Leaving a loved one behind ...

[cotswoldiver]

They said it could end in tears but we were determined to enjoy our first ever trip across to France. It all started so well, the westy was serviced, passed its MOT the week before, the oil leak was sorted and the trip down to Portsmouth for the 23.00 sailing to Le Harve was painless

We headed out of the port avoided the main toll roads to start with and started wandering towards the Loire Valley. We had a campsite in mind from the Cool Camping Book and with a new 2009 Michelin motoring atlas found the site at Chenonceaux after a nice gentle drive down and started to chill besides the River Cher

The setting was lovely and very peaceful

With or without balloons

Found this little place just up the road the next morning 15 minutes before closing, but still managed to pack a couple of cases away for the trip home!

A short run across the river to Amboise and the view from Leonardo De Vinci's final resting place was quite something. Wonderful pastries as well!

Next day we started the journey south towards our friends in Lezay, but trundling through the side streets of Loches the sound of something not quite right reached my ears ... chuffed that I spotted a loose HT lead thought it was a quick fix, but the sparkplug was attached.Thinking it may have been a little loose from the pre journey service I was pleased to get it back in and she fired up first time again and we were back on the road. About an hour and a half later it popped out again and with a short rest and a friendly beep on a horn from a beetle we made the last part of the trip to our friends house.

It's an old school house and with plenty of potential for further development with about an acre of land and a 6 bed house. Currently up for sale so PM me if you want to escape the UK for a while.

From here I posted a cry for help on the forum - and my thanks for those that responded. Managed to find some loctite style fixitive just in case, but the sparkplug seemed to go in without any bother once the engine had cooled down over night and I thought the problem was over and we would have an uneventful trip on the return leg - wrong. Having spent a day with our friends we started on our way back allowing plenty of time to get to the ferry with another over night stop planned near to Lisieux - but we only got half an hour up the road. This time a call to the breakdown service and within 25 minutes they were with us - fair play to the recovery service arm of the Footman James insurance policy run by AXA I think -

Not my favorite photo of the holiday

We stayed another night with our friends, whilst the recovery service debated with the local renault garage why it couldn't be repaired - eventually they agree to get us back to the UK via hire cars at either side of the ferry and bring the westy home on a transporter later

We made it to the ferry with half an hour to spare, which was a bit fraught trying to find the car hire office to leave the hire car behind and thankfully there was someone waiting at Portsmouth to take us to collect a corsa for the drive home.

So I'm home, but the westy is still in France and I'm hoping I will hear tomorrow when it will be returned to the UK. They say anywhere between 7 and 20 days so unless I'm very lucky Brighton Breeze is going to be one westy light in the line up.

Morale of the story - no matter how well you think you plan and carry certain spares be prepared for the unexpected - check that your recovery includes europe, know the height, width, length and weight of your bus and have patience talking to the call centre. They ask stacks of questions and can't always see where you are on a map!

Check that your mobile phone is charged up especially if you don't have a ciggy lighter socket in the bus, and try and smile. It also helps that if you don't speak the language fluently have some friends nearby where you break down that do!

Has it put me off, no but I'm a little bit wiser and just hoping and praying that my westy comes home unmarked and in one piece 'cause theres not much I can do about it.

One of the strangest things was hardly seeing any other aircooled VW's around. There was just one Type 25 on the site, one beetle on the road and nothing else. But the roads are wonderful to drive on and there is usually an alternative to a toll road and there are plenty of places to find to camp overnight

 

[ib-bus]

Lovely pictures , except for the last one
Wise recommendations , hope you recover your bus soon and in good shape.

 

[Justin & Muttley]

Quite an eventful trip, the pics are great!

Shame about your technical problems - I'm sure it'll be back safely in no time 8)

 

[Clem]

David - gutted the trip ended like that

I know what you mean, despite preparation anything can happen and it troubled my mind for endless miles :? theres so many variables in an old bus, but equally, it also makes the challenge.

Fingers crossed the van comes home safe and sound and its a reasonably easy fix.

 

[gninnam]

Gutted for you - sounds like a nice trip upto the lose spark plug

Fingers crossed on getting your van back soon.

