Ownership Diary - Dethleffs Globetrotter XLi 7850 EB

Last week saw Lexi get some attention back at Travelworld. Unfortunately whilst some snagging was successfully resolved, other bits require a return trip. It’s a complete pain as it’s 2.5hr drive each way and when I have to leave it (like
I did last week), it’s basically an entire day of travelling (although train only takes 1.5hrs to London, there’s connection time, taxis, train back out towards Cambridge and walking).

The dodgy roof lighting was fixed in the bedroom. Turned out to be a loose connection. The switch/solenoid for the central locking kitchen drawers and cabinets was fixed as was a misaligned row of cabinets. However, the pressure switch was confirmed as having failed (or failing) on the water pump and replacement hinges are needed on overhead lockers as they can’t keep the doors held open. Both parts are on back order so need to go back in 6wks.

Thankfully the water pump can still be used but just needs turning off overnight to prevent it whirring into life every 60secs or so. And the cabinets just need holding open whilst loading or unloading. Not the end of the world but I did expect better when it had been PDI’d to death before me collecting it.

What they did manage to do, however was fit the 2x150w solar panels and Victron MPPT controller I requested. At £1,765 it wasn’t cheap. But also no more expensive than the local Dethleffs dealer. Given we’re off on our travels in a couple of weeks, it’s necessary as most of it will be off grid.
However, it has highlighted another issue which I half suspected - I think the Lithium Pack was degraded between manufacture and me taking delivery (>18months).

Since delivery I’d noticed a drop off in charge when static. In theory, Lithium should hold its charge when not in use. I was loosing c 30amps a day, which is huge. I’m kicking myself now for not having mentioned it on last booking. Thankfully the solar seems to have mitigated that. It’s adding that back in plus a bit more every day since I took it back to the yard (I can connect to the van’s control panel remotely). It’ll most likely be ok on this trip given we’ll be driving almost every day for the first week and on the second week we’ll be parked with good solar yield. But it’s not right. I’ve just given Travelworld the heads up in the hope they can preorder a new lithium pack in to be verified by testing when it’s next in. Don’t want to have to keep schlepping backwards and forwards to Stafford. The M6 Toll alone is £19.90 each way for the van!

In good news though, I’m now 638miles in and the average mpg is stuck resolutely at 22.2mpg.
I picked up the pace on the motorway to 70mph on return journey and it dropped to 20mpg but cross country A and B roads yield 25mpg. So it’s turning out to be relatively frugal for such a big rig. That said, we’ve yet to load it up, so we’ll see what happens in a fortnight.

 

Well that's a wrap for the first trip! And I'm pleased to report, apart from a small issue with a kitchen apothecary drawer which is stuck shut, it was a pleasingly uneventful trip where the capabilities of the van shone through.

It was the first proper trip with overnights (only time I'd slept in it was on the driveway) and the first time at all my Wife and the three children had travelled in it. In some ways a little ambitious to set out on a 700mile roadtrip being relatively untested, but there was no need to worry.

We set off on Friday mid-afternoon from Cambridge up to our first overnight stop - Boroughbridge in Yorkshire - just off the A1. The ultimate destination for the first leg of the trip was Northumberland but far too far for a Friday evening, with two young kids to tolerate. I picked Boroughbridge solely for the purpose of it being a little more than half way. Against all the odds of Friday afternoon traffic and young boys needing a wee at the most inopportune moments, we made it to the Camping & Caravanning Club Site at 19:45 with 15mins to spare before they locked the barrier. A quick re-jig of the seating arrangement (throwing kids seats in the garage, making up the sofa and plugging into the electric shore power) and it was a relatively early night for all of us.


Remember I said Boroughbridge was completely random choice? Hand on heart, it absolutely was. So it was an enormous surprise to me when we turned the corner in front of the campsite to see Alexanders Prestige come into view as we arrived on the Friday night! My Wife couldn't understand what all the fuss was about but I then had to set about explaining how they feature regularly in Sam Fane's "Seen Through Glass" YouTube channel, of which I'm an avid viewer. Then proving she's the best Wife ever, she suggested we all head over to the showroom the following morning before setting course for Bamburgh. What a treat!

