Road Trip To Spain

[stevehutch]

Hi All, We have just returned from taking the 2.4 Surf to Torrevieja and back with no dramas at all. Thanks to all the help from members including Bushwhacker, Stormforce and Diezel Weazel all went well.
Our itinerary was:

Chepstow to Dover
Dover to Calais (Ferry Assisted)
Calais to Eurodisney (grand daughter demanded this part)
Eurodisney to Tours
Tours to Biarritz
Biarritz to Valencia (Via the Pyrenees, did you all know that 38 tonne trucks can overtake a surf climbing the pyrenees?, especially a surf doing abot 20 kmh)
Valencia to Torrevieja

We used no oil for top ups and only 1 extra litre of coolant, diesel averaged at 450 to 475 kms per tank according to the trip meter but I do have 31/10.50/15 tyres so might be out a bit there.

After 4 weeks in Torrevieja and the daughter and grand daughter already gone via easy jet me and the missus set off back.

Heres wher I made my boo boo, I booked a ferry via Cherbourg to Portsmouth and confused the dates. I booked a day sooner than I wanted and I booked a use it or lose it ticket!!!

Needless to say we had a short time to do 1700 kms. We checked everything and hit the road. Apart from fuel/food stops we went for 1200 kms before putting the seats back for a kip. 4 hours later we hit the road again and did the other 500kms to arrive in the nick of time.

Surf still in great shape apart from a keying attack in Spain where I must admit we did get a lot of looks, apparently it was the full bull bar which is not common over there.

On the trip we saw a few surfs but in Torrevieja we saw 4 British Surfs and 2 left hooker spanish plated ones.

The only draw back for the whole trip was the lack of power from the trusty 2.4 for cruising and hill purposes. Plenty of load room, good job as the missus took 3 large plastic crates of clothes!!!.

Thanks again to all for the help and advice I received before this trip.

Steve Hutchins

[slobodan]

Well done, glad it all went well.

Did you buy european breakdown cover just in case?

[stevehutch]

Sort of!!!

Well I had the cover that came with the Adrian Flux policy, £3500 limit on all breakdowns..............found out when I got home that it was limited to £350.00 per claim. Gotta read the small print!!

[yoshie]

Brilliant Steve, I love a road trip. Glad all went almost to plan, a wee drama just adds to the adventure

[Apache]

a wee drama just adds to the adventure

Speak for yourself!!

[wishbone]

Biarritz to Valencia (Via the Pyrenees, did you all know that 38 tonne trucks can overtake a surf climbing the pyrenees?, especially a surf doing abot 20 kmh)


Steve Hutchins

Yep I know that feeling - it's embarrassing when the old 70's land rovers go cruising past and you're at a top speed of 30mph isn't it ?

Hopefully my 3.0 will manage 50mph

Rob.

We had to stop to let the old girl cool down here - we'd come from way down the bottom of the valley.... It's a great holiday to Spain and back. We camped every night and stayed at friends near Granada for a few nights.

[Apache]

I found being able to lock the torque convertor up on the long climbs helped a fair bit in keeping temperatures down. Having said that, everyone said they were seeing high temps on some of the longer climbs, including a couple of Discos, a couple of Defenders and a Troopie.

[wishbone]

I found being able to lock the torque convertor up on the long climbs helped a fair bit in keeping temperatures down. Having said that, everyone said they were seeing high temps on some of the longer climbs, including a couple of Discos, a couple of Defenders and a Troopie.

Yep I'm going to buy a radiator misting system from Summit Racing and put in a big trans cooler with a surf rad fan to cool it on the 3.0. Have aquired a nice pajero trans cooler that is bigger than the aftermarket cooler I fitted on the 2.4 (the US ebay one that had a write up on here somewhere) (Boyo ?)