Betina 2012 – Page 2 – Campers Welt

Suddenly you could hear lots of noises – cracking, rattling and so on. The noises were clearly coming from the gearbox, and the master mechanic told me that something was wrong with it. It would have to be removed and sent off for repair, taking about 2 weeks and costing over 2,000 euros. After a short think, we postponed the repair and first agreed on further steps after the holiday. So now we were stuck with a gearbox that was apparently not OK, and ahead of us lay another 1,500 km with the motorhome and a big boat behind it. We had 3 options:

1. Have the gearbox repaired and postpone the holiday
2. Holiday in Germany, e.g. on the Müritz
3. Just drive

We couldn't postpone the holiday, as everything had been arranged with our colleagues. A boating holiday in Germany isn't much fun in such great weather either. So only the third option was left. On the drive south, I remembered a renowned specialist workshop where I had been two years earlier with my old motorhome because of a gearbox problem. A quick call, and I was told to just come by. No sooner said than done. On Wednesday evening I was in the yard of the workshop near Wetzlar, and the mechanic took it for a test drive. Result: the gearbox is fine, the noise is coming from the drive shaft. This was confirmed over the inspection pit. As the motorhome was already over the pit, the AL-KO axles were greased as well, as this hadn't been done either (for a long time only water came out). After a short while we were able to continue our journey and drive straight to Croatia.

What did I learn from this? A specialist workshop isn't always a specialist workshop. But where did the noises from the gearbox come from?

As the axle had been unloaded during the test and the passenger side blocked, all the noises came from the differential, which is normal with this procedure – which is why it shouldn't be done that way. If I had listened to my trusted workshop (no longer trusted), I would have lost a lot of money and might have cancelled my holiday.

On Wednesday evening we drove on as far as Linz and stopped for a few hours to sleep.

As soon as the sun was up, we drove on towards the sun. After leaving Austria and Slovenia behind us, we were finally in Croatia – and what did I find? It was only 20 degrees, so COLD.

Even after following the Croatian motorway for 250 km, the thermometer showed a maximum of 25 degrees – and that at 11 a.m. Only when we passed Zadar did it go up to 30 degrees – finally :-)

At midday we finally arrived at our destination, the Plitka Vala campsite in Betina on the island of Murter. The first little shock: it was full :-( As there are no plots on the site, everyone can park as they like – and the campers do. We managed to grab a small gap and set up. In the afternoon we met the first acquaintances and spent a great evening with "pivo" (beer).