225. Something small & something bigger (but small)

AVIGNON

First things first

Setting up Roman and Edward's
garage (left) was also a priority

Took ages to get onto the front locker fix today as first I had to

1. Get the family (sans Roman) away on their Avignon visit.
2. Try and contact Franck 4x4 to check Tuesday's appointment for the Disco coolant issue. 
1. Nice lady in the campsite shop contacted both phone numbers but couldn't get an answer.
2. I wrote an email on the workshop's www page using Google Translate asking about Tuesdays appointment. Yet to hear back.
3. Trying to convince Campingmarkt GmbH on WhatsApp that my large order both in volume and cost is relatively urgent as we have to stay in this camping ground until it arrives. To be fair, with the Disco fault and the front locker, we will be here for a fair bit.

The front locker

First job was to get the course plywood off the floor that had been laid by a previous owner as the factory flooring was thin ply with little support. The ply was attached with numerous tech screws of the same colour as the ply that were really hard to find. Adding to this the new ply had been glued in place. The over-ply had to be removed as the mounting brackets for the front valance were sandwiched between the two sheets of ply.

Matthew cutting the port side

Eventually all the ply was removed, the original sheet carefully cut in two for a template. One end, under the ply was quite rotten which would have necessitated the original repair.

Once the ply was removed it was clear how the frame had dropped, twisting the C beam in the process. Quite surprised how light and poorly designed it is considering the front locker has a one hundred kilogram rating.

There was much debate once we got the original steel removed as to how to best effect a repair. 

1. We can't hang to locker of the original C section as it is now cracked
2. The new steel tube fits perfectly along side the cracked C section but now that it is in place we could see that just running eight millimetre threaded rod through would not provide enough support for everything, including the caravan jacks
3. Welding would be a good option but we don't have one and the plug on site is only six Amp. I remembered seeing one at Brico that was about sixty Euro.
4. We could rest the locker floor on the drawbar.
1. No prepared to drill into it as, well, it is a drawbar and reasonably important
2. The drawbar will move up and down a bit while driving so the floor of the locker will move with it. Q. will this stress / wreck the moulded plastic side panneling?

Mathew (a sparky) sat down to look up the welder spec to determine whether the site power would cope. He determined that as the rig runs at forty eight Volts and up to one hundred and twenty Amps that would be about six Amps plus losses. Going to be close however we are welding thin wall steel so won't be operating at full noise. My concern with arc welding as when the electrode sticks and it will, a lot, will that trip the circuit breaker?

Shopping list

Matthew and I, off to Brico with Roman, Edward and Fyfe. The bargain welder was large and heavy being a wire wound transformer that I would have had to dump once the job was completed. What I hadn't realised was that, of course, arc welders are now run transistors so they are small and light. Settled on a unknown brand welder with mask etc. additional when, a few metres away we spotted a Stanley welder with everything included. It is smaller than a shoe box and light. The packaging says it needs a three kilowatts generator to run it and my inverter is three kilowatts so that is the backup plan. I have quite a grunty mains battery charger with me

Also bought a ten Euro drill as Matthew leaves today and at ten Euro a electric jigsaw was cheaper than the hand saw I was considering. The steel bar I needed to cap the tub was galvanised so no use for welding.

HBTY

Maisey assisted by Edward and Audrey

On the way home I called into a supermarket for Jacqueline as she wanted to give Maisey (1) a Playmobil bus as it is her birthday next week and it has been a great success on other occasions. I left the boys, including Matthew (35), in the Disco and ran in to purchase the gift a couple of other things on the list. Jacqueline and I use Apple notes on our phones for our shopping list so while I was in the supermarket Jacqueline was adding items resulting in my running laps round the supermarket while the boys waited in the car.

Maisey was delighted with her bus after suffering the trauma of having a bunch of Kiwi's enthusiastically surrounding her and singing Happy Birthday.

Floor bars sat in place and
junk piled on top for the night.
Fyfe's tent is storing the locker contents

Most enjoyable combined Last Supper with Claire making choc chip biscuits which we ate with ice cream.