An impending shopping trip to France made me wonder what the maximum capacity of the car was. Apparently it's a whopping 397kg, which made me wonder what that would be.
Two people, with odds and ends, say 180kg, tops. Spare wheel (not a standard fitting) 15kg (?), sundry odds and ends say another 20kg. That leaves 180 kg, which approximates to 180 bottles of wine. I'm not sure I'm that brave, I usually limit myself to about 130 and even then it's a matter of driving very gently (with a full tank of fuel, of course).
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"a whopping 397kg, which made me wonder what that would be"
Exactly 3 mother-in-laws.
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Didn't know you had so many. Not sure why I'm surprised...
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Caravanning has made us far more conscious of weight/balance issues, not least because we're limited by a gross train weight that's less than fully laden car plus fully laden 'van.
It makes you realise how many people set off on long journeys grossly overloaded. Five adults at 75kg each (375kg) wouldn't leave a lot for baggage in your Accord, though depending on age its 'mass in service' on V5 might include driver and 90% fuel load.
We reckon four adults is max in Berlingo while we're towing.
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Landed in France and squeezed 53 litres of diesel into the tank (out of a possible 61) at a cool €1.17 which is 85p per litre. I don't like running the tank so low, I'm not good at this brinksmanship!
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In an ideal scenario the low fuel light pings on as you come down Jubilee Way into Dover docks.
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>> In an ideal scenario the low fuel light pings on as you come down Jubilee
>> Way into Dover docks.
I'm not brave enough to drive a car with the low fuel light on, sorry! (Particularly a Diesel.)
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>>I'm not brave enough to drive a car with the low fuel light on, sorry! (Particularly a Diesel.)
I finally got round to finding out what my Yaris would do. Put 5 litres of petrol in a can and decided to run it as low as I dare. The gauge got to empty, range said zero and then the light came on. It was dark and raining, so I decided it would be more comfortable to fill up at the next filling station.
I managed to get 34 litres into a claimed 42 litre tank. That's over a gallon and half left!
I'll run it until the light's on now, it's the smallest tank I've had for a long time.
ON's got a Yaris. Wonder how he gets on?
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I'm still learning about my new to me diesel - at the last fill the gauge said a quarter full, no fuel light was on, miles remaining display said 120. Thought I might as well fill it, but no real urgency.
It took 63 and a bit litres, and the tank is apparently 65.
Hmm..
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I still fill up when the tank gets to a quarter full. Hangover maybe from when I lived a very long way from anything and in particular a petrol station.
Anyway, during the week I regularly do 200 miles plus in a day so it's sort of a habit to top it up at night even if it doesn't really need it. If you're up and on the road at half past stupid o'clock the last thing you want to do is get out of the car again and stand shivering while you fill it up on some god forsaken motorway service area while paying top dollar for the fuel.
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I have a fuel fairy.
I drive whichever vehicle I wish, change when the fuel light comes on and get in another. By the time that one is low the fairy has filled the first.
Dunno how it happens, but for a fairy she's a bit foul mouthed when she gets in the car.
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My preferred ferry crossing gets me into France at 7am on Sunday morning.
Nothing, but nothing, is open in France at 7am on a Sunday morning - so I aim to board the ferry with a tank full to the neck. Its not worth the saving to worry about finding an open filling station as we leave the port!
I've done the return trip on fumes once having badly misjudged my journey time. Never again!
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Yeah, had the French Sunday feeling with the Westfield. 5 gallon tank and 30 mpg if I was lucky.
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Ah, but for those of us without a Subaru the margin between 'full to the neck' and 'running on fumes' is a bit wider. All right, a lot wider.
};---)
I have been low on fuel on a Sunday in the French countryside, though. Not a comfortable experience.
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Not been on a cross channel ferry for perhaps 25 years, but do they still (or even did they ever) have a stipulation that your fuel tank could only be half full or something? Or has my memory lead me adrift?
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Not on any that I've used, Cranks. It mustn't be at all full of LPG, though, if you're using Le Shuttle.
