Aye, that area.
I like the idea of being quite close to LeMans, I look forward to taking one of my cars for a blast along the circuit. We will be targeting car and bike clubs, classic owner clubs etc.
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- Thread starter dawsey
- Start date
I like the idea of being quite close to LeMans, I look forward to taking one of my cars for a blast along the circuit. We will be targeting car and bike clubs, classic owner clubs etc.
Some people will do anything for a photo opportunity 
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The last thing I read about Dick and Angel was they apparently got quite grumpy about Brits turning up on their drive treating them like long lost friends.
You obviously met them on a good day, needing pulling out of their mud too
You obviously met them on a good day, needing pulling out of their mud too
Then don't do a TV show about your life then
no
Yeah, Dick was very good. He’s a proper problem solver. Good job it was him, I’m not sure Angel would have been quite so conciliatoryThe last thing I read about Dick and Angel was they apparently got quite grumpy about Brits turning up on their drive treating them like long lost friends.
You obviously met them on a good day, needing pulling out of their mud too
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Fab why did Bea need to re apply in the UK, they did give me indefinite leave, no end date at all?
Something to do with the French system. Every so many years the french have to reapply to go on a register of french outside france with the french consulate. Not a UK thing, but there is some sort of negative impact on her if she doesn’t do it. I’ve just asked her to clarify as I thought the request came from the UK, but it didn’t.
suavecarve
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May I suggest a new thread for a new adventure.
Really pleased youre back up and running
Really pleased youre back up and running
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Good idea, with a link back to this thread so others who haven't been through the trails and tribulations with Dawsey & Bea can go back to see how we all 'suffered' from finger nails bitten to the quick!
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I already tried that, twice. It doesn’t work as people keep commenting on the original thread and asking the same questions as in the new thread. I then lose track of what is where and which one was last updated and it gets a bit out of hand.
I don’t expect this little adventure will be lasting much longer though. After having our first two offers rejected we have tonight submitted what we have communicated is our final offer on the place we are interested in.
I don’t expect this little adventure will be lasting much longer though. After having our first two offers rejected we have tonight submitted what we have communicated is our final offer on the place we are interested in.
They are actually very accommodating to the general public that have an interest in them, in the early days of their "fame" they had a continuous stream of mainly UK persons arriving at the property and thinking they could simply drive up to the front door knock and be allowed in for a guided tour, how would you react in the same situation?Then don't do a TV show about your life then
Their answer was to make access to the main property area less easy, they added gates on the actual drive approach, built a small "visitor" area just off of the road which has a free supply of postcards with a photo opportunity.
I'll admit to not being a fan of theirs but living in the general vicinity get to hear a fair amount about them.
Yep, it was this little area we pulled into to have a nosey. Great idea (theirs not ours). It’s bordered by a small metal railing and some brambles with a field of young fruit trees between the brambles and the chateau. We discovered it’s not designed for campers after 4 months of solid rain. Sadly the brambles and some of the fruit trees were damaged as part of our recovery, thankfully by Dick himself. We will send them something when we get settled by way of apology….
suavecarve
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Well, our final offer has been rejected and the vendors have suggested some fiendishly complicated split of the assets - they are apparently trying to over complicate the sale to illegally reduce their French tax liabilities (according to the agent). Here we go again. Ho hum.
On something easy and technical that my simple mind understands - I noticed an issue with our Renogy lithium batteries the other day, it’s no biggie and there’s nothing as such wrong with the batteries, but I though I’d post it up here in order that other folks can avoid getting caught out in the same way.
The batteries are Renogy Li Fe Po 100ah x 2 with bluetooth BMS. We use the Renogy app on the phone to check capacity. The batteries are charged by engine and solar via a 25/50A Renogy MPPT/B2B charge controller. The batteries are 16 months old and are discharged by about 30% every day then recharged as and when.
4 weeks ago when microwaving something one morning I noticed low voltage alarms. I checked capacity via the app - average 30%. But voltage had dropped below 12V. Strange I thought, I have gone down to 20% a time or two before with no issue.
