We arrived at Travelworld’s new premises in Telford at 2.30pm on the afternoon of 16 February 2005 and by the time we had gone through the introduction to the new vehicle, a 36ft quad-slide Monaco Cayman, nicknamed Bumpy, with Ross Edwards it was close to 4.30pm. Rather than take the risk of driving an unknown vehicle for the first time in the dark we asked Ross if there was anywhere close by we could stay overnight before travelling back to Taunton on the morrow. Not on the premises, said Ross, but there is a campsite close by which can accommodate RV’s – so, taking the car and it’s trailer, off we went to find the site and book in for the night - after which I left the car and trailer there whilst Ross gave me a lift back to Travelworld in his car. Back at Travelworld we collected our thoughts and concentrated on getting the new vehicle safely to the overnight campsite where we could explore and quietly familiarise ourselves with the contents. The following morning we were asked to leave the site reasonably early because there was a Motorhome rally scheduled to start and we were occupying one of the allotted pitches; this wasn’t really a problem as we wanted a fairly slow but early start in order to learn the intricacies of the new vehicle before we hit any rush hour traffic. It was at that time that our first problem occurred: I had hitched the trailer onto Bumpy and checked that the road lights worked properly - prior to loading the car. I had manoeuvred Bumpy onto a straight stretch of the road at the front of our pitch but needed to move to make a little extra room to line the car up with the trailer – Bumpy’s ignition key would not neutralise the immobiliser and so I couldn’t start the engine. I sat and puzzled the situation for a short while, trying several different methods of inserting the key and pressing various buttons on the fob, all to no avail – the dashboard simply would not come alive – so I phoned Travelworld for advice and was put straight onto Simon, the Workshop Manager. He said that I had obviously left the engine in gear the last time that I had stopped and then proceeded to talk me through the start-up procedure – I did as he said and indeed the dashboard lights, as if by magic, suddenly appeared. Mo and I immediately set up a procedure (GBK – gear, brake, key) to ensure that, in future, we would leave the electronic gearbox in neutral before we applied the handbrake and removed the ignition key. Each time we came to a stop she would yell at me ‘GBK’ if it looked even remotely like my hand was straying toward the ignition key!Later that morning I was speaking to Ross on the telephone when he remembered he had not given us a second set of keys for Bumpy during the handover and we agreed not to leave the site before 10.30am so that he could get someone to deliver the missing keys direct to us. Unfortunately we had not considered the fact that I now had Bumpy, fully loaded with the car and trailer, parked on the road outside of our pitch, which just happened to be the only road into and out of that particular part of the campsite, and 14 tons of RV form quite an effective barrier to movement by other vehicles. We had to move off almost immediately but luckily for us, as we were driving down the exit road out of the campsite, we met the chap with the spare keys so all was well and we were on our way home to Taunton with our new RV.
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| Morning tide at Brue Yachts in Highbridge |
‘Tempis fugit’ as they say: we have now had Bumpy for nearly six months and things are beginning to settle down and perform as they were designed to do - apart from the fact that we have recently found the engine battery discharges more quickly than we had hitherto thought. In fact we had been under the mistaken impression that when connected to mains electric the engine battery would receive a trickle charge at the same time as the house battery but apparently that is not the case. Even though our intruder devices (the tracker, immobiliser and burglar alarm) are connected to the engine battery there is (according to our Workshop Manager) no automatic method of maintaining the engine battery charge without purchasing, as a separate item, a ‘battery maintainer’ at a cost of a couple of hundred pounds or so – or starting and running the engine every couple of days to maintain the engine battery charge. As an alternative to running the engine every couple of days it was suggested that we switch the engine battery off using the supplied ‘cut-off’ switch but being as most intruder devices are designed to sound the alarm when the battery power is switched off that seemed to invalidate that course of action. Insurance companies generally insist that the intruder devices are properly fitted and activated when the vehicle is static and unattended and yet the RV manufacturers apparently do not provide, as standard, a means of keeping the engine battery charged when the vehicle is static – and I would suggest the vehicle is static far more than it is mobile – it seems a pretty rum state of affairs to us!
