Making KOMBI LIFE Better ⧸⧸ S02E05 #travel #trip #vacation #lifestyle #adventure #wanderlust #traveltips

What's up and welcome back to Kombi Life. We are Ben and Tamara and this season's overland adventure sees us road tripping across Europe to Asia or at least that's the plan. But here in central Italy we've recently noticed a problem with our alternator not charging our battery so we currently can't drive out of town, never mind out of the country. In this episode we've got quite a few challenges to overcome at our little riverside camp and we're hoping to find some help in the local town. Occasionally we go places and you guys are invited too so subscribe and buckle up. It's one heck of a ride. Problems are really mounting up with boomerang. Check this out. Tell me what's missing here in this picture. Where's that one gone? We're certain that we tighten them all up to torque so I'm gonna have to jack this wheel up to make sure it's not coming loose or doing something or I don't even know what. But not here because this is ground and we need tarmac to do that so we can solve that after we solve the other problem. There's something about a window as well. What's wrong with the window? Oh yeah, they haven't even mentioned the window. This entire window needs, on the other side, needs riveting because it's completely open at the moment, can't be closed. And yeah, would not hold rain. And that window's broken too, but you know, just little things. Let's deal with the big thing ultimately. So then the wheel coming off and then we'll get to windows. I've found the part that I need at a reasonable price. To be honest I already have one of these a brand new one at home but after the ordeal in Spain of 30 plus days and three attempts to get it sent from the UK to the EU still can't leave the desert. I think it's just better to buy another one. Today is actually day 30. Day 30? No. We've been here a month. As much as I don't want to buy something I already have. The problem is this is where this is where we are and this is where the part is. 135 hour walk, 589 kilometers or a day each way on the train for about six hours in a normal car. I don't think we're going to make it that far without having some serious mechanical problems so we need to come up with plan B. Ready for plan B? Always ready! We are on the way to the town of Otricoli and what are we trying to find there? We have to find a location for us to receive a package if we can order a new alternator. We need somewhere to send it so we can find a post office. What else? Definitely a tackle shop. Oh my god, someone lives there. Look at that. The fishing tackle shop obviously a priority list for me and then I think oh washing that's the other thing. Oh yeah that's what I'm carrying there. And cafecito. We need to find a cafe so we can upload the video to the Combi Crew about all of this. In real time. If you want to get real time updates from our adventures, then don't forget to support what we're doing and join the Combi Crew. Thank you. High five to the Combi Crew. If you like what we do, please join the Combi Crew on Patreon and YouTube channel members. It's the best way to keep the Combi Life videos rolling. Hands up who wants unlimited data? Yeah that'll be me and it might just be you because if you love traveling, you're a digital nomad like us or you're studying and working abroad there is an awesome new data solution that we've started using called Holofy Plans. Holofy offers international eSIMs and it's been on the market for years. They've already sold more than 10 million eSIMs and now they've just launched Holofy Plans which is their new monthly subscription and it is so simple. You just choose between Lite which gives you 25 gigabytes of data a month or Our personal favorite the unlimited plan. 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So if you want fast, reliable internet wherever the road takes you, check out Holofly. It's one of those travel companion apps that's worth having installed on your phone. I will leave a link below the like button and you can check it out. There is a 10% discount off 12 month Holofy plans with the code COMBILIFE. Thanks so much to Holofly and thanks to you guys. One hour later, that's a big hill. This is cute. Hello. Have a sense of. It's so quiet. I think everyone's gone for lunch. Lunch does sound like a good idea. Yeah, it's actually what we're trying to find. I think I can hear my stomach. My own thoughts. Wow. That is so warm. Would you stand in that balcony? Sure. Totally lost though. Trying to find somewhere to eat. Not a bad place to get lost. These doors. Look at this. Those are the alleyways. Do you think there's food down here? Not what I expected at all. Look at that view! On the outside it totally looked like a bit of a meh. Just a little cafe, bar sort of thing. But they've got food and they've got coffee and they've got a spectacular view so we'll be dining here. guess what they must be the nicest post people ever honestly they were so friendly very friendly and it's now turned out twice It helped speaking Serbian yeah i can't believe that you went into an italian post office and came out like solving the problem speaking serbian where are we staying Okay, how do I... Uh, the river? Because we went in trying to use the Google Translate app and didn't need it in the end. Yeah, no, that was really handy. They've given us an address to send the package to, so we will order that today. And they even said that they would call us when the package arrived. I know this is why we travel to find connect with the locals. I know talk about gold star service. Right next. A bit of a general store we've got rice on this side and pasta and screws on this side. Chances of finding a river gun in this tiny town very slim however I found a rivet gun eight euros. We can fix our window with this. I think it might be our lucky day. I don't think you're supposed to be stripping in public Ben. Is that okay? Can you do it louder? The clothes that you're standing in, in the laundry. Much, much later. I've got a piece of meat! I've got a bag, just so I can double grab it. Oh, they're soaking wet. What did you expect? I didn't think this through. It's hot outside, maybe we'll keep them nice and cool. On your website is an alternator 75. Please can you tell me if it has an internal regulator? Un regolatore interno. With our new alternator ordered from a vintage VW supplier within Italy, we're hoping to be out of here in just a few days. In the meantime there is plenty of van lifeing to be done at camp and that should keep us busy. We've been here long enough now that we're getting pretty low on battery power so this morning we are going to Back up down the river trying to find a bit of sun. There's not much sun forecast in the next few days but we need to make the most of it. So in the day times we'll be living over there and the night times we'll be living here probably where it's flat unless it's flat over there. In which case we'll stay. Packing up camp. Moving on down the river. Gonna let the sun shine in today. I'm trying to make this darkness go away. I'll paint with colors and I'll sing until my lungs give out. We're currently at 63% state of charge and there is an intermittent Cloud coverage so we're getting pretty spotty solar but we need to make the best of it that we can. Currently around about 90 odd watts. See if we can tilt these panels, get a bit more out of it. Fingers crossed. Well that's made some difference, doubled the input. Honestly whoever said living in a van down by the river was a bad thing clearly never tried it. I mean come on. At least during all these problems we have the morale boosting option of a nice warm hot shower at the end of the day and we are very close to a water supply so that's good. However we're having issues with that too. Currently we can't have a nice hot shower because it's either scalding hot or freezing cold and the reason for that I have ascertained after taking our shower apart is because our water pump is not pumping water. Let us have a little look and see what is happening Starting here with the water pump. Okay you're fine no problem. Okay you hear that noise? Pump went on, pump went off. Seemed like there's a decent amount of water coming out of there. It's taken a long time to suck up water from the tank. I see that there's water pressure initially and then it just dies off. The bladder in the system is holding pressure but the pump is unable to maintain it. This is telling me that potentially it's having an issue sucking up from the tank. Last thing to check will be This pre-filter gauze. Pretty clear. few bits in there not much so the pre-filter seems fine nothing really in there bit of sediment that's all right i don't know about you but that sounds pretty bad it sounds like the pump's knackered next step see if we can maybe pull from a different tank i've got to make one let's try this out there's our tank there's our input straight into the pump build up pretty quick that sounded a lot better build up really quick all right start pumping Keep it, keep it going. Is it slowing down? No, well we've isolated the pump not being the issue, that's really good news. So next guess is a one-way valve, non-return valve, probably that. Should have started with that shouldn't I? You imagine the worst of good old boomerang. Think of the content, all the stuff that I spent all day filming, I mean guys at home are like... there with their popcorn loving life right now hitting that thumbs up subscribing sharing joining the kombi crew making all of this possible misery i can't use the word misery whilst i'm lying on your chest this just doesn't make sense i think it's heaven the prospect of actually having a warm shower tonight which is good i don't know if i'm getting ahead of myself but i think the problem is this this little fella somewhere around here so we'll check that out next i hope you don't intend to kiss me with that mouth later Okay. Thanks for being here. Great job. Thanks for being here. It was fun. Have a great time. Thanks for being here. What the f**k is that? Thanks. Have you seen that? Bye. Bye. Maybe I wasn't supposed to do that. Bye. … Old one, new one. Much better. Always carry a spare. There is an outside chance that there may be an issue with the piping down to the tank. Something maybe has grown in the tank and it's been sucked up into the pipe and it's blocked. So I'm not sure if this is a good idea but just in case let's do this too. Big disaster. Right, it's happening. Three, two, one. Shortly now. Oh it finished straight away. That sounds so much better. That filled up really quickly. I think we might have fixed it. Fingers crossed that means a hot shower tonight. It's so good. I love how you say we and it was just you. Next up is the window. The window completely come apart. Not possible to close the window. It's leaking and bad weather is coming. Let's fix that. Still no fish. You like a smint? How about a mullet? Damn slippery little sucker. I'm going to put this up here. Okay, I'm holding. Those are some ugly ass rivets. Awful, awful rivets. That's as close as we can get it without taking out this entire cupboard. So, as long as the window works, it stays watertight and that's all I care about. It's closed. Is that good, it's closed? It's closed. It's good. We just need to put this back in. That's perfect, nice one. Now we've just got an alternator and a wheel coming on. Yeah, that. No. I give up. After several days of trying, not even having a bite, now my float's under the reeds. I'm putting the fishing rod away, like away, away. Oh I feel like I'm reeling a massive fish in right now. Is this what it's supposed to feel like? Can't remember, it's been so long since we caught a fish. If you're a fisherman who lives in Europe and you watch this channel, you'd like to take us fishing, show us how to catch fish, we would be very, very grateful. I don't think anyone can fault you for not trying here, you've been really above and beyond. Trooper. This is like day four, up at seven o'clock in the morning, you've tried every different time of day, every different piece of bait you could find, even tapping up the locals for advice. Yeah, yeah, every trick in the book and clearly I've just admitted defeat now, it's a bit disheartening. I've admitted defeat, hold on, at this spot. Not with fishing. Okay good good. Last thing I want to check today is what the hell's going on with this wheel. We lost a nut, a wheel lug. Of course there's every chance. This thing's so heavy that we just forgot to tighten it properly but I'm really sure that we didn't. Can I jack this up on river mud? Probably not my smartest move. I think we've got a bad wheel bearing but I think we're going to be okay for a while because it's not too bad and we're not hearing any noises just a little bit of play in this wheel here but we'll just roll for a bit and then deal with that when it becomes an issue because it's a pig of a job and it isn't going to get any better anyway. Can we go buy that wheel bearing? What wheel bearing? This is why it's important to always travel with a spare. I swear we did this last time. Three loose bolts, one missing bolt, that's not good. What's going on with this wheel? It's an awful shame to lose that while we're driving. Look, whilst you're doing all this important health and safety, fixing these big things stuff, I fixed the peg. We're a fixing family. High five. I didn't want to throw it away. I'm having a shower. It's been a long day. Have fun. I think she's happy. It makes a big difference. Fingers crossed. Shower works. The heating's good. That is good. That's massively better. Oh my gosh, that is way better. That's a proper shower. Yeah, that's... We've literally been showering with dribbles in that case. Moving on. Yeah, I'm ready. So I think we can shower together tonight. Look at that. Do you want to wash my hair? Of course. It didn't do that before. It didn't do that before. It wouldn't even work on that setting. So I can wash my hair. It didn't do that before, it didn't do that before, it wouldn't even work on that setting. so happy you don't understand when you're having a hard time with all the things going wrong a hot shower at the end of the day does sort you out yeah it makes a huge difference well done you've been such a trooper today you fixed this is wow problem three out of four that you fixed and problem four out of four is out of your hands you can't fix it today yeah waiting for the postie you'll be getting your hands dirty with that too though the old snake is going to be a big job yeah no i look forward to it wait hold on cool transition Was it bad? No. Today is a day for super strong. Doppio Molto. It says 12 on the front and that's because it's 12% volume. That's wine in beer form. That's what it looks like. I'm not drinking this out of a normal glass. It's got to be a wine glass. This is basically wine. Wine with a head. I mean it's not bad actually. It's the strongest beer I've ever tried. Why is it such a big tin? Cheat day! Yeah, I'm a one beer wonder when it comes to this.