[JanHank]

Goodness only knows when Auto-Trail will send the parts and the devil only knows when they will get here so I´m back to thinking it may be wise for me to get another van, howsomever which make.
There is no other van this side of the water like my Navajo, all have fixed beds for a start cutting down on my daytime space, I can´t find one with flat flooring, the ones I have seen all have steps inside and steps up to the beds at the back. It must be single beds not a double. Does anyone have any ideas for me? My licence covers C1, but I don´t want a bus, just a 2 berth motorhome. Any tips please.

This is the Navajo layout.

 

[JanHank]

I have thought about renting Ray, but 2 days wasted packing things in

The drop down bed that we had in our Hymer B544 was an absolute must on our shopping list. Always ready to just fall into bed and no bed making and unmaking.

But that's a double bed Pat. 2 singles is a must, climbing up a ladder is not for me.

 

[JanHank]

I think we might have been there before Jan but buying another van just for temporary use is a little OTT.
If the Navaro suits you then why not just use the car for now and book in as you go or even rent for one journey.?
I assume the registration process won't be easy.Ray.

Yes we have Ray about 4 months ago, look at all the days out I have missed since then, If I´d had a motorhome of my own there have been a few winter meets with my German lot, or I could have joined some of them in Spain for a few months, I am just worried by the time I get mine back I'm going to have less and less time to enjoy it,
I´m not getting any younger as much as I kid myself 😁.
I remember what Hans said when we bought this one from England, we would have needed to wait a long time to get a LHD, then Auto Trail told us about this one, used for demonstration and £5,000 off, now that was a difficult task registering it here, a lot of running about, but buying one here the dealers do it all for you.
-------------------------------------
Alan & Barry
All so so easily said, it is in the hands of the insurance as far as paying for the repair which is up to the value of the van, the repairer is responsible for ordering the parts, but of course although he orders them it had to be done through me because of the language, all the parts have different names in German so Roger who I have talked about before, had to translate the German into English, I ordered and paid for the parts in £ from England that will be repaid to me by the repairer in € when the job is complete, he would pay me now if I asked. There can be no progress until we get the parts from the UK, the door, skirt, wheel arch trim and a few more bits. It isn´t the fault of the insurance or the repairer but Auto-Trail and Brexit.
Roger will be back in the country on Saturday, (From Florida) he will be helping me with everything as he speaks good German not pigeon German like me.🙁

 

[JanHank]

First of all the question about LVM taking over has been asked and refused, that comes from the agent not a broker.
I will get Roger to go back to them, he can talk to the head office and see what they have to. say.

The person in charge of the department tells me they have a few bits, which bits I have no idea because the whole order has to be there before they send it.
Roger has already dealt with some paperwork for the customs this end, he has knowledge of what to do as he has also brought stuff over from the States for the big buses.
I wish I had remembered to turn that bloody fridge off at the garage, it was only left on because the next day I was leaving Heike´s and going further to another meeting and I didn´t switch it to battery because I was only going a couple of km to the shop and fill with diesel & GAS

 

[JanHank]

Sorry I must alter what I said, the insurance said they wouldn't send it to the UK.

 

[JanHank]

Well that at least should mean that they will pick up any unexpected import costs.

It´s a good company Alan, they paid everything when Hans put petrol in the tank instead of diesel.

 

[JanHank]

Our van needs a part. It is Mercedes but nearly all the parts come from China now. We have been waiting six months or more. All they say is that it is common for all parts to take this long! It is the emissions sensor so not a major thing but still annoying.

I wonder, have these things always come from China? Tynevalleymotorhomes told me Auto Trail also have trouble getting parts from China, but they are electrical things not my kind of parts.

I have just finished writing an email to Auto Trail direct, hopefully they won´t take too long to answer.

I will have a look at what you have added John.

 

[JanHank]

Autotrail are now owned I believe by the Trigano group a rather large European company, having said that on another well read motorhome forum Autotrail have a bad reputation for supplying parts.
I did mention some while ago to you Frankia FF2 I think it would suit your requirements, have a look at this one Link not the best example but have a look at the pictures and see what you think.
This one Link is a bit newer and the 4 bed version, it has a drop down double over the seating area, may not suit and both seem a bit overpriced.
Have a look around the mobile.de site they have huge amounts of adverts.

Thank you John.
The 2 berth has been bashed about a bit, a repair already been made on the back and whatever has he done to cause the damage on the side.
My little Dog won´t like travelling in the back of those John, he is on the seat behind me in the Navajo.
I don't like the layout with the kitchen behind the cab seats even if I didn´t have Motley. There is also a step down into the cab, another dislike of mine.
There is really nothing to replace my lovely Navajo layout for me.
I will see what the answer is about my parts from Auto Trail. Tyne valley told me it isn´t my kind of parts that are hard to come by but electrical stuff.
The things were ordered and paid for 8th November, Christmas and New Year in between causing some delay I suppose,

 

[JanHank]

I am afraid you are suffering from the the way all manufactures work today with just in time manufacture a minimum invenotry of spares i am suprised the repairer did not go down the route of having the plastic body parts made in fibreglass using the old parts to make a pattern but maybe the old parts are too damaged to make a mould

They were rather distorted, looks even worse than the picture shows. it was very lucky the window was undamaged, but the door is very distorted the fly screen a mess, this was the main problem some bits he could restore himself and he has only ordered the necessary things. I trust him, he is a good bloke.

