A short break and down time
September 13th, 2013 (by Steve)
Sadly, it’s probably more accurate to say “a short breakdown time”! After our trip to Portsmouth last week, Bertha was a little low on fuel, so we did what any reasonable people would do and took her to a petrol station. It became evident once she’d been filled up though that she wasn’t happy, as a trickle of petrol emerged from her underside. After a cautious drive to our friendly mechanic, it was confirmed that she needs a new fuel tank. Will we ever leave the country? As the mechanic put it, “I’m not a betting man, but…” before he trailed off into silence.
So whilst we wait for the new fuel tank to arrive at the garage, we’re unable to get on with the remaining carpentry work inside her; making a cupboard in place of the oven, adding shelves to the wardrobe etc. So it’s back to Julie Andrews’ recommendation of a needle pulling thread. Yes, that is an adjustable wrench; I find it to be a necessary accessory when sewing.
In the “down time” without Bertha we’ve now completed all of the re-upholstery of the cushions and have made all of the new curtains (re-using the lining, header tape and hooks from the old curtains). We only have the cab curtain left to do, which we can’t do much about until we get Bertha back.
Does that mean we’re just lazing about now? To a certain degree we’ve taken our foot off the accelerator pedal a little (but not enough to stall completely…our clutch control is hopefully good enough…although mine wasn’t great as I reversed up the hill out of the welder’s drive…there might have been a little smoke…) but there’s still plenty of other planning to do – getting this website ready to receive our daily logs, making sure all paperwork is in good order and bargain-hunting to make sure we’ve got all we need in the van to be legally compliant and comfortable in all countries.
We’re not quite sure when we’ll get Bertha back, but it will be all hands to the brand new pump as soon as we do!
On September 14th 2013 at 5:42 am Jonno said:
Not good! Still might help explain your 17 mpg!
Looking forward to seeing you guys.
On September 14th 2013 at 9:26 am Sean said:
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear… still, not an excuse for taking your foot off the accelerator, you need to keep it hard pressed down to build up terminal velocity.
Can you access the van in the mechanics yard? there is the fridge – does it work off gas?, what is happening with the water heater?. Let me assist:
while (vanOutOfAction) {ExecutorService hobbits = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(2);
hobbits.submit(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
waterHeater.fix();
}
});
}
hobbits.submit(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
fridge.checkGasOperation();
}
});
}
PS: that will compile.
Chin up! not long now, you have come such a long way, it’s just that final push – it’s often darkest just before the dawn.
On September 14th 2013 at 10:05 am steve said:
Thanks Sean – we’ve got a gas engineer who’s giving Bertha the once over next Thursday, including looking at the control valve on the heater (the thing that’s stopping the burner from turning off when the tap is off). As for the fridge, there was a strong smell of gas, but no ignition when I tried lighting it… another one for the gas engineer to have a look at!