Do I really need Red Pennant?
Having been caravanning for over 25y and crossing the channel most years I always ask myself the same question do I really need Red Pennant, in all those years have never needed to use the full extent of the cover as being a mechanic have managed to repair most things that have gone wrong with the car, It had crossed my mind on many times should I use a cheaper option and there are many of them out there, but every time I end up buying red pennant,
So this year was no different red pennant bought and off we go after many stops we end up at Agde on the med and after 12 nights start to make our way back to Saumur for a week, so bright and early on Sunday morning we head off up through central France, after about 120miles the old Sorento {which I’ve owned since new} started to cut out on the hills steadily getting worse and by about 160miles was escorted of the motorway by some really friendly police at Saint Flour, as luck would have it right by a small caravan site, convinced it was injector related and possible 1 or 2 injectors leaking internally, so set about making up a injector leak off test, using 4 beer bottles {times like this I wish I had a 12 cylinder engine] cutting the aqua roll fill tube into lengths and using cable ties to fix to top of injectors, carried out test and much to my amazement all found to be good, even though I serviced the car before departure and had changed fuel filter and cleaned the tank pick up filter, removed rear seat and removed tank filter housing, there was my problem the tank pick up filter found to be totally blocked with what seamed to be the fuel tank limning, as it had only been checked less than a month earlier I assume the heat of the med and tank being only ¼ full for most of the time had caused the tank limning to come off , so I needed a few empty cans as the tank was half full, by luck behind the site there was a motorway repair depot and it was open, in I went and they had just what I needed 3 x 20l clean cans and a length of tubing, so these borrowed returned to site and promptly drained tank, cleaned out all debris with the help of the OH as here hands are smaller, refilled tank with fuel filtering through a pair of tights, tank filter cleaned and refitted, fuel system bled and started engine, after a lengthy test drive all found to be good, following morning returned the 3 containers to the motorway depot then hitched up and set of for Saumur with no issues with the fuel system, all seem well until 80miles from Saumur when I noticed a strange noise from the drive train at first I thought it was the bikes which were on the roof of the car but it just got loader and loader until the OH even noticed it , so pulled over into a service area and after a bit of checking found the noise to be coming from the gearbox, nursed the car into Flower Camping Ile d` Offard in Saumur, phoned the caravan club red pennant the following morning, within 2hrs there was mechanic on site who confirmed that the gearbox was shot, within 2hrs of that was informed that they were sending out a replacement car and would bring the Sorento back the following week, Thursday morning arrived a very nice gentleman with a Nissan Pathfinder to replace the Sorento, parked the Sorento up on site for collection and loaded up the Nissan for our return,
A great thanks to the Red pennant team and no longer will I wonder if I really need the extra cost of red pennant its worth every penny.
Comments
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Having made more than 25 trips to the continent in the last 35 years I've had two break-downs and a car-mugging but continued to enjoy every holiday thanks to Red Pennant. We wouldn't think about going without the secure re-assurance it provides . Plebian.
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I agree, Red Pennant is worth every penny. We have used them 4 times now,
My Land Rover Discovery 3 let me down on three separate occassions (to be fair one was due to a rat eating its way through eveything under the bonnet so not the cars fault) and the team in the UK just got it all sorted out so smoothly and proffesionaly that the holidays were not ruined.
Also had the 'A' frame break in Spain and they organised a UK truck to come and fetch the van while we stopped in hotels until ferry-time. Our van being deleivered straight to our own dealer for repair
A really BIG THANK YOU to all the RP team :-)
Never travel abroad without it now.
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