Margaret and I went across to Haywards Heath to
view a caravan she had found on ebay. It was an Abbey GTS217, only
two years old, with a caravan mover installed, and in near perfect
condition. I had never seen a mover in action before and it was
remarkable to see the caravan move by itself, operated from a remote
control. We negotiated a reasonable price and went home via the Rainbow Inn at Cooksbridge to have a celebratory snack! Acessorize! During the week we began to order the huge amount of stuff apparently required in addition to the caravan. I have kept a list of it all and am astonished how long it is. A huge box arrived on the Tuesday with Aquaroll, waste water tank, hitch-lock, wheel clamp and various other goodies. On Saturday (11 October) we drove across to Haywards Heath to pick up the caravan, and spent a good hour or so being shown the various features (too many to remember), and then eventually hitched up and drove out of the previous owners drive.
The first tow The caravan felt very different to the empty shells on the towing course, and the car seemed to bounce up and down a bit more than I remember on the course. After about a mile I came up to a junction and we heard a loud rumbling noise. I stopped in alarm and got out, only to find that I'd not tightened the jockey wheel enough and it was dragging on the ground. On we drove, through Lewes and across the new road at Beddingham with all its hazards (that I never noticed before!). By now I was getting into it and was beginning to relax. We soon got home, and unhitched the caravan in the road, and used the Powermover to reverse it into the drive – easy! Alas the mover packed in on one side when half way up the drive – how upsetting that was! We tried everything to get it working again but to no avail. We decided to give up on the mover for now and explore the interior of the caravan, which seemed very smart but quite bewildering – with so many switches inside. After a few minutes neighbours knocked on the door and came in – very impressed by our new acquisition. Do-it-yourself On Monday I rang Powrmove (yes, that's how they spell it) and their engineer suggested I take the brushes out of the motor and clean them with WD40. I went outside and lay by the side of the caravan and worked out what I had to do – removing a rubber collar, some cable clips, and then take out the brushes. The one on my side was not too bad, but the other one had to be done by “feel only” as it was hidden from view. I reassembled everything and with some trepidation lifted the steadies and turned everything on. Amazingly it now worked. I suppose it would have been annoying to pay a call out charge and an hour's labour for something so quickly repaired. Is carvanning going to mean a lot of this sort of thing? Maybe at last I'll turn into a handyman (something which my previous 59 years has failed to achieve).
I spent some time in the caravan on Tuesday afternoon trying to get everything working. I connected it to the mains and managed to operate the lights and water pump. I also got the heater working on gas. Several other feature still defeated me though. On Wednesday Margaret came into the caravan with me and we managed to get everything going – I hadn't quite understood the switches in the bottom cupboard! There is nothing to stop us going away in it now – other than finding enough free time! |
