Home at last

With the sale of the house in West Malling after seven months on the market, it was time to go and collect the remnants of our furniture, the crap from the greenhouse and the Van.  The Van, Purple Haze was imported from the States in 2006 and you can read all about it's life in West Malling at our 'other' Purple Haze Website.  However, please ignore any reference to TDC Auto's (I must update the website) as he is a crook, but that is another story.  To bring the van back required a trailer and 4x4 which I hired from Pembrokeshire 4x4.

I drove the 4x4 and trailer and Kim drove the Luton Transit. I managed to get the engine onto the back of the trailer, but the gearbox had to go into the Luton.  Unfortunately, and yes Kim you were right, I had not drained all the oil from the gearbox and there was a bit of an environmental incident on the way back.  Luckily, most of the oil was soaked up by the bed that we decided needed to be replaced (anyway?). I had never driven 4x4 or more significantly towed anything.  Going forward is relatively simple if you remember the trailer is there, but going backwards is another matter.  I had to tow the van out of the drive in West Malling and reverse it into Dave's drive next door to get the Luton in to be loaded.  Against all expectations and with a huge amount of luck (I had visions of blocking the road with a jackknifed trailer) it went in first time with no drama.

The trip back to Wales was fairly uneventful apart from the cover trying to part company from the van.  Once back home, another tricky manoeuvre was required to get the van somewhere close to her new home in the workshop.  Again, it all seemed to go quite well without a hitch.  Purple Haze in now in the workshop awaiting the next phase of restoration, whenever that might be...