Fire, fire!

Or rather, what to do if one occurs.

Dai came with the usual small dry powder extinguisher, fair enough but the thought of actually using the thing in such a confined space is fairly horrifying, assuming it actually went off at all. There's a good chance it would be impossible to clean up the residue anyway.

At Crick boatshow was a stall selling a relatively new gas generator (do no stored pressure) extinguisher. Effectively a replacement for the old halon ones, but the gas isn't poisonous or damaging to the environment. Physically is almost the same size so I decided to buy one and fitted it this afternoon. I'll keep the old extinguisher to go back in if I sell in the next couple of years.

Speak to Me

Just a very quick note to keep things complete on here as I did a couple of jobs over the weekend.

The plastic wheel trims were very brittle and fairly grotty and the radio speakers were useless so replacements for both have been on the shopping list for a little while. As I was out and about anyway I resolved to finally get them sorted.

I'd have liked to dispense with the trims and go back to having the wheels visible but realistically to do that they'd have needed full refurbishment and that's not viable. Wheel trims are easy enough to get, but I have a dislike of ones with dummy wheel nuts. I did track some down in an independent shop in Wellingborough though. Unfortunately he had 4" speakers and 6" speakers but not the 5.25" ones that would be a direct fit. A quick check and I decided the larger ones would be OK.

The wheel trims took a few minutes to fit but I managed to crack two of them so not sure how long they'll last. It was entirely my own fault, at least they're so tight there's little chance of them falling off! Cutting the door cards for the larger speakers took a while but they're on and working - I'll find out today just how much of an improvement they are but a quick loud volume test suggested they're very good.

New Valves

Just a quick note to keep things complete. After a brief phone call to ETyres the fitter arrived within the hour and 20 minutes later I had 3 new valves with never a suggestion of a charge. He confirmed anther valve was showing signs of cracking so it's a good job I did ask for all to be replaced.

It's clear that when I had the new tyres fitted the valves weren't replaced. It wasn't the usual fitter on that occasion. I could push for a refund on the earlier repair but to be honest it wasn't very much and I accept these things happen.

Wythall Away

The end of the weekend was reasonably swift, after a not too early start, bacon and egg rolls were soon eaten and I packed up. As I anticipated the new fan heater takes up more room in the seat locker than the old one so I can't get the mains cable in there. It's not a problem, it can live in the other locker and if necessary travel on the floor between sites.

I set the sat nav on "Avoid Motorways" for the journey home partly because of having the spare wheel on and because I felt like it. It was still a reasonably quick and smooth journey back.

Not many conclusions really from the weekend. Having a thermostatic heater is a big gain, even though it was warmer last night it still fired up occasionally. Dropping the roof overnight also helped with the temperature (and the light coming in from an adjacent street light) so I'll look to continue that. Next trip is to Slimbridge and Devon in a month or so - hopefully it'll be warmer by then!

Nice and toastie, but...

The new fan heater made a huge difference overnight. I left it on with the thermostat down lowish, it cut in a couple of times that I noticed (and probably a few that I didn't). Having showered and breakfasted I was contemplating another coffee when one of the "neighbours" came to tell me I'd got a flat tyre. He kindly brought his electric compressor over but it was immediately clear that another valve has failed. The spare is now on and I'll be contacting ETyres on Tuesday - 2 failures in a matter of weeks when they were new tyres less than 2 years ago is unacceptable. 

Having sorted that and cleaned up I walked round to the Transport Museum, expecting Steve to join me. Instead he phoned, the engine warning had come on in his car and it was making horrible noises so he was awaiting the breakdown service. Unfortunately the technical term for the fault was k*******d so all he could do was wait to be recovered. The signs are it might well be terminal as the car may not be with the repair cost. It definitely put a damper on the day and I'd have appreciated the company.

There are a lot of busses, plus some other stuff in the collection. It's mainly Midland Red and its predecessors and successors with a few others.  Overheard early on from a Clippie, "I've lost a bus!" I felt like replying, "Well there are plenty to choose from!"

They also have a small electric vehicle collection, mainly milk floats and vans. We tend to forget that battery propulsion is nothing new, although the technology has improved considerably. I do have a problem these days with commercial vehicles, I automatically eye up the campervan conversion potential! Trouble is I need something that can do more than 30 miles on a charge.

The local engineering society runs a miniature railway around part of the site, as I can't resist a train ride I paid my 60p to be hauled round by a model Black 5. With the weather deteriorating I went and had a pork pie and sandwich, looked round the shop and felt I'd done enough. There wasn't a lot else to do except have a lazy afternoon reading in the campervan.

I was in two minds about just sitting tight for the evening but, with the weather largely holding off, I decided to get a bit more exercise and walk the couple of miles to the pub. I'd left it open as to whether I'd just have a couple of pints or eat dinner as well. It's a Chef and Brewer pub but the menu, including a new British menu for this month is fantastic. It took me two pints to decide what to have! The Hog Roast Burger was badly presented (I.e. it came on a board with the chips in a flower pot) but by Jove it tasted good.

Incidentally, I apologise for the lack of pictures, the software I use doesn't seem to like posting them. They'll go up on the website after I get home.