Prepping Betty

Now that I’ve acquired Betty, it’s time to get her ready for a road trip...a big road trip. So, what’s wrong with her? Well Phil, the previous owner, immediately told me that she needs a new leisure battery (that’s lee-shur not leh-sure as we’d say in Canada). The spare tire has a slow leak as well and she’s also empty on gas, Calor gas which is a type of propane which runs the stove, the heater and the fridge. After taking her camping it was obvious that there was a bit of a leak via the vent in the roof too so that must be tended to as well. There was also the issue that she didn’t sport any curtains in the front or the back and seeing as this would be my home for the next 5 months, I needed to correct that deficiency. Did I mention she also had no stereo? Damn, lots to do....

Sid and I ventured to a few different stores on the bank holiday Monday after the camping weekend (what a great cousin!). Poor Sonia works for an international company, SC Johnson, so she had to work that day. We investigated the stereo options at Halfords but unfortunately since there weren’t even any speakers in her; it wasn’t going to be a quick fix. Thankfully we had figured out that using my iPod with my small battery powered speakers that I normally use in my flight deck of my paraglider could work as the stick-on Velcro on the back of them attached nicely to the carpet right above my head so although the wattage output was negligible, the effect was sufficient. I decided to buy a “sat nav” to help me navigate my way around Europe. I do have a GPS for paragliding but I have struggled to get European maps on it (without paying a fortune) and still, it wouldn’t talk to me as the sat navs do. We also ventured to a tire place and it turned out that the spare tire wasn’t the problem, it was the rim. It was rusted badly and I should get a new one.

The following day, while Sid and Sonia were at work, I set my new sat nav toy to take me to a junk yard where I hoped to acquire a cheap rim for the spare tire. I turned onto Victoria Road, one of the main thoroughfares in downtown Aldershot and had traveled no further than 300 meters from Sid’s place when I noticed a real pull to the left in the steering. I pulled over and discovered that the front passenger wheel was flat! Damn...I was just going to fix the spare, what now? I was parked in a one hour parking spot so first thing was to get a sign in my window to avoid getting a ticket. I had a piece of paper but no pen, however from my challenges of acquiring money to purchase Betty, I knew there was a bank nearby where I could use a byro. Okay, next, find a tire store. From some of the jogs I had taken in the past few weeks I had an inkling of where one might be. Well, I was wrong. I eventually asked a couple of guys where one was and then had to ask yet another woman, an auto parts deliverer, where exactly to go and found that it was probably close to a kilometer away from strickened Betty. No problem, I can do this. So I fished out the short little tire iron and the wimpy looking jack and started to attack the problem. Shit, I can’t even get the hub cap off! I ended up breaking a plastic tip on the jack and parts of the hub cap before a young fellow yelled from across the street “Oi, do you need a hand?”. Well sure. Turns out that Paul was a 17 year old mechanic apprentice with a generous heart. It also turned out that he really was still an apprentice and he initially put the jack in the wrong spot and caused a slight collapse in Betty’s body frame before we repositioned it to a load bearing section. He also busted off a bit more of the hub cap but we finally got it off before finding out that the rusted on nuts would not budge with the pathetic little tire iron. Now what? Well, better get a proper tire iron from a garage. Paul and I tried three different places but either their mechanics were out to lunch or they just wouldn’t accommodate me, even with the offer of leaving my credit card and ID. So we ended up at the tire place, Kwik Fit and almost got the same story there. I finally convinced them to lend me a tool but we first had to wait for job on a military police vehicle to be finished first. Half an hour later and back at the van we were able to get the wheel off and we began rolling it back to the tire shop. Paul took the first half of the trip and I did the second. I was awfully lucky that he had stuck around as rolling the wheel and carrying the large tire iron would have been an extremely difficult solo trick.

It turned out that the flat tire was really due to a rusty rim, the same problem that the spare tire had. The Kwik Fit technician cleaned off the rust on the rim, remounted the wheel, aligned it and sent me on my way. Paul still stuck with me even though I mentioned numerous times that he was free to go. I rolled the wheel back to Betty (which strained my back a bit...I still feel my lower couple of vertebrae from a paragliding accident a few years ago). We got the wheel back on and I thanked Paul for his help and we parted ways. I cruised back to Kwik Fit and got them to do the same trick to my spare tire’s rim which they did for free, so in the end, although it cost me three hours of time, I saved having to buy a rim for the spare tire!

The next major item to get sorted out with Betty was the electrical problem. It’s not that useful to have a campervan that doesn’t have interior lights and no functioning fridge. I called a guy who specializes in campervans and by chance he had an opening the following day so he said he would call me in the morning. I hung out at Sid and Sonia’s waiting for the call even though I had some other errands I could have done in preparation for my trip. Well he didn’t call all morning so in the late morning I tried ringing him (note that I’ve been in England long enough now that I don’t call people, I ring them). There was no answer. I tried again a few hours later and it turned out that he was on a train down to Cornwall, in the southwest point of England, as his mom had just died the night before. I guess it wasn’t a shock to him but still, losing a parent is a major event regardless. So now I needed to find another place to get the van looked at. I called back to the campervan supply store who had given me this first contact and the store owner knew of a guy, but didn’t know his name but gave me some rough directions of where he was. Well this could be fun. I eventually found a conglomeration of a few garages tucked away behind a car dealership. It took me three passes around the block to locate the entrance to them but even still I ended up walking in from a block away as it looked like it would be tough to get Betty back out of the narrow alley way. I eventually found a guy that could work on it but not until early next week, and it was only Wednesday. Luckily he called me back and had some time on Friday. The day before I took the van in, a new problem cropped up. I would park, turn the key, take the key out, and Betty would keep on running. Thankfully it’s a manual so I just popped the clutch to stop her...but something else to get dealt with.

I had a day to kill before being able to take Betty in so I decided to rent a Rug Doctor steam cleaner to get some of the grime out of her. Am I ever thankful that I did. I spent an entire afternoon cleaning and four full buckets of extremely dirty water later, I felt Betty was looking much better. To put it in perspective, it only took me two buckets worth to clean Sid and Sonia’s two bedroom flat!

Well, to finally make this long story short, Betty has been in the garage for a week and everything is now working except for the fridge. One possible solution is to buy a cooler that plugs into the 12 volt outlet, but this isn’t ideal. The guy at the garage, Jerem, is going to take one last attempt at it so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I sure didn’t realize it would take this much effort to get her road worthy, or road trip worthy I guess, but it’s all part of the adventure!