Davie's french attraction.

[Gibbo2286]

Our local Skoda dealer is selling MGs now.

[deuchebleu]

Our local Skoda dealer is selling MGs now.

Is that 'instead of' or 'as well as'?

[Gibbo2286]

It's as well as, Winner Garage Cinderford have been Skoda dealers since before VW grabbed the Skoda company many years ago, recently added the MG to their site but list under Cinderford MG.

Our local Citroen dealer Motor House Coleford has added Suzuki to their offerings

[daviemck2006]

Another clean mot pass today. That's the caddy van, one year and 9100 miles since I bought it. Its had a service, a remap and timing belt/waterpump on that year, and a new battery last week. Its proclaimed a good vehicle by my usual MOT man. Absolutely no rust underneath, 129k covered. The campervan conversion is not happening now for two reasons. Firstly my "friend" has two large dogs and she does not drive so the caddy is now a doggie carrier, they need taken out into the country for exercise. Secondly I have bought a caravan, a standard 5 berth, 20 year old one to take the grandkids on trips. I'm not fit for playing with cars, so those days are over, I'm glad I have two reliable vehicles now, and life is good at the moment, although waiting on a MRI scan to see how bad my back is now.

[CitroJim]

A good result on the MoT Davie

What caravan have you got? Back in the day I used to be very active with touring 'vans...

[daviemck2006]

[attachment=0]FB_IMG_1665267328470.jpg[/attachment]
The only pic I have of the caravan connected to the caddy. It's a Lunar Quaser 525 dating from 2003. A bog standard 5 berth with a huge bed or 2 singles at the front, a double at the back with bunk over, kitchen at nearside and toilet offside.Its really clean and everything works. Its dry and watertight, the only problem is a small area of the floor is a bit soft. Not enough to be a serious problem yet, it should respond to getting the carpet lifted, holes drilled in the floor, not right through, resin poured I to the holes then dowels inserted into the holes. Apparently this is a tried and tested method of fixing it. This shall get tried. The caddy tows it better than the yeti, which surprised me, as it's a 1.6tdi and the yeti is a 2.0tdi. But then caddy is remapped to about the same power and torque as yeti, its manual and a bit longer for stability and higher to break the wind. Heading away next week with daughter and grandkids then it will bet laid up for the winter.

It has one feature on it that I have never had on a caravan before, and I had a few different caravans back in the day. It has a motor mover, which is an absolute godsend getting it into my drive, I have no idea how I managed in years gone by without it!

[CitroJim]

Yep, a classic case of a delaminating floor Davie... The described fix will fix it

Be careful towing with a white van. People will think and assume you're a New-Age Traveller or worse...

Some sites were, back when I used to tow a caravan, a bit snotty about admitting 'vans on tow behind a white van...

[daviemck2006]

Good grief! I think I'd forgot about this blog! I did post the tale of woe of the Yeti and its service and mot by the dealer I bought it from. Today on a run to Aberdeen and back via insch to see citroenmads dads old van, I noticed the back brakes on the yeti snatching a bit and one side being a bit hot. It will get new discs and pads then and the caliper freed off. And I will not be paying the near £300 that the garage quoted to do them. I will do them myself, once this snow goes away and I can work slowly outside. I can do the brakes on axle stands and sitting down. It will give me the chance to inspect the so called rusty rear axle, springs, and trailing arms. They may get wirebrushed and treated depending on what I see.

The caddy van has left me after a year and a half of faultless service. A good friend of mine has been looking for a good caddy for a while, theres just him and his wife and three dogs. They had already asked me for first refusal when I sold it. So its theirs now. I took their car in part ex. It's another vw, basically the same as a caddy. A touran 1.6tdi se born in 2010. My friends only moved here from Sheffield just over a year ago and the touran was in that area all its life, so not been subjected to salty sea air all its life, so shouldnt be bad rust wise.theres a couple chips on the bonnet, some bubbles o a door bottom and a s rape on one sill that Andy owned up to. It's done 167k but well serviced with lots of invoices and service book all filled in properly. I've only done 30 odd miles in it yet, seems to drive well and its shod with 4 Goodyear ultragrip all season tyres. There is an invoice for nearly a grand for a service, cambelt, waterpump and mot at 140k, 2 years ago, and two services since! I may keep it, I may sell it, I dont know yet and it depends on other things.

