Am I Mad For Wanting to Drive to Grantown via Tomintoul?

BackcountryBob

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Joined the forum on the recommendation of Marchie, whom we met yesterday near his home in Burntisland! What an entertaining half an hour that was lol.
A vertible mine of almost entirely useless information but encyclopedic knowledge as well.
Being nearly as mad as a box of frogs as he, we're thinking of heading up country from Elie and fancied a bit of adventure. Would we be foolhardy to attempt the drive over Tomintoul next Thursday with snow in the forecast? And any tips or particularly difficult stretches to look out for?
We're in a hired Carthago Chic C-Line 4.9le, which is 7.7m and 180BHP.
We going through due diligence on the motorhome life by hiring with the intention of purchasing a Dethleffs Globetrotter XXL A9000 from Pullingers, Essex. This will be adapted our Daughter by CoachbuiltGB as part of a medical negligence settlement. After 9 years of battling the system, we're due some payback and there are so many places to go and see but flying isn't an option now with her condition.
Cheers Bob and family from Yorkshire
 
Hi Bob and welcome, Tomintoul is a nice place, and there is a free carpark in town that often has a few motorhomes in it, and a couple of eateries too, can't advise on the foolhardiness or not of going at this time of year.


Stay away from Steve though, he barking.
 
We live near Ballater and often take the Lecht, Tomintoul, Grantown route in both our A class motorhome and in our cars. It is the quickest way to get to Inverness and all points north and west for us and we do it at all times of year. The highest part is the Lecht ski centre and because they want to get the paying punters when snow arrives the road is cleared pretty punctually. My son worked for a while at Inverness Airport and this route was his weekly commute. In all our years of taking that road we have never had a problem. It is a stunning trip so go for it.
 
Thanks for the advice and welcome Guys,

It was pretty much a rhetorical question really - I was always going to do it lol! We drove it in the 70's in a 1964 Bedford Dormobile after doing Devils Elbow at Glenshee - now that was hairy!!

I've driven pretty much everywhere including 6 months in Colorado in the Winter. We think 2000 feet is high - try Mt Evans or Pikes Peak at more than 14 000 feet!!!

I'll let the Missus know what we're up to and blame you lot if we have any bother hehe.
 
You got away light usually takes him 30 mins to tell you the time. Don't ask him to do any sort of math or calculations you’ll be there a week. Only guy I ever met who knew exactly how much was in his wallet and could tell me he had one twenty pound note two tenners a fiver and exactly the amount in coins as well. Aside from being blether he’s alright is Steve.
 
He showed me the spreadsheet on his phone - it was impressive - as was his memory and the volume of lpg to kg conversion to 6 decimal places!!!

Steve came across as a good bloke and that'll be my lasting impression. He was proud of having been banned from another forum which is all right by me. It would be a dull and boring world where everyone thought the same. By the way have you been to Chesterfield lol.
 
BackcountryBob said:
Joined the forum on the recommendation of Marchie, whom we met yesterday near his home in Burntisland! What an entertaining half an hour that was lol.
A vertible mine of almost entirely useless information but encyclopedic knowledge as well.
Being nearly as mad as a box of frogs as he, we're thinking of heading up country from Elie and fancied a bit of adventure. Would we be foolhardy to attempt the drive over Tomintoul next Thursday with snow in the forecast? And any tips or particularly difficult stretches to look out for?
We're in a hired Carthago Chic C-Line 4.9le, which is 7.7m and 180BHP.
We going through due diligence on the motorhome life by hiring with the intention of purchasing a Dethleffs Globetrotter XXL A9000 from Pullingers, Essex. This will be adapted our Daughter by CoachbuiltGB as part of a medical negligence settlement. After 9 years of battling the system, we're due some payback and there are so many places to go and see but flying isn't an option now with her condition.
Cheers Bob and family from Yorkshire
Click to expand...
Didn't realise, Bob, but we bought our Burstner Ixeo from Pullingers in April 2021, from Scott Ervine. Welcome to the Forum!

Steve
 
Eh yup Steve,
And you had to savage the Roofers lol!!
Been dealing with Barrie Pullinger - the gaffers Son. Very impressive young man and a pleasure to deal with. Went down for a test drive and found the Globetrotter to be ridiculously easy to drive, easier than the Carthago. That night have something to do with the Carthago being manual rather than Auto but it has a shorter wheelbase which seemed to help manoeuvrability.
Anyway, they'll supply and fit two 11kg gaslow cylinders for £900 minus the VAT so it's a bargain and everyone on here swears by it so a no brainer really!
 
Hi Bob

If you are buying from a dealer a long way from where you live, have you asked about what to do if anything goes wrong with it or needs fixing? By that I mean will they let you get it sorted locally to you and then reimburse you? Or would you have to take it all the way back to Essex? (Assuming you live in the northern part of the UK).
 
Sorry Undertaker - I'm a Sheffield lad married to a cheesiest lass with Les Dawsons Mother in Law in Clowne! We like Chesterfield it's a very place and the people quite different to Sheffield - they generally don't want to kill you on sight and that's from a Darnall lad lol.
 
GMJ said:
Hi Bob

If you are buying from a dealer a long way from where you live, have you asked about what to do if anything goes wrong with it or needs fixing? By that I mean will they let you get it sorted locally to you and then reimburse you? Or would you have to take it all the way back to Essex? (Assuming you live in the northern part of the UK).
Click to expand...
We've just moved up to Oxenhope in Bronte Country so 5 hours from Pullingers. We didn't really constant aspect - I guess we assumed a new van would be relatively issue free! In any case, the choice was simple - they've got 4 ready to go in stock and it's the van we want. They can be adding our wish list options while CoachbuiltGB do the design for the adaptations. Hopefully, we'll be in the fully built van by early spring.
The only thing stopping that at the moment being the defendants haven't deposited the settlement with my Daughter's Court of Deputy yet. The deadline in tomorrow - God knows what the Judge does if they renege!!
 
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