Scored myself a new job

The woman who crashed on exit didn't even have left/right hand drive issues, she was from Aus.

I think they book with bravado that they'll be able to handle the big machine, then when they arrive and actually see how big it is, shit themselves and panic. Probably need a day or 2 to get used to the big vehicle.

Is that the Crafter on TradeMe? Looks a nice unit, well laid out. The 4 person bench seat looks a bit "back row of the school bus" and will be very "personal", but as you say better than seats in the lounge some of which face backwards. Would be good to try it out maybe, see how it works.

Is that one manual or auto, says both in the ad implying its an auto but gears can also be selected manually.

Oh dear - you'd think an Aus would have it somewhat sorted... although one of pool car drivers at work did $8000 worth of damage in the carpark... BEFORE leaving without mentioning it!

Yeah, There was actually a couple or 3 on Trademe, if you use enough obscure search words :-D Or maybe they were facebook... can't member.

I assumed they all used the "auto" as touraist would appreciate it. The questions seem to confirm it's auto too.

There is only 5 of us, so the ones with the rear facing seats would only "require" one to be used... but one boy in known to feel sick fairly quick... The cab type seems to appeal more.

It's probably still a pipe dream - Mrs still thinks No. The money is supposed to be for concreting the driveway. I voted she should get her Dad to buy it for her :-D

AllanWorms said:

Oh dear - you'd think an Aus would have it somewhat sorted... although one of pool car drivers at work did $8000 worth of damage in the carpark... BEFORE leaving without mentioning it!

Yeah, There was actually a couple or 3 on Trademe, if you use enough obscure search words :-D Or maybe they were facebook... can't member.

I assumed they all used the "auto" as touraist would appreciate it. The questions seem to confirm it's auto too.

There is only 5 of us, so the ones with the rear facing seats would only "require" one to be used... but one boy in known to feel sick fairly quick... The cab type seems to appeal more.

It's probably still a pipe dream - Mrs still thinks No. The money is supposed to be for concreting the driveway. I voted she should get her Dad to buy it for her :-D

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lol, always best to try and get dad to buy it, unless its you're kids of course

Had a van dropped off today, end of a 2 week hire, virtually a brand new van.

The couple were headed back to Christchurch from Tekapo, doing about 100ks in the dark, when a deer jumps out in front of them...



Presume the head has impacted the wing and its body spun round and hit the door.

Hi GG
Sorry I missed this thread earlier but just read through it. Congrats on the new job and hope it's going well.
BTW I'm another enjoying reading your antics so please keep em coming.

kevstar said:

Send pic of the r@ptor ive been looking @t them...@n ive got used to my keybo@rd

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Only took like 6 months!

Didn't seem right just taking a pic of the fella's Ranger.

The other day though, before the Super Rugby final, his Mrs was adorning the truck with Crusaders flags, so good reason to snap a pic...



Crusaders win.... again... as they have done every year since 2017.

drfoster said:

sounds like my ideal job, like you am in IT and looking for a way out when i've had enough. also a motorhome owner so know the pain you are going through with maintenance etc.

One thing that may help, if you don't do it already, is to get a set of scales for the workshop, far easier to weigh the gas bottles to check how full of empty they might be than to rely on gauges or those crappy magnetic indicators that go on the side.

One other thing that i've seen from my mate who always hires a motorhome to come on holiday with us is that they never check the gas burner flames , he picked up a van that looked pristine but the gas wouldn't light, i took the burners apart and found the wells full of broken glass which disrupted the flow of gas. it appears a previous hirer had dropped the lid down on a lit burner, it must have shattered and then they replaced the glass lid but never checked the burners were working correctly, easy fix on my part but frustrating all the same.

good luck with the new venture anyway.

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Was checking a van today and the burners were catastrophic. Not the usual nice round ring of flames... just a few coming out at different angles. Both burners. Probably about 80% of the flames were non existent.

Took them apart and this is what I found. I'd already wire brushed the inside of the big cover, it was as bad as the other...



I have come to the conclusion that camper/caravan cookers are pants. I'm always having to clean rust and muck like this. The gas cut off sensors always stop working... I'm having to dismantle the burners and put new retaining star clips in so that the burners stay lit and don't cut out when you let go of the knob. Sometimes the cutting out isn't related to the sensors, its something to do with the knobs, pull them up (off) a bit and all of a sudden the burner will work. I can't get my head around that fix.

