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As always, when it came to leaving the UK there were a handful of jobs that we just had not had time to do. The water tank arrived one week before we were due to leave and we discovered that the specifications in the brochure were incorrect - the tank was 1 cm too wide for the space that we had built! Rather than rebuild the back of the vehicle, we used two 20 litre water containers which, fortunately, fitted perfectly! The electric water filter is positioned at the back of the Range Rover so it is simply a case of carrying one of the water containers around to the back of the vehicle to filter the day's water supply. The water tank has been kept for the next rebuild! Our Sankey radio repair trailer (called Brian - blame the Magic Roundabout!) has worked brilliantly well - it carrys all our diving equipment and the Oceanus compressor loaned to the expedition by Bauer. So far (and touching plenty of wood!) it has given us no problems and has coped well with bumping along over rough ground and potholed roads. The noise inside the Range Rover of the trailer hitch moving around on the towbar is a little disconcerting, but we are getting used to it! We have to check the bolts holding the towbar onto the chassis regularly - we found in Turkey that they had worked loose - but this just gets worked into our normal vehicle checks. Florence has just gone through her first major service and yet another repack - we are getting to a point where we are almost happy with the positioning of all our kit inside the Range Rover, but it will never be perfect! We have discovered that the Range Rover is 2 inches too short to sleep in with any sort of comfort - but, it will do in an emergency (for me, it would have to be a pretty major emergency to stop me sleeping in the comfort of the roof tent!). Fortunately (again, touching every bit of wood within reach) we have had very few problems with the vehicle. I managed to destroy the fluorescent strip light that I use in my 'kitchen' at the back of the Range Rover (I was trying to fix the light at the time and have discovered that I should not be let loose with a soldering iron!) which left me cooking by the light of my head torch. Richard has now fitted four LED's into the plastic box that covers the boot locking mechanism in the upper tailgate - they shed masses of light and work really well - we have a similar set up in the front of the Range Rover. We decided to fit the new alternator in Turkey - although the old one was working fine and we have kept that as back up. Having fitted the new one, Richard discovered that it was not working. OK, problem! Took the new one out, refitted the old one. It worked. Refitted the new one. Not working! Richard, by now, could fit an alternator in a time that would make a Formula One team proud! Baffled, he made an SOS call to Famous Four who, as usual, were extremely helpful - a mechanic went off to fit an alternator in one of their Range Rovers to see if he could replicate the problem - this helped to eliminate potential causes and eventually Richard discovered a loose wire inside the alternator casing. Three months later, it is still working.... We are now battling with a battery problem. The primary battery that starts the vehicle is doing its job properly, but the secondary battery will not hold charge. Richard has spent days checking the charging system and the wiring leading to the equipment powered by the secondary battery and has come to the conclusion that it is a problem with the battery itself. Luckily we are carrying a spare battery in the trailer - charged by a solar panel mounted on the trailer roof - we have swapped batteries and the replacement is holding charge. It remains to be seen what the petrol is like in Saudi Arabia. Apparently it is cheap - £5 to fill the Range Rover, FANTASTIC! - but if it is the same quality as Syrian petrol then Richard is going to have is work cut out getting the vehicle to run properly. If it is the same quality as Jordanian fuel then we shouldn't have a problem. There seems to be some excessive movement in the bushes - we fitted polybushes prior to the expedition - and this caused some of the bolts to work loose. Richard tightened these up and they seem to be holding, but there is still more movement in the bushes than normal - fortunately this does not seem to be causing a problem at the moment. If anyone reading this has any ideas about how to cure this then please let us know! |
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