The Firs

This is another on site blog post from CMC The Firs near Belper in Derbyshire.

Lovely quiet little site that we have visited many times before,one of its attributes being that there is no children's playground so peace and quiet can be more readily guaranteed.

Seeing heavy rain wasn't in the forecast we plumped for our 'usual' corner grass pitch rather than a hard standing,our usual preference.

Remarkably I even got the satellite dish up and running with a minimum of swearing but to compensate for that I lost the TV remote control battery cover which took forty eight hours to resurface.

Hadn't been here long when SWMBO broke the lock on the semicircular cupboard adjacent to the sink,she was always heavy handed that girl.

Anyway went on to Prima Leisure and ordered another one which arrives at home today .

One advantage of owning a Bailey,and would influence any future purchase,is the ready availability of spares.

As we were preparing to set off from storage we were talking to a chap who had been waiting weeks for a part from Lunar with no end in sight,I hope he doesn't die waiting.

Bailey parts may occasionally seem expensive but at least they are available,right down to the smallest screw.



We are still having problems making the Isabella Eclipse side panel adaptor fit properly.

Have contacted Isabella again so we shall see what they have to say.

In the meantime if anyone has made one fit properly then get in touch.

Breakfast is calling so cheerio from The Firs.

Ian

Durham Grange

We have just returned from four nights at CMC Durham Grange where we have stayed many times before so I won't dwell on the site.

We had a serviced pitch ( love serviced pitches ) so why is it when you pack something away it is perfectly OK yet the next time you come to use it it is knackered,

As it was a serviced pitch we were using the Aquaroll with the hose from the tap attached to a ball valve arrangement in the Aquaroll to regulate water input.

Would the valve work,would it chuff,it wouldn't turn the water off,so the Aquaroll overflowed.

At this point I chucked a wobbly and had to be calmed with tea.

Anyway I dismantled the valve and replaced every part as I have a repair kit for such instances.

Would it work ??

Well yes and no,when I first reconnected it all was OK,as soon as my back was turned the Aquaroll overflowed.

It was like this for a day or two until I gave up,just refilled from the tap "as and when" and ordered another valve ( in fact two,one as a spare ),not worth the continued grief.



Some may remember a few posts back I complained of the Whale pug working its way out of the socket.

Whale suggested dismantling the socket and cleaning it out in case any dirt was causing the problem,which my service man did,but it made little difference really.

Anyway I came up with a solution eventually,it's not pretty but it works,

Put a reuseable cable tie around the securing flap to force it down to lock the plug onto the input tubing like in the photo  below.

( Sorry for the quality of the photo but whist mooring a rowing boat on the River Wear in Durham I fell into the river with my phone in my pocket.The phone survived as it is waterproof but some water got into the camera.The phone is sat in some rice ( not Ambrosia ) in the airing cupboard as I type to see if I can dry it out ).

Apart from a couple of minor reglueing  jobs that was it really.

Oh I almost forgot to mention the satellite dish.

Does anyone else have difficulty in setting these up ?

I know the principle of the thing,have apps on my phone and all the rest but the sodding thing is a pain in the backside to align,so I gave up on Day 1.

Come the morning of Day 2 it aligned reasonably quickly,so we could watch Babenation in peace,explain that..

Ian

CMC Longleat

Yesterday we returned from a four night stay at the CMC site Longleat.

Of course the main reason most people visit this site,especially for the first time,is to visit Longleat itself especially as the entrance is about a 50m walk from the site and there is a CMC member discount if booked online.

Naturally we didn't deviate from the above and bought a two day ticket and without rambling on in"what I did on my holidays" style ( which I try to avoid ) let us just say it was a worthwhile investment.

The site itself,on part of the Longleat estate,is neat and tidy and well cared for but spoilt in my opinion by lots of very large overhanging trees which leave pitches in the shade and damp for prolonged periods after rain.

As far as I can see they will have to be cut back at some stage as it will become a jungle so why not do the job while it is relatively easy.

Other people may of course think differently.

The wardens are very approachable and friendly,SWMBO even got two bottles of wine given free.

I was surprised that in the middle of June how quiet it was,there were plenty of spare pitches.


It was a long tow ( 233 miles each way ) from Wakefield but there were no complaints from the Cadiz who behaved herself all week through periods of very heavy rain,lets be frank it absolutely pissed it down on a frequent basis.