2 weeks ago, again microwaving in the morning, low voltage alarms then a few seconds later total shutdown. The invertor shut down and even the good old elektroblok clicked off. I checked capacity and voltage - using the app - 40% capacity but under 11V.
Bugger, I thought, serious battery degredation. How is it possible with a relatively shallow charge discharge profile and only about 400days of continuous use? It’s about what you might expect from Lead Acids.
The lithium batteries were both genuinely fully discharged - that was self evident.
Turns out nothing was wrong with the actual batteries. It was the software the BMS used to estimate the remaining charge. It turns out that the remaining capacity indication is just an ‘estimation’ based on the measured discharge current, and it ‘drifts’ over time when the battery is repeatedly discharged without ever being fully recharged.
Over several weeks we had been re charging the batteries to 70 or 80% maximum then discharging to 40 or 50%. This had caused huge drift between what the battery remaining capacity actually was, and what was being calculated by the BMS and displayed. An indicated 40% had become a real 10%.
The advice is always to fully recharge any battery first… So that’s what I did. I ran the engine. Interestingly the capacity uptick got to 99.1% on both batteries and then stayed there for almost 2 hours despite 35A of charge being shared by both batteries.
After roughly 2 hours the charge current started to drop (as you might expect when you really get to 99% charge) and once it had dropped from 35A to 3A over about 20minutes both batteries went to 100% and it seems I had ‘reset’ the capacity calculator. I tested by discharging both batteries to 20% (just used the air fryer to make chips twice) and all was good, minimal loss of voltage.
There we go. A handy hint if you want accurate capacity indication on these batteries, periodically recharge fully to an indicated 100%
I’ve posted this as a seperate thread in the ‘battery’ bit so it may be a bit useful to others.
On something easy and technical that my simple mind understands - I noticed an issue with our Renogy lithium batteries the other day, it’s no biggie and there’s nothing as such wrong with the batteries, but I though I’d post it up here in order that other folks can avoid getting caught out in the same way.
The batteries are Renogy Li Fe Po 100ah x 2 with bluetooth BMS. We use the Renogy app on the phone to check capacity. The batteries are charged by engine and solar via a 25/50A Renogy MPPT/B2B charge controller. The batteries are 16 months old and are discharged by about 30% every day then recharged as and when.
4 weeks ago when microwaving something one morning I noticed low voltage alarms. I checked capacity via the app - average 30%. But voltage had dropped below 12V. Strange I thought, I have gone down to 20% a time or two before with no issue.
2 weeks ago, again microwaving in the morning, low voltage alarms then a few seconds later total shutdown. The invertor shut down and even the good old elektroblok clicked off. I checked capacity and voltage - using the app - 40% capacity but under 11V.
Bugger, I thought, serious battery degredation. How is it possible with a relatively shallow charge discharge profile and only about 400days of continuous use? It’s about what you might expect from Lead Acids.
The lithium batteries were both genuinely fully discharged - that was self evident.
Turns out nothing was wrong with the actual batteries. It was the software the BMS used to estimate the remaining charge. It turns out that the remaining capacity indication is just an ‘estimation’ based on the measured discharge current, and it ‘drifts’ over time when the battery is repeatedly discharged without ever being fully recharged.
Over several weeks we had been re charging the batteries to 70 or 80% maximum then discharging to 40 or 50%. This had caused huge drift between what the battery remaining capacity actually was, and what was being calculated by the BMS and displayed. An indicated 40% had become a real 10%.
The advice is always to fully recharge any battery first… So that’s what I did. I ran the engine. Interestingly the capacity uptick got to 99.1% on both batteries and then stayed there for almost 2 hours despite 35A of charge being shared by both batteries.
After roughly 2 hours the charge current started to drop (as you might expect when you really get to 99% charge) and once it had dropped from 35A to 3A over about 20minutes both batteries went to 100% and it seems I had ‘reset’ the capacity calculator. I tested by discharging both batteries to 20% (just used the air fryer to make chips twice) and all was good, minimal loss of voltage.
There we go. A handy hint if you want accurate capacity indication on these batteries, periodically recharge fully to an indicated 100%
I’ve posted this as a seperate thread in the ‘battery’ bit so it may be a bit useful to others.
