Tam n pups winter trip 2022

That was a nice walk through glenveagh national park to glenveagh Castle, about 5 miles round trip. The park itself not to dissimilar to Rannoch Moor in Scotland, the castle and gardens were very nice, I had decided this morning this wasn't a day for walking on beaches , its bad enough 3 wet dogs plus me but wet n sandy is just too much mess. So we cut inland a bit. I also need a supermarket again tomorrow so I figured I'd just head back to letterkenny, stay here tonight and do a shopping in Strabane tomorrow morning and then head to donegal, trying to work out a route that I can do inland bits of NI too like Enniskillen etc


Anyway here's the pics from the national park and the castle , we've just parked up in an uncharming carpark in letterkenny but it will do for one night. Won't be out again tonight now anyroad.
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Shame your not a surfer Tam, lots of good surf in Ireland and if you bet the chance have a hot seaweed bath. Regarding the dogs and sand etc, why not fit an out side shower to your van. (y)
 
Mikey RV said:
Shame your not a surfer Tam, lots of good surf in Ireland and if you bet the chance have a hot seaweed bath. Regarding the dogs and sand etc, why not fit an out side shower to your van. (y)
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Aye I've seen some good places for surfing but surprisingly no surfers. Nit that many campers about to be honest and those I've seen have been older couples and mostly Irish registered.

The seaweed bath sounds minging...ela would like it though.

An outside shower might be a future plan although I have to admit at the minute I'm swaying towards selling this on again next year. I'm finding it slow and cumbersome.....which to be honest I was kind of expecting. Not sure if remapping would help it on hills a bit .

But I'm still keen on the vario option I think.

Early days but that's how I'm feeling the now , I love this van for living in I'm just not that keen on driving it.
 
Northernraider said:
I'm finding it slow and cumbersome.....which to be honest I was kind of expecting. Not sure if remapping would help it on hills a bit .

But I'm still keen on the vario option I think.

Early days but that's how I'm feeling the now , I love this van for living in I'm just not that keen on driving it.
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Is a Vario really likely to be better than it then, they don't have a reputation for scintillating performance, do they?
 
eurajohn said:
Is a Vario really likely to be better than it then, they don't have a reputation for scintillating performance, do they?
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Well this struggles to do 30 up a hill , the hymer I had with the same engine was fine , the burster tag I had was like this one vastly underpowered for the weight. Its not the top speed that's the issue as I rarely go over 60mph but when you've a queue behind you on a 60 road doing 30-40 it's not fun . The vario pulled its own all the way from London with no issues.

I'm also finding that pulling out of junctions with any incline at all with this when the surface is wet and I'm losing traction . Front wheel drive dragging 4.5t was never going to be great. Its a shame as its a brilliant van otherwise I just find it cumbersome. And that's on normal roads , I couldn't take it on some of the roads I took the hymer or the iveco.

I'm not sure if remapping it would give it a bit more grunt and I suspect I'm probably right on my max weight too if not slightly over but it's just the way this van is , you can't drop a gear in anticipation of a hill climb as it actually gets slower. You've to wait till your actually on the hill and losing power then drop a gear to try and keep up but it still drops back .. and I've not been up any serious climbs to be honest as I've not seen any mountains, certainly nothing like I'll encounter elsewhere
 
It's a 2.8JTD isn't it Tam? So is mine - it's a single axle rather than tag, but it's still 7.5m long, 3.1m tall with a big overcab - so it's got all the aerodynamics of a block of flats - and it's 4.0 tons, which I struggle to keep to. Yes, 0.5 ton less than you but not a *massive* difference.

Mine was definitely better once remapped - the guy who did it sat alongside me with his laptop as we drove along. It was very noticeable as soon as I pulled away that the van was torquier, and that was on a "compromise" power & economy map rather than an out & out power one. I'm glad I got it done.

My van is fine to drive, doesn't feel underpowered at all. Like all MH it's no sports car, but it sits at 70 on the motorway up hill & down dale comfortably, maybe drop to 60 on the very longest and steepest climbs. It'll do 80 on the flat if pushed.

I've not long come back from Switzerland, went up some pretty extreme mountain passes, some were definitely 2nd gear and 25mph-ish for long runs but they were damn steep!

It gets very wearing if you're constantly "stirring the cogs" on an underpowered vehicle.

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Feltwell said:
It's a 2.8JTD isn't it Tam? So is mine - it's a single axle rather than tag, but it's still 7.5m long, 3.1m tall with a big overcab - so it's got all the aerodynamics of a block of flats - and it's 4.0 tons, which I struggle to keep to. Yes, 0.5 ton less than you but not a *massive* difference.

Mine was definitely better once remapped - the guy who did it sat alongside me with his laptop as we drove along. It was very noticeable as soon as I pulled away that the van was torquier, and that was on a "compromise" power & economy map rather than an out & out power one. I'm glad I got it done.

