France/Spain road trip in January

[Dieselman]

My recommendation would be to fill up once entering France, or further South, then see how far it goes. The UK is now using Winter diesel, which has a lower calorific value.

That is the first time I have ever heard of that.

LG.

Live and learn, huh.

Winter diesel is supplied from 16th November to 15th March.

[renault760]

I have heard that "back in the olden days", truckers used to add a bit of petrol to their tanks in the winter to stop the diesel from waxing. In fact,not that long ago, I mistakingly started to put petrol in my works van. After realising my mistake and filling up with diesel and joked about it while paying. The guy in the kiosk said that the local taxi drivers often added petrol on purpose, believing that it helped keep the injectors clean.

I was interested by that little discussion on the merits of adding 2-stroke oil. I wonder if a drop of that would benefit my poor old C15?

[raynoon]

I’ll be running it on 2-stroke for the journey. 500mls per full tank full.

[raynoon]

You can search on Facebook for rayseuroroadtrip

[Ciaran]

Looks like an exciting journey already Ray, lets hope the wipers are the last of the technical failures.

Loving the bear shots

Ciarán

[raynoon]

Well we have arrived in Spain without too many problems, as Ciaran mentioned the drivers wiper arm came loose during a torrential downpour on the French Motorway, we managed to get the car safely to a rest stop some 3KM away (with no wipers, pitch black and torrential rain) it was quite scary! We’ve filled once in UK, at the start, travelled About 760 miles to that tankful, lots of hig speed driving, we made an hour up in the UK alone due to a late start caused by an Earth lead that detached itself from the front drivers side area. Filled up again near Dijon, and again last night south of Barcelona, another 760 miles. Not too bad for a 24 year old diesel automatic with 3 hefty blokes and their luggage on board. Plus it’s rained constantly so that reduces MPG too. The weather looks promising from now, we did see a glimpse of the sun as it was setting last night. That’s the first time we’ve seen it since England. The weather in France really was terrible.
No wonder the poor wiper arm nearly fell off. At least the underside will have had a good wash too. All that UK salt will have been washed away hopefully.

I’ll upload some pics when I get a reliable WiFi connection

Ray.

[Julianw]

On other fora, I would click the 'like' button for your post, Ray. Glad to hear you've hit better weather and not burnt through too much diesel. Enjoy Spain!

Sent from my BV6000 using Tapatalk

[MTXM]

I could not resist the opportunity to join Ray and his two companions and grabbed a cheap flight from Stansted to Alicante. After a smooth crossing yesterday Ray kindly collected me at the airport followed by a motorway dash to our accommodation just outside Benidorm. This morning Ray and Lynn our host have other plans so I hope to explore Benidorm and the impressive seafront and old town. There was a little rain earlier but the forecast for the next few days is sun and peak temperatures around 15c so we cannot complain. We are really looking forward to meeting up with Chris on Friday down towards Marbella and hopefully there will be time to see a few other interesting local sights. Adios for now! Matthew T.

[White Exec]

Great photo!
PS It's Almeria on Friday, not Marbella. Don't want you heading the wrong way!
Looking forward to seeing you both.

[MTXM]

Thanks Chris and we are really looking forward to meeting you. I know Ray is in touch about the arrangements. Another photo of Rays trusty steed is attached. Adios, Matthew T.