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Anon
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Berlin version 2.0

And so I'm back in Berlin again... Got an "urgent" job call to fix that VW LT28 that I mentioned being here last time.. Well, by now it's been sat for 2 years, not even been started. It has a new owner, who wants to get her going, through the German equivalent of the MOT, and then insured and driven around Europe as his work van. So, I thought, what the hell... Worth a trip!

Didn't start too good, as the caravan I took with me had car tires on it, different size each side, one completely flat. So I called a fairly well known company that does mobile tire fitting. We agreed to a date, I paid up over the phone (big mistake), and guess what.. The fitter refused to fit the tires because the caravan was in an industrial estate, NEAR a traveler site (I guess there's plenty of people who think that if they're within 10 miles of travelers they are at grave risk of a Snatch-inspired Mickey with a heavy irish accent knocking them out single-punch, cause after all, they're all bare knuckle boxing champions and have loads of dags)... So I pumped up the flat and it lasted up to the nearest tire fitting place where I got some proper C rated ones to take the weight. Got a refund from the incompetents and started the engine, only to hear a pop clang bang boom kind of noise and the engine springing to life with a ROOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRR.... I didn't even need to get out of the vehicle to point at the exhaust falling off.. Is it like, 2 months since I last welded it? Having no time to mess about, I drove into the aforementioned traveler site and got the kind gas welder there to do a quick one on it for a beer. Ten minutes later I was on my way to Dover.

Made it to Belgium the first night (from Sheffield), and slept at a service station parking lot, only to be woken up 4 hours later by some upset Britons in a van who informed me their van was broken into during the night while they were asleep in it, and that my caravan door was open...!

I got up to find that my caravan had also been broken into, but nothing was stolen as the only things in there were a massively heavy church organ (long story) and some half-used bottles of motor oil, gear oil, antifreeze, and a portaloo! So they ended up damaging the entire door of my 1980 Monza, for nothing... It was such a mess, that it wouldn't even close (door frame bent out of shape). The lock was completely broken. So the next four hours were spent straightening the door frame with a hammer and fitting some bits of steel with a padlock to secure the door so I could drive away. The interesting thing is that I wake up at the slightest hint of noise, so they were either extremely quiet at bashing the seven bells of hell out of the poor Monza and the other van, or we were gassed. I woke up feeling ok, no hangover or anything, so I feel it is unlikely we had been gassed.

A word of caution, Belgium has really disintegrated into quite a dodgy country in the past few years, so anyone venturing out there should really be quite careful about where they park up. The sex, drug and trafficking industries are booming and that's pretty much all you're offered from anyone who cares to talk to you.

Well, we were off again, making it to near Hannover that night. Beddie behaved himself perfectly, pulled well on that old Monza, very nice and steady tow vehicle, if a little slow up the hills. On some big ones, we did crawl down to 40 mph, but at least we made it up. The consumption took quite an intense dive from the usual 24-25 mpg, to 16 mpg, towing the caravan!!!!! At the weighbridge before leaving Sheffield, the van weighed in at 2100 kg and the caravan at 1200 kg, making it a total of 3300 kg, 200 kg from the GTW.

I equipped the whole thing with a breakaway cable to engage the caravan brakes in case they split in motion, and a secondary coupling that doubles as an anti-theft device, consisting of a thick chain and locks, locking the caravan to the towbar.

The Hannover sleep was free of horrible things happening, although it wasn't an easy one to find, as I visited 4 rest areas before settling for the one I ended up staying at. I went for one with plenty of trucks around me. The Belgium one was a bit of a mistake, because I parked at a remote location with width barriers that trucks cannot get to, so it was just a couple of cars and two vans posing as easy targets. Makes you think though what kind of crazy people would break into anything with the owner sleeping right next to it. What if I had woken up while they were at it?

