together a bespoke external spare wheel mounting solution for the newly shod spare wheel. It’s basically who could supply the cheapest glues or activators, to assist in mounting the universal wheel holder to the back offside door. And who could provide a good quality UN-branded wheel cover that doesn’t come with a picture of a tiger, a wolf or a stag, isn’t made of highly polished steel and didn’t cost a million dollars. So Vanbitz, provided the mount and Wheelcover2u provide a blank cover (exactly the same size as the Landrover Defenders), Woolies, Magnum and Sealantsandtoolsdirect supply the various adhesives required to provide padding and adhesive properties.

The plan is to bond in a sliver of ply to reinforce the door skin internally using Sikaflex 512 caravan adhesive, drill the mounts holes through the door skin and timber, set the mount externally using a little more Sikaflex on the skin to prevent metal on metal (paint) contact and a little extra adhesion (though none should be required). The idea is to prevent the wheel from distorting the door skin once it’s mounted, and for belt and braces and again to protect the bodywork, I‘ve acquired a sheet of self adhesive neoprene to create a buffer round the wheels circumference, again to prevent paint damage.

We have a new stereo on order and that will be fitted Tuesday week, along with some speakers, and a small subwoofer ... it had to be done, after all we are living in it for two years, so why not make the most of it. We have abandoned the idea of Ham Radio and or a CB.

We have a number of legally required items for the continent, bulbs, fuses, high viz vests, triangles ect. And on the weekend just past we did a Pound Shop stores run to make the going easier, this involved picking up lots of soap, toothpaste, minor medical supplies, deodorants and odds and sods, that are clearly freely available all over Europe; however we have created a “worry buffer” while we get used to way of the road ... which if you watch `Jay and Silent Bob strike back’ can be a confusing place.

It seems that for everything we tick off the list, we add something else to the list. We are waiting for our licenses back from the DVLA along with the log book, (however as per previous post this is now academic as Adrian Flux have accepted us on as a motorhome).

It’s been chilly and wet today, and we are both dog tired after driving six hundred to a thousand miles in the last week or so ( this is one of the reasons we don’t want to be doing massive hops across Europe ... it’s knackering). Because we are knackered and the weather has turned a little cool, we have taken a day off of sorts, sorted out a few bits and pieces online, done some more post and taken stock. Tomorrow I shall do some odd jobs, in preparation for the weekend (that I’m hoping will be bright and dry), so the wheel mounting job can be done by myself and a mate nearby, along with fitting the safe. And then next week, we’ll move as much of our gear to the lock up as possible before getting a man and van to take the last bits, and then we’re gone. We have a date for diving across the Channel in mind, and a couple of weeks of shakedown to do, though it is going to be a bit of a baptism of fire, because time has just run away.