Malibu Molly

Today we had Molly booked in for the MoT test.  We got it out from storage after the fortnight it's been in there. Of course,  it started first time.   It seems the area is spider central. Both door mirrors are covered in webs! We will sort that out, a brush and hose....! The MoT? It didn't happen as when I got to the garage, Molly was too long for the test ramp. They did try and the back wheels would overhang the end of the ramp when it was raised for them to get underneath. Panic. I called around a few places with the right length ramps.  I tied the two suggested by the first garage.  One couldn't do it and suggested the other one that had been suggested earlier.  They couldn't fit it in until 4.30pm the day before we go away!  A bit late! I booked it in case I couldn't get anywhere earlier. Then I  called Choose Leisure where we got Molly from, and they suggested the garage across the road from them where they get all the Mot's done. ...

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!

After last weekend away when it was freezing we had the heating on for most of the day and night.  It was on low when Reggie was left on his own, he has a fur coast already, and off when we were away from the van completely. It seems we used up nearly  whole 11kg bottle of LPG!  The gauge goes from thick green around the a thinner green to red to give an idea of how much gas in in the bottle. Ours was deep into the red! So yesterday we went to Dover BP to fill the bottles.  The other bottle was slightly used and still in the green. We filled up with 14.55 litres. According to Gaslow the 11kg bottle should hold 21 litres. When we had finished to fill both bottles they should show were full on the gauges. By the time we had finished there was a pretty horrible smell. They pit a scent into the gas so that you can smell it! It didn't go away.  We have not had this problem before when filling the other vans we used to own. By the time we got home it was worse. I rang...

Today after some shopping in Canterbury we had a little drive to Choose Leisure the motorhome and campervan (RV) dealers. Over the last few weeks, and maybe months since April, we have lost a lot of faith in Marquis, the motorhome dealers, and Elddis, the manufacturers of Molly the Motorhome. The full story will come out later when we have finally resolved the damp and the water ingress to parts of the body work and roof. We had talked about it when we were in Spain. Maybe once the damp had been fixed under the 10 year SOLID warranty we'd look to get rid of Molly and by a campervan rather than a coach built. So for the last week or so we have been looking, off and on, on the internet for local dealers with vans for sale. Should we stay with Elddis and go for a van, or move to a different manufacturer? We saw a few different styles and sizes of vans at the Norfolk Campervan and Motorhome Show in July. There were some layouts that appealed to us, and of course we have quite a few dif...