Herge's adventures of ..................Sadlonelygit! (1 Viewer)

sadlonelygit

Free Member
Jan 28, 2014
155
95
forest of dean
Funster No
29,903
MH
Rapido
Exp
since 1975
or our trip to Belgium!
We were supposed to leave at 3pm, do a few things en route to Dover and have a leisurely drive down.
2pm i go to tickle the van over and do a few things..........ttccckkkk was the sound she made. ok it'd been a fortnight since i last started her but........so out comes the charger and i carry on loading.
3pm and i confidently turn the key.................ttcccckkkkk.
now i'm starting to panic a bit! out comes the jump leads and the saab is moved into place. still no joy!
3.45pm and the battery gets it's final chance...................ttcccc.
ok, really panicing now. swmbo gives the AA a call, 5pm at the earliest ma'am. right then.............battery on the saab and honda are the wrong terminals...........but the peugeot........
so a battery with half the amps is slipped in. not quite enough juice to crank her over so i run the van off down the drive............success.
just need fuel now!
so we have 3 hours to do 210 miles (M4, M25 etc), looks like leisurely is out the window!
we make it with minutes to spare to discover the ferry is 40 mins late.
still not sure if the battery will start the van so she's ticking over till we board.
on arrival in France i tentatively turn the key and..............she fires.
about midnight i'm getting tired so we stop in a Belgian services...........didn't get gassed!
in the morning i'm still wary of the battery, but again she fires up. Gent here we come.
Found the aire (Driebeek Sporthalle, right next to the E40) and things look good.
Decided to get a new battery anyway, so found a little backstreet shop and lo and behold he had a battery in stock............€140. Then it started to rain.......i mean stair rods, i mean ice bucket challenge wet! got back to the van, dried off, turned the key and yerr...yerrr......yerrrr..........yerrrrrrrr.......ttttcccckkkkkk. So muggins gets to wander off with the trolley in the pouring rain. i get to the shop at 12.10...........he shuts for lunch at 12.00.
Eventually i get back to the aire, fit the battery in the pouring rain and flick her over to be met with the sound of a purring merc. Antwerp here we come.
Find the campsite easily enough (Vogelzang, the old expo site), book in, go to start the van and she just spins over.................give me a freaking break!
slap her into 3rd and chugg on the starter to the first pitch.
following morning spin her over and she fires up as usual!
Spent a couple of days cyclo-touring Antwerp, then back to Gent...........forgot to buy something, then Ypres (car/coach park by stations).
we travelled back to calais via St Omer on the back roads............except every gendarme and his mother was out!
Sat in the obligatory hour long queue through passport control, parked up in our ligne and of course the moment i go to the toilet they call us through. i jog back to the van and bugger me, she's just spinning over again. sod it! this time it's 5th gear and chugg most of the way to the boat. thankfully we're downstairs so get to roll the majority of the way. arriving back in blighty, she fires straight up again as if nothing has happened, strong smell of hot electrics now though!
FYI diesel is €1.28 for bio or 1.43 for super in Belgium, LPG is 0.58, 1.65 for petrol.
 

Carol

LIFE MEMBER
Oct 2, 2007
14,044
111,497
North Wales.
Funster No
519
MH
A class
Exp
18 years s Motorhome (33years caravans)
Oh heck, not exactly relaxing, hope you get the problem sorted soon and you remember the good bits.
 

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