a fairgound life (Egremont)

This would be my third visit to this fair. Since my Kia jeep was off road awaiting a transfer box repair, we decided that only one trailer could go down using the L200. There had been talk of curtailment at the fair due to the area of undermining. The organiser had not phoned us about this but we heard from other tenants who told us that they were going in to the fair later as there was a meeting with the council to find out what was available. So we decided not to go down until Monday morning. Late on Sunday night we did get a call from the organiser asking if we were coming. I did confirm this and he was surprised as he didn't know and had let our position! It seemed that there was a mix up in communication between him and his son who had taken our booking away back in May. Luckily our name had came up in conversation with another tenant at the fair and the organiser immediately called us to confirm our arrival.So disaster averted.

The next morning we headed down. "r" took the DZ and I drove the L200 with Hobby attached. It was a good trip down apart from the tailboard of the DZ having fell off a couple of miles from the town. The mounting bracket at one end had bust the welds. "r" had somehow heard the rattle and stopped in time to tie it up before major damage had been done or we had lost it all together. On arrival we set the trailer. The fair was re arranged to accommodate the larger area of undermining that was fenced off in the middle of the car park. We waited for the other rides to get set before we would set the DZ but then the fair was re arranged again and we were back on our original plot. Setting to work the DZ was erected for 7 pm, apart from the control box so that I could repair the tailboard bracket.

Tuesday afternoon and I decided to tackle that tailboard bracket. The whole problem stemmed from the fact that it was too low mounted and the air draining from the suspension had let it ground several times over the years resulting in the welds being torn. So I cut it completely off and started again from scratch. I had very limited tools with me so borrowed a 14" chopsaw, 4" grinder and cutting blade, welder,mask and rods all from "fatso". It give him something to grump about as he sarcastically asked if I wanted him to the job as well. I cut the brackets smaller and raised the whole thing up 40mm. Hopefully this will be enough to prevent further grounding. I would have went higher but this was all I could go without impeding the pay box door.

Wednesday was the first opening night and we operated from 6 pm til 9 pm. Biz was the same as last year. The only problem was from the amplifier that kept dropping a channel (sure I had this problem last year) so that would be tomorrows job.

Thursday, I remove the power amp from the rack and strip it down to component parts (literally). I begin methodically searching for any sign of a defective component. All of a sudden I become aware of a problem on the fair. I could see a meeting of some of the showmen in the middle of the fair. I go out to see what is what and it becomes clear that the council have informed the organiser (by hand delivered letter) that several rides have to move away from the fenced area before 5 pm or (there would be consequences). In the middle of the fenced area was a small orange painted dot, from this point was an outer circle diameter (also painted in orange) of 60 ft radius, that's 120 ft (about 36m) across. Literally the whole centre of the fairground.This area had to be totally clear. A quick measure up and discussion and a plan was formed. The superbob, Miami, Skyliner and Simulator would have to pull down, move and build up again for 6 pm opening! In the meanwhile a council chap was summoned by a "Crabfair" organiser so that the final positioning would be acceptable. The Miami ride was taken right out of the fair altogether and moved across the road from the gate of the fair into a row of 6 car parking spaces. The Supebob was set back onother 10 ft and closer to it neighbouring ride that meant it was almost built behind it. This meant it just cleared the orange line and no more.The simulator moved across the fair into the exit gate of the fair, while the skyliner moved down 20 ft onto the simulators old position to clear the exclusion zone. The skyliner was the easy ride to move as it was done with the ride still erected! The operator simply coupled it up, removed the packing and gingerly drove forward the 20 ft. "d" had his work cut out but they stuck in and completed the Superbob in time for 6pm opening. But think of this- Who polices the exclusion zone the rest of the year? During all this I was still tinkering with the amp. I found no obvious fault but I did lubricate a sticking cooling fan. The amp seemed to work ok but I noticed that all horns in the speakers were in-op and an 18" bass bin was no go too.

Friday I stripped out the 18" bass woofer. A test with the mega meter confirmed that the driver was blown. I stripped out the horns too and discovered that only one was blown while the others were in op due to a tiny bulb on the cross over circuit board being blown. I think this was from vibration on the road busting the filaments. I bridged this contact directly to confirm that the horn would indeed go, which it did for about 5 seconds before blowing!! ooops! obviously the bulb also serves as a resistor to protect the horn. So now I am down to two working horns. I remove the bulbs but there is no voltage or wattage marked on them. In a brain wave I bust the bulb, get the filament out and put the mega meter across it and get a reading of 1.2 ohm. With this info I get out a few bulbs from the drawer-60v 10w, 60v 5w, 12v 20w. The results were 35ohm, 72 ohm and 1.2 ohm. So 12v 20w was the right one. Now all I had to do was get two of these bulbs. I wasn't going to use the one I had as it was for under the carriage lighting. I walked up the street into the factory shop and bought a pack of the closest I could get- 12v 50w. Taking a chance I put them in and music to my ears ( pardon the pun) the two horns worked fine. The difference in the music quality is superb. So eventually I will track down another two horns and an 18" woofer, Its all down to budget or more accurately- lack of.

Saturday stayed dry until 4 pm when we got an hour of rain. It had dried up again for 6 pm but the families were away now. The teenagers hung around until 10 pm when the last of the large rides closed. I had shut the DZ at 9:30 pm. "r" had arrived from Glasgow for pulling down and at 11 pm the DZ was out, parked along the kerb ready for the next morning.

Sunday morning at 5am we get up to leave. It was still dark and didn't get light until 7am by which time we were past Carlisle. It seemed to take forever to travel the 150 miles to Stranraer. Just after 9am on a bright Sunday morning we arrived at the next fair. Right away "r" and I built up the DZ before the other rides arrived on site that would probably hinder the erecting of the tower on this very narrow fair. Job done it was back to Glasgow.