GrumpyGel said:

Was checking a van today and the burners were catastrophic. Not the usual nice round ring of flames... just a few coming out at different angles. Both burners. Probably about 80% of the flames were non existent.

Took them apart and this is what I found. I'd already wire brushed the inside of the big cover, it was as bad as the other...

View attachment 291799

I have come to the conclusion that camper/caravan cookers are pants. I'm always having to clean rust and muck like this. The gas cut off sensors always stop working... I'm having to dismantle the burners and put new retaining star clips in so that the burners stay lit and don't cut out when you let go of the knob. Sometimes the cutting out isn't related to the sensors, its something to do with the knobs, pull them up (off) a bit and all of a sudden the burner will work. I can't get my head around that fix.

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The cookers are pants. But having said that, I suspect a few pots have boiled over on those.
Gas cookers, late nights, and drunken holidaymakers, not a great mix for safety and longevity of kit.

Turboman said:

The cookers are pants. But having said that, I suspect a few pots have boiled over on those.
Gas cookers, late nights, and drunken holidaymakers, not a great mix for safety and longevity of kit.

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Probably very true. The amazing thing is that these burners are checked very regularly and those have gone from "Pass" to "Total Rubbish" in a matter of a few weeks.

I should have also said how pants the knobs are - paint coming off them and breaking so they won't turn the valve and simply fall off. It appears that the more fancy the cooker is, the more pants the knobs are. Our 'standard' 2 berth vans will have a simple 2 burner cooker and the knobs are usually pretty good. Go up to a 4 berth with a fancier cooker that probably also has a grill, and they are dodgy. Go up to a 6 berth with a top of the range 4 burner top, grill and oven and the knobs are total shyte.

These problems are probably modern tat. I also checked an old (2004) Toyota Hiace van with 629,000 kms on the clock today. The cooker was quite 'old' looking, didn't have electric ignition, but it fired up and worked beautifully, burners and grill, and the knobs all felt tight and precise.

GrumpyGel said:

Probably very true. The amazing thing is that these burners are checked very regularly and those have gone from "Pass" to "Total Rubbish" in a matter of a few weeks.

I should have also said how pants the knobs are - paint coming off them and breaking so they won't turn the valve and simply fall off. It appears that the more fancy the cooker is, the more pants the knobs are. Our 'standard' 2 berth vans will have a simple 2 burner cooker and the knobs are usually pretty good. Go up to a 4 berth with a fancier cooker that probably also has a grill, and they are dodgy. Go up to a 6 berth with a top of the range 4 burner top, grill and oven and the knobs are total shyte.

These problems are probably modern tat. I also checked an old (2004) Toyota Hiace van with 629,000 kms on the clock today. The cooker was quite 'old' looking, didn't have electric ignition, but it fired up and worked beautifully, burners and grill, and the knobs all felt tight and precise.

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Mains electric cooker on my boat is about 20 years old. It works fine, and all the knobs are intact and turn freely.

I know people who have bought electric cookers in the last few years, and they are rubbish, and knobs falling off already.

I *think* I saw one of your vans yesterday... the Ambo it basically changed lanes into, slowed down quick enough to avoid a collision

I'm assuming they were following the SatNav prompts, as a couple of Kms ahead the council roading morons force everyone into a single lane to continue on the main road, and the right lane is forced to enter a roundabout, wheather they intend to turn or not... then a little further up, it goes to 2 lanes again, but only long enough to force you into a pothole big enough to consume an entire VW Beetle... then you have to merge again, because the right lane forces you to turn into the second most dodgy suburb in the region ("LOCK your doors!" should be a satnav voice prompt!)

Roading design up here is run by people who clearly arent allowed to operate machinery, or toasters...

AllanWorms said:

Roading design up here is run by people who clearly arent allowed to operate machinery, or toasters...

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Sounds a bit like the local council contractors here too.