Cummins, the engine manufacturers, had just replaced the ‘dead’ engine turbo and fitted a new exhaust pipe and we were waiting for a date to take Bumpy back to Travelworld for an inspection brought about by a general ‘recall’ notice from the makers, Monaco Coaches, concerning a transverse weld on the rear suspension. Monaco stated that so far nobody had had a problem with this particular ‘joint’ but if it did fail it would almost inevitably cause an accident so therefore every coach owner concerned was asked to present their coach for inspection, at no cost to themselves – however, as usual, that statement apparently did not cover the cost of getting the coach to and from the workshops. Nevertheless, after we had arranged a mutually convenient date with Travelworld we set off up the motorway keen to find out what difference, if any, the repairs had made to the handling of Bumpy and I am very pleased and relieved to report that we had a completely new vehicle. It not only sounded and handled better at slow speed but as soon as we got onto the motorway I put it into cruise control at about 55mph and we settled back to one of the most comfortable half hour drive’s that we have ever experienced in an RV. At the end of that time I took it out of cruise control, ‘kicked’ it down to overtake a stream of lorries and was immediately pushed back into my seat as Bumpy took off in a flurry of dust. Before I really knew what was happening we were on the high side of 70mph, the fuel gauge was performing somersaults and Mo was giving me the ‘evil eye’, so I eased off the throttle as I pulled back into the slow lane and reset the cruise control - at which point I learned another valuable lesson – you cannot engage cruise control when you have the exhaust brake switched on. Okay, all you experienced ‘heavy’ drivers who are currently laughing at me, with hindsight I agree that only an idiot would try and switch on cruise control when the exhaust brake is switched on – well, I have only driven Bumpy half a dozen times and I had to learn it the hard way – so there!
Many years ago, as a spotty-faced young lad, I fell head over heels in love with Hayley Mills when she played Pollyanna in the film of the same name but she didn’t return my love letters so I went back to my first love, my BSA 250cc motorcycle. Then I was in love with Mia Farrow until she rejected me in favour of some singer called Frank Sinatra and she became unattainable so I went back to polishing my second love, my old Austin A40. The successful conclusion to both of those love affairs was of course totally in my dreams however, as of last weekend, Mo and I are in love – no, no, not like that - after 25 years or so of marriage that is only to be expected, isn’t it – no, we have just had a look around one of the prettiest RV’s we have ever seen and we immediately fell for it ‘hook, line and sinker’ as they say. We popped into Tewkesbury to renew old acquaintances at Freedom Motorhomes and were promptly berated, and rightly so, for leaving them in the lurch when we bought Bumpy in preference to their 38ft Georgetown but then they showed us around their new flagship RV, the Charleston. Most of you will by now have seen a photograph of it in last month’s RV Mag but I promise you that it is even better when seen in the flesh, so to speak. The exterior paint finish protected by a plastic top-coat gives the overall impression of a showroom shine; the electric awnings can be controlled by a button on the key fob, the legless dining table leaves nothing to be desired and the drivers console resembles an aircraft cockpit. Naturally there were one or two items that we found not totally to our liking but overall the Charleston exceeded our requirements completely and we would probably have bought it on the spot, had we had the wherewithal immediately to hand. Alas, like my previous love affairs, common sense prevailed and with one last long lingering look through the railings at the Charleston we could hear it saying “Come and get me - I am yours for the taking – just as long as you can find an extra £60,000 – otherwise I will remain completely in your dreams.”
