After 16,000km and a total of 136 nights away, we noticed (Glyn noticed when she was washing the floor!) that where the feet of the bed ladder rest on the floor, 2 indentations had been made.
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| Noticeable dents in the floor |
It is only me that uses the ladder (Glyn enters and exits the bed via the cab seats), so obviously my extra weight is the cause.
There is no rectifying this, short of taking up the floor covering and renewing the floor, so to stop it getting any worse I have got a 25cm x 50cm x 1cm piece of fibre board to go under the ladder.
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| Ladder stood on board |
When not in use it slips down between the cooker splashback and the back of the forward facing lounge seats, secured there by hooks.
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| A snug, hidden fit |
Window alarms
I bought some extremely cheap window alarms from a ferreteria which did work, but were of very poor quality.
On a flying visit to UK I called into Maplins and got some proper Swann window and door magnetic alarms.
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| Quality Swann window alarms |
These do not false alarm and have now given me 6 months of faultless service.
Flashing LED, PIR alarm and Habitation curtain
We toyed with getting an alarm fitted to Cervantes soon after we bought him, but after due consideration decided against it.
It is almost impossible to make a motorhome secure. You can beef up the door locks all you want, but a child could break in by pulling on the plastic windows which will break the flimsy plastic catches and thin aluminium stays ( as demonstrated on Cervantes by thieves in Cordoba). No alarm in the world would stop this happening, and if you were out of earshot of your alarm when it went off - what is the use of it?
Most people are very passive when they hear an alarm - some not even bothering to glance in the direction of the noise.
Our alternative is very simple. Window alarms to alert us (if we are within earshot) if a window is opened, and a PIR alarm inside the van to alert us if someone gets in.
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| A simple, cheap PIR - enough to startle an intruder |
This does the same job as an alarm at a fraction of the cost.
We also follow basic preventative actions of always closing the window blinds and putting on the cab blinds when we leave Cervantes.
It is practically impossible to start modern engines without the correct transponder key to disarm the immobiliser, so the chances of Cervantes being stolen if someone got in is pretty slim.
With this in mind we have some undiscoverable hiding places for valuables that we can't take with us. We always take cards and passports with us when we leave the van, my pacsafe being invaluable to us. We leave nothing on display inside the van, and have a badly-hidden wallet with some change and useless, non-identifiable cards in.
Thw window alarms have red LED's which flash every 25 seconds, but unfortunately they are not very visible due to the way I have fitted the window alarms.
As additional visibility I have added a flashing red LED in the front windscreen - this is actually a single red LED rear cycle light from Decathlon which looks authentic and does the job beautifully.
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| Flashing red LED in windscreen |
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| Bright even during the day |
If we leave the van and are in sight of it , instead of putting on the cab blinds, we often hang a curtain from the cab side of the drop down bed. This keeps prying eyes from looking through the windows into the habitation area.
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| Simple solution to prying eyes |
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| Clipped onto drop down bed |
Gas locker
As stated in Teething troubles the Burstner Ixeo Time has a design fault which allows water to run down either side of the van when it rains.
I have cured this on the habitation door side and have now addressed the other side.
The water used to pour off the roof directly onto the gas locker. I have checked many times and the inside is always bone dry, but I fear it is only a matter of time before water ingress begins.
A simple Fiamma Drip Stop cured the problem and now the water runs around the locker and down each side.
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| A simple drip stop saving the gas locker |
Oil change
The first service due on the Euro 5 Fiat Ducato is 48,000km. I presume that this is so fleet owners can run them into the ground and not pay for any servicing whilst still keeping the warranty.
This means you are supposed to do absolutely nothing until then except check the fluid levels. I was not happy with this and decided that at the very minimum the oil and filter should be changed. I can imagine some vans not reaching 48,000km in 10 years if the van is only used once a year, but there is a time limit of 24 months as well as a mileage limit.
We left Cervantes for the day at Motor Cartagena where I was very reassured by the sight of at least 3 motorhomes in the repair/service bays inside the garage - they must know what they are doing.
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| Old oil filter |
When I booked in at reception I asked if they could use a genuine Fiat oil filter and fully synthetic diesel oil. The receptionist was most indignant and told me in no uncertain terms that this is a Fiat Professional dealership and they only use Fiat approved parts and the correct oils, which again was reassuring.
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| New oil filter |
The €160.69 bill was nothing compared to the feeling of relief for the next 12 months knowing we are running on fresh oil and a new filter.
Fridge
The gas burner in the fridge was replaced in Sep 2013 and we thought all our problems with it were behind us. However, at the end of our Tour of Comunidad Valenciana the fridge once again would not run efficiently on gas. It worked perfectly on mains and engine battery power, but not on gas.
A visit to our dealers in April 2014 met us up with a Dometic engineer who took the burner to bits and blew out lots and lots of black soot. After a thorough clean and a pressure test the fridge was working perfectly on gas.
The engineer asked us which gas we were using - we have used butane from new. He said he goes to several calls a week because the burners are sooted up by using butane. He recommends us to use propane which burns much cleaner and is gaseous down to minus temperatures. Butane stops gassing at approx 8°C which results in insufficient pressure to run some applications - usually the Truma blown air heating which needs a constant max pressure to run.
We very rarely get that temperature here, but when inland in the hills and mountains the temperature at night can drop to 2 or 3 degrees. Whilst on the Tour of Comunidad Valenciana in the hills our heating would not come on - just the red light flashing on the control knob.
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| Butane |
The butane gas bottle was low, as was the temperature, but the pressure was still sufficient to use the gas stove and I could hear that the gas burner running the fridge was also working. However, the reduced pressure must mean (I assume) that the butane gas is not combusting properly and this is sooting the burner up. The fridge appeared to work fine with a full butane bottle and day time temperatures, but once the bottle is 3/4 empty and the temperature drops - that is when the problems start to appear.
We have 2 x 13kg butane bottles and getting them swapped for 2 x 13kg propane bottles proved to be a bit of a problem. Not all garages stock propane, and the ones that did would not swap an empty butane for a full propane.
I found a friendly garage in the next town along from us who only had one propane which he willingly swapped.
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| Propane |
Swapping the other one proved more tricky, but we eventually got the name of the same ferreteria from two separate sources, so gave them a try and bingo! - they even delivered it to our door.
Whether swapping to propane will solve our fridge problem only time will tell - watch this space for further updates.
I understand what the engineer was telling us and the reasons behind it, but I still can't fully understand why all the thousands of motorhomes on the continent running on butane do not have warm beer and runny ice cream. If it is happening to us why is it not happening to everyone else - or is it? - is everyone having the burner serviced every 6 months?
Habitation door/Window temporary fix
Again a design problem (see Teething troubles) with the door and window opening.
A quick fix, and by no means a permanent one is to fix the door at 90° to the van side by strapping it on both sides.
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| Crude, but for now it works |
This looks very ugly but does work until I can figure a permanent fix. The obvious one is a gas strut between the door and the frame, but I am reluctant to drill the door or the van side/door frame to fix this on.
Project door/window is still ongoing.
