My Dethleffs Story So Far
Here's a story from one of our members.........
They are off to Portugal later this year. Read on......
We are really new to this . We purchased the motor home two years ago ,not really knowing what we were doing. There were certain problems with it that I did not know about until I purchased it. At one point I was advised to get rid of it . I liked it though and have slowly put thinks right . Then I started to have problems finding spares. I went to some caravan place in Basildon Essex and got the response that " Oh dear you don't expect to be able to get bits for that its to old best get rid of that". At this I started to think may be I made a mistake paying £11500 for a 1991 Dethleffs Peugeot/Talbot J5. 2.5 turbo diesel with 86000 kilometres on the clock . This is a six berth with a fixed rear double bed mid dinette and over cab double. The vehicle has air con , fridge gas hot plate . Gas heater and a hot water boiler. I still liked it and started to get things done they way I liked them. It is now fitted with cameras to the rear and the right side to give me good views from the interior mirror which is now a monitor. The idea when buying the vehicle was to use it when I retired in 2005 to explore Portugal and live in it. My wife Anne has always been wanting to do this. Except when I actually got it she was worried by the size and always made excuses not to use it and it stayed parked up for almost all of two years. However earlier this year we took three of our grand children to Alton Towers in it and had a great time. Then Christmas came along and Anne agreed to us going to Portugal in it on our own for Christmas. Well we did and I drove all the way. We left 1900hrs on Thursday 20th December 2007 and arrived in Quarteria Portugal on Sunday 23 December 2007 at 0830hrs. The journey was great and we enjoyed it. The camp site was fantastic and all the people we met on the site were friendly and most living in their Motor Homes . This has taken away all Anne's fears and we hope to be going to Portugal to fulfill our dream in May / June this year. Part 2: (added February 2008) Well we had our first proper outing in the Motor home. Travelling to Portugal for Christmas was a great success . We paid £100.00 for our trip out on the train to Calais. This took about 35 mins and we arrived in Calais just after midnight Friday morning. It was dark 5 degrees below and freezing fog. This is my first time driving abroad so you could call it a baptism of fire. Fortunately we were following friends who were in a van . We drove for a couple of hours and then pulled into a garage for fuel , This was my first experience of places to stop for a rest ,pity we don't have places as good as this in England. So after a couple of hours kip we were on our way. We travelled through France stopping whenever I felt tired we stopped and I slept for about half an hour. I crossed into Spain at San Sebastian what a great drive we were having. My friends and I then split to go onto our respective destinations. The toll roads are very good value and having so many places to stop for rests and refreshments makes travelling easy. The motorhome performed great and I kept a record of the mileage and Litres all the way there and back. The miles per gallon worked out at 30 per gallon ,which I didn't think was bad. I generally averaged 110 k per hour. We arrived at Quarteria Portugal at 0330hrs on Sunday morning having left our home in Bishops Stortford Herts at 1910hrs on the Thursday night. Again not bad I thought. The weather was great and we enjoyed our first Christmas in the motorhome my wife Anne loved the whole experience and is now convinced that hopefully at the end of July we will set of for good in it to Portugal as we have always talked about doing.She is now really comfortable living in the motorhome. After arriving back I decided to carry on with my plan to upgrade the equipment in the Motorhome. I took the motorhome to MG Caravans at Caxton Hill Hertford. This as you may recall is the company I have previously mentioned as a friendly family concern. I typed up a list of wishes and suggestions a left it for them to advise me. The result of this is as follows : I had the following items replaced with the latest models , New boiler now gas and electric , gas oven ,New fridge gas,electric,12v.New gas hot plates smoke glass top, New sink drainer smoke glass top, New heater gas /electric. Solar panel fitted, new shower tray in bathroom. New locks all round, The windows were all reseated and new blinds fitted. New thirteen amp sockets .The seals in all the bodywork joins were scrapped out and replaced. The bathroom was all resealed. The bonnet was refitted and new gas bottle retainer straps.The water tank has been chemically cleaned . The body work has also been really well cleaned. The outside has had orange reflectors and side indicators fitted. This entailed rewiring ,new work top and some other refitting of wood work. I also had one of the two radiator fans rewired due to a fault and the batteries were apparently incorrectly wired so this was put right. The whole job took about ten days. I am absolutely delighted with the results. The price well it sounds a lot but the hours and equipment and my motorhome is fantastic. So the price £9880.00