Like a brake cable bursting whilst being driven by Fiona on a dual carriageway at speed. Thankfully she was able to pull up by a garage nearby and get help.
A burst tyre for me that I changed on the side of the road, at night with vehicles zipping by, so we got new tyres all round.
The night heater refusing to work when it was freezingly cold outside, a good clean and service sorted that out. The water pump packed up which we replaced with the one from the caravan - within a week also packed up, the new one, works as intended - brilliant.
Then we constantly ran out of power in the habitation part of the van. This was definitely more noticeable in deep winter when lights are needed on for longer - even with solar we never got enough sun to fully charge the battery, what about 50% ? More like 15-20% and that is with solar panel elevation which we are able to do, to get more full face, sun to panel alignment, the Simply Solar App was really helpful with this.
From mid March we had full charge daily via solar, then we fitted a 2nd battery, and an inverter (for household electrical items) plus some more USB charge points. All summer the solar system has been faultless providing free power.
Then it was tackling some rusty bits, I was cleaning mud from a wheel arch and my hand went through it, revealing my new water pump when you peaked through the hole. The surface rust I could do, and the bigger rust concerns I couldn’t. So we had a bit of welding done along with another brake line that had seen better days.
Then in late August we were driving to Peterborough and noticed a burning smell, pulled over and saw smoke coming into the vehicle from the floor, one 5 litre bottle of water and a fire extinguisher later, it was the realisation to call the fire service, who turned up within minutes and saved the van, saved our home. By the look of things, the dry weather, along with an accumulation of debris had ignited near the exhaust down pipe had started to burn the sound deadening material within the engine bay.
In the grand old scheme of things, for a 23 year old van which was used daily, as well as for long journeys, we’ve done really well.
And I’m content with that!
🕊❤️
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