 

[JanHank]

Yes he will change the door and frame it will come as a unit it is possible to make a mould using the parts on the opposite side if they are identical and just handed but its a lot of time and expensive

It`s the habitation door not the cab door Bill. No good talking about what could have been done anyway. I just have to wait and hope it doesńt take too much longer.

 

[JanHank]

Thank you Graham, that name rings a bell, he may be the person who told us where to find our Navajo. i will email him today.

 

[JanHank]

Jan
Have you tried emailing someone senior at Auto-trail?

Dione that, just sent an email to Dave Thomas so that's 2 emails they have had from me within 24 hours.

And while typing that I had an answer, probably from his secretary, but an answer it is.

Morning Janet,
Thanks for your mail.
I will forward it to our Dealer Support Manager, who looks after all dealer / customer activities to pursue on your behalf.
Regards,

		Dave Thomas Managing Director T: 01472 571 000 | | www.auto-trail.co.uk Trigano House, Genesis Way, Europarc, Grimsby, DN37 9TU

 

[JanHank]

Hi Jan, hope you hear good news on your parts/van soon, was it RHD? If you don't and you need to buy local why not do your research on mobile.de? Just looked there are at the moment over 46K motorhome/campers on it. It’s got lots of filters to refine the search, you should at least be able to identify what makes/models available in Germany that would suit your needs. There is a toggle to have the site in English.

https://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/search.html?isSearchRequest=true&s=Motorhome&vc=Motorhome&ref=srpHead&refId=9f4cd3d8-44fa-e09e-f828-5b7fddfffa87

Thanks Dick, I had another email from them a short time ago.
I think it was written by a junior, what a daft thing to. say, who wouldn't be keen to get anything repaired let alone a motorhome.

It is a RHD, when we bought it Hans didn´t want to wait a year for a LHD to be completed, he said he was not a young man (75) and wanted to enjoy it for as long as he could, so we had a RHD. Now I say the same thing, I don´t have too many years left and I want to enjoy it as much as I can before it´s too late. I will have a look at what you have given me though.

Thank you for your email.
I have taken a look into your order and we are waiting for parts to come in from our suppliers as we do not have the stock here at factory to be able to send out.
I will chase this with our supplier to see if I can provide more accurate ETA for you as I understand you are keen to complete the repairs on your vehicle.

 

[JanHank]

I`ll give them a few days into next week then give another prod.

 

[JanHank]

I emailed Wednesday, had a reply from him/her
Good afternoon Mrs Köhne,
I have looked into this for you and have not yet had any correspondence from our suppliers to advise an ETA for your parts as of yet.
I will chase this again for you today.

So just to let you know what's going on.
I went to look at my Navajo yesterday, no sign of Matthias and the van was outside another on had taken its place inside.
I rang him this morning and among other things he didn´t have time to talk this morning, but will ring me Monday to make a time for us to have a chat about how to carry on because at this rate I still won´t have it back for summer. He said he has had the batteries on charge until he swapped the vans over.
Barry, Roger and Jürgen have all said just to get it tidied up and the gas going again and use it as it is, I think that's what Matthias is going to suggest as well and if he doesn´t I will.

 

[JanHank]

That sounds like the best Idea. Suggest this to your insurance company. Get them to agree to the temporary repairs and also to agree to pay for the van to be properly repaired at a later stage perhaps later in the year when the parts eventually turn up.

I have no trouble with the insurance Barry, it´s still insured, not been taken off the road although if I had known it would take this long I would have done.

 

[JanHank]

6 months not a year, don’t make my time go any faster than it is.😕
I did speak to Lutz my insurance man a few weeks back and he understood about the delay. No doubt Matthias will be speaking to Lutz after we have spoken and I also intend going to see him this week.

 

[JanHank]

Thanks John, the vents we have, ex stock from Hans 😁. I will contact Auto Trail again next week, I have already paid for these items.
Roger and I looked for doors in this country, but I do believe as my door id on the opposite side being r.h.d we couldn’t find one here.
I will pass the links on to Roger he is the knowledgeable one for these things.

 

[JanHank]

I sense a bit of momentum here Jan - you'll be on the road in no time! 🤞

It gets a bit confusing really with all the different ideas Jean, but how lucky am I to have all this helpful advice, just one of the reasons I could never desert this forum.

 

[JanHank]

It‘s like this Drew, I sit here on my own, It helps my sanity to be able to talk to people and get almost an immediate answer and all this I am going to discuss with the insurance and the repairer next week as best as I possibly can, you may not think so, but this all helps me. I should have maybe gone about it in a different way, but I didn’t, now I have to put my mind to it and get the mess sorted out one way or another. Hopefully I will never have another major accident, but if I do I’ll know how to handle it better.