 

[baron]

we went to france last year

made it as far as GRANTHAM SERVICES before blowing the engine (i forgot how, but in a bad way)

count yourself lucky you ever made it out of the country!

but that sucks

(where did you get your windbreak btw?)

 

[cotswoldiver]

we went to france last year

made it as far as GRANTHAM SERVICES before blowing the engine (i forgot how, but in a bad way)

count yourself lucky you ever made it out of the country!

but that sucks

(where did you get your windbreak btw?)

I've got 2 of these traditional windbreaks. One acquired via flea bay the other a camper store on the web when it was on offer. They are great as don't need any guy ropes, and always carry one of them when we are travelling light with just the canopy not with the big khyam awning.

I found this link on the web, but usually someone is selling at a special price somewhere

http://www.tamworthcamping.co.uk/tamworth_camping/3720/default/

 

[Trikky2]

Sorry to hear of your troubles.

Strangely, this kind of failure is not all that uncommon. These vehicles are old now and cracked cylinder heads and/or overtightening the sparkplugs in the past (easily done for those not used to working with soft alloy cyl heads) will lead to this problem.

Like all old vehicles, they may be valuable now but nearly all of them went through a banger stage where they were abused, neglected and bodged. I guess thats why some go for such a comprehensive restoration.

It seems a shame you have had to go through the whole recovery saga since cyl heads are easily obtainable in France and replacing the head is a quick job - about 3 hours (even for a mechanic not that familiar with early bays). Its wise to always carry a workshop manual like Haynes with you for this reason. Had you been in my area I even have a couple of brand new 1600 tp heads sitting in my stock of spares.

Theres also quite a few VW clubs and specialists in France.

It would have avoided the whole recovery thing. Hope you get it back soon.

 

[windsurfer]

Hi David,
Sorry to hear about your problems, there's some beautiful photos though. Glad to hear that you always stay positive. That's a great way to be :mrgreen:

 

[cotswoldiver]

Sorry to hear of your troubles.

Strangely, this kind of failure is not all that uncommon. These vehicles are old now and cracked cylinder heads and/or overtightening the sparkplugs in the past (easily done for those not used to working with soft alloy cyl heads) will lead to this problem.

Like all old vehicles, they may be valuable now but nearly all of them went through a banger stage where they were abused, neglected and bodged. I guess thats why some go for such a comprehensive restoration.

It seems a shame you have had to go through the whole recovery saga since cyl heads are easily obtainable in France and replacing the head is a quick job - about 3 hours (even for a mechanic not that familiar with early bays). Its wise to always carry a workshop manual like Haynes with you for this reason. Had you been in my area I even have a couple of brand new 1600 tp heads sitting in my stock of spares.

Theres also quite a few VW clubs and specialists in France.

It would have avoided the whole recovery thing. Hope you get it back soon.

Thanks for your thoughts - it was a shame I wasn't in SW France. The Renault garage owner who carried out the pick up wasn't at all happy to even attempt a repair, even though I had a Bentley manual with me. But time was against us I guess, and I'm sure it will all get sorted and be back with me soon

But you may have hit on an idea for a 'dire emergency section' on the forum as gaining access to the web usually isn't a problem no matter where you are. Perhaps we could have a regional/country based list of forum members who would be willing to offer help when the usual recovery services aren't the solution. I would much preferred to have bought a new head from your stock of spares and carried on the trip

 

[Cali_bay]

Hi David,

Sorry to hear about your bus. Great pictures of the first part of your trip. We've been over to France a few times before, but without our bus though. We're planning to take it there next year.

Hope you get her back soon.

Si

 

[Trikky2]

Perhaps we could have a regional/country based list of forum members who would be willing to offer help when the usual recovery services aren't the solution. I would much preferred to have bought a new head from your stock of spares and carried on the trip

Perfectly good idea. Theres a few clubs that already do this. I was the contact for this part of France for the Citroen Traction Avant Owners club of GB up until 3 years ago when I sold my car and all the spares.

 

[froggy]

Hi David,

Sorry to hear about your bus. Great pictures of the first part of your trip. We've been over to France a few times before, but without our bus though. We're planning to take it there next year.

Si

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