downsides to buying a campervan please…..

again – anyone who raced in the late 90s early 2000s in the uk or europe might remember the mr big ancient ducato…..

i did an interview with tom barker at the time (who was a mechanic to trade) and asked how many miles he had on it …. he said he couldnt possibly tell me as he had no idea but it was well about a half million and it had had a complete engine rebuild in the past….. and been all over europe with racing

sadexpunk – Member
if youre converting it ‘yourself’, where would you start if you dont know what youre doing? just pay a company to do it for you? and if so who?

or are you pretty clued up with what to do and what you want?

There are plenty of threads on the T4/T5 forum about self converting and what to do first, planning, sourcing the stuff you’ll need, etc. Go have a look around on there. They are also very helpful.

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Dolomites camp[/url] on Flickr

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Sun and swim spot, Croatia[/url] on Flickr

After having looked at caravan stuff for ages, I thought buying a crappy old one would provide loads of useful components to use on a van conversion.

so did i molgrips how ever on closer inspection its hard to find one cheap enough to warrent pulling it apart…. theres not too much you couldnt build your self.

hardest part for me imo is plumbing in the electrics reliably.

If it was me I’d personally buy a decent secondhand van without the bulkhead. Then part convert- this way you can have it exactly how you want.

you could even put in a false floor with a sliding drawer made out of plywood? to store your bike(s) without wheels (or just your wheels/or stow kit etc?

Putting side windows in costs circa £700 professionally.

You can also self insulate- someone on here did it not so long ago/posted up their conversion.

I was thinking along the lines of sinks, hobs, heaters, water pumps and heaters, electric kit etc. And you could also probably use stuff like windows, blinds, curtains, skylights, and the cushions too.

the cheapy vans id seen at a price id consider tearing apart were of the ilk of coming apart never to go back together 😉

It’s not the Pug bit thats a problem, it’s the fact that a Pug Boxxer/Citroen Relay is a Fiat Ducato underneath the badges.

😆

Be interested to see how Tranny conversion goes, so to speak.

I insulated mine, a mixture of closed cell foam, rock wool and thermawrap.

added bed and cupboards internal water and waste tanks, fridge sink and a 3 burner stove. Paperwork is now with DVLA for registering as a campervan.

Electrics easy, just dont cut the red wire 🙂

I want a campervan mostly for the reasons highlighted in the ‘mash’ article!!

I also want to convert a panel van into a pimped out camper, just for the hell of it – I suppose it will be a bit like art or therapy – the journey (making the van) is as important as the destination (having a finished van), so to speak…

DrP

Major downside is spending less time at home – my lawn is in a terrible state! I need little encouragement to **** off for the weekend. And not having to put a tent up is a bonus.

Off to North Lakes tomorrow for the Bank Holiday with my girls. Gonna go for a pedal round Whinlatter with my daughters, do some crazy exploring and generally chillax with some BBQ action.

Yep, my lawn is now classified as a natur reserve, been away 4 weekends in a row. It’s awful, I have to sit round the fire and drink ale.

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West Wittering Camping May 13[/url] by pictonroad[/url], on Flickr

Well our old caravan was eventually sold today, so the new one can come and live by the house. So now we’ll be able to get away easily too 🙂

Funny thing is I thought of buying a caravan maybe in France and having it as a semi permanent base whilst exploring in the campervan

Electrics easy, just dont cut the red wire

True 🙂

Insulated, ply lined then lined with car carpet and red silk for rear doors, couple of hundred quid. Part conversion so still a van, just got new insurance for £410. Raised pallet for a bed that folds back on itself, storage underneath. Fold in half mattress from IKEA for about £200. Buy a caravan and leave the good spots for me to sleep at. On board loo is a bottle with wide neck for pees, Mrs bought a she/wee. They are expensive as you want to make them, off to Swiss Alps this summer for 2 weeks, Wales or Lakes every other weekend, my lawn is ace.

I’ve had a campervan, I’ve had a caravan. I think the ideal is a combo of the two.

A van like a Transit set up for day use with the basic facilities (your choice what that is) and a small easy to tow caravan for nights and which you can leave at a base.

The advantage is the van can be used as day to day transport and parked in car spaces. Campervans tend to moulder in the driveway most of the year while sucking up VED, insurance, and MoTs etc, and still depreciating rapidly.

BTW a bike can be made very narrow if you use quick detach pedals – it can be stored in a very narrow space if you twist the bars.

Another Bongo owner here – love it (V6 Petrol). Great for trips with the family (us, two girls and dog) – whether camping or just travelling further afield – longer car journeys now hold no fear!

