oh what a week

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi all.

just in case anyone out there was wondering why I am at home on the computer instead of sitting in a tranquil spot in a field somewhere in cornwall read on.

it started on wednesday when we moved down to holsworthy from the fishing complex in devon, arrived fine just after tea, found a nice level corner spot not far from the shower block unhitched the van went inside to get the remote for the mover

and its missing?? ah! think it was left on the A frame when leaving, dam thats another £50. never mind, reversed on to pitch and got set up, put the kettle on for a well earned cuppa after walking the dog, and ater 10 mins it still was not boiling the gas had gone out checked the gas cylinder empty??.

the last site had no EHU so we had to use gas and I had forgot to check it before leaving the site and this one had no gas compound.

so out we went in the car with empty cylinder looking for a gas supply @ 6.30pm after the shops had shut, however we did find a petrol station just outside Bude that sold gas so all was now well or so I thought!!.

seeing as how we were so close to Bude we decided to abandon the tea idea and go get a evening meal elsewhere so I drove into town and parked in the main seafront carpark, and walked "I use the term loosly" into town.

after about an hour and a good meal in one of the local hostalries returned to the car it is now about 9.15pm and starting to get dark, started up the car to reverse out of the parking spot and then noticed a grinding noise comming from the front end, I got out have a look and could not believe my eyes, the front end had been run into and the the front valance was rubbing on the wheels the head light was broken and there was water all over from a punctured radiator, and no sign of the moron that had done it!!.

as the car was now undriveable I called green flag recovery to assist, the guy who came was marvellous he pulled the vallance off the wheels and inspected the dammage and decided the only option was recovery but where to??. it was no good going back to the site far to complicated at almost 10pm and now completly dark.

a call to the site to explain what had happend sorted out that problem, "leave it where it is and get the car fixed", so its home again on the back of a recovery truck for us.

so here I am 5 days later sat at home, the car in the workshop waiting for the insurance to sort it out and the van on a field 300miles away, no idea when we will get to see it again not too long hopefully I did think of hiring a car to go back down in but the cost is too great and means doing 3 trips overall when the cars fixed. the site owners have been brill with us and there is no rush to move the van at this time of year and they will keep a eye on it untill we return.

so all in all a rotten week, but at least a lesson to be learned, in all the years of caravanning we have done you still never know whats next. do you???

colin

 

[TD42]

So Sorry to hear of your bad luck,This fella Murphy & his silly Law has a lot to answer for.

Hope its sorted soon

TD

 

[Soozeeg]

Sorry to hear that Colin, hope you get it sorted soon. It's good of the site to be so understanding (mind you, what else could they do? Tow the van to a storage pitch, I suppose, if they needed the pitch for others but, as you say, probably not necessary at this time of year).

You'll certainly need a holiday after all this! LOL

 

[TD42]

So Sorry to hear of your bad luck,This fella Murphy & his silly Law has a lot to answer for.

Hope its sorted soon

TD

Just a thought, were you not with Greenflag Via the CC? if you were the caravan should have been brought home also??

 

[Grahamsprite4]

Hi Colin i had a similar incident a week before xmas 2009 and we were set to go to wharfedale cc site on xmas eve i was parked outside the local shop on my way to do my last night shift at work .

when i returned from getting my pint of milk i found some kind person had reversed into the front of my mondeo smashing the front bumper and ofside headlight and then happily drove away!

i went through my insurance. on contacting them i told them my situation and we were booked to go away . told them i needed a car with a towbar.

they were brilliant and on the monday morning to a big smile from me they sent me a 09 plate landrover freelander HSE with towbar as my curtisy car!.

could you not tell your insurance your predicument? if they are worth there salt they should help.

Graham

 

[steve007_374385657]

Good luck with sorting it out, i hope it all comes out ok.

I had a experience a few years ago,

We returned to our car after it was parked on a hill & found a car parked on our tow bar, No damage to our car but the other car had its bumber pushed in. When we parked there were no other vehicles around.

On looking inside the other car the handbrake was applied but not in gear. We took the option to wait for the owner to return,If we had left would the other have car carried on rolling?.

When the owner returned we explained to the guy what we had found on our return. Then the trouble started we were accused of of reversing into the other car.

To cut it short ended up in small claims court (1 hr) as insurers went with us. 18 months later the court went with us,Now would i wait again in the same situation? Not sure.

Cheers

 

[Rabfaetheblae]

Sorry to hear about your week Colin,

I dont no how people who do things like this can sleep at night,

But at least you are both ok and you will be away again before you no it.