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So does this mean the search is on again or are you trying another negotiation with this one?Well, our final offer has been rejected and the vendors have suggested some fiendishly complicated split of the assets - they are apparently trying to over complicate the sale to illegally reduce their French tax liabilities (according to the agent). Here we go again. Ho hum.
On something easy and technical that my simple mind understands - I noticed an issue with our Renogy lithium batteries the other day, it’s no biggie and there’s nothing as such wrong with the batteries, but I though I’d post it up here in order that other folks can avoid getting caught out in the same way.
The batteries are Renogy Li Fe Po 100ah x 2 with bluetooth BMS. We use the Renogy app on the phone to check capacity. The batteries are charged by engine and solar via a 25/50A Renogy MPPT/B2B charge controller. The batteries are 16 months old and are discharged by about 30% every day then recharged as and when.
4 weeks ago when microwaving something one morning I noticed low voltage alarms. I checked capacity via the app - average 30%. But voltage had dropped below 12V. Strange I thought, I have gone down to 20% a time or two before with no issue.
2 weeks ago, again microwaving in the morning, low voltage alarms then a few seconds later total shutdown. The invertor shut down and even the good old elektroblok clicked off. I checked capacity and voltage - using the app - 40% capacity but under 11V.
Bugger, I thought, serious battery degredation. How is it possible with a relatively shallow charge discharge profile and only about 400days of continuous use? It’s about what you might expect from Lead Acids.
The lithium batteries were both genuinely fully discharged - that was self evident.
Turns out nothing was wrong with the actual batteries. It was the software the BMS used to estimate the remaining charge. It turns out that the remaining capacity indication is just an ‘estimation’ based on the measured discharge current, and it ‘drifts’ over time when the battery is repeatedly discharged without ever being fully recharged.
Over several weeks we had been re charging the batteries to 70 or 80% maximum then discharging to 40 or 50%. This had caused huge drift between what the battery remaining capacity actually was, and what was being calculated by the BMS and displayed. An indicated 40% had become a real 10%.
The advice is always to fully recharge any battery first… So that’s what I did. I ran the engine. Interestingly the capacity uptick got to 99.1% on both batteries and then stayed there for almost 2 hours despite 35A of charge being shared by both batteries.
After roughly 2 hours the charge current started to drop (as you might expect when you really get to 99% charge) and once it had dropped from 35A to 3A over about 20minutes both batteries went to 100% and it seems I had ‘reset’ the capacity calculator. I tested by discharging both batteries to 20% (just used the air fryer to make chips twice) and all was good, minimal loss of voltage.
There we go. A handy hint if you want accurate capacity indication on these batteries, periodically recharge fully to an indicated 100%
I’ve posted this as a seperate thread in the ‘battery’ bit so it may be a bit useful to others.
I am not going to start a discussion about this again, but have you thought about buying some sort of bare land place where you could get your own planning to start up some sort of leisure business from the start.
Rather than getting mixed up with what owners of campsites want out of it.
Rather than getting mixed up with what owners of campsites want out of it.
Yeah, we thought of it early doors Chaser.
However, after getting on for a year and a half in a camper we don’t want to east another 3-5years building up something from scratch and having no money/earnings in the interim. We just want to live again. Depression has been beginning to set in.
We are just going to have to be patient and continue to negotiate if we want that place.
We are back in south of Aquitaine today, looking at something else that might be good to develop as a glamping operation, an old water mill operated as a campsite with gites.
