Malibu Molly

With the last two cans I simply topped up the AdBlue tank every so often. Bought in 5 litre bottles either from Home Bargains or B&M.  The problem we have been told is that it's not easy to know whether it's started to crystallise or not.  What we have had happen is the warning ⚠️ light coming on to say the AdBlue level was getting low.  Rather than let it get too low we dropped into the Shell station on the westbound A14/A12 heading towards the Orwell Bridge in Suffolk. The station has dedicated pumps. The odometer was showing 8899 miles. I put in 12 litres.  I thought it was a bit early as we had only done 1189 miles since collecting it from the dealers. I would have expected it to be full. Since then we have done another 1100 miles and the light is not on yet. The Shell was an eye watering £1.786 a litre!!

After all the problems last week with the smell of gas and the workshop saying there was a leak that's been fixed, then the smell of gas lingering. I bought one of these. It's a gas sniffer device. My theory at the moment is that the stink "perfume" they add to the gas has permeated the sheets and maybe even the mattresses in the van.   The smell definitely goes away after all the doors and roof vents are left open for a while. I just hope that's the end of this saga and we can get on with enjoying our trips away.  We are only just over two months away from our summer holiday.

This is the very first event for the local centres that we have been to over the three years since we joined the Caravan and Motorhome Club. Technically we are in the East Kent Centre although we haven't been to any locally organised events.  Until today.  Saturday 22nd March. The huge junction on the M25 with the A3 in Surrey and close to the venue, the Brooklands Museum, was going to be closed for some work. The junction work was started so long ago it's lost in the mists of time.  It's been another massive job and like the similarly undertaken task on the M2/A249 in Kent, it's so long ago no one can remember when it all started.  The years of disruption will be forgotten when traffic can move smoothly (again!) and save everyone 20 seconds on their journey through the area. So the plan was to go earlier on Friday and stay locally in a Certificated Location in Hersham.  The journey then on the Saturday morning would only be around 20 minutes. But as previo...

Having to lug the Bluetti AC70 around in its bot isn't that easy. As the box started to fall to pieces it was getting difficult to lug it around. Plus it was huge and took up a lot of unnecessary space. Enter... the Bluetti carry case for the AC70!  Not cheap. Well made and it is padded to protect the investment, plus it's way smaller than the box and foam inserts.  There's enough room for the charger cables inside too.

This is the setup we have inside the gas locker at the rear left of the van.  Because the right side bottle is easier to access, it's the one I use the most.  After the fill up on Wednesday they should both be showing full.  That means the gauges should have the black line right around on the thickest green area.  I took these pictures today after we got back from Choose Leisure. Right bottle - full Left bottle - not full! Very odd.  All I can assume is that it was one of the connections to the left bottle that was leaking gas into the van. It's heavier than air and under the bottles there are vents to allow the gas to drop through and into the open air. I have used the left bottle in the past for the hob but when filling it's supposed to fill both bottles without any manual intervention. As we usually have electric hook-up on sites and aires, we generally only use gas for the hob to cook on.   I couldn't smell gas when I oppened the back doors and the...

Up early and off to Choose Leisure again.  Overnight I had left the front and rear Heki rooflights open, not ideal for insurance purposes. The alarm is set so that might have been useful. Of course. With all that fresh air there was no gas smell.  When we arrived we opened to rear doors where the locker is, we could all smell it.  So off it went to the workshop.   Some two and a half hours later it came back. They couldn't find any problems and they did a gas check all around including the hob.  I couldn't smell it after that. After we have become paranoid I have ordered a gas sniffer from Amazon to arrive tomorrow!   At the moment Brooklands with the Caravan Club is on!