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Alway fill up in Calais or Dunkerque and then proceed straight to ferry check in. Never had a problem and so far as I can see mention of fuel in conditions of carriage is limited to issues with LPG and fuel in cans.
P&O allow far more caravan gas then I'd ever need. Somebody said DFDS were more particular but I cannot find a reference in their T&C document.
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I can't even remember there being a restriction on the hovercraft and that was like crossing the channel on a bouncy castle.
I can recall cutting quite the dash in my wide lapelled sports jacket, polo neck and flares while crossing on those in various Cortinas.
Or so I imagined at the time...
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>> Alway fill up in Calais or Dunkerque and then proceed straight to ferry check in.
>> Never had a problem and so far as I can see mention of fuel in
>> conditions of carriage is limited to issues with LPG and fuel in cans.
>>
Oh. Well just to prove to myself I'm not entirely mad, Google lead me to the current terms and conditions for Irish Ferries, as below. So they (still) have the restriction. But I've never used Irish Ferries so I must have got the idea from somewhere else.
It matters not.
49. During the passage vehicles must be locked the handbrake applied and first or lock gear engaged. Access to vehicles is not permitted during the passage. A reasonable amount of petrol may remain in the tanks during the passage but tanks must not be filled to capacity. The flow from the tank to carburetor must be shut off where this is not automatic. Fuel in cans or other containers is not permitted. On disembarkation vehicle engines must not be started until instructed. Passengers are responsible for driving vehicles onto and from the vessel.
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...without a Subaru the margin between 'full to the neck' and 'running on fumes' is a bit wider...
True, WdB, especially with a bike rack and roof box added after you've stuffed the car itself so full you can only see the kids heads for bags, wine, toys, wine, wine and swim woggles in the back seat :-)
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Nearly every petrol station in France has automatic pumps which take credit cards and operate 24 hours a day. No need to panic!
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True since our cards went C&P. (France got there ten years ahead of us.) My most uncomfortable Sunday was before this.
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>> True since our cards went C&P. (France got there ten years ahead of us.)
Typically incompatible with any international standards
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>>Typically incompatible with any international standards
But they had them in service c1990, long before anything compatible with international standards hit the UK mass market.
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>> >>Typically incompatible with any international standards
>>
>> But they had them in service c1990, long before anything compatible with international standards hit
>> the UK mass market.
But standards were in place/being agreed c1990 and they ignored them, something that caused them severe grief later on down the line.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 23 Mar 15 at 16:50
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They do now (Edit: have automatic pumps which take credit cards and operate 24 hours a day, that is). They're not 100% guaranteed to like foreign bank cards.
Mind, the other problem is finding fuel for the passengers on a Sunday! I've been caught out on that one too...
Last edited by: Gromit on Mon 23 Mar 15 at 17:09
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If you want 24 hour manned services in France head for the Autoroute where the services are always manned. You will pay a lot more than at the supermarket though. You can normally get something to eat as well although standards of edibility are variable.
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>> Nearly every petrol station in France has automatic pumps which take credit cards and operate
>> 24 hours a day. No need to panic!
I once tried to fill up a hire car near Pisa airport to avoid being ripped off returning it partly empty. But all the local stations were closed. One had a credit card slot or would take cash (we didn't have much cash) so I put a card in. My card couldn't be read - it turns out it didn't accept credit cards or maybe it was UK cards. Perhaps this too was chip and pin related.
But the card was now in the pump! We used tweezers to retrieve it. Then someone came back to the station and I was able to fill up. What fun that was.
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Near the ferry ports Auchan at Calais Coquelles (Bleriot Plage) takes English cards and has easy access 24/7 even if towing.
N roads can be a problem for fuel even on weekdays. Did a long stretch last summer on what I think was the N10 instead of the nearby autoroute. No radside filling stations at although presumably there were supermarkets in many of the towns/villages along the way.
Sunday round Chartres was bit dead too. Followed those little signs supposedly leading to an Intermarche with caisses automatiques and 24/7 fuel but just kept going up narrower and narrower roads. Bottled while I could still turn the caravan and doubled back to somewhere we'd ruled out 'cos the left turn into it was too tight and/or risky.