[daviemck2006]

The yeti now has new discs and pads on the back. I farmed the job out due to my poor condition. The guy doing it said in his opinion the mot advisories for rust are all unfounded. The car is in no worse condition than any other 8 year old car. I'm still annoyed about the mot though.

The touran I took in p/ex is actually a very good car despite its 168000 miles. However it is now advertised locally for sale, it is far too close in size and ability to the yeti, even down to having the exact same dash and controls. If I'm going to run two motors than I want them to feel different.

So next Monday I am off on a collection mission to Goole in North East England to pick up a new to me citroen. Back to french for me then! It's a while since I have owned a Citroen. The couple I'm buying it from seem really honest and genuine, seem the best folk I have bought from. They sent me a video of it, pointing out all the little chips and dinks on it, and I offered quite a bit less than their original asking price, like £800 less. I think I've turned into Mike Brewer lol. They then proceeded to say they would give me another £100 off to pay for 400 miles worth of diesel to get home, and said if it breaks before I get home they will recover it on their breakdown insurance and refund me my money. I actually believe that they would do that. What is it? All I'm saying is its bigger than my yeti!

[CitroJim]

Wow! People like that are very few and far between. All the best for a successful trip, finding it's good and welcome back to the Citroen camp!

[daviemck2006]

There's the new to me citroen. 420 miles home with no problems and claiming 33mpg on its trip computer. Drives well, no clocks or rattles. Only driving slight issue is the gear change is a bit hit or miss. It needs a couple of jobs done, sooner rather than later. The drivers side mirror is broken, hit by another van. The passenger side headlamp has a seal gone which has let in water and needs sorting or replacing. Cosmetically its not bad for its 12 years and 200k. A couple bumps and bruises and some rust starting here and there. The rust will get treated in warmer weather, the bumps and bruises can stay. It is fully insulated and carpet lined inside. Fixed double bed at the back and not much else. However it is electrified with two big leisure batteries, a split charge relay, a mains input with sockets and a trickle charger, and an inverter to run 240v not plugged in. On the camper side I'm intending getting solar panels on the roof to go off grid, and get some sort of heating. I would also like some sort of kitchen and a portable potti. Then I can go touring, camping anywhere discretely. This is just for me. I still have and going to keep the caravan to take the grandkids out. I will hardly be at home between the two!

[CitroJim]

Excellent Davie Just the job to enjoy the summer - if we ever actually get one this year!

A bit of work will see it become an excellent camper... I trust it has cooking facilities, a fridge and a cassette loo...

[daviemck2006]

I'm slowly, very slowly, getting round the jobs I want to do to this. The things I knew about were a smashed drivers door mirror, the electric windows not working, difficult gear change and an iffy handbrake. The mirror is replaced, only £48 for a complete mirror delivered which I thought ridiculously cheap for a double electrically adjusted mirror, the windows not working was a combination of a broken wire in the door jamb and the switch panel in drivers door busted, again cheaper than expected ad £12.50, and the gear linkage needing freed off and lubricated, a very common problem on these sorted with a good squirt of releasing oil then silicon grease, the handbrake still to look at, the van has discs on the rear with shoes inside the discs which are the handbrake. It's about 90% likely these need adjusting and will sort the handbrake. The wheels need to come off to sort this.whilst they are off they will get a tidy up and a set of wheel trims procured to tidy them up. On the to do list is rub down and treat the rusty bits at the end of the sills, get a replacement passenger side headlight and the trim panel below it which combined with a good clean will make it look rather better. I'm not going for immaculate motor home here, even though it is registered as such!

Inside I'm going to modify the layout a bit and build in a toilet compartment and fit a diesel heater in to it. The electrics need sorting out. The only way to charge the batteries is via a 240v connection. Then once charged they are losing their charge quickly. I want solar panels on the roof to charge the batteries, and also a split charge relay to charge them whilst driving. After these jobs are done it will be a useable but basic campervan for one or two occupants. I will only use this myself to see a bit of the countryside throughout the summer. I am keeping the caravan which will still be used for family outings.

[DHallworth]

That’ll be a decent van when you’ve finished with it, Davie.

I keep thinking about doing a van conversion but I’ve not got the time at the moment due to the arrival of the little fella 5 months ago.

David.

[myglaren]

Congrats David. Must have missed that.