Our Bob Is An Awesome Bob!

Bob’s asleep for winter under her Just Kampers cover. Come the Spring I’ll start getting her ready for a lot more use next year.

Merry Christmas From Karl, Helen, Alfie, Liesel…and Bob!

Instead of sending cards this year we have made a donation to Crisis, http://www.crisis.org.uk/ but still want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy 2010.

Many, many months ago I promised some pictures from our first holiday outings in Bob.

Here goes…

Playing cards in rainy Wiltshire having been to see Stonehenge on our way to North Devon. Our first night all together in Bob!

Next, at our campsite in Devon with Joolz’s van getting off to a smokin’ start!

It was the first time we’d tried the awning and because we were doing a fair bit of driving around we didn’t attach it.

We went into Exmoor to visit the village Helen’s parents lived in and had a picnic :

but only after a lengthy spell sat behind the locals!

We did the Devon-Essex run in one run which took about 10 hours as I had to keep stopping to rest.

After a day of washing and clearing out Bob we were off again to a woodland campsite in Suffolk. As we weren’t planning to move Bob for the week we fixed up the awning to Bob for the first time. It was very useful, especially as Helen’s sister and her family were camping on the plot next to us and we had lots of bikes and toys to store.

Overall then two weeks of enjoyable camping and 1200+ miles covered without a hitch, made all the sweeter after the problems we’ve had with Bob. She did us proud though and we’re thinking about Europe next year with Liesel!

After last week’s Photosynth effort Murph came along with his snazzy new camera and took 300+ shots of Bob. We fed them into the Photosynth software and…a pretty good effort! I particularly like the button which shows how the software has created an overhead 3D rendering of the area from the inputted photos, so in this case you can make out Bob, the skip, the fence/gate and even bit of next door’s garden. Cool!

I might do an inside-Bob one of these in the future…

A not entirely successful 360 view of Bob on the day before our first anniversary of ownership!

In fact, it’s about a 60 degree view of her because I couldn’t get around the sides properly to take enough pictures. Soon! To see all the pictures I took click on the 9-dot button at the bottom.

A weekend of maintenance on Bob saw us (as in Dad assisted by Helen & I) get loads of jobs done both in readiness for camping and because they really needed to be done.

In no particular order we:

• Checked the front brakes – all good.
• Connected the pipes on the water tank properly so they don’t leak.
• Worked out why the water pump wasn’t working (and identified that it will probably need a return valve).
• Made sure that the oil was OK and at the right level.
• Tested the fridge to make sure it works on gas – it does!
• Put draft excluder on the louvre windows to stop it blowing a gale through the back.
• Did a temporary fix on the clunking wiper arms that stopped the clunking and will keep them going until a permanent solution in the autumn.
• Fixed down the kick plate properly.
• Put together a small spares kit to carry around and checked that the jack worked.
• Did a few small bodywork repairs.
• Gave the windows a proper clean.
• Stopped the rear hatch from rattling.
• Re-aligned the passenger-side door after last month’s fence post accident.
• Made it possible to shut the engine bay lid without having to bang it to with your fist.

In addition to all that we sorted out various electrical issues. The electric windscreen washers have never worked. We were told when we bought Bob that it just needed some water in it, but we filled it up and it still didn’t work. When we pulled back the panel to look this is what we found – a mass of wires and a washer motor hanging loose behind the front panel. The motor was broken. It was simply too old and weak to pump the water up to the washer jets. We went and bought a replacement and fitted it on a hand-made bracket to stop it rattling around.

The wiring was something else. To the left  is a picture of the washer switch, which as you can see had been wired in using speaker cable. Not wanting to leave the dashboard wiring in such a state we went about rewiring various sections and re-routing wires which seem to have been put in without any thought to keeping things manageable and/or tidy. Behind the fuse box we found two still- live wires that had simply been cut off and left untaped and potentially dangerous.

To add to the wiring woes, we found that one of the inside strip lights was overheating and burning its circuits when you switched it on. Thankfully we never used the light, although if we had I hope the amount of smoke it gave off would have alerted us to the danger.

In all, we removed a substantial number of wires that were either dangerous, too long, incorrect or, as was the case a number of times, simply not needed anymore as the components that they had once served had been removed and the wires left for posterity.

Since we’ve owned Bob the number of shortcuts we have found to have been made during her restoration has been alarming but accepted with light-hearted sighs, but when it involves dodgy and potential very dangerous electrics it’s difficult not to have a sense of humour bypass.

On the plus side Bob ran beautifully and barring a loss of main-beam for a stretch on the way home (a loose cable on the fuse board) gave us no problems whatsoever – a fantastic improvement over last time I drove her to Stratford way back in January.

Whilst other parents sat on wet chairs and braved the winds at Cressing Temple I sat smugly in Bob with the side door open and kept warm and dry. And when the rain stopped and the sun came out, Bob just looked cool…

Then we came home via McDonalds, eating our meal at the table in the back of Bob. Fast food has never been such a chilled experience!

Last weekend we again camped on Helen’s dad’s front drive. We’re building up to a camp site slowly!

Also there were Helen’s sister’s family and their T4 Caravelle which they use to travel across Europe (England > Spain > Romania > Hungary > England) during June and July. They very cleverly filled the area behind the second row of seats with custom made boxes as part of a false floor so that, if needed, all four of them could sleep in it. Puts the small trips we’ve made in Bob so far into perspective!

But yesterday we went to Southwold in her and we’ll soon be off camping in Devon and in Norfolk. To celebrate our excitement at this I’ve added a new page called Our Travels upon which I shall record all the places we have visited in Bob. In its own way it’s all very exciting!

With summer here (and the school holidays upon us) plans are afoot for using Bob as much as possible. The battery problems have been sorted by the fitment of a new battery which so far, touch wood, is proving to be trouble free.

As a result we’ve started using Bob rather than the Citroen or Rover. Yesterday it was to take Alfie to archery, today it was raspberry picking.

We’ve got two camping trips lined up – to Devon and Norfolk – and because we didn’t sort out the ferry tickets in time France will be happening later. Before that we’re taking Bob to Dad’s for a once-over service, to fix the leaking washer bottle & realign the passenger door in readiness for campsite activity.

My bought Bob to use for camping and hopefully we’ll have a few (good!) stories to tell come the end of the hols…

One day shy of six months after Bob arrived and she’s finally being used as nature intended. Alfie & his friend George are out in the back garden having a sleep-over. Helen & I shall be trying it out on Saturday and you never know – we might even go to a campsite one day!