Motorhoming in central Sweden

[Berkut]

My concern is not really about whether I might get a ticket - I would not even know how a police officer could possibly weigh my vehicle if they wanted to....

My concern would be over insurance.

There are such a thing as mobile scales.

And yes - if you fuck up your vehicle by towing an overweight trailer you're not going to be able to claim insurance.  But beyond that I don't see too much of an issue there.

No, I mean my concern would be that if I were in an accident, the fact that I was towing a vehicle over the legal weight limit would

1) Make it much harder to assign fault, and
2) Make it possible for my insurance to deny coverage for the accident.

[Threviel]

Yesterday we were in Ådalen, site of the last time the Swedish military was used against protestors and five people died.

We camped at the Urkult festival site and visited some 6000 years old carvings in the rock on some rapids.

Then we continued on to the coast and also the north point of our trip, famous for its fermented herring. I wanted to try it, but the restaurant was a sleazy pizza place run by Syrians or something, so I did not feel like paying 40$ for a rotten herring sandwich.

We continued on and right now we're at a bath/camping outside of Örnsköldsvik. While here we also bought some clothes at the Fjällräven outlet.

[Threviel]

Minor note: One thing I really really liked on our France trip was that most big supermarkets had a "Local products" aisle where they show cased the specialities of whatever region we were in. Made it easy and convenient to find some local stuff. Some rest stops even had shops especially for local specialities.

Not so in Sweden, not so at all. Up here they have some different stuff they eat and grow and I try to find as much of it as possible and it's never marked in any special way.

[PDH]

How are your motorhomies holding up?

[Threviel]

We're all holding up great. Cellular coverage has been very bad up here in the void, so I started playing FM on the phone, time for diaries have decreased.

[Threviel]

The high coast proved to be something of an expensive tourist trap. We toured a national park where the kids impressed me by walking 13 demanding kilometers of arboreal forest.

Unintuitivelly Sweden has ver very little natural forest remaining. Almost everything is planted for the timber/paper industries. Miles upon miles of spruces in straight line. I've very rarely been into unindustrialised forests, but this was one of those. Wonderful.

Today we've travelled south to Gävle. This town is famous for two things. One is Gevalia coffee, rumoured to even be selling in the US. The other thing is that Joe Hill was born there. We visited the house, which is now a museum. Unfortunately US socialist history isn't the hottest thing around so the museum is only open Saturdays.

We're travelling towards home now.

[Josquius]

Gävle is most famous for annual goat burning no? Always meant to go one year but the trains were too expensive.

[The Brain]

You didn't go to the Far North? Makes sense I suppose.

[Threviel]

Yeah, but I thought Brainie could expand on the goat thing.

We were far north enough thank you very much. This is a tale of travels in central Sweden.

[Threviel]

The continuing adventures continues towards home. Last night we stopped by a small private camping by the lake Hjälmaren. By chance I started to talk about forestry with a camper there and one thing led to whiskey and gin tonic and today I have a headache. It was glorious. And the kids could swim in a perfect swimming place.

They invited us to stay today for a party of crayfish and fermented herring, but unfortunately we felt that we should continue homeward.

Today we're at another lake, Tåkern. The Swedish princess Estelle, future queen and present duchess of Östergötland was gifted an adventure path here that we're just about to go on.

[Threviel]

We're back home now, tired and recuperating from the rigours of travel. It's quite a chore to travel with a 7 year old boy and a 4 year old girl. Sometimes they've been screaming their lungs out in the back and all we want now is some quiet.

Unfortunately the camper broke down and I've been repairing it since we came home. The shower floor has over the last few years slowly gained some hair line cracks, which I should have fixed, but I haven't. This year the cracks became bigger and during the trip the shower became unusable. Normally not a problem, we rarely use it and shower at the campsite showers instead, but it's still a problem. It has to be able to be used, it's one of the main points of the camper to have a mobile shower.

The plastic piece that cracked is unfortunately the whole floor of the toilet/shower. Everything is one big piece of plastic. And the thing to remember with campers is that the manufacturers put on the outside walls last, everything else is installed before the walls are installed, so the removal of a big snug fitting piece of plastic inside a room inside a small camper is a chore, to say the least.

But at least I got it up from the floor and upside down inside the toilet, to get it out I would have to tear down the walls of the toilet and I do not want to do that. I sealed the cracks with super glue and put on a sealing tape on top of that. When I put it back and tested the water tightness it leaked, so now I have to lift the floor back up again. Which is not a minor thing since it's sealed to the floor with some sticky asphalt like residue.

Why did it break? Well, the cheap ass manufacturer only put support on three sides on the wooden board that the floor rests on, not a problem with new plastic, but as the plastic got more and more UV damaged it started to give. I've put in support on three more places under the board.

[mongers]

We're back home now, tired and recuperating from the rigours of travel. It's quite a chore to travel with a 7 year old boy and a 4 year old girl. Sometimes they've been screaming their lungs out in the back and all we want now is some quiet.
....

Threviel, thanks for the excellent AAR, interesting reading even the on-going repair issues!

[Threviel]

We're back home now, tired and recuperating from the rigours of travel. It's quite a chore to travel with a 7 year old boy and a 4 year old girl. Sometimes they've been screaming their lungs out in the back and all we want now is some quiet.
....

Threviel, thanks for the excellent AAR, interesting reading even the on-going repair issues!

Thanks, nice to hear it being appreciated. It's quite fun when sightseeing to think of a way to tell about it to an unknowing audience.

I put the floor back after my initial attempt and tested water tightness with soap water. It leaked so I've taken it apart and bought some aquarium silicon to try again tomorrow.

[crazy canuck]

Great job Threviel!

We took our boys on a month long trek in Germany, Italy and France when they were 5 and 7.  It certainly changes they way you need to plan your day. 

But the benefits of getting them out and about were well worth it.

[Threviel]

I was not able to make the shower completely water tight, it still leaks when I completely fill it up with soap water. I guess it will have to do for now since we won't shower any more this year and then we can consider buying a replacement floor or living with being careful with it. A replacement floor is €1500-1800 so it's not something I want to buy.

I guess this concludes this years adventure.