Buy a Hymer, they said...
Discussion
Ah, yes, updates. Right.
We're pretty behind the times in this thread now, given it's barely made it into Scotland and we're now somewhere north of the Arctic Circle.
As this is PH, vehicle stuff first. Apologies for all the 'quid', this keyboard doesn't have a pound sign.
Got our gas bottle back from the menders, with a new fill valve fitted. Almost 200 quid lighter though. Still, just in time for a pan European heatwave that means we don't touch the heating for the next 6 weeks.
We had a couple of weeks at 'home' over the bank holiday in May, and got some maintenance knocked on the head.
On the way down the west coast of Scotland, our offside mirror went toe to toe with its counterpart on a G4S sprinter van. Came off surprisingly well, cracked the cover and the unit itself but was still usable. Chap behind in the Scirocco R got a shower of plastic but fortunately no damage. An ebay knockoff replacement for 30 quid was much easier to stomach than the 250 for genuine.
Took the opportunity to have the mirror poles extended and add some proper blind spot mirrors. An absolute revelation. Seriously, if you drive a large motorhome, get some decent extra mirrors fitted. These are a pair off a DAF truck and were about 60 quid for the pair, plus 25 for having some extra pole welded onto the end of the mount.
I'd had a quick look under the motorhome, and the rear chassis extension is in pretty bad shape. AL-KO galvanise the main chassis, but the back section doesn't seem to be. So a fun day of grinding it back and some quality time with a tin of hammerite was on the cards. It's still not perfect as I'm lazy and do sloppy work, but it's better than before.
Similarly the plywood floor underneath was looking a bit ropey not helped by some dimwit matching my description taking a stripe of paint off it with a jetwash. Yes, yes, never use a jetwash, but you try finding somewhere else to wash a motorhome while you're on the road.
I'm not entirely sure if it's got some sort of underseal on it, but I figured a tin of ronseal preservative would at best make it look a bit better and at worst do nothing. Ends up somewhere in between the two, looks OK and hasn't made it obviously worse.
Once back on our home campsite, we could give it a proper wash. No silly rules about washing here, lots of fulltimers on site so washing and maintenance are fine. Cleaned it with Silky cream cleaner, which did pretty well. Then over the top with some Colinite wax. The paint is still pretty dull and it's really suffered from having not been washed since November. We'll have to be more on the ball with washing from now on. It could really do with a proper polish but I haven't the energy right now, or frankly the money for more maintenance.
The van has picked up an odd clattery injector type noise. We managed to run out of fuel in Canterbury on the way to our latest tunnel, and it seems to have knocked something on the wonk. Still drives fine, just noisy on part throttle. A bottle of injector cleaner has made no difference at all. From a quick read up, it may be a fuel pressure regulation issue. I'm going to ignore it for now as power and Mpg are both fine.
We also had a wheel bearing let go halfway up Sweden. 4200kr later and we were fixed, luckily only off the road for a day. This is the same wheel bearing that was replaced barely 10,000 miles ago for the last MOT. So I guess crap parts, or the plain old wrong part fitted, or fitted badly.
Other than that, mechanically uneventful.
Travel type update next.
We're pretty behind the times in this thread now, given it's barely made it into Scotland and we're now somewhere north of the Arctic Circle.
As this is PH, vehicle stuff first. Apologies for all the 'quid', this keyboard doesn't have a pound sign.
Got our gas bottle back from the menders, with a new fill valve fitted. Almost 200 quid lighter though. Still, just in time for a pan European heatwave that means we don't touch the heating for the next 6 weeks.
We had a couple of weeks at 'home' over the bank holiday in May, and got some maintenance knocked on the head.
On the way down the west coast of Scotland, our offside mirror went toe to toe with its counterpart on a G4S sprinter van. Came off surprisingly well, cracked the cover and the unit itself but was still usable. Chap behind in the Scirocco R got a shower of plastic but fortunately no damage. An ebay knockoff replacement for 30 quid was much easier to stomach than the 250 for genuine.
Took the opportunity to have the mirror poles extended and add some proper blind spot mirrors. An absolute revelation. Seriously, if you drive a large motorhome, get some decent extra mirrors fitted. These are a pair off a DAF truck and were about 60 quid for the pair, plus 25 for having some extra pole welded onto the end of the mount.
I'd had a quick look under the motorhome, and the rear chassis extension is in pretty bad shape. AL-KO galvanise the main chassis, but the back section doesn't seem to be. So a fun day of grinding it back and some quality time with a tin of hammerite was on the cards. It's still not perfect as I'm lazy and do sloppy work, but it's better than before.
Similarly the plywood floor underneath was looking a bit ropey not helped by some dimwit matching my description taking a stripe of paint off it with a jetwash. Yes, yes, never use a jetwash, but you try finding somewhere else to wash a motorhome while you're on the road.
I'm not entirely sure if it's got some sort of underseal on it, but I figured a tin of ronseal preservative would at best make it look a bit better and at worst do nothing. Ends up somewhere in between the two, looks OK and hasn't made it obviously worse.
Once back on our home campsite, we could give it a proper wash. No silly rules about washing here, lots of fulltimers on site so washing and maintenance are fine. Cleaned it with Silky cream cleaner, which did pretty well. Then over the top with some Colinite wax. The paint is still pretty dull and it's really suffered from having not been washed since November. We'll have to be more on the ball with washing from now on. It could really do with a proper polish but I haven't the energy right now, or frankly the money for more maintenance.
The van has picked up an odd clattery injector type noise. We managed to run out of fuel in Canterbury on the way to our latest tunnel, and it seems to have knocked something on the wonk. Still drives fine, just noisy on part throttle. A bottle of injector cleaner has made no difference at all. From a quick read up, it may be a fuel pressure regulation issue. I'm going to ignore it for now as power and Mpg are both fine.
We also had a wheel bearing let go halfway up Sweden. 4200kr later and we were fixed, luckily only off the road for a day. This is the same wheel bearing that was replaced barely 10,000 miles ago for the last MOT. So I guess crap parts, or the plain old wrong part fitted, or fitted badly.
Other than that, mechanically uneventful.
Travel type update next.
Edited by agent006 on Sunday 3rd June 17:07
No photos from NI? You must have missed the best bits! 
Giants Causeway can be a lot cheaper if you park in Bushmills park and ride and don't be forced into the visitors center. There is a path behind the hotel and access is a right of way so they can't/wont stop you from going on it. I think the bus is under £3 and only a couple of mins. The West of Ireland is my favorite spot. Very spectacular and mostly quite quiet.
Great thread. Love following these motorhome threads.
Giants Causeway can be a lot cheaper if you park in Bushmills park and ride and don't be forced into the visitors center. There is a path behind the hotel and access is a right of way so they can't/wont stop you from going on it. I think the bus is under £3 and only a couple of mins. The West of Ireland is my favorite spot. Very spectacular and mostly quite quiet.Great thread. Love following these motorhome threads.
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