341. Braced

EGING, GERMANY

Similar Hobby chassis on eBay

Cracks above the door were today's priority. During the night I realised that the only way for the door frame to be cracking was that the chassis of the Giantavan is bending or cracking. Spent quite a while thinking how I would effect the repair. Grovelling underneath after breakfast I was very surprised to see how simple the chassis is and I was unable to find any sign of cracking or bending. On reflection, the biggest road is while travelling and stopping for lunch the six of us sit jump around in the very back, four metres behind the wheels with the front of the trailer hitched to the Disco, six metres in front of the pivot point. New rule.  I will put the rear jacks down when stopping for lunch, after putting the Giantavan's park brake on so that we don't drag the jacks down the road when on the move again.

Roman's countdown calendar

Very excited that we are to catch up with Matthew Claire and Edward again at the end of the month, somewhere near Salzburg. Roman was so pleased that he immediately went and made a countdown calendar similar to the previous Grandma countdown calendar.

Testing the spars

Attaching the new reinforcing panel above the door was today's priority. Had bought three packs of high bond, two pack adhesive. Fyfe and I used the random orbital sander while hand holding the panel so as not to mark it then smeared over a liberal application of the adhesive. Once that was done I again wire buffed the caravan to remove any oxidation and applied adhesive to that area also. In hindsight I wish I had waited an hour as when the faces were bought together the displaced glue started running out. Thats the problem for us amateurs, too many first times. 

Took three in the end

Frantic applications of sellotape kept most of it in but No idea how much is at the top there the biggest tension is. Spars with water bottles hanging kept the pressure on nicely though I didn't think to protect the panel from the movement with the family jumping around inside.

Late in the day we headed to the camping shop near Passau for a new inductive cooker as ours has failed and I didn't keep the French receipt when I purchased it. Shop not as good as previous ones but got toilet chemical and a new kitchen tap as the current one leaks, no waterproofing for the awning unfortunately. Got an inductive hob at an appliance shop nearby and wireless headphones for Jacqueline.