Yes, very interested, thanks. I often feel I’m the only weirdo that tries to do it all myself instead of paying an ‘expert’. We bought an old Transit last October and set off with the conversion only half done. Just impatience. Like you we want to avoid paid camps, moving every day or two. I’ve jammed 3 big panels (6 square metres in all) on the roof, to give 1.3kW of solar. Domestic panels, so quite cheap. 140 litre water tank, 40 litre under slung LPG tank. 5 kWh lithium battery. Our plan is to use electricity where possible and gas just for frying. Did have a 5 litre electric water heater but Mayya days it’s just as easy to boil a kettle, so decommissioned it. I use a 3.6 kW domestic solar inverter to charge from solar and give 230v from solar and battery. Yes microwave and hair dryer do feel like luxuries! 350W electric heater and electric blanket have kept us warm, worst was minus 4C in France. I’ve only done half the insulation so far so this will improve. Big compromise so far is No Shower : bucket of hot water and shower curtain hung over open barn doors. Mayya is a real sport! We find plenty of places to get water and do a load of laundry. Interesting to read about all these bits failing - this worries me. That fear drove me to install a big electrical system and not use gas or diesel for space or water heating. I’m guessing the domestic-spec battery and inverter will be reliable. Like you I’ve bought and thrown away two 12v inverters (I need one to charge my 50v battery from the alternator via the 3.6kW inverter). Both sold as 1.1 kW inverters, both worked a few days at 950 Watts and conked out. Now have a 2.5kW inverter (5kW peak) which reliably works at 1kW. So it’s easy now, Southern Spain in February; soon it will get hot and we’ll see how we cope with that. All the best to you!Hello all, this continues my earlier thread started some months ago which got deleted by mods due to me mentioning the B word…
In October we (myself and my French wife Beatrice) completed the sale of our UK property and set out in our 20yr old B544 to find a project in France. Having been into campers since my early 20s (some near 30 years ago) I/we want to buy a campsite to develop.
In earlier threads I mentioned how I spent a couple of months prepping the old bus to be completely self sufficient - it had to get through a continental winter with us full timing. We’d be in France, so overnighting would be super easy in their system of aires-de-camping car, however, often there’d be no hook up options and water points would be off to protect from frost damage. To preserve funds, campsites would be avoided.
Hence the two 18kg Gaslow LPG tanks, 200Ah of lithium and 600W solar (covering pretty much every spare square foot of the roof)
Already running out of load capacity with safari tent, roof AC (for summer) and sat dish, when I decided I needed an on board alternative mode of transport other than the Mrs’s old push bike (a 110kg 250cc motorbike, itself necessitating a 25kg chassis carrier for my elderly non-garage equipped camper
Loads of stuff goes wrong with old campers - since prepping it and doing a trial run in summer, in addition to routine servicing, I have sorted all manner of stuff
- fridge sparking constantly (serviced, burner cleaned, water ingress (from hob drain) issue resolved
- drop down bed gas struts failed (replaced easily and cheaply enough with pattern 1.7kN units).
- water pump failed (again replaced easy enough. I now carry a spare pump as it is really inconvenient to have no water at all)
- water pump non return valve then failed (fixed with a second in line non return valve)
- boiler purge valve failed (again easy enough replacement)
with all these watery things fixed, for the first time I had pressure remaining in all taps at any time (instead of gurgles and spluttering when opening if left for more than 10min..). This then caused the shower tap to fail internally (drip drip heard in the cubicle at night) so I replaced that after 3 attempts to fix it.
Finally, some element of the various failed valves must have made its way into a pipe as all cold water pressure was lost and cold tap (kitchen) output reduced to a trickle. Fixed by disconnecting all cold pipes from boiler, routing the pipes temporarily outside and connecting mains pressure water direct to the kitchen tap to back flush. It worked, though I never found the offending component.
- bathroom roof vent failed. Just age and fatigue. replaced with something from ebay which required me to spend a day chopping it to pieces to make it fit…
- kitchen turbo vent failed - in addition to the usual banging when retracting, bearings then went on motor producing terrible noises. After some oiling I gave up and bought something cheap on ebay (I by now should have known better). what garbage, a remote control thing which lasted a month before failing.
- roof AC failed on the summer - just age, it was same age as the camper. A Telair Silent whose manufacturer was obviously having a joke with the name..Replaced with a Truma Aventa compact (so I could run it off the solar panels, at least in theory
Guess what we found to be the best lighting solution? - A normal 240V bedside table lamp with an LED bulb. Just runs off the invertor and produces nice lighting.