AllanWorms said:

I *think* I saw one of your vans yesterday... the Ambo it basically changed lanes into, slowed down quick enough to avoid a collision

I'm assuming they were following the SatNav prompts, as a couple of Kms ahead the council roading morons force everyone into a single lane to continue on the main road, and the right lane is forced to enter a roundabout, wheather they intend to turn or not... then a little further up, it goes to 2 lanes again, but only long enough to force you into a pothole big enough to consume an entire VW Beetle... then you have to merge again, because the right lane forces you to turn into the second most dodgy suburb in the region ("LOCK your doors!" should be a satnav voice prompt!)

Roading design up here is run by people who clearly arent allowed to operate machinery, or toasters...

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Lol, Kiwi roads. Slips and Slumps R Us

Its really busy at work, we have 40 vans going out over the next 2 weeks. Most of them from down here in Chch, only 11 out of Auckland. However, as we have 4 people capable of pre hiring vans down here and they have nobody in Akl, I'm up there for next week.

Been a strange time for the VW Carfters. We only have 6 of them - they're the long wheel base jobbies and are very long. In the last few weeks 3 of them have been trashed big time. Not written off type crashes - but people hitting things big time. The sort of damage where we have to remove the camper bits from the inside for the panel beaters to be able to straighten them up.

Added into this is that we have a couple that have sprung coolant leaks. Not external leaks. Evidently the EGR coolers give out on these Crafters. They are still under warranty so rang the VW dealer to get them fixed. Their reply was that they are booked in for servicing at the end of August, so we'll look at it then! I asked them if they would replace the engines then rather than servicing them. The bloke couldn't understand why I was pissed! As we have quite a few of these vans on order, an email was sent from my boss to a big wig at VW and the first one was seen by the dealer on Monday. Result was that it was acknowledged as an EGR cooler problem and they will fix it in 2 weeks time! FFS. Another email from the boss and we'll buy the part then bill VW for our mechanic's time to fit it. Rings VW dealer, they want $2,100 + GST for the part and will need to be ordered by them. Rang our parts supplier and price of $1,300 for the genuine part (presumably a Mahle unit or someone like that) and in stock.

Looks like new vans all have their problems. Our Deliver9's are all under a couple of years old, and they all seam to be springing diesel leaks. We had 1 come in at 4:30 on Friday afternoon... going out on hire again at 10am Saturday! I started pre hiring it on Friday afternoon, but packed up about 5:30 and went in early Saturday to finish it. It was fookin cold and I started it up to clear all the ice off it and carried on doing my bits (with the Milwauykee jacket turned up to 3 bars of heat!) . Walked round the front and noticed diesel pissing out under the engine. Customer turned up about 9am, was given a car, 1/2 a day refund and asked to enjoy the sights of Chch for a while. Mechanic did a great job and we got the van to them at about 2pm.

GrumpyGel said:

Lol, Kiwi roads. Slips and Slumps R Us

Its really busy at work, we have 40 vans going out over the next 2 weeks. Most of them from down here in Chch, only 11 out of Auckland. However, as we have 4 people capable of pre hiring vans down here and they have nobody in Akl, I'm up there for next week.

Been a strange time for the VW Carfters. We only have 6 of them - they're the long wheel base jobbies and are very long. In the last few weeks 3 of them have been trashed big time. Not written off type crashes - but people hitting things big time. The sort of damage where we have to remove the camper bits from the inside for the panel beaters to be able to straighten them up.

Added into this is that we have a couple that have sprung coolant leaks. Not external leaks. Evidently the EGR coolers give out on these Crafters. They are still under warranty so rang the VW dealer to get them fixed. Their reply was that they are booked in for servicing at the end of August, so we'll look at it then! I asked them if they would replace the engines then rather than servicing them. The bloke couldn't understand why I was pissed! As we have quite a few of these vans on order, an email was sent from my boss to a big wig at VW and the first one was seen by the dealer on Monday. Result was that it was acknowledged as an EGR cooler problem and they will fix it in 2 weeks time! FFS. Another email from the boss and we'll buy the part then bill VW for our mechanic's time to fit it. Rings VW dealer, they want $2,100 + GST for the part and will need to be ordered by them. Rang our parts supplier and price of $1,300 for the genuine part (presumably a Mahle unit or someone like that) and in stock.