Rab

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi all.

thanks for your replies of support, I said at the end of my post about lessons learned and some of the comments above are helpfull but at the time when desicsions have to be made in an instant it is hard to know what to do.

being in mayday we could have either gone back to the site and be left there untill the end of our stay and then be recovered home or had the car repaired down there and stayed on site untill it was ready or leave it and come home.

I chose option 3 because 1 would have had us on a site with no car for 2 weeks, 2 would have meant packing up pulling the awning down in the dark.

having decided that and comming home with the van on site what to do now we are at home Grahams suggestion may work if saga will stand for it although we would still have to bring the van home by the end of next week and then go back down at some time later (as we were in the second week of a 2month jaunt) any option would mean doing a least two trips with the van to carry on with our holiday.

I am hopeful of a speedy repair though as the repairer is only 400 yards from our house and he reckons the repair will only take 2 days once the go ahead from the insurance is given.

I will upate you all later as things progress.

colin

 

[Grahamsprite4]

colin id be ringing the insurance company on a daily basis as they have no excuse to hold up the repair as there isnt a 3rd party involved to wait for a reply from.

if your repairer can do it in a couple of days the sooner the better then you can salvage some of your stay and put this bad experience behind you!

all the best and let us know how you get on

Graham

 

[joeby]

Sorry to to hear about your week Colin ,we have just got back from Bude lovely part of the country ,i will definitly go back again

 

[Pat_374304630]

Hi Colin,

Sorry to hear about your troubles mate. It just goes to show that we caravanners need people like mayday/green flag etc. I know we pay for it, but when we need it it's there.

 

[xtrailman]

Colin

Will green flag tow your caravan home under there policy?

You are entitled to a relief driver should you be unable to drive, so maybe they would tow your caravan back?

Assuming you have premium cover, which i have recently taken out.

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi ray.

I dont know about that bud thanks for the suggestion I have the

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

Sorry to hear of your multiple problems ya ol' tyke.

We are down in Cornwall at the moment, home tomorrow though.

Knowing how you white faced tykes don't like the heat it's just as well you weren't down here. Sun out every day, temperature in the high 70s. Fishery owners having to oxygenate the lakes because of the heat so you wouldn't have been able to fish. I've never drunk so much Stella to stop me dehydrating. No, you wouldn't have liked it Colin so maybe you were better off in rainy Yorkshire :O)

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi all.

yer thanks for that LB rub it in why dont you? allthough me not being there at least there was room for you!! :O).

hopefully we will be going back down tomorrow before the summer ends! if I get the car back in time, it has now been repaired just waiting for paint to cure, at least I managed a good days fishing yesterday at poole bridge so it was better than watching paint dry.

for info only. according to the repairer (with 25 years experience behind him) the vehicle that caused the damage was quite large and heavy, "a smaller lighter car would have obviously been equally damaged and immovable" with a high bumper height, "the front panel was pushed backwards and downwards on to the wheels" and probably had a front attachment like a winch that crushed the radiator, "a tow ball would have been too low and taken out the front cross member that was undammeged". so a landrover type with winch ehhh.

I will be looking for it next week.

colin

 

[J.Lo]

Well they do say yorkshire men are tight, and this proves it. If you bought another gas bottle and had one in use and one in reserve you would not have had a problem. Put a piece of lace on your remote and hang it around your neck when you are using it and you wont lose that. Easy init, but you"ll have to BUY one. Would you like a Lancashire lad to come over and show you the ropes. J.Lo

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi J Lo,

very funny I nearly fell off my chair lauging keep it up, just what one needs when things go t*ts up a sense of humor.

"a piece of lace" eh, I don't think that would go to well with the flat cap and pit boots, more suited to the handbag and sling backs brigade I think, :O)

the reason I don't carry 2 Gas bottles is for the same reason I don't carry 2 spare wheels, 2 awnings, or 2 EHU cables, WEIGHT my boy WEIGHT, the vans miro is 875kgs while it's MTPLM is 1022kgs thats 147kg of user payload " or double the nose weight, take off that, 40kg for the mover 10kg for the battery 35kg for the awning and poles 5kg for EHU cable and accessories 25kg for the spare wheel, and various other items like pots and pans clothes for months away and 10kg for the wifes wheel chair, so the total is in exess of 140kg. carrying an extra full gas bottle at 10/12kg is just not practical allthough I suppose the wheel chair could have been left at home, like the XXXX advert with the bottle of sherry.

hindesight is a wonderful thing but as the saying goes "sh*t happens" you just have to accept it and move on.

colin.

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi all

just an update, I went round to the body shop this morning to pick up the car, it looks great he has done a t-cut and polish to the rest of the car so it matches the new front end, well pleased.

so after lunch we are off again, by the time the sun sets we should be back in the van. I am going to take the notebook this time so if the dongle works I will look in on you all later.

bye for now.

colin