We for the past eight months on the road have had a blissful time on the road no problems really, but there have been some. Problems are part of being on the road long term, resolving them is part of the fun. Any doubts ask a fellow motorhomer, they will help.
In February we had Karen’s electric bike being stolen in Malaga from outside the outside the Malaga tourist office. Out insurance company then pointed out that it was covered as it was parked up. For the record none of our possessions are covered in a vehicle. Though we asked for cover for positions in a motorhome. So Lesson one: Never believe what you are told by an insurance company when you call them. In this case LV, rad the policy and if not suitable you have 14 days where you can get your money back. Would love to hear about a company that will cover you for travel and your possessions while on the road.
David was pickpocketed in Cordoba bus station again in Feb, but this was just bad luck and being careless. It was just getting the cards back to us here in Spain was the issue. The lovely Spanish tenants in or house took them in and shipped them to us in Spain which really was a god send as our back would not ship them to us in Spain only to our home address. It was lucky we had spare cards for other bank accounts or we could have been stranded with money. Anyway this was sorted and no harm done just a little wiser.
But lately our luck as first time motorhomers sort of ran out.
And over the past month, lots of little things went wrong.
Firstly, our wing mirror took a bit of hit, and was reduced to rubble and as it is the off side possibly the most important one here in Spain. Our jury rigged version barely served to get us off slip roads.
But if you need a wing mirror replaced in your RHD UK motorhome you have to get it from the UK. So though the Peugeot garage were very helpful, they tried to fit a local one only to find it would not fit, so they put back on the broken one did not charge us. Advised it might be better to get one shipped down from the UK ourselves as Peugeot UK wanted €600 plus VAT for a €250 part.
So with some advice from fellow motorhomers we went to Wing Mirror Man and they very kindly sent one to us here in Spain for £250. David was able to fit it as the Peugeot dealer had shown him how to do it. The only problem as our NiKi is a 2015 van and the radio aerial is in the wing mirror so it had to stripped down and the old one put into the new one. So here is a little before and after.
Next Karen took a bad fall on an awning peg left behind, this it turned out to be more serious that we thought in that she fractured her wrist leaving her in pain and a cast for 4 to 6 weeks. So more driving cleaning cooking washing up etc. for David. Yet again our LV insurance proved interesting in that yes we are covered, but you must use your EHIC card and if you don’t have one tough. We have so no worries but if you need a second opinion translation services etc. not allowed. LV have to be one of the worst insurance companies I have ever come across.
Then that night we had what they call here a ‘Tormentas’ a thunderstorm and we had a really dramatic one here, that nearly removed our awning breaking off one of the legs. That awning peg could have been handy after all! While jumping out of the Van to reel in awning the wind caught the door and the retaining clip snapped off. Around the back of the van our Flammia bike cover was shredded. It seems that being in use continuously for the past 8 months is not what it is designed for and the fabric had degraded to useless.
We started researching where to get the parts down here, when our luck continued its nice run when the shelves on our Dometic 9 series Fridge failed in quick succession. We have been told that there is a design problem and they will replace them free if you bring it back to your dealer in the UK. But that does not help us.
So a bit of Google work and we found Leisure Spares Ltd and they were able to assist and new shelves, awning post part and pan clips for the cooker all ordered and shipped to a friend in UK and they got them down to us.
We hope this the end of our bad run of luck, but we learn from these little mishaps, more about out motorhome and life on the road.
All in all, we continue to be lucky and careful and learn new things, pull the awning in every night, being one, bike covers only last six months’ outdoors, faults in motorhomes tend to be third party stuff not the manufacturers well in or case so far anyway. We have found motorhomers are very helpful people and will try always to give you good advice point you in the right direction and help you if they can.
It seems by taking this journey we in some ways acquired a new family.
Most importantly Karen is on the mend and thanks you all for your kind wishes.
Jason Buckley says
Fingers crossed you’re on a good run now guys! I’m not sure if you can ever completely avoid stuff like this happening. I managed to rip off the engine guard cover, again, a few weeks back on a curb in Norway and how we’ve not lost a wing mirror on this trip is anyome’s guess! Look after yourselves and keep posting the foodie pics; the Nordic countries are wonderful but pretty bland when it comes to food. Looking forward to getting into Spain in a couple of months or so and ravaging a few menu del dias! Cheers, Jay