spirou
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Posts posted by spirou
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Diesel heating without any regret or doubt. So infinitely easier to drive around aimlessly when you're not tied to finding a gas refill station every week or less. It's a bit like range anxiety with BE cars, gas always runs out on a weekend/public holiday far from any refill options.
But I guess it doesn't matter if you're only doing weekends and warm seasons.
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Green zones are quite widespread across many cities in France and from what I've seen enforcement must be very lax, hence my comment.
Agree it's no big deal to get one but sometimes time pressure or other factors intervene and in such cases I wouldn't lose sleep over it.
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In my experience on french roads I wouldn't bother if getting it requires too much effort. Even locals mostly don't.
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On 27/09/2023 at 20:10, Nick the wanderer said:
Hi,
well re the HGV they have been fitted to those for quite a few years. I hated them but you were able to turn them off, we were advised against it in incase of accident etc, but anyway the HGV driver would be experiencing the same feeling as you, being gripped by the seatbelt and everything else in the cab heading toward the windscreen!
Judging by a recent fatal accident nearby, and recalling several similar ones, where an HGV driver was apparently busy with things other than driving and missing the obvious, very visible standing traffic on the straight motorway, it does not seem to be a widespread system or it is routinely turned off.
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I'm thinking our peugeot 2.0 is using the worse case scenario mentioned above and it's done only about 90k km in 4 years. While in my toyota car with 360k km in 15 years there's a change of barely a few mm on the dipstick between change intervals. I wish Toyota made MH base vehicles 😁
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Don't need a ferry to Pag, there's a bridge. Also, not all of it is a club. Mostly limited near Zrće beach.
That said, Pag is just easy to get to, plenty of other more interesting islands around.
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Dubrovnik hasn't been worth a visit since late 90s. Covid was a brief window into old times. Kotor was a nice(r) alternative for a while but that's also ruined by cruisers. Split...was always just a ferry transit point for me and walking around old town during the wait is something I've been skipping for at least 20 years now.
Anyway, my parents just came back from Hvar, Makarska, Split etc. a few days ago and didn't mention any unusual crowds. September and October are mostly nautical high season though.
If you're looking for Brits in Croatia you just need to go to Zadar airport and up to Zrće on Pag. Just doubt you'll enjoy the company of drunk party goers.
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As Brian says, bora/bura/burja is no joke, especially around Senj. Here's a video of a friend (in red/black jacket) and some other storm chasers at Nehaj fortress in Senj recording a max gust of 205km/h.
Max I've experienced is just above 100km/h in winter and that was interesting. Since it blows towards open sea it's especially problematic for tourists on paddleboards, floating unicorns etc. I'm going to add nothing remotely similar is in the forecast next 2 weeks.
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The only "danger" of crossing Bosnia through Neum are the roaming charges. I got a 5€ extra on my work phone as I forgot to turn it off and received a photo on viber or something during those 10min...had to pay it back as it wasn't a work trip 😉
Absolutely nobody cares about your insurance or food. But they do somewhat care about alcohol, tobacco etc. brought into EU from Bosnia, Albania or Montenegro. Enough to ask at least.
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Enjoy. Some afternoon showers/storms coming in on Thursday but otherwise nice weather continues.
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Since only a fraction of vehicles in France bother with crit'air, and there is nobody checking this anywhere, I wouldn't worry too much about it.
I was recently in south and east of France on vacation, then work, and I paid specific attention to this as I didn't have one on my company car. Some of my coworkers are in Strasbourg and Paris every few months and none of them has even heard of this sticker. No fines ever came either over past several years they've been going there regularly.
The whole scheme seems more like a non issue, regulation that never actually got enforced.
Seems to be nearly the same with the german equivalent. Many more cars have it though. Yet enforcement, at least on foreign vehicles, seems non existent.
Unless you have the time to order them, not much of an expense really, I wouldn't bother.
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A thin wire will limit the current by itself. Just not sure what you're trying to gain here as the spare battery won't be much higher voltage (if at all) and with inevitable voltage drop, won't be charging for very long.
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Isn't a 2020 peugeot a 2.0 engine rather than 2.2? Our 2019 is at least.
Anyway, noticed ours started being very oil thirsty over the last year. It's just done 6000 km over the past couple of weeks after service and had to add 2 liters. BTW Those little dots that show oil level before your turn the engine on seem to be pretty much 1 dot = 1 liter.
