Wednesday, Thursday & Friday 16^th,17^th & 18^th May 2018

Dave posting,

A quiet and undisturbed night’s sleep on the free spot in Split, we have a few hours before we need to move and its cloudy and raining a little. We relax and just chill out. Left at 2pm and drove to the garage, the appointment was arranged for us by Goran at Camping Croatia (Goran was very helpful, thank you Goran!) we are greeted warmly at the garage and asked to wait a few minutes and Ivo the owner comes in to the van to help us, it’s established that there’s a fuse problem in the Electroblok, I had put a new one in, but it must have fused again!  Fuse changed and presto there is power now to the pump, they check the water pressure switch and that is ok and working, so the water pump is broken, it’s odd as this was replaced in March 2018. Ivo goes back to the office with our pump in his hand and we wait patiently, 30 minutes and he is back with 2 new water pumps. Wires one up and tests, all okay now & he plumbs it in, primes it and we now have running water. Ivo is a friendly, chatty guy and we asked if they could do an inspection on the rear brakes as we can hear squealing and we think it’s from there and can they check the tyre pressures too? we arranged to return tomorrow 2pm.

The garages in Croatia seem to have all auto services under one roof and this is very common here, this one does Motorhome servicing for Camping Croatia, the bill was 974kn (€132) for 2 new pumps, piping, clips and 2 hours labour plus 25% tax, the service was quick and efficient, and we felt the price was reasonable.

We park again at the free spot at Kasjuni Beach bar, need to recover some costs but we are relieved to have the water pump fixed that we go to the bar for a small beer! Only one though as this bar is expensive, it’s UK prices and we’re not used to that on this trip, there are 3 or 4 vans here now for the night. Later that night we watched the thunder and lightning illuminate the darkened sky over the headland, this is the 2^nd thunderstorm in this spot is someone trying to tell us something?

We wake the next day and research Dubrovik, how to get there from Split, either via land driving through the Bosnia borders or by sea taking a ferry to Trpanj on the Peljasac peninsular and drive down the land peninsular to Dubrovnik, we can’t decide at the moment and we have a few hours before going back to the garage. We squeeze in an hour or two’s sunbathing at the beach.

At the garage we pull on to the very steep forecourt from the busy by-pass, Tomo starts work and removes the rear passenger side wheel after chocking the van upon 3 wheels, I look at Cathy and she knows what I’m thinking, we are on a steep slope! it’s a very small area for them to work so all space is utilised, not to worry they bring out 2 massive wooden blocks to go behind the front wheels and 2 more for the rear.

Our motor-home is based on a Fiat Ducato.

To summarise;

• Jacked up
• Wheel removed
• Drum removed after lots of hammer work
• Shoes removed & inspected
• Cylinder inspected, and the seals are seeping
• New cylinders ordered
• New shoes in stock and are being fitted
• Tomo notices the suspension strut mounting are badly worn and crumbling
• No hesitation from us, we want these replaced as well.
• Cylinders arrived
• Suspension struts mountings ordered
• Brake shoes fitted to the other side
• Struts arrive
• All the parts are fitted, tested, adjusted
• Handbrake tested and adjusted, all within 3 hours!

It was so hot and the lads were working outside without shade. We were very pleased that we discovered these faults before we broke down somewhere and we are satisfied they have done a great job.

Repair bill for this work was 2,284kn (€309.50) but we have peace of mind now.

Cathy has always said the van feels soft and bouncy inside and its especially noticeable whilst driving, the new suspension strut mountings have eliminated much of this movement thankfully.

We drove off and after 1km with the windows open it’s still squealing, must be the front??!! Oh well the rear needed doing so we’ll source another garage near Dubrovnik. We head south on the coast road and we will pick a site after an hour or so’s drive.

Good night

Dave