The spare wheel,after the recent hoo-hah,stayed in place and didn't deposit itself on the M5.

The only problem was a broken extending mirror clamp as we were setting off but luckily I carry a spare so that was soon sorted.


Whilst wandering around the site I noticed that there seems to be a proliferation of new VW Transporter/California type motor homes,there were ten on site at differing times,at round about £50-60K a time that is a lot of investment.

I was reading a post  on CT recently from a member of the Bailey Owners Club who reckoned that the Bailey Unicorn 3 will become a style icon so hold onto those vans they may be worth a fortune some day.

Anyway I digress,give Longleat a go if you haven't already visited,you won't be disappointed.

Ian

Spare Tyre Woes Contd.

This is another posting of misery but like a massage in a brothel it has a happy ending..

If you recall from my previous posting about the trials and tribulations of the spiked post decimating the spare tyre  we survived the journey home,well if you don't include the caravan TPMS alarming on the outskirts of Castleford indicating too high tyre temperature which I put down the descending a lot of steep hills resulting in hot brakes,anyway it stopped alarming eventually and we made the two miles to our storage safely,checked the tyre pressures since and all seems OK and it motor movered into storage OK.

Whilst we were away Mr.Roscoe had miraculously sourced an exact replacement tyre which was £70.34 fitted,an expensive post.

As mentioned previously there were spots of rust on the rim so I lathered copious amounts of Finngans Waxoyl onto both sides which should protect it for a while.

Now all that we needed to do was attach the spare to the securing cable wind it up and all would be OK. right ?

Sadly that is not what happened.

Somewhere in the winding/unwinding process the cable had become stuck and despite tugging and pulling wouldn't shift..

My next bright idea was to consult the Bailey manual and there tucked away on Page 23 is the advice to keep some tension on the cable when winding/unwinding to avoid it chavling up on the drum which is what appeared to have happened.

The gubbins is bolted to the underside of the floor with just the winding hoop protruding into the van through the locker floor and the cable passing down a funnel to the exterior.

My next bright idea was to contact Prima Leisure ( Bailey Parts ) to see if a new unit was available.

I spoke to a very pleasant lady called Gemma who said she would have a look and get back to me which she duly did within the hour to say one was available but it was a dealer part at the princely cost of £116 plus presumably a dealer add-on..

Oh dear.

Mr.Roscoe then had the idea of unbolting the unit from the floor for a closer inspection which we ( he ) did and we came to the conclusion that it was indeed knackered.

Sadly I do not have the best back in the world so crawling under the van is no-go at the minute.

Part placed in car for trip home during which journey Mr.Roscoe said he would see if it could be fixed..

Now Mr.Roscoe has a garage better equipped than most main car dealers and he set to work on it,involving grinding the rivets off to eventually open up the unit and yes indeed the cable was firmly jammed fast never to move again under its own steam.

It does seem a complicated system for such a simple manouvre.

He released the cable and rebuilt the unit which involved drilling,tapping and bolting where the rivets had been.

Not bad for an ex food technician.

I could have done this myself of course given the tools [ sic].

Then it was back to the van to rebolt it to the floor,attach spare wheel,wind it  up and Bob's your uncle it all worked.

I would just like to thank Mr.Roscoe who saved me £116 for a new unit.

I can see why Bailey used an under floor fixing as it doesn't take up room in the locker but I think a simple "fishng reel" type of device would have been simpler and easier to untangle if necessary perhaps hidden by a cover.

Also a sticker on the locker floor next to the black plug warning to keep some tension on the cable wouldn't go amiss instead of tucking it away in the handbook.

So,the spare won't be seeing the light of day for a good while unless in anger.

One last word or words:-

"IF WINDING UNWINDING THE SPARE TYRE,KEEP SOME TENSION ON THE F*****G CABLE OR YOU WILL BE UP SHIT STREET..

( Thank you to Mr.Roscoe for flasks of tea )


"Go caravanning,it is so relaxing"


Ian

CMC North York Moors

I don't usually blog from a site but as I am up early and SWMBO is snoring I might as well.

Arrived a couple of days ago in a deluge of rain,it is a lovely site tucked away down a single track road about three miles or so south of Ruswarp on the North York Moors.

