Job Done

The jacking brackets arrived from E Bay and fitted them yesterday.Pretty easy job even for me,torqued up to 86Nm and job done Wheel now back in its rightful place.

Ian

Tale of Woe

Today decided to remove the winter wheels and put the real wheels back on. 

Anyway I neglected to make sure the jack foot was directly under the jacking point, the jack moved a bit and bent the jacking point. 

So another pair ordered from E Bay at about £60 or so, £130 from Prima Leisure.

Oh well one lives and learns. 

Ian

Autowatch 650 Alarm

Have had a problem with the above alarm over the last couple of months.

About eight weeks ago we were preparing to go and visit some relatives, not in the van, when I got a call from Phantom that the alarm was going off. 

Went up to storage and could find nothing wrong so set off. 

Later in the morning got another alert so I asked Phantom to temporarily disconnect their connection and I would sort it on my return. 

When I got back had another look and still couldn't see what was wrong so reset it and as I was about to drive away it went off again and just for good measure it did it again within seconds after a second reset. 

Then decided to contact Autowatch who said to send the unit, remote sensor and fobs back to be looked at. 

The alarm, to my surprise as I thought it was somewhere else, was under the nearside rear bunk. 

Undid the casing to be met by a jumble of wires with various connections of which I still don't know the purpose of most of them

Anyway they only wanted the module out of it so removed that and returned it along with the sensor and fobs. 

Autowatch phoned about ten days later to say it was a faulty remote sensor and one of the emergency keys was not working. 

Replaced everything and sent it back, refitted it, it helps to take a photo prior to removal as I got a wire crossed, but it still wouldn't work correctly

In between this I forgot to put the siren bit in the hole in the van floor so had to take it out and refit. 

Now Autowatch had supplied the sensor with some new batteries but having measured the voltage they were 2.9v and it is important that they measure at least 3v ( thanks internet) so replaced with two new Duracell and all is working OK. 

No more false Phantom calls. 

The moral of this little tale is if you are having problems with this alarm, first replace the sensor batteries ( they last rwo years evidently) and then replace the sensor. 

Incidentally the sensor was about £20 or so cheaper from Autowatch than on the net. 

Anyway I hope the above may be useful to someone. 

Happy Christmas to all my reader(s) it will soon be sunny and we will be out in our vans again. 

Winter caravanning is not for me I'm afraid. 

Ian

CMC Chapel Lane & the NEC Show

Just coming to the end of three nights at the above site just south of Birmingham.

It is not the most scenic of sites and the toilet blocks could do with updating but it serves its purpose. 

It is only about fourteen miles from the NEC so tends to be full this week.

No Cadiz problems to report, have replaced the corner spotlight as mentioned previously.

Easy job but a bit fiddly, you will need some spade connectors and heatshrink if doing the job.

Oh and to remove the light you need to twist it,towards the front window if I recall correctly. 

As for the show enjoyed it immensely.

Bailey have not changed their line up so no difference there. 

Still prefer the interior of ours to the new model. 

It has to be said that motorhomes in one guise or another are taking over, there must have been thousands right up to half a million pound jobbies which are so popular there is a two year waiting list. 

Anyway here's to next year. 

Tried to put some video in this post but failed.

Will look into it for the future. 

Ian

CMC Chatsworth

Just finishing a four night stay at the above site complete with a trip around the house.

This very popular site has some empty pitches which is very unusual,perhaps the new booking system. 

On the Cadiz front the offside front spotlight has given up the ghost. 

USB's still working so it must be the LED.

I thought it would be an easy job to replace the LED but I have it on good authority that you can't, need to replace the whole light. 

Bailey want £60 for a replacement but have found a place on line who do them for £20 so will try them.

One more trip to the NEC show then will put the van away for the winter. 

Ian

Eclipse Adaptation

After our last outing I sent our Eclipse canopy back to Isabella to be repaired.

During our windy break the canopy canvas kept flapping about making a noise which was annoying, especially during the night. 

I had the idea of having three Velcro fasteners fitted down the centre seam to secure the centre rafter pole to the canvas.

I asked Isabella if they could do this whilst they had it and they have done a good job, it works really well. 

I suggested to them that it should be standard fitting on all the Eclipses.

We shall see. 

Ian

CMC Berwick Seaview

Coming to the end of five nights at the above site which is actually situated in  Tweedmouth, suppose the marketing department thought Berwick sounded better. 

It has wonderful sea views but perhaps could do with a small amount of TLC around the edges.

All well with the Cadiz apart from discovering I had left some grey water pipes at our last site Ferry Meadows.

Anyway cobbled something together so situation saved. 

Decided to take the canopy down a day early as it had got quite windy and it was flapping about a bit.

Somewhere during the process managed to pull off two of the guyline attachment points so they need repairing

Also managed to scrape a canopy pole on the side of the van,a few wipes with a Magic Eraser as mentioned in my last post and all as good as new they really are excellent.

Ian