Dressed in my skanky camping/trekking shows, outdoor trousers and fleece, we rocked up en masse to the dealership, feeling hugely out of place amongst cars worth well north of >£250k in a lot of cases. I needn't have worried, however, as I was introduced to a lovely chap called Alex who, when I mentioned being an avid viewer of STG, suddenly treated me like a VIP and offered me an all access tour of the whole facility; through their preparation/PDI area, on-site bodyshop and servicing bays. He also introduced me to a number of the owners private vehicle collection including a beautiful E46 M3 CS which evidently gets used fairly regularly with 60k on the clock. The kids weren't sneered at and were offered hot chocolates, biscuits and a look around all the vehicles. We all came away loving the place and will certainly look at their stock when any of the fleet is due for renewal. And if I take the 911 out of the dealer network for servicing, I'll definitely consider bringing it there.



Petrol-hedonism complete, we set course for Bamburgh. An easy run up the A1, we stopped for lunch en route with the Wife making a round of sandwiches and lamenting how cost effective not visiting a service station is en route! We arrived at Bamburgh Castle parkup which I've visited before in my Knaus campervan. It sits in the shadow of the castle and for £12, you can stay in your motorhome overnight providing you have self contained facilities. We parked up in our reserved bay and got ready for an early dinner in the Lord Crewe hotel/PH down the road for an amazing 3-course meal (it's 2* AA Rosette and fabulous). Full to the brim, we returned to the van for a quiet overnight and an early start for a trip around the castle the following morning. I'd highly recommend the castle tour - we had to rush it in around 90mins - but we'll be back as it's very well curated and still inhabited by the Armstrong family.



Next stop, the edge of the Northumberland National Park (Morpeth-way). The plan here was to stay on my Uncle's driveway at their new house but unfortunately upon attempting to make it up the driveway, I nicked the tail on the ground (no damage done) so we had to abandon that and park at the end of their road and sleep in their house. It was no bother and provided some respite for the kids to be able to properly stretch their legs in a house for a couple of days. The van stayed adequately charged with solar power over the two days parked up.


Leaving Northumberland we headed North up towards Selkirk before heading West allowing the Yarrow Valley towards Moffat. It was an "interesting" challenge driving the very narrow, undulating roads for about 35miles towards Moffat but a spectacular array of scenery which really opened my eyes to the beauty of the Borders which I think are very often overlooked.

Moffat Camping & Caravanning Club site seemed to offer a lot on paper - a bolt hole in the centre of a town, which is a rarity in the UK. But we left underwhelmed, both by the site itself which was a featureless sprawling parking lot and the town itself which seems to have seen better days. Aside from a very reasonably priced and delicious breakfast in a local cafe in town, we moved on fairly quickly towards our next destination (and one we had been looking forward to most!) - Kirroughtree Forestry Commission in new Newtown Stewart.

It was only 2hrs or so away and we had a quick stop for LPG along the way since with being offgrid for a few days and it being very cold and needing a decent bit of heating, we'd gone through 75% of one of our two tanks of LPG. This seemed to be a theme of the trip and highlighted just how reliant we are upon gas when offgrid or in cooler weather. The fridge runs on gas without electric hookup and the nights hovered around freezing. Although the van is well insulated, keeping it at 15-16C overnight requires the boiler to fire up a few times.

Anyway, filled up in Newton Stewart with c. 15l of LPG, as I did with diesel having only just filled up with diesel in Moffat too, but at this point there were rumours of shortages coming to pass. Even though we were averaging c. 21mpg, you can go through diesel quickly in a van of this size so I didn't want to be caught short if the Iranian situation worsened whilst away.

Full of LPG and diesel we headed the 12mins to Kirroughtree. The Forestry Commission allow you to park for the night in certain locations; this being one. It cost £15, payable Ringo app, for 18:00-08:00. If you park before and after that you need to pay and display so I think we paid another £7k for the 5 or so hours before the night tariff kicked in. The weather was foul so we ended up using our satellite dish for the first time and watched an afternoon of game shows before the weather dried up and we could go for a walk, use the playground and play poo sticks in the river! This turned out to be one of the kids favourite places and they're begging us to go back.