Looks like new vans all have their problems. Our Deliver9's are all under a couple of years old, and they all seam to be springing diesel leaks. We had 1 come in at 4:30 on Friday afternoon... going out on hire again at 10am Saturday! I started pre hiring it on Friday afternoon, but packed up about 5:30 and went in early Saturday to finish it. It was fookin cold and I started it up to clear all the ice off it and carried on doing my bits (with the Milwauykee jacket turned up to 3 bars of heat!) . Walked round the front and noticed diesel pissing out under the engine. Customer turned up about 9am, was given a car, 1/2 a day refund and asked to enjoy the sights of Chch for a while. Mechanic did a great job and we got the van to them at about 2pm.

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I had a 2015 Crafter with around 100k miles and had a few issues with it. On one occasion it went into limp mode and it turned out a part in the cooling system failed costing a few hundred. They also rot for fun with rust breaking out in various spots on the body for no reason. I've moved it on now but not sure I'd buy another.

Alibro said:

I had a 2015 Crafter with around 100k miles and had a few issues with it. On one occasion it went into limp mode and it turned out a part in the cooling system failed costing a few hundred. They also rot for fun with rust breaking out in various spots on the body for no reason. I've moved it on now but not sure I'd buy another.

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I don't think rust will cause us any headaches.

We have been conditioned by running LDVs! I'm sure if we just left the plywood panels used to build the camper out in the elements, they would rot more slowly than the vans.

Ooof, it's mostly off season and you're already having "fun"

Nothing like the pressure of a waiting customer to bypass the procrastination process!

Been a while since I posted on here.

Winter season has gone and have had all the vans out for a number of weeks now.

Funnily enough. A lot of the time we're actually quieter than the off season... because all the vans are out, there's not a lot to do. The flip side is that the vans appear to be like busses... in that they don't all drop off at regular intervals and you get a whole bunch come in for turning around and out the next day.

Some interesting events and activities on the go at the moment. We had a 1 year old LDV Deliver9 (still under warranty) engine failure. LDV, who are actually really good on their customer service and always do their best to help us out with problems, have been a bit shy on this one. It needs a replacement engine and they are claiming its due to the customer filling with petrol - which they deny and testing labs have since confirmed was not a factor. Upshot is that there are no engines in the country and 1 had to be flown from China. Cost to our company $25k (that's about £13k in funny money). Hopefully LDV will come back to the party!

The engine arrived yesterday... just as the mechanic was getting a new engine into an LDV V80. That one was the fault of a mechanic in our other branch who cocked up a cambelt change.

Customers who've booked these vans are actually doing alright out of these problems. We're currently building a whole heap of new VW Crafter based vans, so they are getting upgraded to them while they are off the road

Had some interesting calls on the support/breakdown line. I took a call on Wednesday morning from a chap who was driving the Te Anau/Milford road and 5th & 6th gears started to get noisy. We've had a few of these, and the gearbox needs replacing. So the tow company was called. They arrived at our yard, picked up a Corrola station wagon, then drove 10 1/2 hours down to Te Anau, dropped the car off with the customer, picked up the van, stayed the night in Te Anau, then drove back to the yard, dropping it off overnight. The mechanic swapped over gearboxes and the tow company called again at midday to pick it up. Actually, they'll just send a driver. He'll pick it up tonight and drive it back down to drop it off with the customer and drive the car back.

Te Anau is small and remote, but I'm sure 6 man days towing will work out more expensive than shipping a gearbox down to a local workshop to fit. But maybe not, and not in the timescales we can do it ourselves. Customer will only have been without the van for a couple of days. Dam fine service considering where the fault occurred.

We had a 'brilliant' 1 today. Customer arrived, fresh off the plane from Spain to pick up their camper. It was a LDV V80 based van, a manual. In his very poor English he says that he drives manuals a lot. They drive of from the depot... shortly after we get a call from a member of the public... can you come and move your van that's blocking the main road by Northlands Mall - its only a couple of miles from us. In that short distance, he has managed to completely root the clutch. When our guys arrived it wasn't clear if the van was on fire or not, there was so much smoke and the stench of fecked clutch was acrid. We think he may have rooted the engine as well as it doesn't sound very good and there's fluids seeping out - not sure where from yet. Another call to the tow company!

