banana van as had a bad winter & came down with a very bad alternator.now those that know ,its a very nasty thing to treat .with lots of surgery ,which was a success.& carried out a local garage.
But a word of warning he had to have a battery exchange,which was quite a relief to my wallet .
then a few days later the auxiliary self tensioning arm broke whilst driving along ,leaving poor old banana van with no cooling,power steering ,or electric recharging again !! & at the point of relapse.a quick emergency call to the garage@ 10.45pm got him ,quickly seen to & iam glad to say back safely back on the untarmaced roads.
but in all fairness this is the first major illness he as had in his first 12yrs of life ,so hopefully many miles of free roaming to come .:slayer::slayer:

Had to change my alternator as well (cracked) been putting it off for nearly 2 years with intermittent battery light coming and 2 tyres but like you say 'Win' it's first major expense so can't complain.