It’s a cracker!

We had a lovely warm, sunny day today (with the same or warmer expected again tomorrow) so I took the opportunity to pull my new little trailer out and give it a proper once-over. I must say, I’m very pleased with it. The dimensions of the ‘caisse’ (box) are 1.50m x 1.05m and there’s not a dent or ding on it anywhere. If I gave it a good clean up and its undercarriage a coat of hammerite, with a bit of TLC it could pass for nearly new – well, that’s if you close your eyes a little bit … 🙂 The best thing about buying something like this second-hand is that you can put it to work straight away without having to worry about all the scratches that you’re putting on it, and that’s important for me as I’m going to be carting around concrete blocks, rubble and all manner of scratchy stuff.

Not that I don’t want it to look nice. Today I ordered some new black mudguards for it, from the UK again. I searched quite a bit but found it almost impossible to find suitable replacement mudguards over here and what I did manage to set eyes on were grossly over-priced compared to the abundance of items available from the UK. So that’s where I ordered some from. Since placing the order, quite by chance I came across some similar ones on a French web site, while I was looking for a suitable ‘bache’ (cover) but it’s too late now.

The ones I ordered were in black plastic because although I would have preferred metal, I think I stand more of a chance of being able to re-use the same bolt holes if I get ones of similar shape to those that I’ve taken off. I also tidied up the cable run using cable ties in the best microlighting tradition, to replace the tatty old bits of wire that the previous owner had used and here are some shots that I took afterwards, this afternoon.

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As you can see, it has a ‘roue de secours’ (spare wheel) and a ‘roue jockey’ which many trailers over here don’t have, especially smaller ones. I’ve now just got to wait for my new number plate to arrive, probably tomorrow as I know it has been despatched, and then for the new mudguards. They’ll not be here until after Christmas as the seller only ships to the UK (silly eh…) and they’ll have to be forwarded on by a family member. Until then, the trailer will stay tucked away in the handy place I have for it, under the tree in the corner of my garden, where it fits very snugly.

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Today was also a cracking day for flying with excellent vis, bright sunny skies and very little wind. I heard Wim’s Weedhopper approaching from the other side of Plazac and to my great envy he did two low passes over my house. His little aircraft looked very pretty in the sunshine as he flew overhead. At least I know that every day that passes is another day closer to when I’ll be able to join him and do the same 😀