Erica's Maiden Voyage - How Did She Perform?

What was our assessment of Erica after her first outing? Excellent! She’s very comfortable and surprisingly spacious for such a small vehicle, with that swivelling single passenger seat making a big difference to both space and utility. We can also pat ourselves on the back for how quiet she is when driving, with the combination of the sound-deadening and insulation killing the road noise that was intrusive when she was stripped bare, and with no creaks or rattles coming from anything that we built.

Even with the cold night, we didn’t feel the need to turn the heating on until about 7.30pm (and again first thing the next morning), and it did its job admirably … but with a lot of noise. I’ve since dismounted the fuel pump, wrapped it in closed cell foam and suspended it (taking care to maintain the correct angle) via some cable ties; it’s now much quieter, but I reckon I can probably improve it a little further yet by removing the pipe clips I used to mount the rigid fuel pipe upstream of the pump and replace them with some foam-cushioned mounts.

We also could do with moving the heater controller that we realised, before we even left home, we’d put in the wrong place. It’s fine during the day when the sofa/bed is in sofa mode, but having the controller under the bed isn’t ideal if you want to turn the heating on or off when you’re in bed.

We also need to think more about where we store stuff. Carelessly, I put the kettle, mugs and tea-making gubbins in a cupboard that’s not accessible when the bed’s out. I’ll not make that mistake again!

Then there was the issue of the cool box. We’d decided early on in planning Erica that she wasn’t going to have a fridge, yet somehow we didn’t think about the practicality of where we would keep the cool-box. It was as I was trying to find somewhere secure to stow it that Mick pointed at the shelf behind the toilet and asked if it would fit there. Genius! You’d think we’d designed the area for that purpose, it fits so well.

 

A securing harness would be good, but in the meantime, a blanket in front and a jumper wedging it in place from the side did the job. A good use of otherwise wasted space. Note that the rest of the curtains are not the same as this set. I don’t mind the chintzy look of the gingham, but the colour doesn’t go at all. I will, in due course, make them all match.

Erica’s small size also proved its value throughout the first day, when she proceeded along miles upon miles of tiny lanes. Whilst legally Bertie could have taken us along all of those roads, there’s no way we would have chosen to have him do that. Some of them (mainly those with grass growing down the middle) were tight enough for the foliage to be brushing slim Erica’s sides and even on those that were a clear 2m wide, the passing of oncoming vehicles often involved some manoeuvring, followed by both vehicles hugging the hedges and inching slowly; Bertie would have caused both difficulty and consternation. Then there was the unofficial 2m height restriction on one of the roads due to a fallen tree. I certainly could have bagged those hills using Bertie,  but it would have been a completely different trip, requiring an extra day and a bicycle. 

So, a promising start to her life as a camper and we look forward to using her more. (For the avoidance of doubt, we're also looking forward to using Bertie more; poor chap has only had two nights away since March. Having his engine started and being moved forward or backwards half a tyre-turn every fortnight is not  how he foresaw his year panning out!)