- light bar electrics all failed when someone in UK bashed into it (and helpfully drove off) - I just made up a new bar
- ‘mood lighting’ as demanded by the mrs if she were to spend loads of time in there. I experimented with all sorts of lights - fitting and then removing all sorts of LED as the light colour was just nasty. I eventually just fitted halogens back in the light units, and recessed LED strip lights in various places for a subtle lighting option, one of which is on the front of the drop down bed, making it look from the front like one of those crazy over illuminated trucks when on!
- then the worst job of all, noticing sometimes awful smells when driving if ‘someone’ had used the loo and it hadnt been emptied, and noticing effluent collecting in the cassette recess, I diagnosed (eventually) a leaky cassette seal. It was limescale, same thing as knackers kettles and shower heads, causing it to fail to fully seal when closed, then driving would allow splashes to make it outside the tank and into the van - an unpleasant job, but very simply fixed by removing the silicone seal in the tank and thoroughly cleaning it with a vinegar solution.
In the next post I will outline how the first 2 months went for us mooching around darkest France, not a single night on site or on hook up, if anyone interested
Happy new year - Graham and Beatrice
Yes, very interested, thanks. I often feel I’m the only weirdo that tries to do it all myself instead of paying an ‘expert’. We bought an old Transit last October and set off with the conversion only half done. Just impatience. Like you we want to avoid paid camps, moving every day or two. I’ve jammed 3 big panels (6 square metres in all) on the roof, to give 1.3kW of solar. Domestic panels, so quite cheap. 140 litre water tank, 40 litre under slung LPG tank. 5 kWh lithium battery. Our plan is to use electricity where possible and gas just for frying. Did have a 5 litre electric water heater but Mayya days it’s just as easy to boil a kettle, so decommissioned it. I use a 3.6 kW domestic solar inverter to charge from solar and give 230v from solar and battery. Yes microwave and hair dryer do feel like luxuries! 350W electric heater and electric blanket have kept us warm, worst was minus 4C in France. I’ve only done half the insulation so far so this will improve. Big compromise so far is No Shower : bucket of hot water and shower curtain hung over open barn doors. Mayya is a real sport! We find plenty of places to get water and do a load of laundry. Interesting to read about all these bits failing - this worries me. That fear drove me to install a big electrical system and not use gas or diesel for space or water heating. I’m guessing the domestic-spec battery and inverter will be reliable. Like you I’ve bought and thrown away two 12v inverters (I need one to charge my 50v battery from the alternator via the 3.6kW inverter). Both sold as 1.1 kW inverters, both worked a few days at 950 Watts and conked out. Now have a 2.5kW inverter (5kW peak) which reliably works at 1kW. So it’s easy now, Southern Spain in February; soon it will get hot and we’ll see how we cope with that. All the best to you!Hello all, this continues my earlier thread started some months ago which got deleted by mods due to me mentioning the B word…
In October we (myself and my French wife Beatrice) completed the sale of our UK property and set out in our 20yr old B544 to find a project in France. Having been into campers since my early 20s (some near 30 years ago) I/we want to buy a campsite to develop.
In earlier threads I mentioned how I spent a couple of months prepping the old bus to be completely self sufficient - it had to get through a continental winter with us full timing. We’d be in France, so overnighting would be super easy in their system of aires-de-camping car, however, often there’d be no hook up options and water points would be off to protect from frost damage. To preserve funds, campsites would be avoided.
Hence the two 18kg Gaslow LPG tanks, 200Ah of lithium and 600W solar (covering pretty much every spare square foot of the roof)
Already running out of load capacity with safari tent, roof AC (for summer) and sat dish, when I decided I needed an on board alternative mode of transport other than the Mrs’s old push bike (a 110kg 250cc motorbike, itself necessitating a 25kg chassis carrier for my elderly non-garage equipped camper
Loads of stuff goes wrong with old campers - since prepping it and doing a trial run in summer, in addition to routine servicing, I have sorted all manner of stuff
- fridge sparking constantly (serviced, burner cleaned, water ingress (from hob drain) issue resolved
- drop down bed gas struts failed (replaced easily and cheaply enough with pattern 1.7kN units).