My van is fine to drive, doesn't feel underpowered at all. Like all MH it's no sports car, but it sits at 70 on the motorway up hill & down dale comfortably, maybe drop to 60 on the very longest and steepest climbs. It'll do 80 on the flat if pushed.

I've not long come back from Switzerland, went up some pretty extreme mountain passes, some were definitely 2nd gear and 25mph-ish for long runs but they were damn steep!

It gets very wearing if you're constantly "stirring the cogs" on an underpowered vehicle.
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Yep my hymer drive great ...I loved it , much p
More relaxed than the frankia tag I had with the 30 L , but this gives me back pain as I find myself practically trying to.push it up any incline.
 
eurajohn said:
Just a thought but did you notice how bad it was before the cam belt change?
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Yes the first day I bought the van I noticed it. I still get this eml light flashing at times too which I've no idea of the cause. It only does it if you try to go over 60 in top gear ...it flashes then goes off again at 63mph , or if you drop gear and try to go more than 40 in 4th it does the same , but it never stays on and there's nothing comes up on a code reader so I've no idea what causes it. They could be related to the lack of power but I'm at a loss as to the cause.

I don't think its the injector plugs as it only does it on those occasions. Again it was doing that the day I bought it
 
I fully understand where you’re coming from if it’s a chore driving it
Our Hymer S820 Merc 2.7 was exactly the same, OK downhill and the flat but any incline it was embarrassing I couldn’t wait to sell it.

This little Concorde Iveco 3 litre is like a racing car it goes uphill in 5th or 6th gear like lightning. Best quickest Motorhome we’ve ever had 4.9 tonne of pure power.
 
CazPaul said:
I fully understand where you’re coming from if it’s a chore driving it
Our Hymer S820 Merc 2.7 was exactly the same, OK downhill and the flat but any incline it was embarrassing I couldn’t wait to sell it.

This little Concorde Iveco 3 litre is like a racing car it goes uphill in 5th or 6th gear like lightning. Best quickest Motorhome we’ve ever had 4.9 tonne of pure power.
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Yeah like I said I love it in every other way , it's great for storage, it's self sufficient, comfortable etc ....I really really want to like it , but I'm constantly feeling like I'm pushing it , I had to go up a hill in 2nd the other day as just no power . It's hard to believe it's the same engine as the hymer
 
Take the flaming llama out of the garage you silly boy ... :LOL:

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Northernraider said:
Yeah like I said I love it in every other way , it's great for storage, it's self sufficient, comfortable etc ....I really really want to like it , but I'm constantly feeling like I'm pushing it , I had to go up a hill in 2nd the other day as just no power . It's hard to believe it's the same engine as the hymer
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The Eura is over a metre longer than your Hymer though isnt it?, we had a 6.99 metre Hymer with the same merc 2.7 156bhp as the 8.33metre Hymer, the smaller Hymer was a nice drive, the big one terrible.

On ours Concorde put the same chassis, running gear, engine etc on a 6.48 metre van as they put on the big 8-9 metre A classes, incredible performance.
 
CazPaul said:
The Eura is over a metre longer than your Hymer though isnt it?, we had a 6.99 metre Hymer with the same merc 2.7 156bhp as the 8.33metre Hymer, the smaller Hymer was a nice drive, the big one terrible.

On ours Concorde put the same chassis, running gear, engine etc on a 6.48 metre van as they put on the big 8-9 metre A classes, incredible performance.
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Yeah with the scooter on the back it's at least 1.5 metre longer than the hymer and around 600kg heavier. If remapping made a big difference I'd be quite happy with it. There's a place does remaps near Strabane where I'm going tomorrow anyway , I've sent them an online request for a quote. Might be worth popping in to see them , see if they can do it and test it.
 
Can you move any of the heavier stuff to lockers nearer the front to offset the weight on the back?
 
Minxy said:
Can you move any of the heavier stuff to lockers nearer the front to offset the weight on the back?
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Possibly


Or I could eat it 🤣🤣🤣

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Northernraider said:
Yeah with the scooter on the back it's at least 1.5 metre longer than the hymer and around 600kg heavier. If remapping made a big difference I'd be quite happy with it. There's a place does remaps near Strabane where I'm going tomorrow anyway , I've sent them an online request for a quote. Might be worth popping in to see them , see if they can do it and test it.
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The place I used had a promise where if you weren't pleased on the test drive they'd put it back to standard and not charge you.
 
Feltwell said:
The place I used had a promise where if you weren't pleased on the test drive they'd put it back to standard and not charge you.
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Aye the one that comes up near here donegal remapping says the same thing. I've submitted the online quote thing , but I'm heading towards them tomorrow anyway so if I've not heard from them I'll swing past and see them. Can't hurt.
 
Northernraider said:
Another very wet miserable morning today , hopefully it clears up a bit later. Just having breakfast then we are going to go do a supermarket shop.
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If it's your first one in Eire you are in for a shock.

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