The carpark soon emptied and surprisingly we were treated to a completely empty car park for the whole night (apart from one Mondeo which turned up around 21:00, did a completely unlit/un-torched walk with a dog and which spooked our 13yr old). Wonderful, peaceful night had with just the sound of the trees swaying and Owls all night long.



The following day was an early rise and away at 0900. We were booked on the 11:15 ferry from Cairnryan to Belfast. We filled the kids with porridge pots and set off for the hours drive West. Arriving at the Port we were told we were too big for the Priority Boarding we normally get with our Stena Gold Card (we travel by ferry a lot!) and had to wait with all the HGV's and ended up being the last one pretty much on the boat! A pain in the backside since that also meant being the last one off in Belfast and having hoop loads of traffic to negotiate.



Anyway, a relatively smooth crossing to Belfast had us there in around 2.5hrs. We were lucky as the sea was already whipping up ahead of Storm Dave which ended up cancelling ferries just a day or so later. Upon arrival we had a 2hr drive south to Dublin, where we parked up on the beach front in my Wife's village for 6 days before leaving. My Wife & young boys stayed with my Mother in Law and my daughter and I stayed in the van overnight as it's quite cramped at the house, plus for insurance purposes, I needed to be with it at night.




From Newton Stewart we used another 21 litres of LPG for fridge and heating but the solar did an exceptional job at keeping us powered up. I arrived with 86% charge and after 6 days, it had dropped to 39% before leaving. On the sunniest days I added 20% (around 60amps) from solar. Unfortunately I still think the drain issue is present so could've been better, but without fitting the solar prior to the trip, there's no way we'd have made it six days off grid. In that time also I had to empty two toilet cassettes in my Mother in Law's sewage manhole, but made do with the water on board, without needing to fill up again from Moffat.

The trip home always takes about 11hrs door-to-door from Dublin to Holyhead. This was no exception. In order to make the 5.5hr drive go as quickly as possible, I stuck the van on 70mph on the cruise control. I normally travel at between 56-65mph, yielding about 23-24mpg. Doing the 70mph dash in our previous van - Doug - I only managed 15mpg. I was surprised that here I managed nearly 21mpg! A nice surprise, but offset by still needing to fill up at Nantwich paying £2 per litre (60litres required!)

All in all though, a great trip. It felt like way longer than the 12 days we were actually away, probably because of the variety of the trip. We were about 700miles of driving, but all went past completely smoothly and I have to confess, my kids were wonderful; barely heard a peep out of any of them. The van is so much quieter and more refined than the previous one. I think this makes it much more comfortable for everyone; together with the fact everybody can see out of the windows, whether it be front or sides, which makes it more interesting and interactive.

It's been hugely expensive getting us to this point. We dropped another £35k on top of the previous van to get into this once we count solicitors fees, additional cash to change and various insurance and ancillary expenses. And we're probably needing another £2-3k in the next 3-4months to cover the minimum additional requirements. It's left us seriously reeling financially. But my wife and I agreed, it's been worth every penny for the fun and together time we had with all of the kids. With the exception of the TV on the rainy day and a few WhatsApp messages for my daughter, there was very little if any screen time for the kids. It's paid dividends in terms of their engagement, happiness and togetherness with eachother.

Can't wait for the next trip now!

 

Thanks guys, yeah no regrets with this. And honestly, even if it does blow a gearbox at some point, as long as I’m not footing the bill, we may even be able to forgive it. It’s so vastly different from Doug in every way.

It turns out the issue with the Apothecary drawer was in fact user error rather than an issue with the van itself.

A look in the manual suggested removal of the skirting board under the kitchen would reveal an emergency release of the central locking system.
However all this revealed was actually how damn well the furniture is constructed. I couldn’t pull the skirting free after removing the retaining screws.

Removal of the drawers then showed that skirting is secured from the top too, so no chance whilst drawer was shut.

