Alternator

I decided to look at the alternator today, I did the normal checks and discovered the alternator drive belt was very slack, I might as well  tighten it there and then.
This particular alternator has two bolts holding it in place one is the pivotal bolt and the bottom one is the adjusting bolt, I slackened off the adjusting bolt no problem, but, when I come to slacken the pivotal bolt it was really tight, It was a socket 17mm that fitted the nut, I used brute force but it never shifted, I tried an old trick that has got me out of trouble before although I was taking the risk of snapping the ratchet in my socket wrench.

I found a piece of tube cut it to length and placed it over the handle of the socket wrench and used brute force to undo the stubborn nut, I could see someone had had a go at this nut before as there were some round edges on the nut, as I pushed on the tube I felt the nut crack as it moved, then the whole bolt started moving, I looked in my tool box for an open ended 17mm wrench but I did not own one.
Above you can see stubborn bolt.

I looked up Halfords to see what they had and found what I was looking for, a 17mm ratchet spanner, and a  socket bar to help with stubborn bolts.
Once I had bought these, it was back on the attack to undo this stubborn bolt, I put the ratchet spanner on the bolt and the bar with 17mm socket on the nut, it came undone easily, mind you cracking the nut earlier might have helped.
Now to tighten up the drive belt I lifted the alternator with a piece of tube and done the adjusting bolt then the pivotal bolt. Nice and tight just a little slack in the drive belt.
Next job was to start the engine and see what the Battery charge light does, The motorhome started straight away. I have an alternator tester which I plugged into the cigar lighter, brilliant four lights alight so the alternator was charging but the battery light was still flickering and glowing. I turned the headlights on and the charge lights dropped to two lights and the battery light glowed very bright. I knew I had alternator trouble, I  turned the engine off put voltage meter on battery, it was just over 12.8 volts.

I checked the wiring to make sure no broken wires earthing out everything seemed alright.
I have found an alternator for the motorhome, I shall order it tomorrow, and fit it over the weekend.
I have to pick up Sheilas sister Valery tomorrow from Inverness airport, Valery is staying with us until next Tuesday so I shall not have much time except at the weekend maybe.

Roof top camping

We had an Austrian family come on the site for a day, with a van and a trailer, the trailer was loaded up with bikes, what fascinated me was the tents on top of the van roof and a tent on the trailer.

We are back home now after leaving on Sunday morning and arriving back early afternoon. On the drive home the charging light was glowing bright, and not flickering as it was before, I have checked the voltage and the alternator was pumping 14.8v into the battery, when the engine was switched off I had 12.9 volts in the battery. I did notice that the alternator belt was slack so I might get away with tightening it up.
Otherwise it means a new alternator which I have found on the web.
talking about finding parts on the web I have found a parts specialist for my motorhome so I can order the parts I need for doing my own maintenance.

I have some other checks to do before we set off again, The water heater, and the fridge too, I might get away with using the gas on the fridge until I decide which way to go as regards fitting a new fridge.
The passenger seat like the drivers seat is on a metal box and is a little  high for sheila her legs are an inch or so off the floor, and it makes her a little insecure. so I am going to make a wooden foot rest for her.
Also I am working on an idea for foot boards in the shower tray.
One success, was the bio gel washing liquid in the cassette toilet no chemical smells, just a nice flowery odour and it works a treat on breaking up the solids even after a couple of days.
Now i am planning another trip away a little further this time maybe down to Loch Morlich and Glenmore forest for three or four days back home for three days then off again to Rosemarkie on the Black Isle for dolphin watching, the campsite is right on the beach overlooking the Moray Firth.
the have a resident pod of Bottlenose dolphins that swim past at least once a day.

Rain and more Rain

Once again its raining here, we sure have had some these last few days, it doesnt help with my internet connections.
Quiet a few campers left this morning and a few have come onto the site, there are some very expensive motorhomes here just now, in fact its like being camped at Cape Canaveral at the moment, we have two large Caravans and a Motorhome with Satellite dishes on their roofs pointing towards the sky. I wonder if they can get the internet with them.
I have freeveiw TV on my laptop but I havent watched much since last Monday.

Last night we had lots of rain again plenty of it, When I took Tara for her morning walk the path was flooded with water draining off a field like a river.

Relaxation

We are on holiday, so we like to relax, after the morning chores are done, Sheila will play her games on her pad or on her computer, she communicates with her friends and relations. she also likes to sit and watch whats going on around her.
I like to write, especially this blog,taking photos of my surroundings and when we are near anything historical I enjoy visiting them.
My other passion is hiking with Tara my dog and chilling out with her, she is great fun and a good friend to have around.
Although at this site we do not get much chance to hike just a small walk for dog walking. Google Earth is another medium I use to explore roads and wild camping spots, also I have electronic maps of the areas I am due to explore. my electronic gadgets I use fro relaxation are as follows my iPad, iPhone Sandisk clip mp3 player 8GB, also I have an Archos MP4 tv palyer but the tv was non digital so that died but I have downloaded loads of music on there, mostly Country and relaxation music, depending on my mood, it has stacks of room on there about 74GB, I have used about 6GB so far. also i have my MiFi we use for getting wireless from 3g

Sheila has her main computer at home so she uses her laptop whilst away, she also has her Samsung Galaxy which she uses for games like Angry Birds, which she enjoys playing with, a very dear friend mentioned the game to me I play it and passed the information to Sheila and downloaded it down to her Pad.

