Scudo Combi Camper + Insurance Nasties

CrlyWrly · 2018-04-24 04:06:21

Hi - I am a new member - and I LOVE my 2006 Scudo Combi Campervan!

I only stumbled across this Forum last week but I have found loads of helpful information and it seems like a friendly place - so I thought I had better stop lurking and make myself useful :-)

Hadrian's Wall - December 2014

Scudo Journey (not mine!): Teesside -> Italy -> Spain -> Co. Durham -> Tyneside

An Italian academic based in the North East of England bought the Scudo new in 2007 (it is a 2006 model but was first registered on 01/01/2007) and had it customised by Simon Lee in Middlesbrough. The Italian guy drove it around Italy researching the industrialisation of Italian villages.

He sold it to an English guy who was living most of the time on the Costa Blanca. There were some minor alternations to the bench seats, table and sleeping arrangements when it was in Spain.

These are photos that the guy in Spain took of it when he was selling it.

A friend of mine bought it in 2011 and she drove it back to Co Durham from Southern Spain. So it spent most of its first 5 years pootling around Italy and Spain before heading back to the North East of England.

I live in Newcastle upon Tyne and bought it off my friend in October 2012.

2012-10-07-Scudo-Campervan-Image0601-cropped---number-plate-obscured---optimized.jpeg

The interior looks much the same now as when I bought it apart from the huge gas hob and grill, which I have removed.

2012-10-07-Fiat-Scudo-Bianca---interior-from-back--optimized.jpg

It had less than 52,000 miles on the clock when I bought it and now has about 67,700.

I use it almost every day as a "run around" as well as occasional overnight stays and camping trips - mostly to ukulele festivals and events.

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After being very seriously ill with severe sepsis in 2013 I get very tired driving, so on any journey taking more than an hour I stop and sleep frequently. The bench seats convert into a bed using a roll of slats across the gap between them and the seat cushions become the mattress. I usually leave the bed made up in the winter so I can crawl in whenever I need to. The seat cushions are the same width as the gap between the units and the seats, so in the summer I sometimes just chuck them on the floor for a kip!

My niece's daughter playing on the bed :-)

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Something I really like that the inside is so re-configurable! The second guy who owned it made the bench seat behind driver out of two open-top boxes, one that can slide into the other to give access from the sliding door. The top is in two parts "hinged" with gaffer tape so that it folds up on top of the "half seat". I have got plans to replace the pine top with marine-type ply this summer!

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Burgled two weeks ago!

Passenger-side sliding door window smashed!

Ransacked!

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Thankfully not much other damage but loads of stuff nicked! Including my dinky little Dometic Origo One hob and an Outdoor Ukulele. Busy re-stocking to go to Dumfries for the Ukulele Festival of Scotland this weekend.

Insurance Nasties!

I have got a multi-vehicle insurance with Primo PLC - the other vehicle being my partner's 2004 Doblo MPV. Did I read the very small print? No.

I know now though that it was not covered as a campervan but as a car and the limit on claims for personal possessions is £100. The ukulele does not count anyway because musical instruments are excluded as one of many categories of "high risk items".

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The big problem though was with the underwriters, ERS, and their "Approved Repairers". The glass replacement people were great - just the rest of it was a nightmare! All the more ridiculous because I have got a £250 excess (plus £100 on the glass) and most of the other damage has been repaired for free. I really cannot bear to detail all the horrors of dealing with ERS. I sent them a written complaint a week ago - no response as yet - with a link to this video to back it up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq6w-RxeTwk&t=32s

This is not the end of this sorry tale but I have had some good news!

. . . I am going to post it as a New Topic!

I just typed it all in and then for some reason the page re-loaded and I lost everything after that YouTube link (I tried putting that link inside "Video Tags" but the Post Preview just showed a blank box).

It is about DfT/DVLA clarification of their Guidance on the minimum requirements for a "Motor Home", so of much more general interest than what I have posted here - and therefore perhaps a good idea anyway to post it separately.

Best wishes,

Liz

vaz2121 · 2018-04-26 00:06:12

Sorry to hear about Insurance catching you out.....Kinda typical cop out though .......... Had work van rigged up with primus/camping stoves and makeshift sleeping arrangements in the past ........ To be informed that our commercial vehicle policy did not cover fire if internal from camping stove along with other escape routes we'll call them...............

BTW I'm sure youv'e been/seen before but anyway ...........When your at Dumfries......... next to Easterbrook hall is a fancy licensed Coffee bar and Swimming pool (Neuro's Restaurant and Spa?)..... Also if you go down past church opposite Easterbrook hall and exit on to the Low road ..........Turn left for Glencaple and when there opposite the Nith Hotel you can park up on quay side.... (Food was OK in there last time I visited)
Enjoy the W/end ...... Led to believe it's a big drawing event getting......................

