gassygassy

Derek - do you know where I can find the wiring schematic for a CBE PC180? The engine battery always shows as dead. I have checked that all the pins in the 16 way connector are intact, but I don't know how the engine battery is wired to the control panel. Andrew

Does anyone know where I can see a schematic of the 16 pin wiring loom from the PC180 control panel to the main board? Although the engine battery is fine the control panel shows it to be dead. I am competent with electronics, I have measured voltages at all the pins, and I have put +12v on all the pins with 0v to attempt to find a break in the wiring. All attempts have failed. I reckon if I knew where the engine battery voltage connects to the control panel I could fix it.

I thought it was toxic and you should avoid getting it on your hands? Apparently not. There's so much conflicting information around. I looked at a label and it said product should be kept between 0 degC and 30 degC. So that's not much use when you are trying to keep the engine running in winter or the South of France in summer is it? What happens when it gets below 0, does it freeze, crystalise or what, and does it stop the engine running, or do the tanks have heaters? Does it boil at 31 degrees? Confused, of Middle Earth.

Presumably you can get a sucky thing, stick the pipe down the AdBlu filler and suck it out? I've just bought my first AdBlu van and have heard all sorts of varying comments about it. Some say the engine uses a lot and increases your effective fuel consumption by 10%, others say it lasts for ages and makes no difference. The dealer I got my camper from said the amount it uses reduces as you increase road speed so you may as well do 70mph because the increased diesel consumption will be offset by the reduced AdBlu consumption. Some say you should only ever add a maximum of 5 litres, some say add a minimum of 5 litres, some say you shouldn't fill it, some say you should fill it up. Some say you MUST wait five minutes after adding any at all before starting the engine. Others say jut put some in and drive away. I reckon the safest thing to do is like you did in The Olden Days: when the ash tray is full it was time to buy a new car. So nowadays, when the AdBlu starts to run out, it's time to buy a new camper. Also when buying it at the dealer I asked how you tell if you need to top up. Is there an adblu meter like a fuel gauge? No, he said, wait till you get the warning light on the dashboard. Now I own it, I flicked through all the options on a button somewhere and there is indeed a gauge, that it is 3/4 full, and how many miles to run (3,400) so that's very helpful. I guess you should run it down to minimum before laying it up for winter, then fill it as soon as you start using it. Just in case you don't use it for 30 years. I've yet to see an AdBlu pump in a regular petrol station, they prefer to sell 10l containers at £2 a litre. And I have seen piles of discarded 10l containers in laybys so I guess that is the forthcoming pollution issue: the seas will be awash with floating environmentally and marine hazardous AdBlu containers

There are signs when you are about to enter an LEZ, aren't there? I wonder how often the residents near these signs see the road blocked, as vehicles stop and do three point turns to get out of it. I would not hesitate to do whatever it takes to avoid entering one of these zones. Apparently a Honda 90 scooter which does 130mpg has to pay because instead of measuring the amount of pollution a vehicle generates per mile which would be sensible, they measure the percentage of pollution that comes out of an exhaust. Personally I won't go inside the M25, it's out of bounds. Or Sheffield or Bath or .....or .. . . .or..... Europe has it sorted better, you pay €3.60 and get a badge which allows you into most towns and cities, it isn't a mayor's personal empire building system as it is here. Apparently Bristol collects £250,000 a day from fines for their LEZ.

I was looking for the Dunkirk ferry. A bit daft of me I know, but silly old me thought that it might be in Dunkirk so I drove around looking for a sign saying "Ferry" or even the French equivalent. Time was running out. I had allowed an hour before sailing time but there was no ferry to be seen. So I went to my new posh expensive Garmin and keyed in 'Dunkirk ferry" and all the combinations I could think of. Time had actually run out, it was 10 minutes before sailing time. I keyed in 'nearest ferry port'. It directed me to Cowes. So I thought I would use Garmin Logic and keyed in "Dover Ferry Port" and it duly directed me to the Dunkirk ferry port at Loon Plage, 18km from Dunkirk, and then across the water to Dover. I broke all sorts of speed limits and arrived at the ferry which was still there 20 minutes after its sailing time, and the fluorescent-jacketed man waved furiously at me to get on board. I made it. I then wrote to Camping and Caravan Club to suggest to them that they put the address and postcode of the ports on the tickets that they issue. I don't suppose they have. Other companies do, and you need it. For example Rotterdam port is about half the size of Holland and it takes 20 minutes of driving at 60mph to get from the entrance of the port to the ferry terminal.

I have just bought a one year old camper with a compressor fridge. And a diesel heater which consumes electric power of course. The camper appears to have had a second solar panel fitted because the two panels are different to each other. They total 240W. It has a quality MPPT regulator, which charges the batteries better than a regular cheap chinese one. The camper has two 110AH leisure batteries. We have only been away once in it and didn't use the heater so I can't comment on the working days of the fridge but it was absolutely fine over a long weekend without hookup. I think it will be OK. Perhaps the first owner of the camper found that one battery and one solar panel wasn't adequate and had the others fitted. If your friend really likes the camper and is prepared if necessary to fit a second solar panel and second leisure battery then they should buy it. Assuming there is room on the roof for another panel, of course. If it doesn't need any more power then they'll save a few bob. Also the current consumption depends of course on the fridge - a small one will consume less than a large one - the lower the fridge temperature, the more current it will consume - the sunnier the weather, the more power the panels will generate - the hotter the outside temperature, the more current the fridge will consume. The decision should rest on whether they are prepared, if necessary, to upgrade the solar panels and leisure batteries.

