Forestboy
LIFE MEMBER
We're currently down in Padstow for a few days chilling out in the motorhome needed to get away for a few days. Staying on a site we last stayed on about 7 years ago !!!! we'll never forget it. It was our first trip away in a new to us 36ft American RV although it was sold to us by a dealer as being 32ft (always take a tape measure). We took a walk into Padstow today and all the memories of that unforgettable trip came flooding back. It was such an incredible experience we even wrote it down and I've copied it below I can honestly say it changed our lives, for the better .
Since that fatefull day we've spent most of the last 7 years travelling the world and have had an incredible time and met some amazing people and have friends on 4 different continents. So our story is below its not that odd I'm sure but thank god we both have a sense of humour now;
Tell us Yours :thumb::thumb:
American RV Highs & Lows of 1st Trip
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Long story but it all happened.
We finally managed to get away for our 1st trip at Easter for 6 nights in Cornwall, having bought the monster back in March & spent the time in between getting used to how things work and a couple of drive outs.
The plan was to leave Thurs 4pm after work so on Weds myself & no2 son went off to a local garage to fill LPG tank for the 1st time, having bought all the fittings. Got to the garage managed to reverse onto forecourt by gas pump no problem but no matter how we tried we couldn't get any gas in, we couldn't get the fitting to seal we even borrowed the fittings from the garage but no joy. Eventually we gave up and left with no gas in a hurry to get back and watch Man Utd at 7.30. As I was reversing into the drive the monster stopped moving and I thought we were skidding as the ground was a bit damp. On inspection we were not skidding & on further investigation we discovered the parking brake was on & would not release so we were stuck. For some reason we have 2 parking brakes a ratchet foot operated one which is ok & an electronic one which was the one causing the problem and no amount of checking could get it too release. By now no2 son has left me on my own and gone off to watch the football & I'm getting more stressed by the minute wishing I'd never seen the monster & bought an apartment anywhere instead of this THING. My neihbours feel the same as we live down a narrow lane which is now completely blocked by this huge piece of junk. I phoned no1 son the mechanic who lives 25 miles away & the wife phoned Safeguard both said they'd be there within the hour. No1 son turned up and after 3 hours decided the only way to stop me committing suicide and unblock the lane was to wind the parking brake off from underneath which he did. The Safeguard operator eventually turned up in a Transit Breakdown truck took one look locked the door & refused to get out, he'd never seen anything so big in his life & didn't have a clue. We eventually got it moving & in the drive at 11.45 pm missed the football & no sleep was had that night.
We decided to go to Cornwall as we still had the ratchet brake & were assured by the local HGV garage everything was safe, plus I'd paid in advance. So off we went with a full tank of derv & half a tank of LPG. Everything was ok until we got to Avonmouth where it took us two & half hours to travel 4 miles, stress levels rising again I've never driven it in the dark but I'm about to. We got to the site at 11pm a 4/5 hour journey took over 7. The owner let us on as he was around so off we went to our pitch reversed in as this looked best and promptly reversed straight into the bank and bent the motorbike rack which I'd forgotten all about. Luckily it didn't cause too much damage & nothing else could possibly go wrong except off course it could. We now discovered the jacks wouldn't work we assume because of the electronic parking brake, by now I'd had enough drank 2 beers & went to bed
Next day the sun was shining I went for a stroll while the wife started a well earned breakfast. As I'm walking back I can hear someones alarm going mad, guess who's. It took us another 15 minutes to finally turn it off but only after disturbing every one on the site, this was despite me practising using it at home so this didn't happen. It was then my wife decided to nickname our adventure Mr & Mrs Bean Go On Holiday.
Over the next few days we had a few mishaps we ran out of water twice before I could convince the wife she was spending too long in the shower. We blew the trip on the hook up 3 times but managed to blame our neighbour the last time. Our hoses weren't long enough, we didn't have any spare bulbs for the trailer board or the van & the electric packed up in the slideout. The one thing I was dreading pumping out the tanks actually went like clock work using a macerator.
After 5 days in Cornwall it was time to leave for home and the dreaded drive through the Cornish lanes during daytime traffic. It was much easier than expected and the monster performed perfectly. I knew once we got through Camelford we would be ok, Camelford arrived and lo & behold it was simple the lights turned green we were at the front of the queue & off we went Phew that was easy. It was until we got to the bottom & the narrowest part as some kind person (my words not the wifes) had parked a car 10 feet from the lights. The first vehicle waiting to come the other way was a lorry who had had to swing his front out to get past the parked car, so the gap is now to narrow. To make matters worse another prat (my words) parks his car behind the lorry & goes shopping so now the lorry is stuck as well as me. It took 10 minutes (it felt like an hour) to get past each other and some serious gouges on both wing mirrors. To rub salt in the prat at the rear came back to his car & gave us a load of verbal abuse as he drove off, I had hold of the wife by the ankle as she went through the window after him. The rest of the journey was uneventful thank God & we got home safely 4 hours later.
Question
Is this a normal first time experience or are we really Mr & Mrs Bean.