- water pump failed (again replaced easy enough. I now carry a spare pump as it is really inconvenient to have no water at all)
- water pump non return valve then failed (fixed with a second in line non return valve)
- boiler purge valve failed (again easy enough replacement)
with all these watery things fixed, for the first time I had pressure remaining in all taps at any time (instead of gurgles and spluttering when opening if left for more than 10min..). This then caused the shower tap to fail internally (drip drip heard in the cubicle at night) so I replaced that after 3 attempts to fix it.
Finally, some element of the various failed valves must have made its way into a pipe as all cold water pressure was lost and cold tap (kitchen) output reduced to a trickle. Fixed by disconnecting all cold pipes from boiler, routing the pipes temporarily outside and connecting mains pressure water direct to the kitchen tap to back flush. It worked, though I never found the offending component.
- bathroom roof vent failed. Just age and fatigue. replaced with something from ebay which required me to spend a day chopping it to pieces to make it fit…
- kitchen turbo vent failed - in addition to the usual banging when retracting, bearings then went on motor producing terrible noises. After some oiling I gave up and bought something cheap on ebay (I by now should have known better). what garbage, a remote control thing which lasted a month before failing.
- roof AC failed on the summer - just age, it was same age as the camper. A Telair Silent whose manufacturer was obviously having a joke with the name..Replaced with a Truma Aventa compact (so I could run it off the solar panels, at least in theory
Guess what we found to be the best lighting solution? - A normal 240V bedside table lamp with an LED bulb. Just runs off the invertor and produces nice lighting.
- light bar electrics all failed when someone in UK bashed into it (and helpfully drove off) - I just made up a new bar
- ‘mood lighting’ as demanded by the mrs if she were to spend loads of time in there. I experimented with all sorts of lights - fitting and then removing all sorts of LED as the light colour was just nasty. I eventually just fitted halogens back in the light units, and recessed LED strip lights in various places for a subtle lighting option, one of which is on the front of the drop down bed, making it look from the front like one of those crazy over illuminated trucks when on!
- then the worst job of all, noticing sometimes awful smells when driving if ‘someone’ had used the loo and it hadnt been emptied, and noticing effluent collecting in the cassette recess, I diagnosed (eventually
In the next post I will outline how the first 2 months went for us mooching around darkest France, not a single night on site or on hook up, if anyone interested
Happy new year - Graham and Beatrice
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I go to Le Mans in the motorhome every year.
As a matter of interest, what year is your B544? I have a 1995 model which I sent over to Germany and bought in 2000. Had if in Spain for the last 24 years, and I have a couple of questions I would like to ask if you have a mind to indulge me, as you clearly know your Van well!Hello all, this continues my earlier thread started some months ago which got deleted by mods due to me mentioning the B word…
In October we (myself and my French wife Beatrice) completed the sale of our UK property and set out in our 20yr old B544 to find a project in France. Having been into campers since my early 20s (some near 30 years ago) I/we want to buy a campsite to develop.
In earlier threads I mentioned how I spent a couple of months prepping the old bus to be completely self sufficient - it had to get through a continental winter with us full timing. We’d be in France, so overnighting would be super easy in their system of aires-de-camping car, however, often there’d be no hook up options and water points would be off to protect from frost damage. To preserve funds, campsites would be avoided.
Hence the two 18kg Gaslow LPG tanks, 200Ah of lithium and 600W solar (covering pretty much every spare square foot of the roof)
Already running out of load capacity with safari tent, roof AC (for summer) and sat dish, when I decided I needed an on board alternative mode of transport other than the Mrs’s old push bike (a 110kg 250cc motorbike, itself necessitating a 25kg chassis carrier for my elderly non-garage equipped camper
Loads of stuff goes wrong with old campers - since prepping it and doing a trial run in summer, in addition to routine servicing, I have sorted all manner of stuff
- fridge sparking constantly (serviced, burner cleaned, water ingress (from hob drain) issue resolved
- drop down bed gas struts failed (replaced easily and cheaply enough with pattern 1.7kN units).
