Monty's English Invasion

wildebus

wildebus

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Yesterday 1 year ago was the day we went to look at what is now "Monty the Motorhome", and Tomorrow one year ago was the day the [private] owner drove him over to us, parked him on the Driveway, did a handover and then interrogated me to make sure I was listening to him so I would know how to look after his baby (which he bought brand new over 12 years earlier).

Having bought the Motorhome during the Covid Pandemic time, opportunities to go away had been limited and this week is the start of the longest trip away :)

Thursday was the drive down from Scotland to a little pub in Worthington, staying over in the car park and totally failing in the Pub Quiz (normally am ok at that, but too many football focused questions :( )
Not the most exciting of views, but beats looking at roads and buildings on a free overnighter
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Friday morning trip to Salford to visit Ablemail (makers of B2B Chargers, etc) to have a bit of a blether with them on general stuff. Got some new tooling installed there which looks funky and hoping to be able to use to get some custom stuff made :)

Then in the afternoon, down the M6 to the Three Counties Showground in Malvern to the Busfest event.
This is very much a VW festival, so the Ducato was a mite out of place, shall we say ;)
A little bit surrounded in my camping pitch.... spot a theme here?
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Even though I was in a Ducato, I still got in the T4 Forum section though and met a few people who I have seen and spoken to over the years, which was nice.

Next stop will be Stratford-on-Avon way, in time for the Overland show next weekend before heading further south.


Oh, and if anyone fancies a VW Campervan, quite a few for sale at Busfest.
Here is a an example of quite a nice little campervan. See if anyone can guess the price .... it is a VW T6 SWB 'Highline' Transporter on a 20 plate, 2L Diesel 150BHP engine with Auto Transmission. How much would you say?
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my daughter & my niece both looking for something like that and got a quote of £78000 for something similar to that too rich for their blood
 
rugbyken said:
my daughter & my niece both looking for something like that and got a quote of £78000 for something similar to that too rich for their blood
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Well, this one would have been a bargain ..... only £77,000
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I am a VW Fan (having had T4, T5, & LT campers and going to lots of shows - even in a Ducato!), but that price is to me totally insane.

I did see a little group of VW T5s with 'proper' Motorhome bodies on them in a club section and they looked really really nice. I dread to think how much they would have cost (and especially what they would cost now). I have forgotten the brand - major/traditional German camper maker - but they were very top-end.
 
My T4 cost me £5,000 second hand 9/10 ish years ago and I sold it for £6,000 the prices of them now are enough to make you cry my niece paid £65,000 for hers 3 years back 😱😱
 
VW is a decent make but the hype makes them overpriced, the Traffic or the Transit is equally as good, but they too are now getting a following so overpriced as well, I'm sure the small Ducatos etc will soon follow suit.
 
Pudsey Bear said:
VW is a decent make but the hype makes them overpriced, the Traffic or the Transit is equally as good, but they too are now getting a following so overpriced as well, I'm sure the small Ducatos etc will soon follow suit.
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One thing which is a definate advantage with the VWs is parts. you can still get parts for long-obsolete vehicles, where the same lack of parts could write off another make (one advantage of the VW 'scene' as it is called).
There was a stand on the show and they had essentially a Splitty (so the first generation Type 2 Transporter) built up with all the replacement body parts clamped together. Try finding random body panels (original or copies) for any non-VW van over 15 odd years old! (how many otherwise perfectly good Mazda Bongos have been scrapped due to the rear wing/arch corrosion?)
 