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Can you give it a test run a few days earlier? Turn on all the lights etc. for a few hours as a worst case scenario and see how long it will last. Obviously don't base your decision on voltage under load/charge, measure also after the batteries are rested about an hour or more (at night).
Given you have a solar panel and it's summer it should be OK either way if you park in the sun.
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Latest updates by the actual tourist office 😂
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It should work just fine for such emergency use
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Some 20 years ago I learned that tourism is definitely not my career after only very brief exposure to the life of a tour operator representative on a greek island. No thank you 😂
I just like outdoor activities in places rarely/less visited
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Been otherwise occupied but here goes a few nice places in areas that have not been affected by the floods. Be aware that many (mountainous) places are still completely cut off or accessible for emergency use only. Current info on road closures is on https://promet.si/en (also available as an app)
One short and sweet hike with a viewing tower near the village of Hrastovlje mentioned by Brian:
https://www.hike.uno/mountain/lacna/26/1705On the other side of the village you have an entire ridge/cliff line with several "peaks". Examples:
https://www.hike.uno/mountain/jamprsnik/26/780
https://www.hike.uno/mountain/zjat/26/1707An excellent view over the coast is right on the border with Italy (you can drive all the way up via small road)
https://www.hike.uno/mountain/socerb_castle/26/844If you're cruising on your e-bikes I would highly recommend a tour on the Parenzana along the coast
https://www.parenzana.info/home.html (different sections possible)On your motorcycle, a more varied tour of small hilltop villages in the rear of the coast e.g. Pobegi - Marezige - Pomjan - Koštabona - Padna - Korte - Seča
Away from the coast and more likely to spot wolves than people, another nice ridge
https://www.hike.uno/mountain/volovja_reber/26/1226A similar idea as above, note it can be very windy but very nice meadows:
https://www.hike.uno/mountain/vremscica/26/571Cycling/paddling/swimming around Lake Cerknica
https://www.notranjski-park.si/en/nature/natural-sights/lake-cerknicaOne of my favorite day trips with a river, caves, natural bridges...
https://www.notranjski-park.si/en/nature/natural-sights/rakov-skocjan-valleyMust sees along Soča river
https://www.hike.uno/mountain/the_large_kozjak_waterfall/1/403
https://www.hike.uno/mountain/great_soca_gorge/1/427
https://www.hike.uno/mountain/the_mlinarica_river-beds/1/424Kolovrat ridge, WW1 open air museum with amazing views
https://www.soca-valley.com/en/in-search-of-adventure/culture/2021011121433003/kolovrat-outdoor-museum/
Fort Hermann
https://www.soca-valley.com/en/in-search-of-adventure/culture/2021010610355699/kluze-amp-fort-herman/ebike ride up to our highest pass (otherwise a toll road, closed for vehicles above the hut due to landslide taking out the road years ago)
https://www.hike.uno/mountain/mangartska_koca/1/93Another hike from a pass (and a campsite/aire/hut with nice restaurant)
https://www.hike.uno/mountain/slatnik_northwestern_peak/1/290Possible challenge
https://www.hike.uno/mountain/blejska_koca_na_lipanci/1/76
and extension to one of the peaks above the hut
https://www.hike.uno/mountain/brda/1/263Hut hike
https://www.hike.uno/mountain/koca_na_ljubelju/11/322And on the other side from the same trailhead:
https://www.hike.uno/hiking_tour/ljubelj_koca_na_prevalu_bornova_way/11/294/414
(if you like sweet stuff, order štruklji with chocolate at the hut)Nice views near Ljubljana
https://www.hike.uno/mountain/sveti_jakob/5/119
https://www.hike.uno/mountain/sveta_ana/26/527Nice views, very short hike possibly on the way to Bled
https://www.hike.uno/mountain/sveti_primoz_in_felicijan_jamnik/21/1697Kolpa river canyon between Osilnica and Vinica has plenty of nice things to see and a bunch of campsites. Also nice bike tour along the river.