Instead I was able to unload the middle and lower rungs of the drawer from an inspection hatch which then allowed me to feel for the solenoid and locking mechanism for the release.

The solenoid was working ok but the lock wasn’t moving. With everything removed that I could see, it stood to reason it was an issue with the upper tray I couldn’t see.

Long story short, I managed to pry this to move it and when the drawer opened, I was greeted with a sachet of uncle bens on rice which had got caught in the locking bar. Problem solved!

All back together, I patted myself on the back. It had taken me an hour to figure out and solve.
If I’d have taken it to Travelworld with their £200+ hourly labour rates, I’d have been stung since it wasn’t a warranty issue.

Also have the confidence now after having a tinker that I know roughly how things work. I can safely say that the engineering is first class; very similar to the quality I had in my Concorde (£250k when new in 2005). So designed to come apart and go back together again rather than some of the cheaper stuff which is never expected to come apart again.

Job, jobbed!

A quick clean of the outside which wasn’t as bad as feared (still mulling whether to get it ceramic coated) and it’s back at the yard awaiting its next adventure to Holland in a month or so.

 

Haven't seen Lexi now for a week since she went back to the yard and have been busy trying to get her booked in for a water filtration system and getting the 360 cameras calibrated. But in the meantime, I'd made a bit of cash out of selling stuff on eBay so treated myself (or rather the van!) to a new identity.....

I'd seen a couple of vans up at Travelworld last time with some funky plates when they were in for service work. Decided to have a look back a few months ago to see what might suit Lexi and wouldn't cost the earth. Tried for Globetrotter (GL68 TTR) but something didn't sit right. Then looked at XLI but since I isn't allowed in the registration, that wasn't going to work. Then I searched for LEXI - I got LEX as the suffix. After a bit of a play around, I ended up finding THE plate back in late Feb. Given I was super skint back then from all of the cost to change, I left it but was discussing it with a mate earlier this week and went to show it to him online and I mistyped it and couldn't find it.

I was super surprised at how gutted I was. I once I realised my mistake / typo, I found it again and bought it on the spot! Plates arrived this morning, just waiting on the Nominee Form now so i can get them on.

XL = because she's a big old girl. XL7 I thought looks like XLI if you squint! And hopefully the LEX = LEXI for those in the know. My Wife pointed to the 5 in the middle and suggested it works nicely because there's 5 of us on board. Ultimately works well with it being a 75 plate anyway.

Childishly happy!

 

So a little update from our most recent adventures. This was a trip very similar to one we made last half term and enjoyed it so much with the kids, we decided upon a return trip. It was equally as good, if not slightly better now the youngest has just turned 2 and the 5yr old is bigger and able to enjoy more things….

Destination was Duinrell, just outside The Hague in northern Netherlands. It’s possibility the most famous theme park, water park and camping ground in the country with seemingly every Dutch person under the age of 50 having visited Tiki Bad (the water park on site).

We set off the Friday ahead of Bank Holiday weekend. Van all packed up, kids fed a rudimentary dinner, we headed to Harwich Port, just 1hr 45mins from us. All went very smoothly aside from the fact we arrived too early and they insisted vans were loaded last (in spite of being a Stena Gold card holder and normally getting priority boarding). This meant that instead of getting the kids on the boat around 20:30, it was an hour later, which for the boys was a little too much.



Nevertheless, when we eventually boarded, we went straight to the cabin - bedded the boys down and left my wife in charge whilst myself and my daughter did a bit of bonding in the Stena Lounge; watching the sun set to a couple of drinks (she’s more interested in the “free food” than lager thankfully!) before turning in for a brief but very comfortable 6hrs sleep.


We disembarked at 08:30 local time and then spent the next 45mins queuing at the passport booths because of the new EU checks. That was in spite of being at the front of the queue an my wife and boys being Irish/EU nationals.