After a Brit-stops last night in a Pub Carpark, went to the British Motor Museum (a place I have passed the signs for for literally decades but never been). Interesting place to visit, but "British" does really mean "British Leyland" and its previous incarnations and charges very much. Apart from those there was a small little group of Vauxhalls and I think from memory a sole Ford (Cortina Mk5 Ghia)

After leaving there stopped at a C&CC site in Oxfordshire tonight.
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Wanted a site with hookup as been having a bit of hassle with charging while driving (in that it hasn't) so wanted a full charge before being at Stratford for a week.
Of course after booking the site this morning, I then fixed the issue before lunch at Gaydon after visiting the Musuem and arrived at site with a nearly full battery bank again, but that's ok... Nice site, not expensive and can use the electric instead of gas for heating and cooking so all good (y)

Tomorrows itinery is a visit to a place I used to go to regularly around 3 decades go when I used to live in Berkshire - https://www.cotswoldwildlifepark.co.uk/animals-gardens/primates-small-mammals/
The little Red Pandas are a bit of an obsession of mine and planning on going up to the Highlands Wildlife Park (https://www.highlandwildlifepark.org.uk/animals-attractions/animals/red-panda/) next month to see them there :D

Fun Fact: Another name for the Red Panda is the Firefox. If you use the Firefox Web Browser and wondered what the little curled up animal is in the top left corner? Well now you know ;)
 
wildebus said:
After a Brit-stops last night in a Pub Carpark, went to the British Motor Museum (a place I have passed the signs for for literally decades but never been). Interesting place to visit, but "British" does really mean "British Leyland" and its previous incarnations and charges very much. Apart from those there was a small little group of Vauxhalls and I think from memory a sole Ford (Cortina Mk5 Ghia)

After leaving there stopped at a C&CC site in Oxfordshire tonight.
View attachment 61019
Wanted a site with hookup as been having a bit of hassle with charging while driving (in that it hasn't) so wanted a full charge before being at Stratford for a week.
Of course after booking the site this morning, I then fixed the issue before lunch at Gaydon after visiting the Musuem and arrived at site with a nearly full battery bank again, but that's ok... Nice site, not expensive and can use the electric instead of gas for heating and cooking so all good (y)

Tomorrows itinery is a visit to a place I used to go to regularly around 3 decades go when I used to live in Berkshire - https://www.cotswoldwildlifepark.co.uk/animals-gardens/primates-small-mammals/
The little Red Pandas are a bit of an obsession of mine and planning on going up to the Highlands Wildlife Park (https://www.highlandwildlifepark.org.uk/animals-attractions/animals/red-panda/) next month to see them there :D

Fun Fact: Another name for the Red Panda is the Firefox. If you use the Firefox Web Browser and wondered what the little curled up animal is in the top left corner? Well now you know ;)
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So close to where I used to live and never visited.
 
Got a bit cooler last night so put the heating on! Slight problem as forgotten how to use it :D Had power, but wouldn't go on? looked at manual and saw reference to temperature dial. Doh! so heating on and nice & warm.

Nice hot shower this morning (didn't bother with any water on/off faffing about as tank nearly full and will top up this afternoon anyway).


I do like to be able to just use things in a 'normal' way I have to say (such as the shower for example), and having the Victron EasyPlus installed allows that to be achieved quite well :)
To explain, I am on a hookup at the site and so using the Heating on electric - set at 2kW. After the shower, the Electric Element in the Water Boiler will have come on automatically to reheat the water - that is 850W. I then put the kettle on to make a cup of tea and as hooked up I used the induction hob rather than a gas burner - another 500W (If I didn't have the Electric Induction I would have used the Microwave - 1200W).
Having all these on could overload the EHU supply and trip the breaker (especially on a site with 10A or even just 6A breakers).
The usual 'camping' way around this is to make sure you turn off one thing before turning on the other - but as mentioned, I like to use things 'normally' i.e. same as you might at home....
The EasyPlus will use what the Hookup gives you (you tell it how many Amps can be drawn) and if the demand exceeds that, it will make up the difference from the batteries and go into "Power Assist" mode
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(bad photo, sorry. forgot to turn the flash off :( )
I have my current input set at 12A by default as I plug into a 13A socket at home so want to keep within that limit, so if I draw more than that, the batteries assist and of course start to draw down. not a problem generally though if you are exceeding the EHU limit with an occasional load like a hob as when that is off, the EasyPlus will start to charge the batteries again.
A benefit of the EasyPlus over the MultiPlus is that I can have the power of the Room Heater monitored by the system, so even though it will not use the inverter for the Room Heater, it knows how much to take off the total allowed EHU load for it to assist those devices it does work with (such as theWater Boiler and sockets). If you had the Room Heater on its own socket taken from the EHU input, the EasyPlus would not know about that load and the power assist would come in too late and the site EHU Breaker would trip.
There are ways around that of course with a regular Multiplus, and the bigger Multipluses, from the /3000 onwards have an "AC Only" outlet as well.