https://www.metlika-turizem.si/en/portfolio_page/reka_kolpa_kampi-en/Pohorje mountain range between Maribor and Slovenj Gradec has lots of possible easy hiking/cycling routes. A nice combination of both would be from Areh to Lobnica canyon
https://www.hike.uno/hiking_tour/ruska_koca_na_arehu_veliki_sumik_waterfall/4/916/8764A nice short hike with a very Scandinavian feel
https://www.hike.uno/hiking_tour/dom_na_osankarici_crno_jezero_on_pohorje/4/918/1597simple bike tour (with a cable car to get you on the ridge from Maribor)
https://www.hike.uno/hiking_tour/pohorje_cable_car_ruska_koca_na_arehu_via_razglednik/4/842/1576Another nice view and slightly longer hike
https://www.hike.uno/mountain/boc/11/543All the way in the east there are many thermal baths, quite popular with the motorhome crowd is this one:
https://bioterme.si/en/ lots of flattish bike tours in the area as wellI'm probably waaaay to long by now so I'll stop it here.
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Was thinking of writing an update but didn't want to hijack an insurance thread 🙂
Long story short, after several weeks of intermittent short and intensively windy localised thunderstorms (even a tornado a few days ago) like the rest of the Alps, this rain event since Thursday and its floods are quite possibly the most extensive in known history. Several rivers came near or surpassed recorded flows and obviously the associated resulting flooding. The difference this time is not just the individual river levels, there were terrible floods before, even recently, but that it affected pretty much the entire country. That flood wave is now also affecting Croatia and further towards Serbia where they didn't really have that much rain if any. That said, northern dalmatian coast and all the tourists in campsites had some "fun" times yesterday evening.
I'm in the part of Ljubljana where we were mostly lucky (unlike 2010/14) also due to some recent major flood prevention measures. But it was close. About 15cm below the edge close. Northern/eastern parts of Ljubljana along river Sava were less fortunate but again, not nearly as much devastation as many other places near and far. I personally know quite a few people who didn't have the same luck.
Some places are and will be unreachable by road for quite some time, even some motorways were flooded and closed until recently.
Some news in English but I not much more than I've seen released by Reuters etc. Local news are all about the floods if anyone is really interested.
https://sloveniatimes.com/slovenia-under-water/
https://sloveniatimes.com/damage-after-apocalyptic-flooding-to-pass-e500-million/Hrastovlje... I'm afraid I can't help much other that it's in the area that hasn't been affected by flooding. And while I've been in/thru the village several times I'm just not interested in that painting to ever bother taking a closer look. Anyway, there are many worthy places rarely visited by tourists of any kind, if anyone would like some personalised suggestions. It depends on available time and interest in what you want to see/do. And obviously, how fast they recover from these past few days.
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The only relevant voltage reading you get is under no load/charge e.g. at night with everything turned off. 13V during day time is largely irrelevant, it's what the panel is putting out but not real SOC of the battery.
In any case, even under 2x weekly light use regime, if you're only seeing 13V it's not enough. 13.2V is considered a storage charging voltage, most chargers maintain even higher float charge, around 13.6-8V.
Also, this is in summer. You're not going to see 1W out of that panel during winter. As a reference, a few years ago over xmas in south of Finland, I got a max! of 8W at mid sunny day out of 320W of solar panels on the van.
10W would be OK for some LED lighting etc. in that office but not much more if you want to keep that battery healthy for a while.
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Pretty much entire country is underwater to some degree. Most extensive damage so far in the north. Bled possibly included although I haven't seen any reports from there specifically and it's not directly impacted by any river or stream, but areas just outside most definitely are. Current storm system is passing to the south of Ljubljana and more is to come until tomorrow evening.
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I'm going to guess the combined standby power draw of inverter, printer and anything else is more than that little panel can provide at best of times.
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Not to alarm you but we're having some major floods in Slovenia right now.
Including washed away MH as per the news, photo attached
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Not sure this is visible to the public but some people in Sudtirol will have to wait a while before they get into their vans. Unlike winter, you can't just wait until the snow melts https://fb.watch/m6h8673oTy
Watch where you park when the weather is as bad as it has been past few weeks!
Truma diesel or gas heater ?
in Motorhome Matters
Posted
Comparing a gas Truma 6e previously, to a Webasto Air Top now I'd say there's no significant difference in noise levels (in or out), power draw or heating effectiveness. You do lose on water heating but that's easily solved. Also can't hear any pump clicking I often see mentioned.
The only downside is that sometimes you can smell it outside if you're close and downwind of the exhaust. But that's also not too bad.
No experience with Truma 6d but given the option I'd take it over the gas version.