Everyday story of camping folk continued

I was chatting to another guy this morning, he was asking about our motorhome and mentioned he used to drive one before buying a caravan, I mentioned that I would consider a caravan but the thought of towing one scares me.
He said that towing didn't worry him, then he told me he was 80 years old and still going strong, I think Sheila would like to have a caravan, but when I asked her where would we park it, as we have a small area allocated to us which we use for her car.
Also I want to wild camp and I think that would be hard with a caravan.
Yesterday late afternoon another autoquest motorhome pitched opposite us. This one was a little longer than ours and about 3 years younger than our one, the lady driver was very good at parking the motorhome considering we don't have the luxury of power steering.
This morning I talked to the lady and her partner, another lady, we compared notes, they asked me if I had any problems with the motorhome, I said so far only with the fridge tripping out electrics. I also mentioned the slight flicker on the battery light on the dash, they told me they have the same on there motorhome, and keep an eye on the zig box which tells you the state of motorhome battery and starter battery. And like ours it's mostly in the green.

Every day life of camping folk

Speyside campsite attracts lots of nationalities. We have German and Danish campers here at the moment. But we all have one thing in common, well some of us do, we like to gossip, swap stories and talk about where we have been and what our plans and dreams are.
On Monday a lady camper van driver turned up and pitched opposite us. And yesterday whilst out walking with Tara the lady was out walking her dog a 14 year old spaniel, we passed the time of day and started talking about our motorhome and camper vans, she had bought her van when she had retired 6 years ago, and loves every minute of it, her ambition is to drive around Scotland and England, she thinks the v camper she drives has been round the clock twice since she has owned it and it's still going strong.
We then turned to places we had been like she had been to Applecross which until a few years ago the only way in was the drovers road over the top of very high hills. I mentioned that is one place we would love to go but I would only go by the new road, she replied the new road was just as bad as the drovers road, you need nerves of steel up there with hairpin bends and a vertical drop on one side, no I said Sheila would not have that, she would be jumping into my lap all the way there, it's bad enough on a narrow road road when a truck comes in the opposite direction, she then said the road is single lane all the way up.
She then asked me had I done the outer Hebrides yet, I said no but I intend to, it's a trip worth doing she said, try and book an island hopping ticket it's much cheaper, and gives you the freedom to travel all the way up and back to the mainland up on the west coast of Scotland, she recommended going from Skye from a place called Uig which has a campsite you can use before getting the small ferry across.
This little bit of information had got me intrigued and I am intending going next spring, when the long days start.

More Problems

Richard suggested I try propane gas to chill the fridge,  I wasn't happy to do this for a couple of reasons one being I could not find where you check the pilot light, also I did not know when the burners had  last been cleaned, this would be another job to check out when we got home along with checking out the mains electric to the fridge.
I was not unduly worried about the fridge, I could get freezer blocks each day from the shop which would help keep milk butter and cheese cool, the main worry I had was meat I had put into fridge frozen, would it go off if the fridge warmed up a little.
The lesson with the fridge had taught me one thing and that was alternative foods like dried powdered milk, tins of meat etc.
I have managed before without a fridge in my last two motorhomes, I had purchased a cold box to keep milk cool, but I wasn't very happy with it.
The transit motorhome had nothing. I used powdered milk and tins of meat in that motorhome.

The cascade water heater runs on gas too, but I didn't think it worth running that as I could boil water in the kettle when on site hooked up to power, but when we are off the grid I shall probably heat water on the gas stove we shall see.
Another job I shall try at home to see if it does work on gas.
Sheila my partner had bought a new topper for the bed at home and wanted to throw the feather topper out, I grabbed it and it fitted my bed above the cab, I have slept very comfortable these last two nights so I am not complaining.
Today has been a mixed day weather wise sunshine and showers plus a thunderstorm too.
We used up the ground beef tonight in a Spaghetti Bolognese  very tasty and very good. No after affects as of yet.

Back at Camp Speyside

We arrived back at Speyside campsite last Sunday afternoon, on a lovely sunny day and hot with it too.
I haven't written in a while as I have been busy working on motorhome.
One of the jobs I have done is prepared for another leisure battery to be installed along with the  the original battery to go under my seat which is sitting on a box.
I purchased a four way fuse box, the snap in fuse type, so I can connect the two 110 Ah batteries together to give me 220 Ah, which would give me adequate power for the 12v I am using at the moment when I am off the grid.
Photos will follow on the work I have done up to now.

I also have completely flushed out the fresh water tank to get the smell and taste of chlorine sanitiser I used to clean out the tank, and pipes to taps.
I am also trying out Bio washing Gel in the toilet tank, I have read in various blogs that this is a highly recommended way to break down waste and leave a fresher smell in the toilet.

Back to the campsite, as I said we arrived Sunday afternoon found a pitch with hookup and parked up there after connecting hookup first job is to put the kettle on for tea. As the kettle boiled I swithched the Fridge onto mains, click kettle went off, oh dear looks like fridge and kettle on had tripped out the power, I went to the power box reset the trip, walked back to motorhome turned fridge on again click tripped out again, I went over to see Richard the site manager to report a dodgy power box, the last time we were here we had no problems with fridge, so it must be the box.
Richard came over with his little tester, he tested the box every thing OK we reconnected hookup  and switched the fridge back on same thing power tripped, we concluded there was a fault on the fridge.