Anyhows, just a bit of a technical diversion to pass the time when I noticed the unit going into "Assisting" mode on the screen. Hopefully will stop raining fairly soon and I can enjoy my visit to the Cotswold Animal Park (I have a feeling it will not be stopping though :( )
 
I was listening to Jeremy Vine the other day (I try to avoid him in all honesty but couldn't find an alternative) and he was going on about Jeremy Clarksons Farmshop - Diddly Squat - and how there were apparently traffic jams and queues of 2+ hours of people trying to get in there and "fuming locals" (if you ever listen to Vine, you know how his callers are right Daily Mail readers).

Must admit I don't like Clarkson at all and I don't think I would ever make a journey just to visit his farm shop, let alone queue up to get into it. Which makes this morning quite amusing to me as I drove out my campsite this morning, turned right to head to Burford and blow me down, 10 yards down the road right next to the site was indeed "Diddly Squat" farm shop :LOL:
I think it is the only farmshop I have seen with a row of Portaloos outside, so I suppose it must be popular but the roads were clear and no, I didn't have any inkling to turn right and visit it :D
 
Visited to Cotswold Animal Park. Weather not ideal for that kind of excursion to say the least. Only a fleeting view of the Red Pandas :(
Geoffrey the Giraffe came to say hello though ...
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And then from the Animal Enclosures of the Cotswold park, travelled along to Stratford where I am now in the "Dave Enclosure" at the racecourse.
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Now parked up, not really moved :). Little trip out to refill with water this morning (thought might run out by Sunday so may as well get in early before the expected Friday afternoon rush and play safe. Also gave me a bit of a recharge boost into the battery bank - 60A into the batteries whilst on the drive to the tap and filling up was a handy bonus while getting water.
 
Ready for the rain (which came in buckets shortly after - so heavy it rained INSIDE the van! bouncing off the roof, hitting the inside of the vent and down again)
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Hybrid Battery Bank working well as well. Currently down to 31% total SOC, but that means still have 57% SOC on the Lead Carbon side. So still have 51Ah available before that is down to 40% (a perfectly safe discharge level for Lead Carbons, which can go to 20% fine).

Looks like the rain is here for the day today so not expecting a lot of solar! (17W right now and that is likely close to max with the full cloud cover).
 
No rain here yet David, I've kind of got a little more information being transmitted by Betty. With a potential of over 600 watts I'm seeing 22 watts. I have a 8 amp load on the Batteries so it should be working the solar hard.
Hope you have your water wings and enjoy the time for social interaction.
 
SquirrellCook said:
No rain here yet David, I've kind of got a little more information being transmitted by Betty. With a potential of over 600 watts I'm seeing 22 watts. I have a 8 amp load on the Batteries so it should be working the solar hard.
Hope you have your water wings and enjoy the time for social interaction.
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well, woke up with a slight headache after a pint of Snakebite last night (for some reason started chatting a couple of nights ago about how snakebite (1/2 Lager, 1/2 Cider, blackcurrent juice shot) was banned in Pubs in the early 80's and decided to relive my youth just to see what it actually tasted like :) ).
I think the next-morning headache was a common feature thinking back!
 
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