- water pump failed (again replaced easy enough. I now carry a spare pump as it is really inconvenient to have no water at all)
- water pump non return valve then failed (fixed with a second in line non return valve)
- boiler purge valve failed (again easy enough replacement)
with all these watery things fixed, for the first time I had pressure remaining in all taps at any time (instead of gurgles and spluttering when opening if left for more than 10min..). This then caused the shower tap to fail internally (drip drip heard in the cubicle at night) so I replaced that after 3 attempts to fix it.
Finally, some element of the various failed valves must have made its way into a pipe as all cold water pressure was lost and cold tap (kitchen) output reduced to a trickle. Fixed by disconnecting all cold pipes from boiler, routing the pipes temporarily outside and connecting mains pressure water direct to the kitchen tap to back flush. It worked, though I never found the offending component.
- bathroom roof vent failed. Just age and fatigue. replaced with something from ebay which required me to spend a day chopping it to pieces to make it fit…
- kitchen turbo vent failed - in addition to the usual banging when retracting, bearings then went on motor producing terrible noises. After some oiling I gave up and bought something cheap on ebay (I by now should have known better). what garbage, a remote control thing which lasted a month before failing.
- roof AC failed on the summer - just age, it was same age as the camper. A Telair Silent whose manufacturer was obviously having a joke with the name..Replaced with a Truma Aventa compact (so I could run it off the solar panels, at least in theory
Guess what we found to be the best lighting solution? - A normal 240V bedside table lamp with an LED bulb. Just runs off the invertor and produces nice lighting.
- light bar electrics all failed when someone in UK bashed into it (and helpfully drove off) - I just made up a new bar
- ‘mood lighting’ as demanded by the mrs if she were to spend loads of time in there. I experimented with all sorts of lights - fitting and then removing all sorts of LED as the light colour was just nasty. I eventually just fitted halogens back in the light units, and recessed LED strip lights in various places for a subtle lighting option, one of which is on the front of the drop down bed, making it look from the front like one of those crazy over illuminated trucks when on!
- then the worst job of all, noticing sometimes awful smells when driving if ‘someone’ had used the loo and it hadnt been emptied, and noticing effluent collecting in the cassette recess, I diagnosed (eventually
In the next post I will outline how the first 2 months went for us mooching around darkest France, not a single night on site or on hook up, if anyone interested
Happy new year - Graham and Beatrice
Minxy
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We were chatting to an English couple today who have been living in France for 20 years owning and running a gite business. They are a bit younger than us but got to the point where they were ready for a change as it was hard work and taking most of their time leaving very little for their own leisure so they sold it last year and have just bought a PVC to enjoy themselves instead of grafting most of the time.
I know you want to run a holiday type business but is it really worth the restrictions it will place on your leisure time? The last few years have certainly shown how fragile and short life can be for some so please think long and hard again if you really want to commit to this type of pressure when you've had a fair bit of freedom during the last year.
One thing you could consider is a MH only site, similar to the camping carparks (CCP) now popping up all over France. We were at Angeles sur Mer in a normal car park but a short walk away a 21 place CCP had been created, just a simple carpark with no frills, same dusty white surface as the parking we were on but the MHs were fairly closely parked, probably 1 metre between them. According to the English chap who was staying on it and who had stopped to have a chat as he walked by it was full and had been for a while, MHs were having to be turned away. I think the charge was €12/€13 a night with water, waste and basic electric, so roughly €1900 a week income in low season, €99,000+ over the year, after expenses still a nice little earner for very little work.
I know you want to run a holiday type business but is it really worth the restrictions it will place on your leisure time? The last few years have certainly shown how fragile and short life can be for some so please think long and hard again if you really want to commit to this type of pressure when you've had a fair bit of freedom during the last year.
One thing you could consider is a MH only site, similar to the camping carparks (CCP) now popping up all over France. We were at Angeles sur Mer in a normal car park but a short walk away a 21 place CCP had been created, just a simple carpark with no frills, same dusty white surface as the parking we were on but the MHs were fairly closely parked, probably 1 metre between them. According to the English chap who was staying on it and who had stopped to have a chat as he walked by it was full and had been for a while, MHs were having to be turned away. I think the charge was €12/€13 a night with water, waste and basic electric, so roughly €1900 a week income in low season, €99,000+ over the year, after expenses still a nice little earner for very little work.