Out of interest what make was it? I recall years ago looking at a new American RV at Peterborough show. The red tassels over the windows inside were hanging off where the glue had decided it was too much like hard work staying where it should. One under-sofa wood bed frame that looked as if it was made from used pallets had a 10" (they do inches over there, so I don't know what that would be in metric) splinter sticking out right were it would get your leg artery if you walked into it. I have seen British made motorhomes, brand new in showrooms with interior trim peeling off as well.

Yesterday I saw something that quite horrified me - there is a model of Burstner which has the boiler flue on the same side as the awning. If a privacy room such as this was erected with the boiler running either on warm air or hot water, the carbon monoxide from the boiler would be filling the awning room. As I am about to buy a new Burstner (NOT this model!) I am a bit embarassed that this company should make such a design. I am a retired gas engineer and I recall people being killed by carbon monoxide when they had a barbecue in their tent. If the equivalent of this was on a house I was visiting I would shut the gas off with the owner's consent, and if they didn't give it, I would call Centrica who would be round there and shut it off in the street within ten minutes. In this video there are quite a few ways that the CO could get into people's lungs. If people are happily using the awning room they would be gradually feeling sick, hot and going pink before passing out. If the hab door is open and the window above the flue is open then the CO will rise and enter the hab area through the window. Apart from it blowing in through the hab door, if the door is propped open against the flue, I don't know what the door skin is made of but if it's plastic it could easily melt. I have seen a conservatory melted like a Salvador Dali painting. So far as I can tell from the pictures there doesn't seem to be a mechanism for holding the door away from the flue, it seems to have the usual male and female retaining clips on the door and body. Furthermore it has a dedicated gas bayonet outlet point specifically so that the user can run a barbecue within the awning area. If I am wrong I will grovel and humbly apologise but what do you think? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NcmOtXWLog

It has been the case for many many years that comprehensive is cheaper than TPFT. It has also been the case for a long time that car body repairers rip off the insurance companies with their 'free courtesy car' scheme where they keep the repair car for unnecessarily long times so they can charge the insurance company for longer car hire. Also, they repair a wing for example, and charge the insurance company to supply and fit a new wing. At least that was the case when I had a repair done under someone else's insurance. I did have an interesting insurance case many years ago. I was behind two other cars and an HGV, stopped on a minor road on a detour route. In front of the two other cars was an HGV which had stopped to talk to another HGV coming the other way. Us three cars had seen these HGVs from some way away when a boy racer came racing up and rammed into the back of my car, spun round, and impaled itself on the facing HGV. Fortunately I got his insurance. I took my car to several repairers who all dismissed it as being a write off. In desperation I took it to the main dealer, a VW dealer and said it's worth £6k, the other repairers have said it costs £6800 to fix, can you fix it for an amount that the insurers would pay? They looked at it and called the insurer who agreed to a repair cost of £5800. It was repaired beautifully and I was very impressed indeed with the colour match - it was red, which fades with age. It wasn't very old and needed the rear roof and bodywork matching with the main body.

Yesterday I started looking for quotes for a new motorhome I propose to buy in June. I currently pay about £240 for my 2009 camper. They won't quote for anything further away than 30 days so I gave 30 May as the start date. The new mh is £75k and from a previous conversation with my current insurer I learned that it would have to have a tracker fitted. Fitted trackers seem to cost from £350 to whatever you want to pay, plus £150 a year 'annual subscription'.My current broker said north of £600 for the insurance and it would need a tracker as well. This was beginning to put me off the idea of a new mh, but I want an automatic and not a robotised manual which so far as I can tell means getting a brand new one. I have found one that is due to be built at the factory in May to be delivered to me in June. The quotes I got varied from "We cannot quote you" down through various stages, mostly around the £600 - £700 mark, down to £490, and the nice chap at the other end of the phone said this £490 company will accept a £99 tracker with a £45p.a. annual subscription. So that is what I will be going for. He also asked politely if I wanted all the usual extras - breakdown, legal and so on which I don't. I said it's nice of you to ask, all the others I have quotes from include those in their quotes. He said that it is now not allowed for insurers to include "presumptive extras" in their quotes. I have had long-ish winded arguments with other insurers over the years trying to persuade them that I don't want legal, breakdown and so on. I have carefully studied the insurance I get with my £13-a-month bank account and it covers all that stuff. Mostly I have it because it covers world wide cruising, skiing, and all the other normal activities we get up to. Even golf. Whatever that is. Anyway I was very impressed with this broker with his decent premium, allowing a cheap tracker with cheap annual subscription and not even starting to try to sell me all the rubbish I don't want. He even said there are a few caveats with this insurance company such as the windscreen cover is limited to £600. I said it's only a Fiat Ducato, not a bus so it won't cost that much.