How to replace your fly chord on your Remis Blind. Ours went on one of the rear blinds in our Pilote P740 so we had to attempt to replace it. With trepidation I took it off the wall and took it apart. You’ll need gimp, yes GIMP ( that’s what it’s called) or alternatively 1mm waxed ( non-elasticated) black chord which you can buy from amazon https://amzn.to/2YKsYap before you start and it’s a bit fiddly but it’s definitely achievable. Here’s our video from our Youtube channel The Motoroamers
From time to time we found that the habitation door won’t lock when you press the central locking key. We found out what the problem was and a quick and easy solution to fix it.
So, we went round this roundabout and the fridge door swung open and a load of salad bags fell out. Good job it wasn’t the greek yoghurt eh? Could have been right messy. We taped it up until we could find a quiet spot to investigate the problem
The motorhome and camper community is growing exponentially and figures from the National Caravan Council say that this is only set to increase. Life in a camper is incredible and we are loving our full-time travels and have no regrets about our decision to leave UK back in March 2016 or the motorhome we bought. Although the journey to reach this point was not all plain sailing and we coursed up and down that familiar old rollercoaster.
Seeing so many more adventurers start out on their journey through the Facebook community has inspired us to share our experiences. And so we are pleased to share our First Step Starter Kit for newbie motorhomies.
This free to download Guide covers five motorhome purchase essentials:
Step 1 – A process that gives you a really solid starting point and helps you clarify your needs before you even think about searching for the right motorhome or van.
Step 2 – Five key questions to ask that will help you prioritise the style of motorhome or camper that will suit your lifestyle.
Step 3 – Research resources to help you finalise your choice
Step 4 – The Technical Bits you will need to ask the salesperson helping you spend your money
Step 5 – The Practicalities that covers essentials like accessories that will make your life easier, insurances and memberships and lessons that we’ve learnt along the way.
And of course whilst you may be at any one of those junctions already, having a reference document might give you a golden nugget that you hadn’t thought about.
We recognise that a Guide like this will only ever be based on our own experiences from our particular journey and others will undoubtedly have their own perspectives and inclusions. Although we genuinely hope that this might help you along the way as you enter this exciting journey.
If you need any support or advice, then by all means drop us a line at themotoroamers@gmail.com and we’ll be happy to help if we can.
Earlier this year we were asked by a new motorhomie what were the most essential items that she needed to pack in her new home. It prompted a blog on this very topic, which had a very purposeful female slant – The Top 20 Motorhome Essentials for Ladies.
We promised to draw up a male influenced Essentials List, which I delegated over to Mr Smilisie. Now clearly, I recognise that there are plenty of solo ladies out there, although we hope you will forgive the masculinity of the topic and get some benefit from our list.
* Affiliate disclosure – some of these items have a link to Amazon, with whom we have an affiliate partnership. If you click on these links and decide to purchase, you will not be charged any more – we just get a small commission from any purchases you make.
1. Duck tape
There will always be little incidents and accidents whilst you’re away and sometimes things may need holding together until you can get it repaired. One of our essentials is Duck Tape that is either translucent or the same colour as your van. It deals with a multitude of sins and allows you to hanging things together whilst you’re away and before you can get to a garage to get it fixed.
2. Velcro ( heavy duty and standard) rolls
This has been a god-send to us, as we constantly look to evolve the organisation in the garage. Having the Velcro allows us to keep everything in place especially in the garage and more importantly easily accessible. It has so many uses, we could go on and on and on!
Keep some on board, you’ll not regret it.
3. Zip ties
Who would have thought that ZipTies could come in handing whilst living life on the road? Buy a variety pack, you never quite know when they will come in handy. And yet they do. We’ve used them in so many different weird and wonderful ways. Now then; gripping a tyre when we were stuck on soggy ground, holding things together……. Not always with successful outcomes, although none-the-less, a great garage accessory to have.
4. Toolkit Essentials
For any garage, motorhome, cyclist or camper, there’s always a mini tool kit lurking somewhere in a tiny space somewhere. Whilst you may not be able to bring all your beloved tools away with you, well not if you want to keep within your payload, there are some essentials that you just can’t do without. Here are our vitals:
Multi-screwdriver
Small adjustable spanner
Stanley knife
Hammer
Tape Measure
Good quality torch
Bungies
Pliers
WD40
White Spirit
5. Assortment of fuses
This has been one of most recent purchases, as there’s something about our 12v charger point in the kitchen that keeps tripping out the fuse. So we’ve got a neat little box of fuses to replace the duffers.