Built in 2001 but 1st reg 2002 in Holland. Then 2015 imported to and registered in UK. Fiat base, 8140 2.8JTD. x230 front chassis, hybrid Alko twin floor rear with >2002 x240 spec torsion bar but <2002 x230 drum brakes bolted to it. Typical crossover stuff. The mechanicals have been utterly bulletproof. I’m very impressed with the durability.
This morning we heard that a slightly revised version of our offer has now been accepted. Perversely enough, it had come down to a fancy ride on lawnmower called a zero turn. It’s strange what people get attached to. Our quite generous offer was rejected just because we had firmly indicated we were not prepared to let them cherry pick the stated business inventory of a few choice things they wanted to take with them. It seems that the old boy really, really wanted to keep his lawnmower…
Anyway, it looks like his wife has persuaded him they can buy another lawnmower with all the money they are going to be paid, and perhaps they don’t need a semi-professional thing with a smaller plot of land.
Things are going to move quick now because we are cash buyers. Compromis (exchange) will be early March, and acte finale (completion) will be April.
Helga is therefore finally now up for sale. She’s a tad more used and battered than she was last summer when I did the listing, most notably the damaged bumper from the park bench that hit us during storm Kieran, and more dings in the table due to stuff falling from cupboards. The aftermarket cruise control and the front fog lamps have stopped working, maybe I can fix before the sale, but it won’t be our priority. Countering this, she now has four new Michelins. I’ve dropped the price - don’t tell anyone but £20k will secure her. The advert you can all already see at £21k will go on ebay and autotrader next month.
Anyway, it looks like his wife has persuaded him they can buy another lawnmower with all the money they are going to be paid, and perhaps they don’t need a semi-professional thing with a smaller plot of land.
Things are going to move quick now because we are cash buyers. Compromis (exchange) will be early March, and acte finale (completion) will be April.
Helga is therefore finally now up for sale. She’s a tad more used and battered than she was last summer when I did the listing, most notably the damaged bumper from the park bench that hit us during storm Kieran, and more dings in the table due to stuff falling from cupboards. The aftermarket cruise control and the front fog lamps have stopped working, maybe I can fix before the sale, but it won’t be our priority. Countering this, she now has four new Michelins. I’ve dropped the price - don’t tell anyone but £20k will secure her. The advert you can all already see at £21k will go on ebay and autotrader next month.
- Apr 13, 2019
- 2,242
- 52,891
- Funster No
- 59,884
- MH
- VW 2005 T5 Campervan
- Exp
- Since September 2018
Ditto that.
Sounds fantastic. Fingers crossed it all goes well.
Sharing the location yet?This morning we heard that a slightly revised version of our offer has now been accepted. Perversely enough, it had come down to a fancy ride on lawnmower called a zero turn. It’s strange what people get attached to. Our quite generous offer was rejected just because we had firmly indicated we were not prepared to let them cherry pick the stated business inventory of a few choice things they wanted to take with them. It seems that the old boy really, really wanted to keep his lawnmower…
Anyway, it looks like his wife has persuaded him they can buy another lawnmower with all the money they are going to be paid, and perhaps they don’t need a semi-professional thing with a smaller plot of land.
Things are going to move quick now because we are cash buyers. Compromis (exchange) will be early March, and acte finale (completion) will be April.
Helga is therefore finally now up for sale. She’s a tad more used and battered than she was last summer when I did the listing, most notably the damaged bumper from the park bench that hit us during storm Kieran, and more dings in the table due to stuff falling from cupboards. The aftermarket cruise control and the front fog lamps have stopped working, maybe I can fix before the sale, but it won’t be our priority. Countering this, she now has four new Michelins. I’ve dropped the price - don’t tell anyone but £20k will secure her. The advert you can all already see at £21k will go on ebay and autotrader next month.
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1 year USA road trip - Late Gap Year
- Jez1966
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Latest entry: Month 12 of Late Gap Year USA road trip,