Next morning, woke up and on my usual walk-around of Beddie, I noticed the final exhaust strap had snapped, so I fitted a new one and away I went. Drove the rest of the way to Berlin, where my arrival was perfectly timed with the arrival of the Pope!! I'll skip the plenty of swearwords that come to mind, and just mention that the whole of Berlin was in a standstill for about 5 hours while about 20000 cops with all sorts of vehicles and helicopters had blocked up all the streets to clear a safety path for the Popemobile...! For those blissfully unaware, the procession includes about 6 luxury coaches, empty, about 6 limos, empty, and countless other "security" vehicles, from vans to trucks to motorbikes. The pope is aparrently hiding in one of the coaches or limos, but with so many of them, you won't know which one to vent your anger out on first, so he gets away with it... Goes a long way to rape children these days, you really do get royal treatment for it. Not to mention the cost of such an operation, while the EU is in such a crisis that taxpayers right left and center are being bombarded with new taxes to "save the economy from collapsing".

Eventually, after all this is over with, I drove the rest of the way to the yard I'm supposed to park up in, only to find out that it's locked with a big fat padlock and being told that the "keymaster" is away for the weekend... Feeling quite like I had to do something terrible to make up for all the sh$t I've been through in the past few days, I promptly produced the biggest f-off pair of boltcutters the innocent bystanders had ever seen, and chopped it open.. I drove in, backed up to an ideal parking spot, only to find the "keymaster" (yes, the one who was SUPPOSED to be away for the weekend) flipping sh*t about his gate being chopped open and saying he wasn't even informed there would be a vehicle arriving anytime soon. So he's now given us until Sunday to find the person responsible for inviting us over, and get him to clear this with the owner of the yard, or he's kicking us out Monday morning without repairing the VW...!

Well, Beddie made it, and he's up for heading back to Greece after this.. Let's hope the caravan can cope with the pothole-riddled roads of the Commie bloc!

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Fri 23 Sep 2011 @ 00:48 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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My, my Jim - you have such a time!!! Take care - hope you can fix the VW and have a safe journey to Greece

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Fri 23 Sep 2011 @ 07:18 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Hi Jim, if you get stuck with the vw I might be able to help out as I've a 2.4 diesel LT28 and am a member of an LT forum (part of the brickworks website), Best of luck with the rest of your journey.
Fri 23 Sep 2011 @ 11:32 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Thanks ScoobyDoo!

Paul, yes please, I seem to be slightly stuck without even going near the VW. It's got the D24T, 2.4 turbodiesel, year 1992. First thing, I think I'll need a service manual of some sort to use as a reference while I'm working, as it needs loads doing to it. I can't seem to find one for the 2.4 diesel! Any ideas? Which one is the forum you're a member of? I might sign up for that.

I generally like reading a manual before I start taking things off a vehicle I've never worked on before, just to make sure there's nothing I'm missing.

Thanks for the offer!! Take care!
Fri 23 Sep 2011 @ 15:22 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Hi Jim,

There is loads of really useful info here :-

http://www.brick-yard.co.uk/forum/forums

I have a manual that covers the TD if in pdf form if you can give me an email address.
Fri 23 Sep 2011 @ 19:59 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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sorry link does not work but it's the brick yard.
Fri 23 Sep 2011 @ 20:01 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Colin Birch
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Try this :-
http://www.brick-yard.co.uk/forum/

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Colin Birch - CF-UK Admin
Pontypridd, S.Wales
The Bedford CF Web Site
http://www.cf-uk.co.uk

Fri 23 Sep 2011 @ 20:12 View Colin Birch   Email Colin Birch   Colin Birch Home Page   Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Thanks Paul and Colin! I have found the forum, reading through it now. Paul, I'll send you a PM with my email address, thank you for that!

Since I've arrived I've been re-familiarizing myself with Berlin, which already seems to have changed a lot, since last June when I was last here.

The biggest challenge so far seems to be the communication (language barrier plays a part for sure, even though I personally can manage German) issues between the owner of the LT and the owner of the yard it's parked in. The owner of the yard wants my CF and caravan out of there by Sunday night or Monday first thing in the morning, and does not really want any repair work to be carried out in his yard. I don't care in the slightest where I park my CF and caravan as long as the LT can be next to them so I can work on it. I could possibly sort my own vehicle combination out with parking space, but I'm having no luck figuring out where I could also carry out the repairs on the LT, without upsetting anyone.. Space for 3 vehicles, for a month, for free, seems to be hard to find in Berlin!
Sat 24 Sep 2011 @ 23:13 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
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