We carried on up the motorway to Telford and, being as it was the weekend, we decided to wild-park in a deserted industrial park so that we could give the generator a good long run and try out all the rest of the equipment. All went well, we watched the motorcycle racing on Sky TV followed by the Formula I Grand Prix, cooked a sumptuous roast pork Sunday Lunch washed down with a glass of wine and settled into bed that night totally satisfied with life in general. Monday morning found us parked outside Travelworld at the crack of dawn where Bumpy was whisked away and we were sitting in the visitors’ lounge drinking coffee. Not so long ago we had expressed an interest in the 38ft quad-slide Safari ‘Cheetah’ RV sold by Travelworld at a price that we could just about afford but unfortunately for us it had been sold the week previously – however we were invited to look at the updated 36ft quad-slide 2005 Monaco Cayman. It had a three-camera safety system, side opening basement locker doors, a slide-out quiet generator, and several more features that appealed to us immensely - so much so that we expressed our interest to Travelworld’s owner Bob Edwards with a view to exchanging Bumpy for it’s updated successor. By now you must be thinking that Mo and I are a fickle pair, changing our minds at the drop of a hat and trying to buy any vehicle that comes to our notice on a day by day basis but I assure that is not the truth. We began full-timing as complete RV novices and, although we knew exactly what we wanted in our first RV, we were very lucky to strike it right when we bought Harvey, the Forest River Georgetown – however, the situation has changed a bit since then and we have had to modify our views in accordance with Mo’s requirements and with our growing RV experience. Having moved up to a quad-slide from the double slide was the right move for Mo’s wheelchair needs but experience has shown that our particular lifestyle could benefit from a double fridge/freezer set up, a shower cubicle where there is a built-in seat and the taps are at waist height, a toilet room where the necessary hand-holds for Mo do not encroach unnecessarily into the room space and a large fire escape window in the bedroom and, of course, over and above all of that the RV has to be within our budget. The Charleston was absolutely suited to our needs but was way out of our price range, Bumpy suits us very well but the new Cayman would suit us even better if the price was right – and it has to be said that Bob offered us a deal that was so mouth-wateringly tempting that we agreed there and then to exchange Bumpy sometime in mid-July. Bumpy was returned from the workshops with a clean bill of health, the weld notified in the recall notice was not at fault on our coach, so we set off back to Somerset where we stopped off to collect our mail from Quantock Orchard Caravan Park at Taunton and then drove on to Brue Yachts in Highbridge where we had agreed to spend some time helping George and June Evans develop a new RV site.
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| Plenty of manoeuvring space and when finished each pitch will have fresh water and a 16amp electric hook-up. |
Once upon a time a reasonable lifespan was considered to be three score years and ten at which time you were expected to pass away gracefully so as not to be a burden upon your children or the Workhouse – well it seems that somebody forgot to tell George Evans about this fact of life because having reached that magical age, he tossed caution to the wind and together with his wife, June, has set about building and running a dedicated RV park. Mo and I are now about half way through compiling the Big Pitch Guide and recently in the RV magazine we saw a letter from George telling readers that he had space to park a few RV’s in his boatyard at Highbridge and being as we are always on the lookout for new ‘big pitches’ we immediately made tracks to Highbridge to see what it was all about. During my Army career I spent many weeks at sea both cruising and racing offshore yachts and when Mo joined me we sailed all over the Baltics, the Channel and especially the south coast of England where we soon began to spot the difference between the true sailors and the ‘gin and tonic’ brigade. Generally the true sailor could be distinguished by his or her paint-splattered baggy and torn fisherman’s smock and jeans uniform whilst the G and T’s would never be seen without their pink or white duck trousers, blue blazer and white-topped peak cap with pristine clean deck shoes that had never ever trodden in anything other than a deep pile carpet. This difference was epitomised at the end of a day’s racing in the Solent where the G and T’s would immediately down sails and drive into ‘Groves and Gutteridge’ Marina at the mouth of the Medina in Cowes from whence they would make tracks to one of the expensive yacht clubs such as the ‘Island Yacht Club’ or the ‘Royal London’ and proceed to gobble hundreds of pounds worth of ‘foie gras’ washed down with buckets of champagne all the while telling each other of their magnificent marine exploits of the day.
The rest of us would quietly sail on up the Medina to a slightly run-down pub known as ‘The Folly’ where we would moor up to the piles in the middle of the river, tidy up the sails and the cabin, hang all our wet clothes on the boom topping lift, pump up the dinghy and row ashore to a delicious home made bowl of stew, washed down with a couple of pints of decent real ale, all the while chatting to the chap on the neighbouring boat who had just returned from a single-handed round the World trip.