Sorry this is such a long thread but I just wanted to share our adventure with others & GUESS WHAT, WE LOVED IT CANT WAIT TO GO AGAIN
Cheers
ROR
-----------------------------------------------------
So that was the start of our great adventureRorynJan :thumb:
Since that fatefull day we've spent most of the last 7 years travelling the world and have had an incredible time and met some amazing people and have friends on 4 different continents. So our story is below its not that odd I'm sure but thank god we both have a sense of humour now;Tell us Yours :thumb::thumb:
American RV Highs & Lows of 1st Trip
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Long story but it all happened.
We finally managed to get away for our 1st trip at Easter for 6 nights in Cornwall, having bought the monster back in March & spent the time in between getting used to how things work and a couple of drive outs.
The plan was to leave Thurs 4pm after work so on Weds myself & no2 son went off to a local garage to fill LPG tank for the 1st time, having bought all the fittings. Got to the garage managed to reverse onto forecourt by gas pump no problem but no matter how we tried we couldn't get any gas in, we couldn't get the fitting to seal we even borrowed the fittings from the garage but no joy. Eventually we gave up and left with no gas in a hurry to get back and watch Man Utd at 7.30. As I was reversing into the drive the monster stopped moving and I thought we were skidding as the ground was a bit damp. On inspection we were not skidding & on further investigation we discovered the parking brake was on & would not release so we were stuck. For some reason we have 2 parking brakes a ratchet foot operated one which is ok & an electronic one which was the one causing the problem and no amount of checking could get it too release. By now no2 son has left me on my own and gone off to watch the football & I'm getting more stressed by the minute wishing I'd never seen the monster & bought an apartment anywhere instead of this THING. My neihbours feel the same as we live down a narrow lane which is now completely blocked by this huge piece of junk. I phoned no1 son the mechanic who lives 25 miles away & the wife phoned Safeguard both said they'd be there within the hour. No1 son turned up and after 3 hours decided the only way to stop me committing suicide and unblock the lane was to wind the parking brake off from underneath which he did. The Safeguard operator eventually turned up in a Transit Breakdown truck took one look locked the door & refused to get out, he'd never seen anything so big in his life & didn't have a clue. We eventually got it moving & in the drive at 11.45 pm missed the football & no sleep was had that night.
We decided to go to Cornwall as we still had the ratchet brake & were assured by the local HGV garage everything was safe, plus I'd paid in advance. So off we went with a full tank of derv & half a tank of LPG. Everything was ok until we got to Avonmouth where it took us two & half hours to travel 4 miles, stress levels rising again I've never driven it in the dark but I'm about to. We got to the site at 11pm a 4/5 hour journey took over 7. The owner let us on as he was around so off we went to our pitch reversed in as this looked best and promptly reversed straight into the bank and bent the motorbike rack which I'd forgotten all about. Luckily it didn't cause too much damage & nothing else could possibly go wrong except off course it could. We now discovered the jacks wouldn't work we assume because of the electronic parking brake, by now I'd had enough drank 2 beers & went to bed
Next day the sun was shining I went for a stroll while the wife started a well earned breakfast. As I'm walking back I can hear someones alarm going mad, guess who's. It took us another 15 minutes to finally turn it off but only after disturbing every one on the site, this was despite me practising using it at home so this didn't happen. It was then my wife decided to nickname our adventure Mr & Mrs Bean Go On Holiday.
Over the next few days we had a few mishaps we ran out of water twice before I could convince the wife she was spending too long in the shower. We blew the trip on the hook up 3 times but managed to blame our neighbour the last time. Our hoses weren't long enough, we didn't have any spare bulbs for the trailer board or the van & the electric packed up in the slideout. The one thing I was dreading pumping out the tanks actually went like clock work using a macerator.
After 5 days in Cornwall it was time to leave for home and the dreaded drive through the Cornish lanes during daytime traffic. It was much easier than expected and the monster performed perfectly. I knew once we got through Camelford we would be ok, Camelford arrived and lo & behold it was simple the lights turned green we were at the front of the queue & off we went Phew that was easy. It was until we got to the bottom & the narrowest part as some kind person (my words not the wifes) had parked a car 10 feet from the lights. The first vehicle waiting to come the other way was a lorry who had had to swing his front out to get past the parked car, so the gap is now to narrow. To make matters worse another prat (my words) parks his car behind the lorry & goes shopping so now the lorry is stuck as well as me. It took 10 minutes (it felt like an hour) to get past each other and some serious gouges on both wing mirrors. To rub salt in the prat at the rear came back to his car & gave us a load of verbal abuse as he drove off, I had hold of the wife by the ankle as she went through the window after him. The rest of the journey was uneventful thank God & we got home safely 4 hours later.
Question
Is this a normal first time experience or are we really Mr & Mrs Bean.
Sorry this is such a long thread but I just wanted to share our adventure with others & GUESS WHAT, WE LOVED IT CANT WAIT TO GO AGAIN
Cheers
ROR
-----------------------------------------------------
So that was the start of our great adventureRorynJan :thumb:
