7th Dutch Haflinger Treffen 2015

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heinkeljb
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7th Dutch Haflinger Treffen 2015

Post by heinkeljb »

I suppose there are at least 3 people on here who are interested about the trip I forced Lurch to undertake over the weekend 8/9/10/11 May 2015. (last weekend)!

So planning had all happened, 2 days Holiday had been booked and agreed by work. Treffen organiser had been paid by Transferwise, Camp site booked and prepared to accept payment when we turned up, Breakdown insurance via the RAC organised and paid for. Insurance company informed, which countries will you be visiting? France, Belgium, Netherlands - fine that's marked down - we don't send green cards any more, just give us a phone call if you need us! Like they will answer the phone on Sunday!

Thursday arrives and my friend Stephen who likes to accompany me on these forays turned up to help with the packing of Lurch. I had come across a plastic green house which for all intents and purposes seemed to be the same dimensions as the Long Wheel Base Haflinger bed. I had the previous weekend gone to the trouble of re-working the metal tube frame that came with it to fit and end result is shown in the pictures. It actually worked very well for the whole trip. A bit saggy after the storm:-
Lurch with a green house on the back 1.jpg
Lurch with a green house on the back 2.jpg
The bright minded of you will have noticed that I have not mentioned the ferry being booked and paid for above, good reason for that There was a long series of emails back and forth between Stephen and myself as to which ferry to get, all agreed but some how the "buy it" button never got pressed! So Thursday night I am going through all the paperwork with Stephen when I look at the date on the ferry booking - last years - quick where's this years! Go though my emails, no booking, go through my bank statements, no payment - Ekk! Haven't booked the ferry :shock: Go online and book for the next morning, slightly more expensive, but at least we have a ferry ticket now.

Alarm clocks set - set off for Dover with enough time to get there for the ferry, We had about 10 miles to go when the charging light started to flicker, by the time we reached the ferry port it was on constantly and ammeter was showing no charge, volt meter was slowly going down.... So we are sitting in the ferry line with the engine running having had a similar situation last year. One complaint about leaving the engine running by one of the other car drivers but otherwise it continued to run. Loaded on to the ferry, now we have to turn the engine off, still at least there is a slope out of the ferry we can bump start on.

Arrived in Dunkirk, got our customary push from a reluctant crew man and drove out of the ferry port. Other than changing the brushes on the Dynastart last year, it has worked perfectly well, so there was no real reason to think it would fail completely on this trip. As I happened to have another Dynastart, which I had spent vast sums of money on getting professionally rebuilt, I had loaded it in with a selection of other spare, so all we had to do was find a suitable place at the side of the road and swap the Dynastart's over. As luck would have it we stopped in building site entrance which had several big old wooden sleepers which we put to good use when the fan and cowling wouldn't come off the old Dyanastart. Lots of thumping with the biggest hammer in the tool box eventually allowed us to change the Dynastart. New one has loads more "omph" than the old one. Just goes to show how gradual the deterioration is. I thought the old one was quite good.

So with our new found electrical supply, Lurch ran perfectly - Stupid SatNav took us through Gent, and through Antwerp - so much stop start, I think I have glazed the clutch!

Arriving at the camp site we found various other Haflinger's already there and a few more turned up whilst we put up the tent. Turned in after a meal and during the night the weather turned stormy! At one point we thought the tent was either going to blow away or collapse on us. Morning arrived with continued high winds and we wondered if the tent was still going to be there when we got back. Saturday involved a road run round part of the Island, One of the people who turned up for the Treffen had flown there from Austria, in his own plane which had taken him 12 years to build. The day included a visit to farm that had Alpaca's, sheep and border collies as working dogs - which had their commands in English rather than in Dutch.

Saturday night had a meal arranged at the local airfield which is why we had our Austrian visitor - he wasn't going to drive all that way with his Haflinger on trailer, but as there was a local airfield, he flew in and "borrowed" a drive in a Haf for the weekend.
At the airfield.jpg
Sunday dawned bright and calm and no real damage to any of the tents, a couple of puddles being the most we had to worry about. Another road run around the other part of the Island, including a visit to the outer sea dyke and then a guided tour around one of the tidal flood barriers which were constructed in the ten years after the devastating 1953 flood which killed nearly 2000 people.

There were 14 Haflinger's and other than our "break down" before we even got to the Treffen, none of them had any issues all weekend.

Monday involved packing up and leaving the camp site in order to make the ferry at 6pm from Dunkirk. Other than getting stuck in some road works and getting slightly lost due to detours for yet more road works, we made the ferry with out major issues. The crossing was according the Capitan, "good with favourable winds". What he didn't tell us until we almost at Dover was that it was really foggy and that it was going to add another half an hour to the journey whilst they waited for the pilot to come out and guide the ferry in!

Arriving home late in the evening we had travelled 673 miles at approximately 30 mpg. A thoroughly enjoyable weekend.

Maybe we will see some of you at next years event?

John
Haflinger 703AP LWB 1973 - (Once owned by Lady Sutherland & Sons.) Now called "Lurch" !

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AustHaflinger
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Re: 7th Dutch Haflinger Treffen 2015

Post by AustHaflinger »

Hey - sounds like a fun trip - I wish I could have attended :lol: It is a shame we do not have these type of events in Australia.

As they say on trips like these, the 6 Ps come into play (Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance). Worked for you :) . Lurch should remained juiced up for a long while to come.

I am glad it went well.

Garry
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Techmogogy
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Re: 7th Dutch Haflinger Treffen 2015

Post by Techmogogy »

Great trip write up!
--------------
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heinkeljb
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Re: 7th Dutch Haflinger Treffen 2015

Post by heinkeljb »

Gary,

You could organise one! Apparently, Christopher chose the area of the Netherlands, filled in a few details on a "Garmin" app of some sort, sent it off and they sent back detailed routes and places to visit. I haven't been on the Garmin site to see if that is true, but that's what I understood.

The first year he ran it they got 3 Haflingers - all belonging to the group! It has snow balled from there, Last year there were 25! The road run became a bit difficult to keep together when going through towns, what with trafffic and lights etc.

There is also another app called Trailfinder (I think) which relies on the users to post routes which worked well for one of the "Green Lane" runs we did last year.

John
Haflinger 703AP LWB 1973 - (Once owned by Lady Sutherland & Sons.) Now called "Lurch" !

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kerry460
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Re: 7th Dutch Haflinger Treffen 2015

Post by kerry460 »

G,,day . interesting to read about it .

thanks for going to the trouble of doing it .

cheers
kerry
ex Tasmanian Haflinger agent .
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jhon
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Re: 7th Dutch Haflinger Treffen 2015

Post by jhon »

Well done on making it there and back John, that's quite an achievement, especially considering your troubles with the charging system!

Were there any preservationists there; did they give you a gentle ribbing for your non-original canopy?

Make do with what's at hand - I like your approach.
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Julian B
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Re: 7th Dutch Haflinger Treffen 2015

Post by Julian B »

John, Sounds like a fun trip, with lots learned for future trips. I will try my damnedest to join next years' fun :D
Julian B
W Sussex, UK

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AustHaflinger
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Re: 7th Dutch Haflinger Treffen 2015

Post by AustHaflinger »

heinkeljb wrote:Gary,

You could organise one! Apparently,
Yes I agree but I am not that type of person unfortunately.
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woodman
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Re: 7th Dutch Haflinger Treffen 2015

Post by woodman »

Hi John, thanks for a great write up, Nige received your Email OK, he will be publishing your article in the next Club Magazine, looking at the photos of the event on Facebook it looks like there were four Haflingers attending from the UK, yours, Jon Bs and two others, I do not recognise the other two can you please let Nige know the names of the other two so he can add them to your article. Regards Pete
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heinkeljb
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Re: 7th Dutch Haflinger Treffen 2015

Post by heinkeljb »

People recognised it as being a green house, but I didn't hear any other comments about it. Actually, I forgot to take my other camera so had to rely on the phone which does not have a lot of free space on it - meant being "selective" about taking pictures. Hence no pictures of the places we visited etc.

John
Haflinger 703AP LWB 1973 - (Once owned by Lady Sutherland & Sons.) Now called "Lurch" !

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tpond
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Re: 7th Dutch Haflinger Treffen 2015

Post by tpond »

Thanks for sharing the details of your trip! Sounds like a blast.

What is your cruising speed?
1964 NA Spec. Haflinger
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heinkeljb
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Re: 7th Dutch Haflinger Treffen 2015

Post by heinkeljb »

Standard 634cc engine. Long wheel base 5 speed. 47 mph hubs. 155/80/13 mud and snow tyres. Governor is still fitted and functioning.

Cruising speed indicated by speedo = 42 / 43 mph True GPS speed 40 mph. This did vary a little with the traffic as there were a couple of stretches of dual carriageway where you are "pushed" by the lorries - hit a maximum of 43 / 44 mph a few times. Average 30 mpg compared to the 20 / 25 mpg I get under "normal" use around town.

I might see if I can get a set of 14 inch wheels and go up 10% on the rolling circumference. That would boost the average speed a bit. The current 13 inch wheels equate tot he same size as the original 165 / 12 wheels.

John
Haflinger 703AP LWB 1973 - (Once owned by Lady Sutherland & Sons.) Now called "Lurch" !

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AustHaflinger
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Re: 7th Dutch Haflinger Treffen 2015

Post by AustHaflinger »

heinkeljb wrote:I might see if I can get a set of 14 inch wheels and go up 10% on the rolling circumference.
Based on my experience with the same hubs and 14" wheels - speeds (GPS) rounded a little.

3500rpm = 60 kph (37mph)
4000rpm = 70 kph (44mph)
4500rpm = 80 kph (50mph)
5000rpm = 90 kph (56mph) - middle of redline zone on a late engines - never done it on this new engine - not going to either.

Nice cruise is between 3500 - 4000 rpm (44mph) - with my larger engine I can normally keep this speed up most highway hills where a standard engine might drop off but I think 4000rpm is a good compromise between engine reliability, speed and fuel consumption.

On a hot day I would keep the revs at the lower end of the range - was -5c here last night (and it is not even winter) so not an issue at the moment.

Garry
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tpond
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Re: 7th Dutch Haflinger Treffen 2015

Post by tpond »

Thanks.

My truck has 40mph hubs, and it seems to be able to get to that speed on flat ground. A hill slows it down significantly.

I have a hard time imagining an extended road trip at that speed.

Your trip sounds like a nice adventure!
1964 NA Spec. Haflinger
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