I deliberately digressed to tell this little story because in order to enjoy a stay at Brue yachts you have to know and understand which category of ‘sailors’ you belong to; at the time of writing, it is coming up to the month of July and George and June are heavily engaged in installing the water pipes, the electric points, the drainage and the landscaping – so unless you are real RV’ers who use their toilets and bathrooms in the manner to which they were designed you will probably not want to stay longer than an overnight stop on your journey down to the plastic, chrome and cut-glass holiday park where you will join the slipper and dressing-gown masses who carry their washing-up to the toilet block come rain or shine. Once the hard work is done and the site is properly landscaped with the possible addition of a toilet block and a small shop/café/club you may have a change of mind and come back to enjoy the natural beauty of this undeveloped coastline. If, on the other hand, you are happy to use your RV properly then why not come down now and you could be in for an exhilarating holiday. For example, the photograph of the morning tide at Highbridge really does not do justice to the actual scenery but it illustrates just one of the views that you could be lucky enough to see if you park at the Brue Yachts complex. I could just as easily have swung the camera around 90 degrees and shown you a field full of deer, llamas and ostriches or I could have described our absolute joy at sighting a kingfisher for the very first time in our lives, whilst standing outside George’s entry gates. There are miles of walks around the natural coastline paths, not that Mo or I can enjoy them, but we can follow them with binoculars and we can lay back at night and listen to the foxes barking, the badgers playing and the peacocks calling from the farm across the way. We can drive into the nearby towns of Highbridge or Burnham-on-Sea, although an able bodied couple could easily walk there in minutes rather than hours, and shop, dine out or laze on the sandy beaches to our hearts content. Absolute bliss for us - and all it needed was a man and his wife with courage and convictions to turn their dreams and imagination into reality.
I mentioned in a previous article that buying and running an RV depended immensely upon trust between three main factions, namely the Purchaser, the Dealer and the Workshops and in our particular case that trust had been severely stretched to the point where we were not sure if it had not been stretched too far. Time has healed the wounds to a certain extent but it is amazing how just a small insignificant incident can suddenly throw everything back into the melting pot; everything had been working perfectly well when we switched off the mains electric on our departure on the previous Friday and we had existed on 12volt house batteries, gas and the generator over the weekend where everything also worked perfectly well, however, when we arrived back on site on the Monday night and switched on the mains electric, the 240volt water heater switch did not light up to say that it was working. Our first thought was to check and make sure the mains electric was working by switching on the TV – that was working – so we then checked the house fuse-board to ensure that the heater fuse was switched on – it was – so we then sat down to try and figure out if the workshops had had to touch the water heating system and if so, what could they have done to ‘blow’ it – our memories were drawn back to another Travelworld customer who told us that the central heating system on his Diplomat was not working after a recent service, necessitating a return journey to the workshops. The water in our tank was still hot, of course, because we had been heating it through the 12volt system whilst we were on the road but that hot water would be used up with our showers that night so the test would be to switch the 12volt battery/gas water heater off and leave on only the 240volt heater – if the water was hot in the morning then we would know that the light bulb in the switch was faulty but if the water in the tank was cold then we were going to explode all over the dealership like an atom bomb. The following morning we were relieved to find that the water was piping hot as usual and therefore the problem was a simple matter of a blown light bulb in the switch – but that blown light bulb was almost enough to light the touch paper of uncontrollable rage!
Very soon after that we opened the mail collected from the previous weekend and to our horror discovered that a previously agreed source of income was soon to be reviewed with the possibility that we could lose it completely and having just agreed to buy a new RV from Travelworld that was the last thing we needed. We had to immediately sit down with the computer finance program and recast our budget in the event of the worst possible scenario - with the inevitable result that we had no option other than to put on hold, for the time being, the purchase of the new RV so without further delay we put in a call to Travelworld, explained the situation and thankfully they agreed to cancel the sale with immediate effect – another action on their part which has helped to strengthen the slowly growing bond of trust between us.
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