He had the audacity to blame it on the van and demanded another van! Yeh like we're going to give you another van to trash

Such fun!

"The van was slowing down on a hill, so I pressed in the left pedal, so the revs could go up for more power..."



"PUT IT IN H"!

AllanWorms said:

"The van was slowing down on a hill, so I pressed in the left pedal, so the revs could go up for more power..."

View attachment 304538

"PUT IT IN H"!

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Funny how things happen.

When I joined the company, they were ****ed that van kept blowing induction/turbo hoses. Not splitting them, just blowing them off what they were joined to. I dunno if Kiwi workshops have a thing against jubilee clips, but we were told when prehiring the vans to put 2 turbo hose sized jubilee clips in with the toolkit. Of course, since I've joined, I haven't heard of 1 blowing!

Then there was the episode where the Crafter vans decide they were going to eject all their coolant, and its all gone quiet on that front again.

We're now in a phase where a fair number of the 6 speed LDV gearboxes are losing 5th and 6th.

The problems seem to come and go like hair styles.

Then yesterday there was the guy who, after driving only a couple of miles, had completely goosed the clutch on his van, and possibly more. This was a first.....

Then today I'm in the yard and that same acrid goosed clutch smell wafts in... and its a van picked up an hour earlier at most. They had only got as far as the local supermarket... but at least had the noddle to understand something wasn't right and returned.

Their complaint was that the van smelt horrible!

Its a tight rope of customer service to try and explain that the smell wasn't the van's fault

Every cell in your body is wanting to say that the van is awesome, but you're fookwits. But there's revenue at stake for the company and these folk have spent a lot of money and come a long way to have a good time. Plus, they actually come across as really nice people.

So we politely tell them there is no need to change vans, we'll let it cool down and take them out for a drive. Show them how to drive it. They don't believe us of course. Think we're trying to pull a fast one. After all they are perfectly capable of driving

So, we leave the van for 45 minutes and I start it up. Clutch feels OK in the yard, so out for a test drive and take the bloke with me. Luckily, the van drove great. They've probably taken a whole chunk of life out of the clutch, but for now its performing well.

So I pulls over, and we swap so he drives. He starts it up, puts it in gear and goes to pull away. "Erm, you've put it in 3rd" I says. "Ahh" he says, as the penny drops.

Before I start checking a camper for a new booking, always open up the previous booking and look at its history.

It shows details of calls to the support/breakdown line. I man the phone a couple of days a week. Invariably the history is blank - so they've picked the van up, had a great time and dropped the van off without any technical issues. Which ties in with what I find when I run people up to the airport after they have dropped off - they've all had a great time. Occasionally, someone is unfortunate and has an issue...

There was a camper picked up on Wednesday from our Auckland depot by a lovely young German couple (I've spoken to them a few times). They got as far as Dairy Flat and the van broke down. A tow truck was dispatched, picked the van and them up and brought it back to our depot, but it was late into the evening by then, so they slept their 1st night in the camper there - it's an (almost) semi rural location so not a to bad place to overnight in a camper. Next morning they are given a car while the van is fixed and the van will be driven to where ever they are once its fixed.

So they head off to Whangarei @AllanWorms ... they stay their 2nd night in a motel ... and the car is stolen overnight!!!

Welcome to New Zealand, hope you're having a fab time

I get a call from them on the support line at 8am. They report that the car has been stolen and they have notified police. I apologise excessively to them on behalf of me, the company and the whole NZ population! I said we'd do everything we can to minimise the impact on their trip.

I loaded up our tracker system - the car wasn't in it! Noticed our record said it had a tracker, so searched that ID and bingo - found it at an address in Whangerai... so immediately called the police. Told them the address where they could find our car... which turned out to be the police pound

They were doing forensics on it when I called, but quite quickly gave us the all clear to collect it. The customer's van was fixed, so it was put on a tow truck, delivered to the customer then the tow truck bought our munted car back to the depot.

I really really hope they have no more incidents like this and have a great time. They will have some great stories to tell their grand children!

The car was apparently used in a ram raid - so if you hear of any sumbags @AllanWorms who did a ram raid on Thurdsday night, we'd love to know who they are!