6. Araldite glue
You always gotta have glue, it’s amazing the number of things that come unstuck that need putting back together again. If it works for Humpty Dumpty, then surely it must work for us motorhomies too.
7. Baby wipes
Now who would have thought that Baby Wipes would have got a mention on a blog like this! Yet these little babies are fantastic for cleaning off the bugs and grime on the outside of the van, as well as helping sterilise stuff on the inside. Marvellous.
8. Solar panel with pure sine wave inverter
This is one of our best ever purchases and whilst not a specific tool as such it is a great resource, especially as we do a lot of wild camping. It’s a 120W Solar Panel that together with an extra Leisure Battery gives us all the power we need to run some household appliances, like the Nutribullet and Juicer for the Mrs and keep our devices powered up.
9. Power Packs
Whether you are travelling as a family, solo or as a couple, you will undoubtedly have devices that will need constant charging. If you’re like us and do work on the road, these little bundles of power pack a right old punch and keep us connected both with the work we do and our family and friends back in UK.
They’re not expensive or difficult to store although essential pieces of kit. Just make sure you get enough of them – we have three and sometimes even that’s not enough.
10. Ratchet Straps
These straps are great multi-taskers and are just one of these pieces of kit that you need to keep in your garage somewhere.
We use ours for a bit of safety when we’re wild camping, strapping the two main doors together – it might not stop them getting in although they’ll certainly wake us up trying!
As always, not an exhaustive list, although these are the items we believe have been essential to us. There are other items we carry, although perhaps more nice to haves – which is a whole different post altogether. So for now, we hope sharing our experiences is helpful. Kx
So here’s the thing. When you’re travelling Europe and it’s hot, we tend to head towards the coast to cool off and drink in the amazing views that inevitably the sea gifts. As romantic and lovely as it sounds though, that strategy brings with it some challenges, namely salt and sand. Sand I guess we can live with – get the hoover out and bosh, it’s gone. The salt is a bit more tricky, as it’s a silent enemy that plays mischievously with your van and implements. For a few days or so, that’s no major issue, although over a prolonged period, it could be more troublesome, as we found out this week.
After visiting some of the most amazing coastline on the Peloponnese, followed by a stay on the island of Crete, which is famous for its northerly winds, we started to experience some difficulties with our fly screen. Albeit an intermittent problem, a problem none the less. Now on a day to day basis that doesn’t sound too much of a challenge, except when someone turns up the thermostat and starts to melt you. Open windows and vents just don’t satisfy the insatiable need for heat relief – you got to get that door open. ‘So just open the door’, I hear you scream! Well you could be right, although then there’s that delicate balance between airflow and mosquitos! We value our sleep far too much to risk having the door open without that little netted barrier.
So what’s a girl to do? Well you call in the services of your very own DIY Superhero, aka Myles. I had a fancy that our sticky screen was due to the onslaught of salt, brought in on the afternoon Greek winds. Over five weeks that salt had accumulated and built up on the flyscreen fibres and just clogged it up. Well that was my theory anyway. And given that Myles loves fixing things, what better a challenge than to get him to solve our little predicament – and quickly.
After a bit of research that brought up no immediate solutions, Myles took off said door and saw no evidence for our sticky issue and so he turned to his old faithful! WD40 – the cure-all juice. No traveller should be without it. So with a bit of a spray in the mechanisms and a bit of a dab on the horizontal guide strings – hey presto it works a treat. I think we probably need a bit of warm soapy water to just finish off the job and make it a smooth operation, although so far, so good.
So if you’re ever having problems with your screen, check that there’s no sand in the bottom track and then work the material with either some warm water, or in our case WD40 and see if that makes its movement smoother. Be mindful if you’re camping a lot by the coast that salt will have an impact on your entire vehicle and not just the fly screen. Whilst salt may not be your particular issue, it’s worth checking it out before the costly journey to your dealer. It’s been an interesting lesson for us.
Quick update on 10 June, whilst the WD40 certainly helped, it was still causing us some problems. So out came the soapy, warm water and hey presto. Problem is now well and truly resolved. Keep it Simple!
Hi, Karen & Myles, The Motoroamers here. We are a fun-loving couple travelling full-time around Europe in Scoobie our trusty camper. We're driven to deliver seriously entertaining travel through our blogs, photography and humorous videos. We hope to inspire you too to travel.
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