From there it was less than an hour to Duinrell but we needed food first (ban on bringing in a lot of goods so nearly empty fridge) so set about finding a supermarket you can park around 8.6m bus near! The Netherlands is funny, they love motorhomes but because they’re all cyclists, there’s virtually no supermarkets with car parks, let alone somewhere to park Lexi. In a lot of ways, it’s one of the hardest places in Europe I’ve found to both drive, navigate and park given restrictions on cars, even more on >3.5t vehicles and then the priority lanes and odd roundabouts penalising cars.

Anyway, rant over - I found a “Jumbo” supermarket by a marina. A quick check on Google street view and I decided I could make it work. What a spot?! A cool line of bars, restaurants and view over the marina. Even better, we were in shade as it was already 26C and we were feeding tired but excited kids. After breakie, we headed in to do our shopping. Fridge filled, it was time to head to the site.

This year we decided to be a bit closer to the action compared with the pitch we had last year. This turned out to be a mixed blessing. Whilst wonderfully close to the bar, supermarket and entrance to the park/water park, the pitch was also small, very much crammed in amongst other units and had an access road behind us which although not busy, meant you were very concerned about small boys running out and being hit by a car. It did, however have fresh water tap and grey waste drain for easy uplift and drops on a daily basis (we use about 40l of fresh water per day excl drinking water and fill a toilet 18l cassette roughly every 22-24hrs).

Manoeuvring the bus onto the pitch was no mean feat, lots of sweat as I had to do a bit of back and forth but much to the awe and compliments of my (English & German) neighbours who came over to chat afterwards. In position, awning and kids toys out, it was time for a beer!

From that point on, we didn’t move the van until the following Friday. What’s nice about this particular adventure is that you can properly unpack things knowing you’re not leaving every day so it becomes a little more homely. That said, there’s always the ritual making up of the bed over the dining table at night and take down each morning.

Every day was a mix of wife and I taking it in turns to go for a run before the kids were up. 3-5km done, breakfast was made, followed by a leisurely stroll around the park. Everyone takes it in turns to do the rides they want depending on age & height restrictions. Then back to the van for lunch, rinse and repeat until ritual beers were had in the on site bar, whilst playing some mini 10 pin bowling and letting kids play some arcades. Dinner was back at the van with bedtime for boys at 8pm and us and daughter at 10pm.



Three times whilst there, we’d mix in two hours at Tiki Bad for high speed thrills on water slides. This costs extra (€38 for the family) but it’s the highlight for everyone.

On departure day, we were off the pitch by 10am, drove around the site to the coach parking and spent the final day in the park and water park to exhaust the kids before the return journey.

We were back at the Hook of Holland for 19:00 when checkin opened, boarded by 20:00 with boys put to bed and the ritual sundowners in the Lounge. What a sunset and millpond crossing!

We were off the boat at 06:30 UK and home two hours later. Everyone relaxed, happy and slightly tired.

Of course for the kids, the work was done but the downside for myself and wife was the deep clean required of the van, unpacking and exterior wash before tucking Lexi up back at the yard, awaiting her next adventure.

Stats for the trip - 300miles, £90 for diesel, £1k for the ferry incl 5 berth cabin, campsite including theme park entry and Tikibad - £1.1k. Total - £2.2k. Not bad for a family of 5 for a week at half term.

Would we do it again? Probably, but we’ve decide two years in a row is enough at this stage. Perhaps in 3-5yrs when all the kids can do most of the rides and a bit of time provides excitement for it again, it’ll be great to revisit. That said, it is such a wonderful way to re-engage with the kids and our own inner child. Being mildly scared on a water slide is really life affirming.

On a side note (as an older Dad), it’s a really good way of staying young and a great realisation of the need to stay fit and strong to fully enjoy the slides and rides. Thanks to our regular runs and circuit training whilst we were away, it was the first holiday, save for snowboarding, where we came back weighing less than when we went.

Next up for Lexi, aside from outstanding snagging, a solo trip for me with the eMTB up to Whinlatter, staying at The Quiet Site for 3 nights at the end of July. Cant wait!

Oh and spotted whilst out for a run….a good reminder in life that whoever you are, whatever you have, however shiny and expensive, there’s always someone with something bigger and more expensive!