CrlyWrly · 2018-04-26 04:44:20

vaz2121 wrote:

. . . Also if you go down past church opposite Easterbrook hall and exit on to the Low road ..........Turn left for Glencaple and when there opposite the Nith Hotel you can park up on quay side.... (Food was OK in there last time I visited)
Enjoy the W/end ...... Led to believe it's a big drawing event getting......................

Hi vaz2122! That's a great tip! I went last year and found the other places you mentioned but not that one :-) It might turn out to be very handy. The Festival only has campervan parking reserved for the Friday and Sat but it won't finish until Sunday evening, so I am staying an extra night. (The van-burglars nicked my night-time prescription driving glasses and I have not been able to replace them yet so I am not keen on driving in the dark.)

The Ukulele Festival of Scotland came out of nowhere a couple of years ago to be one of the best Festivals in the UK - loads of "big names" from all over the world performing and running workshops. The range of genres and standard of musicianship is fantastic. - Think "Music Festival" rather than "one-instrument festival" :-)

I don't know if you have any preconceptions about "ukulele music" but I am always amazed by the wide variety of stereotypes that people do have . . . "So, it will be all Hawaiian music?" . . . "Two days of George Formby!!" . . . "You're kidding me! Tip Toe Through The f@*&ing Tulips!" . . . "Ooo! I love Country & Western!" (What??!!!)

Last week I got, "That instrument you play really fast!?" . . . Well, sometimes! But not always. . . . It's not like it's demonically possessed and gets control of your hands! . . . Or is it??? yikes

Just to prove it's not (and going well off-topic here!) here's one of my slow numbers . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLebrjg5PGo

(Is there a problem with inserting video using the Video Tags? When I use them there is just a blank box - so I have replaced them with a simple link.)

Of course, I have to have it exorcised before every gig!

Insurance Companies!
It really . . . gets my goat (to avoid a very much stronger expression of displeasure!) the way Insurance Companies stack the deck against you! The gable end of the house next door blew out in the storms last year and some of it fell on my van. "Invalid claim! It's an "Act of God" so no payout!" But it's down on my "Claims Record" as "You were at fault"!!!

Gits! sad

Last edited by CrlyWrly (2018-04-26 04:50:26)

Ricko · 2018-04-26 06:21:27

Sorry to hear about the break in, very annoying to say the least.
Enjoy yourself up at Dumfries, and enjoy the journey too!

CrlyWrly · 2018-04-26 13:59:59

Ricko wrote:

Sorry to hear about the break in, very annoying to say the least.
Enjoy yourself up at Dumfries, and enjoy the journey too!

Thanks Ricko! The weather is looking good for driving :-)

http://www.weathercast.co.uk/services/t … ather.html

luthier · 2018-05-11 21:40:53

Hi smile I was enjoying your story until the break in bit sad I'm sorry about this... I like stringed instruments too as you may have notice by my username lol

CrlyWrly · 2018-05-12 00:02:45

luthier wrote:

Hi I was enjoying your story until the break in bit I'm sorry about this... I like stringed instruments too as you may have notice by my username lol

Hi Rob!

It took about 15 seconds to find your web site and Facebook Page, Mr. RM :-) Are you still making instruments? Your FB Pages says not but your web site looks active?

I didn't much like that Outdoor Ukulele, anyway. Afraid I have been spoilt by living just around the corner from Kevin Parsons and he has made me some beautiful instruments - he is supposed to be retired but he just can't stop himself!

He hasn't got a web site but I have twisted his arm to let me blog about what he gets up to in his workshop. If you are interested there is a "Landing Page" here with links to what I have posted so far - I am bit behind with the updates:
https://ukulele-allsorts.com/kevin-parsons/

I am supposed to be at the Grand Northern Ukulele Festival in Huddersfield right now but I have been delayed by some work that needed to be done on the campervan. Really lovely guys at Vanpunkt in Ogle sorted out the electrics for me - highly recommended!

They discovered that my 35AH Leisure Battery was not connected to the starting battery to recharge it and I do not have an electric hook-up - so it had lasted for at least seven years before going flat! There is still some more electrical work to do - all the fuses were corroded and the water heater went "bang" as soon as the guys put in a new fuse and it got some power going to it!

Kevin also made me a door in the side of one of the bench seats yesterday, so that I can use the space inside for storage without having to dismantle the bed to get stuff in and out of it.

After that, I am going up to North Wales - next weekend I am at Pete Howlett's "Meet The Ukulele Makers Festival" in Snowdonia National Park: MUMF

I am doing a set of original songs (some of them written jointly with Kevin) and running a workshop on "Easy Chord Changes" - nothing too tricky for me! :-)

Here is a sneak preview!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLlm-lZYAZE

I was SO glad to have the campervan up and running again that I celebrated by giving it a wash!

My latest "added-comfort" addition, to cut down drafts, is a "Roman Blind" made of silver-backed bubble-wrap - attached to the curtain rail over the back door with curtain hooks pushed through the bubble-wrap and a couple of bungee cords holding it in place.

Best wishes,

Liz

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#1 2018-04-24 04:06:21