Paul the 6th camper van

[Paul the 6th]

Originally Posted by AndyBrad

lol at big thingy!

looks good chap. can we borrow it

that's about the 5th time you've asked to borrow it! Maybe you & kat could come with us & sleep in the awning one time... think that's the best we can do did look at the prospect of hiring it out to try and recoup some money but the insurance is mega faff and expensive, then there's the prospect of if someone did damage or crash it = no more camper for us to go away in.

If you were really desperate to try it, there's loads of companies who do hire them out but it's usually about £200 for a long weekend (fri to mon) and you have to leave atleast a £500 deposit, as well as pay an additional fee on the insurance if you have any points on your licence - but it'd be a relatively cheap way to sample the camper lifestyle without the purchasing
/maintenance/cash hole aspect of it all.

These lot are based at harrogate - http://www.dubtrips.co.uk/about_the_van.html

Originally Posted by Roberrrrt

Hahaha quality pic!

Looks good Paul, you'll have to do yourself some vinyl wraps for it!

Already wrapped the bonnet in carbon fibre stuff to protect it from stone chips - not 100% pleased with the finish since it was windy so there's a few creases, and I kept getting called back into the house to see bits of the royal wedding - may re-do it at some point but we'll see

£600 a week, there not that ****in good Yours is coming along nicely though mate.

[phi-dan]

Vera was used as the wedding car for my sister-in-law's wedding
/derail

Nice looking conversion you got going there

[Paul the 6th]

Originally Posted by bluefishman

£600 a week, there not that ****in good Yours is coming along nicely though mate.

Aye tis a bit much, hence why I did consider letting ours out to help recoup some money - but after you've faffed about with public liability, breakdown cover, and then the prospect of what to give to the customers you've rented out to if your one & only bus does ever breakdown.. Feck it, I think I'll keep it!

Anywho, todays jobs:

1 hour on removing and cleaning the Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) unit. Good old EU interfering and making car manufacturers do stupid things to their vehicles, this particular contraption recirculates exhaust gasses back into the inlet manifold so that they are burned again to bring emissions down.... probably on a par with sticking a hose pipe up your ar5e and connecting it to your face, and I bet the engine likes it just as much. So all the sticky carbon crap has been cleaned out, and the pipe from exhaust into EGR has been blanked.

Then another hour installing the powered antenna for the radio since the VW fitted one had stopped working when I bought it... plus with the van only having cassette & radio to choose from, I've not listened to a single bit of music for the last month. Only took 5 mins to connect the antenna in, the rest of the time was spent dismantling all the trim panels & dashboard to route all the cables away all tidy.

No pics as such, but I'm getting another set of steel wheels next week which I'll be cleaning, filling and spraying shiny white since I can't afford £600+ for load rated alloys!

Also next week, we'll be fitting the other side window, covering the interior roof panels in silver vinyl and carpetting the remaining exposed metal work. Once that's done, get the floor sorted (new plywood floor & covered in special hard wearing lino) and order the r'n'r bed/cupboards (expenseeve).

Will report back with more pics soon!

Just a question, why the van and not the caravelle thingy that already has windows?

[Paul the 6th]

Originally Posted by AndyBrad

Just a question, why the van and not the caravelle thingy that already has windows?

Loadsa people do use the caravelle's, but they've usually been used as taxi's so have far higher mileage than a similar age/condition panel van. One guy on the t4 forum in birmingham bought a caravelle, same year as mine only with 250,000 miles on the clock but paid the exact same price It would be easier with regards fitting windows and the like, but we're gonna be happy leaving the 2 rear most side panels filled in for a bit of added privacy/less curtainage requirements etc.

But yeah they're basically the same vans with same engines & well worth looking at it you're considering a conversion.

thats funny of all things to forget to put hanbreak on its one of them lol but i bet it made you smirk

[Paul the 6th]

First reaction was 'f*** me that was lucky we're waiting for an air ambulance right now' - they should have to take a test before getting behind the wheel of one of those things! Absolute nugget..

[Paul the 6th]

After a bit of hunting and searching for an awning, I've found this cool little pop up tent. It's a quechua 2 seconds 'base' pop up tent... It's designed to act as a main living area/hub tent with upto 2 little tents connected to it's specially designed overhangs, but will serve perfectly for cooking, getting changed, storing gear outside the van, marking our pitch if we drive off site for the day etc.. demo video of the whole tent range below

Not that Im a sceptic or owt but doesnt that just become camping... with a van.