Simon
Free Member
- Aug 29, 2014
- 287
- 426
- Funster No
- 33,102
- MH
- Swift Kontiki 600
- Exp
- First year under our belt!
Last year, way back when we were total beginners and still wet behind the doodahs**, we decided that the huge Fiamma top box had to come off the top of the bus as a) we felt we wouldn't use it, and b) someone somewhere told us that it would cause the old girl to use plenty more diesel to overcome the drag. I was somewhat doubtful as the aerodynamics are pretty much at the 'shoe box' end of the scale anyway, but it seemed fairly feasible-ish. There was also c) the winter cover probably wouldn't fit over it so it had to come off anyway, if only temporarily.
Still, we were never going to use it so off it came. Well, it was eventually prised free from the thick aluminium plate is was (steel) screwed to. As I was wielding the angle grinder I experienced a dim memory that dissimilar metals sometimes come to like each other a little too much and resist being separated. This was the case here so twelve screw heads were ground off and then the remaining stubs were ground flat in the aluminium, forever to remain together probably.
I was now becoming quite the chimpanzee when it came to getting on and off the roof with various tools, one handed, and often hooting. Mainly due to fear of falling.
*Time passes*
In November-ish Tesco sold off some rather lovely folding chairs for not very much money at all. On the website they looked really good quality and seemed to have lovely thick squashy cushions, and this was so; they are indeed very good, and very squashy.
Something else I discovered after buying two for us to rest our aching bones in on hollibobs, was that they are very big. Where would we put them when they were not in use? It would be a nuisance to have to keep moving them around inside, so... what we needed was... well, something like... a box on the roof, really. Bugger.
As the Fiamma box suffered injury during the winter when it got blown off the shed roof (twice), and needs repairs to make it roof-worthy, it was fortuitous that we were given a rather splendid, and only once-used, Thule Ranger 90. This, if you don't know, is a folding roof box! Bloody clever, those Japanese. More King Kong impressions were forthcoming and eventually suitable holes were made in the roof plate to accept the fittings. Both chairs fit into the box as though they were designed to do so. Yes, I checked they would fit before putting it on the roof. I'm not silly, y'know.
So, the moral of my story is, don't get rid of something before you have new chairs.
No, that's not it.
Don't climb on the roof unless you have a folding box... hang on...
Don't listen to people who advise you to do something before you can climb a vertical ladder fifty times in a morning and not trip over stuff on the roof of a motorhome while holding power tools. That'll do.
**We're obviously wizened and vastly experienced now. Ha!!
Still, we were never going to use it so off it came. Well, it was eventually prised free from the thick aluminium plate is was (steel) screwed to. As I was wielding the angle grinder I experienced a dim memory that dissimilar metals sometimes come to like each other a little too much and resist being separated. This was the case here so twelve screw heads were ground off and then the remaining stubs were ground flat in the aluminium, forever to remain together probably.
I was now becoming quite the chimpanzee when it came to getting on and off the roof with various tools, one handed, and often hooting. Mainly due to fear of falling.
*Time passes*
In November-ish Tesco sold off some rather lovely folding chairs for not very much money at all. On the website they looked really good quality and seemed to have lovely thick squashy cushions, and this was so; they are indeed very good, and very squashy.
Something else I discovered after buying two for us to rest our aching bones in on hollibobs, was that they are very big. Where would we put them when they were not in use? It would be a nuisance to have to keep moving them around inside, so... what we needed was... well, something like... a box on the roof, really. Bugger.
As the Fiamma box suffered injury during the winter when it got blown off the shed roof (twice), and needs repairs to make it roof-worthy, it was fortuitous that we were given a rather splendid, and only once-used, Thule Ranger 90. This, if you don't know, is a folding roof box! Bloody clever, those Japanese. More King Kong impressions were forthcoming and eventually suitable holes were made in the roof plate to accept the fittings. Both chairs fit into the box as though they were designed to do so. Yes, I checked they would fit before putting it on the roof. I'm not silly, y'know.
So, the moral of my story is, don't get rid of something before you have new chairs.
No, that's not it.
Don't climb on the roof unless you have a folding box... hang on...
Don't listen to people who advise you to do something before you can climb a vertical ladder fifty times in a morning and not trip over stuff on the roof of a motorhome while holding power tools. That'll do.
**We're obviously wizened and vastly experienced now. Ha!!
