7th May 2012
The weather is behaving itself and lately
has been absolutely beautiful, considering it’s a long weekend here in Aus
that’s amazing. Having said that night time winter temps have hit with a
vengeance as a cold front sneaked in from down south, as low as 13, 14 degrees
C at night which is four or five degrees lower than normal for this time of the
year and feels really cold, but hey the day time temps are still up around
24,25,26 degrees and perfect days at that.
We have got our caravan back, repairs took
a couple of weeks but it looks like they have done a really good job. According
to the owner of the factory (Otto Tuza), an area near the front window had
never been sealed correctly and water had been getting in from day one so they
basically replaced and upgraded the whole front section of the van and they
replaced the damaged inner lining and everything looks brand new. The original
front had a large section of padded vinyl to protect from flying stones, the
panelling behind this was apparently a fibreglass coated sheet of thin ply.
They have removed all of this and replaced it with aluminium checker-plate and
then attached a removable black vinyl skirt to reduce reflection, they even
touched up the stainless steel screws with black paint to blend in with the
vinyl. While they carried out the repairs they made some improvements such as
changing the doors on the front storage compartment and BBQ door. These
originally opened downwards like the tailgate on a ute, Otto suggested the
hinge side of these external doors always seals against water whereas the lock
side cannot be adjusted and you can’t guarantee they are waterproof. So by
reversing the whole assembly and putting the hinges to the top it ensures
rainwater won’t get into the compartment. On the roof of the caravan they
checked every seal and joint and ensured they were all satisfactorily sealed,
on inspection they claimed a couple of joints were suspect and have now been
secured, one can only accept it has all been done thoroughly and we have no
further problems. They also carried out a substantial improvement on the front
“A” frame that required cutting, welding and re-spraying, these improvements
were all carried out professionally and without any charge. When we picked up
the van Nancy asked them to install a couple of towel rails, a toilet roll
holder and a hand towel ring that we paid for wholesale and they installed for
nothing. So all in all I guess I should say we are very impressed with the service
we received and how willing Otto Tuza was to admit fault and address our
problem without question, and so far all I can do at this stage is sing their
praises.
We ended up having a couple of groups of
friends and old neighbours visit us today so we cooked a couple of chooks in
the BBQ and some veges in the oven and had a late lunch after a house
inspection, sitting in the back garden enjoying a good feed and a glass of
wine, the sun was that hot the ladies ended up shifting their chairs into the shade
– winter!
As I write this the sky in the west is a
dark purple and salmon pink just beautiful, what a magic weekend.
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