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>> N roads can be a problem for fuel even on weekdays. Did a long stretch
>> last summer on what I think was the N10 instead of the nearby autoroute. No
>> radside filling stations at although presumably there were supermarkets in many of the towns/villages along
>> the way.
You can get french POIs on your sat nav for filling stations, Auchans, Leclercs, Carrefours etc etc.
Zipping over next month, for a kind of day trip. One day next month will be the 100th Anniversary of great grandpappys death in a trench at Zonnebeke. So its a morning le Shuttle, hour and a bit drive to the Memorial Museum Passchendaele, then a wee backtrack to the Menin Gate at Leper where is name is on a panel, stay for the last post, then a gentle drive back to Calais for the midnight le shuttle home.
Hopefully I wont need to fill up if i cruise gently.
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I was nearly caught out last week by an Intermarche filling station that would not take my english cards. First one for several years - but i had my CIC card with me :)
Nonancourt ( town) just off the N12. (Not to be confused with the Intermarche filling station on the N12 just a few km to the East).
Took me back 25 years when I paid a frenchman cash to buy me fuel with his credit card :)
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>> Hopefully I wont need to fill up if i cruise gently.
The Mitzi I guess is petrol so no advantage in filling up in France - unless the recent exchange rate movements change the arithmetic. What's the price like in Belgium though?
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>> unless the recent exchange rate movements change the arithmetic. What's the price like in Belgium though?
OFFS (no offence Bromptonaut).
If you can afford to go to France or Spain or anywhere in continental Europe, you can afford sodding petrol. All this wimpish fart about how much it costs here, there and everywhere is almost unbearably dreary.
STFU unless you have something interesting to say. You all deserve to have all your cards cancelled and withdrawn.
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>> OFFS (no offence Bromptonaut).
No offence taken 'cos I'm tolerant like that.
My point was though a simple one. Diesel drivers save by filling up in France where Euro prices are same numbers as £ in UK, even at E1.1 to £. Petrol at E1.4/litre was another tasse de the.
Allowing for exchange rate moves (E1.4 to £) is frog essence, at whatever price rules today, still pricey and is Belgium any different?.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 23 Mar 15 at 20:10
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>> Allowing for exchange rate moves (E1.4 to £) is frog essence, at whatever price rules today, still pricey and is Belgium any different?.
OFFS... diesel schmiesel. It's all juice, and if you can't afford it you won't be there, or you'll get stranded and have to be brought back as an invalid or something.
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>> OFFS... diesel schmiesel. It's all juice, and if you can't afford it you won't be
>> there, or you'll get stranded and have to be brought back as an invalid or
>> something.
THAT WASN'T THE POINT.
It was about those that can afford it saving a Euro centime or two.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 23 Mar 15 at 20:28
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>> THAT WASN'T THE POINT.
>> It was about those that can afford it saving a Euro centime or two.
I see that your tolerance has its limits Bromptonaut.
I did know what it was about. I wasn't being personally rude, just a bit coarse. Sorry!
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Bromp, essence was still around E1.40/litre last time I was there, much the same as home. Significant variation between hypermarkets, local service stations and motorway service areas, as always.
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>> OFFS (no offence Bromptonaut).
>>
>> If you can afford to go to France or Spain or anywhere in continental Europe,
>> you can afford sodding petrol. All this wimpish fart about how much it costs here,
>> there and everywhere is almost unbearably dreary.
>>
>> STFU unless you have something interesting to say. You all deserve to have all your
>> cards cancelled and withdrawn.
>>
Not often I say this on here, but that really did make me chuckle.
Anyway carry on as you were.
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AC, do you really not get a good feeling from saving over £20 when filling your fuel tank?
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>> AC, do you really not get a good feeling from saving over £20 when filling your fuel tank?
I have to say that I probably would. But that would be very unusual. The saving is usually much less than that, and as they say time is money.
I hate queuing at the checkout behind people fiddling with half a dozen little cards and discount vouchers. Faff faff, chatter chatter, OFFS...
