Tracker

It is probably not the issue here, but in the old days temporary surging of a diesel engine at idle was often caused by the ingress of air into the high pressure side of the injection system and was more often than not cured by bleeding the injectors and tightening all the unions. But that was then when engines were simple mechanical machines uninfected by the scourge of electronics and pollution malarkey. Progress eh?

Thanks Gary, unfortunately our days of long haul are over due to health issues, it's been a bit of a struggle since we met and we have both had good VFM from the NHS! Much as we would love to have experienced your upside down world of Australasia we reckon that we have missed the boat as that ship has long since sailed without us on board! Glad that you youngsters are still able to gallivant though!

Thanks Derek, glad you are still alive and in form!

In the old days this forum was simple enough for even anti progress ludites like what I am to use. These days it has meaningless phrases like 'recent visitors block', the location and van type of old, so helpful when discussing problems, has gone from profiles and worst of all bl#### pop ups haunt the for sale pages - so I won't visit those pages again in my quest for a van - simples! Progress eh - doncha just luvit? On the plus side most of the morons have left Chatterbox - did they fall or were they pushed I wonder?

I started in 1965 with a sort of rough and ready home made conversion on ex GPO van (Morris Minor with rubber wings!) and ended after 52 very happy and experienced years by poor health in 2017 with an AS Executive Anniversary having had about 20 vans in between. We never did like sites or staying put more than a day or two and spent many years meandering all over first the UK, then as it gradually became less easy, Continental European Aires/Stellplatz etc from The Nordkapp to the Sahara and we still miss the freedom, the excitement, the unknown. And so at 79 years of age and having sold or given away all of our much treasured kit we are tempted to try to re-start our wanderings in an older van - I hate and distrust Adblue and all this emissions cobblers, always political answers to an engineering issue! Are we totally mad, do I hear you ask? Much has changed in the 6 years we have missed what with Brexit, Covid, inflation, gizmos, technology, etc., so does anyone have any words of experience about how the Nomadic lifestyle that we hanker for still exists or has changed since 2016 please? Thanks folks, Happy travels one and all.

One of the best vans we ever had was an Autocruise Starlet ll of 2006 vintage. The Renoir is the same layout with a bit more luxury and, for us, it all worked really well and we have no criticism at all of the layout or build quality. It did exactly what it said on the tins - as the saying goes - and not all vans do that! The low profile helps it handle better in strong winds, but the LWB Alko chassis gives it a very wide turning circle which can make you look a bit inept when turning in a tight space. It rides well, the Alko rear end being softer sprung than the convential van chassis and ours took us all over Europe - and Morocco - on many trips without ever letting us down. I don't know how many Renoirs were made but coming from a less complex past it is a potential clasic and if it were mine I would value it highly. Good Luck David, and I hope yours looks after as well as our Starlet did us.

We never had any problems with awnings or creaking over many years but has anyone asked the maker, the supplying dealer, or the fitter?

Accepting that I have no knowledge or experience of this specific issue, the thought occurs that when I have had water tanks with an overflow that prevented a full fill a simple re routing of the overflow pipe to above the level of the top of the tank gave me more water carrying capacity and was generally very easy to fit whilst retaining the overflow and air input breathing as the tank empytied. It's just a guess and it may well be that the diesel tank issue is not so easily overcome - perhaps somebody has tried and can tell us?

It may also be worth talking to A&N whose reputation for experience and integrity, built up by the late Allan Evans, is well established. http://www.aandncaravanservices.co.uk/

Or just decant their contents into recycled Coca Cola (other soft drinks are available) plastic bottles?

Giff Gaff is currently 45p per mb of internet use in mainland Europe and very quickly runs away with your money if you are unprepared and do some web browsing or time wasting on here. It works well enough and if used just to retrieve emails, reply to them off line and then send when back online it is cheap enough.