There is no toilet block so it is caravan facilities which is no problem,after all that is what we pay for.

If coming to this site be aware that if coming/going to/from the south there are two very steep hills in the Hole of Horcum and Blue Bank that require a little care but should prove little problem to a well matched outfit.

Well we arrived in a blaze of glory in the fact that unbeknown to both of us I apparently cut a corner whilst navigating the site looking for a pitch.

We didn't even know it was their until SWMBO pointed it out as we motor movered onto a pitch after I had once again jack-knifed the car trying to reverse.

This demolished a post which got stuck under the van the two prongs at the end of which made a beeline for the spare tyre and that was that,as flat as a fart.

I didn't know whereabouts this post had come from as we heard nothing until an irate warden descended on us and made us fully aware of its provenance.

Anyway after setting up,including spilling some toilet fluid and overfilling the flush which flooded the cassette compartment,I proceeded to wind down the spare wheel for a closer look.

Here I digress slightly,if you have never wound down the spare wheel then I suggest you give it a go before you need to do it in anger.

It is not particularly difficult rather than awkward but certainly better than that AL-KO abomination found in some vans.

For those that don't know there is a winding handle in the back locker which engages in a hook under a black cap [ which is a PITA to remove ] in the rear locker next to the fridge.

I found this very stiff to turn and had to apply some lubricant to ease it.

This drops the wheel down on a wire and if it is lowered far enough it enables the wheel to be pulled out from under the van.

There is then a toggle passing through the centre of the wheel on which the late Stephen Hawking wrote a paper on how to remove [ please refer to handbook as we are going out this evening].

The wheel itself looked a little worse for wear with bits of rust here and there which will need to be attended to.

Need less to say the spikes had gone through the tyre near the sidewall so a replacement tyre will be called for I think.

At this point I must give praise to my neighbour Mr,Roscoe who was coming for a visit yesterday.

Having been asked to bring his overalls he crawled under the van to find the location of a piece of wood that the warden had triumphantly presented us with from the scene of the crime.

This turned out to be one of three supports that the spare wheel sat on

The spare was then loaded into Mr.Roscoe's  car and he is going to see if he can sort it today.


We now move on to The Awning Incident which I am sure we will laugh about in our dotage.

Decided to put the awning up in the pouring rain the thinking being that it will get wet anyway and once a couple of poles are in I can work inside in the dry,

Came to put the centre roof pole in and half of it is missing.

Much scratching of head and,it has to be said,bad tempered ranting as I stood in the rain,surrounded by a sodden awning minus half a pole.

After about an hour I wondered if the pole had slipped down inside another and,need I say more,there it was,it took a further thirty minutes to get it out.

The fact that SWMBO had suggested this three quarters of an hour previously and been told to go forth and multiply didn't go down well.

Anyway all has gone relatively smoothly since,all we need is a puncture on the way home with no spare to round things off nicely,

Ian

Service

Well Mr.Cadiz had his yearly service today by my mobile man and passed with flying colours.

A couple of little jobs done as well plus a damp reading of 11% all round so no complaints.


Ian

CMC Teeside White Water Park

Just had four nights at CMC Teeside White Water Park and I have to say that this site is a credit to the wardens who run it.

All the pitches are hardstanding and it is immaculate,every pitch is neat and tidy without what appears to be a blade of grass out of place.

The toilet block is equally spotless.

Well done Whitewater Park wardens.


As its name suggests the site is next to Teeside White Water Park which has available rafting,canoeing etc.

I was hoping to have a go but you can't just turn up with your trunks and towel ,you have to book online,health and safety briefing etc.so had to give it a miss,


We booked a serviced pitch but much to my annoyance I forgot to take the mains water pipes to the Aquaroll so could only use the drainage,therefore I paid extra to hump an Aquaroll about,not pleased.

I blame it on the medication,no really.


The Cadiz was its happy little self ,the only problem was the pan store door got stuck but with a bit of persuasion and some lubrication,all sorted.


It is due for its yearly service on Wednesday so fingers crossed ( the Cadiz not the pan store door ).


I used the light mentioned in my last missive but it must have to be really dark to work and as I am an early to bed sort of chap never saw it work in anger.

Tried it in the back of the car under a sheet and it seemed to function so it is a work in progress at the minute till it gets darker nights.

Ian