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Yeah, I got stuck behind "the woman with the vouchers" in Sainburys last night. You know the sort, apparently taken by surprise when invited to pay at all and only then having been so unexpectedly required to do so, only then begins to rummage in her bag for a means of completing the transaction. Oh, and can she pay for those last two items separately please? "Sorry, have you put them through already? They're for my mother you see.."
This complex task achieved, she then remembers she has some sodding vouchers, the whole process has to be re-assessed, discounts allowed, new vouchers issued...
Sheesh...
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It's interesting how if the shop system fails, you are the one left feeling embarrassed.
At the weekend I used a loyalty card, and for whatever reason the till operator managed to get it to read the card number as the amount I'd given her. This meant my £3.50 purchase came up as £76,535,446,635,674,736 tendered, and I think she was worried she might not have enough change. So of course it was call a manager to override it, and they were all busy, and then he couldn't sort it, and they had to start again but this time the card wouldn't read at all and I'd long since said forget it, give me the card back, and they had said no no, you must have the points now, and so on and on.
Rather than endure the huffings of the lady in the queue behind I engaged her in conversation about how embarrassing it seemed to be when it wasn't actually my fault, and after that we got on like a house on fire. I might carry a broken loyalty card with me on purpose.
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>> and after that we got on like a house on fire. I might carry a
>> broken loyalty card with me on purpose.
You meet a much better class of woman if you have a dog with you. Don't think I'll try the broken loyalty card trick.
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Puppies are more effective if you're into engaging random women in conversation. Not many of them can resist a puppy. Some supermarkets take a dim view of them though.
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Puppies? please no-one mention the sweeties in his pocket
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True though, if you want to guarantee a fun Saturday night just take a puppy to the park on a Saturday afternoon. Borrow one if need be.
For the sake of variety, you can choose different parks ( or indeed puppies )every week.
Not that I've ever...
;-)
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Random conversations are always fun. I was wandering around the Fitzwilliam Museum last week in my lunch break looking at the Stanley Spencers. I heard light footsteps behind me, caught a slight whiff of patchouli, and turned to find not the green eyed redhead with a flash in her eyes that I'd over-actively imagined, but instead an utterly charming gentleman with, I kid you not, a fedora, cravat, and I dare say, a cummerbund, wanting to engage me in a little light art conversation.
He was very interesting about the Ben Nicholsons but it turned out he didn't like Stanley Spencer, so it was a short lived interaction. I suppose I could have gone into the basement with him to share my love of the shabtis.
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>> I dare say, a cummerbund, wanting to engage me in a little light art conversation.
A cummerbund at lunch time? More likely a corset.
If it was Brian Sewell he would have been badmouthing the pictures and denouncing half of them as crappy fakes.
Ben Nicholson was quite productive. There's a small but characteristic one four feet to my left now. At least I think that's what it is.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Tue 24 Mar 15 at 16:16
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So pleased to know you recognise Patchouli oil AC, it's like Castrol R.......recognising either gives you street cred in my book.
Pat
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>> So pleased to know you recognise Patchouli oil AC
Ahem.
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>> Ahem.
Tee hee... but forgive her Crankcase. I recognise it too.
Hippy chicks used to smell of patchouli back in the day, smells a bit like Lebanese hash did when it was any good.
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Patchouli made your beer go flat.
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>> Patchouli made your beer go flat.
You can't (surely?) have tried adding it to your beer, so I suppose you mean it makes beer go flat by its mere proximity.
My suggestion is that if that happens, be a man and drink spirits instead. Beer goes flat on its own soon enough, and there's too much of it. Sounds wimpish to order a 'half of heavy, Jimmy', I admit.
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"we got on like a house on fire. I might carry a broken loyalty card with me on purpose."
been taking lessons from BBD?
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>> Yeah, I got stuck behind "the woman with the vouchers" in Sainburys last night.
You were in a supermarket, did you get lost? :-)
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I've become quite good at it in recent months
;-)
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Honda Accord Tourer - Filled to the gunwales - BiggerBadderDave
