Well it’s been a long while since we completed an epic trip around Europe, 2300 miles, taking Holland 🇳🇱, Luxembourg 🇱🇺, France 🇫🇷, Switzerland 🇨🇭, Italy 🇮🇹, Austria 🇦🇹, Lichtenstein 🇱🇮 and Germany 🇩🇪. Traveling on ferries ⛴️, over bridges 🌉, and through tunnels 🚇.
It only took me about three days to start thinking about the next trip. We are thinking about maybe going to Turkey 🇹🇷, other options the Canary Islands in particular Tenerife , we have friends who live there but we’d like to island hop if that’s possible or even Norway 🇳🇴/Scandinavia and possibly even reaching the Arctic Circle 🌨️❄️🏔️. It really depends on when we can manage to get away again. No matter where we decide on, there are plenty of options. Having said all that, it’s taken ages to get around publishing this blog update. The reason it’s taken so long is, there has been many changes with Eddie. I fact Eddie has mutated somewhat. More about that later though. 😉
Owning one of these superb and character loaded vans is as I’ve tried to demonstrate previously is really a serious labour of love. The list of jobs/upgrades is really endless. Sometimes even not even required. 😂🔧
When we became owners of this Eddy, it was obviously feeling a bit sorry for himself and needed a lot of tlc. Not only on the mechanical and body though. The camping side of Eddy needed a bit of an overhaul too though. I’d fitted a new fridge, water tanks, lighting, 12v electrical system, re vamped the 240v system, tap and some of the onboard water pipes. One thing I didn’t do was replace the not working rear mounted shower outlet. I figured I wouldn’t ever be showering with only cold water. 🥶💦💦
In terms of the shower outlet, I realised whilst we were away recently that there is a good reason for this outlet. It may surprise you to find out that it’s not for showering. I just think the shower outlet would be brilliant when washing dishes and just rinsing your hands from time to time. Especially when cooking on the bbq like we did often.
The other thing I noticed whilst away recently was, that 12v usb outlets would be brilliant if they were at the rear of the van for when in bed.
So amongst the job’s needing done between our travels this time is Usb outlets fitting and replacing the none working shower outlet.
I started by fitting Usb outlets. I decided on two twin outlets, one usb and one usb C. I then set I tackled the shower outlet. Ahhh but do you remember me saying the jobs are endless really? Well whilst sorting out the shower outlet, I remembered the water system was never really that great. The water never really flowed properly. When running the taps the water spat and spurted without flowing smoothly. The way to rectify this is to fit an accumulator tank. Rather than simply do just that, I in typical fashion, decided to go for it an completely revamp the whole fresh water system.
I opted to replace all water pipes, pump, fit non return valves, shut off valves, an accumulator tank and new drain valves for both fresh and grey water tanks.
As I may have mentioned on several occasions previously 😂😂, owning a van like this is a labour of love. They always need maintenance and there is so many upgrades can be done to modernise these vans, you keep upgrading and enhancing these vans and never really find a finishing point.
Eddy is very much a labour of love for me, I want the van to be the best it can be. With this in mind, after upgrading the fresh water system and installing the 12v sockets etc, I decided I really needed power steering and electric windows. Before the luxury of power steering etc though, it was MOT time, 😬. As you will know by now, Eddie gets whatever he needs in terms of maintenance, so probably wouldn’t need much to enable him to pass the MOT test. I can’t remember the last time Eddy actually failed the test.
Having said that, being that we’d done a fair amount of miles with Eddy this year, I had some preventative jobs to do which were all MOT relevant jobs. I wanted to renew all the wheel bearings, all brake pipes, rear brake drums, rear brake shoes, hand brake cables and in typical fashion, upgrade the front brakes whilst I was at it.
So, finally we’ve decided on our next move. We are off to Morocco later this month. Three weeks and many many miles, roads, ferry’s, cities, culture, deserts and mountains. We can’t wait to get going.
Watch this space, the next blog update before we head off will an update on the developments of Eddie!
👀👀👀
