What could possibly be the last trip with the Triumph estate and Sprite combo this year we thought we’d take Kai away for a few days, combining it with a catch up with Forest Park for the Norfolk camping weekend.
Paul picked up Kai on the Tuesday morning and popped into the kiddies play day at Watton where Christina was helping out. After a quick lunch, and with the combo sorted, we were off to North Norfolk.
Everything was going swimmingly until around an hour into the journey when we had the usual “gearbox getting hot” smell. Before we could pull over it did its thing of spewing out some oil leaving a trail of smoke in our wake as it burnt off on the exhaust. Confirmed by the way the trail of traffic behind us suddenly dropped back. We pulled over in a building site driveway to let things cool down while trying to remain calm in front of Kai.
After half an hour with only 10 miles to go we decided to resume the journey, making it to the campsite just as the gears started to play up.
We were soon set up having a cup of tea with Kai, keeping us busy, quickly taking any thoughts of breakdown away. We then did some exploring around the campsite including a walk through the woods before a pasta dinner and an early night.
Thankfully Kai was the last to wake up giving us time to come round naturally. After joining us for breakfast in bed we were up in time for a meeting with staff at the campsite to discuss final preparations for TSSC camping weekend in September. The rest of the morning was taken up sorting a 2.5 mile walking treasure hunt to the beech where we saw the Red Arrows doing a display at nearby Cromer. There was a children’s music workshop in the afternoon which we took Kai along to. Followed by a walk in the woods for a bit of hide and seek.
We’d decided to give ourselves a treat in the evening with a meal in the bar and after such a busy day we were all happy to get to bed early again.
Earlier in the summer we were part of a display at the North Norfolk Railway anniversary weekend for which we were given free tickets for a ride on the railway. With Thursday being a “steam” day we decided to redeem them and take Kai for a ride from Holt to Sheringham for a walk along the beech and some fish and chips. We also made a detour to Halfords to pick up some more gearbox oil just in case…
Back at the campsite we had another walk through the woods for a bit of hide and seek. This was followed by a third early night.
Friday was our last day and we aimed to leave early while the weather was relatively cool, setting off just before 9.30. To try and stop the gearbox from boiling over we stopped off for a tea break just over halfway in the Easton lay-by. Half hour later we were back on the road with our fingered crossed but making it home just before lunch. All that was left to go was to pop out and buy Kai a new pair of shoes after his new ones he went away in were used as brakes on his balance bike.
So it would appear that stopping every hour for half an hour stops the gearbox from boiling over when towing. A refurbed oil cooler and electric fan will be needed before next year’s trip to Devon the Triumph 2000 national. Or it’s going to take a long time to get there…