Ours is unconverted – makes for a more useful van with 8 seats if you need them. We’ve a decent size drive-away 4-berth awning that makes camping a whole heap more practical – I think we’d struggle to stay in it without it as it’s not the biggest van in the world. The van acts as a day-time living space when it’s colder and a bedroom for us (downstairs) and the kids (upstairs); all cooking etc stays in the awning.

Pros – as before really; surprisingly nice to drive, comfortable for long trips, and it’s a fantastic bit of kit. For a camper it’s easy to park (shorter than a E-Class Merc estate). We coud sell it for what we paid for it which is a bonus.

Cons – heavy on the fuel. Costs more to insure than you’d think. We’ve also fallen foul of the whole height barrier thing; driving into Exeter and realising that we don’t know where there’s anywhere to park up without a restriction.

One of the best things we’ve ever done as a family.

seems fitting that i should have the 100th post on this thread 🙂

thanks for all your advice, the results are……inconclusive 😀
plenty to read through, very interesting stuff. made me think that maybe it isnt as simple as just pulling up somewhere, kettle on and bobs yer uncle, theres a fair bit of packing/unpacking to do just going to the shops, even with a zip up and go awning. running costs vs the use itd get are mebbes the wrong balance for us too, so im thinking theyre probably for those who can write off the deficit a little easier than us. we seem to be skint pretty much all the time, just scraping by, so a camper may not be feasible realistically.

still fancy one tho 😀

thanks

Madame typing, not edukator. Problem is leaving the thing. We were broken into so many times that we ended up not daring leave the van anywhere other than on camp sites or our garden. Don’t even think about leaving your bike either inside it or hanging outside. The latter even while you sleep in it. We even used to take it in turns to go shopping as we didn’t want to leave it unattended in the car-park. Not paranoid just fed up with buying new spare wheels and replacing broken locks and windows. In Italy, they broke the window despite the fact the doors were unlocked as the locks had been broken in a previous incident.

That said, my dream remains a wendy house on wheels and it’s my birthday soon. However, I’m aware that campers don’t offer the freedom you expect.

You must live in a rough spot.

Blimey edukator mines full of tools or bikes normally and never had a problem and peeps on here slag off Liverpool. Were the heck do you live?

tbh marin – its pretty well known that campers on the continent are targeted for theft – especially foreign ones parked at the side of the road……

my mate lives in corcheval and has told tales of folk being gassed via the vents while they sleep and relieved of all their belongings pass port etc etc .

I see Madame has been contributing.

“Rough spots” have included Italian lakes, Eastern France, SW France (home), SE France. I would describe them all as picturesque tourist destinations rather than rough. Vehicle damaged in Spain but nothing stolen.

Ah well fair enough I’ve had a car window put in in Barcelona and a mate who watched his car broken into while on the fifth pitch of a route. Gassed is alarming though.

Breaking in to cars it happens every where and the nearer you are to Marseille the worse it is, I could tell stories of break ins which have all been to cars, also happened a lot around Bleu and Verdon popular climbing areas. Also happens in UK and isnt confined to just campers so no more a risk than driving.

Gas well its one of those urban myths.

Their statement by the The Royal College of Anaesthetists is shown
here. Have a read and judge for yourself.

Despite the increasing numbers of reports of people being gassed in
motor-homes or commercial trucks in France, and the warning put
out by the Foreign Office for travellers to be aware of this danger, this
College remains of the view that this is a myth.
It is the view of the College that it would not be possible to render
someone unconscious by blowing ether, chloroform or any of the
currently used volatile anaesthetic agents, through the window of a
motor-home without their knowledge, even if they were sleeping at
the time. Ether is an extremely pungent agent and a relatively weak
anaesthetic by modern standards and has a very irritant affect on
the air passages, causing coughing and sometimes vomiting. It takes
some time to reach unconsciousness, even if given by direct application
to the face on a cloth, and the concentration needed by some
sort of spray administered directly into a room would be enormous.
The smell hangs around for days and would be obvious to anyone the
next day. Even the more powerful modern volatile agents would need
to be delivered in tankerloads of carrier gas or by a large compressor.
Potential agents, such as the one used by the Russians in the Moscow
siege are few in number and difficult to obtain. Moreover, these drugs
would be too expensive for the average thief to use.
The other important point to remember is that general anaesthetics
are potentially very dangerous, which is why they are only administered
in the UK by doctors who have undergone many years of postgraduate
training in the subject and who remain with the unconscious
patient throughout the anaesthetic. Unsupervised patients are likely
to die from obstruction of the airway by their tongues falling back. In
the Moscow seige approximately 20% of the people died, many probably
from airway obstruction directly related to the agent used.
If there was a totally safe, odourless, potent, cheap anaesthetic agent
available to thieves for this purpose it is likely the medical profession
would know about it and be investigating its use in anaesthetic
practice.

IME (and the experience of my camper driving friends) the risk is much higher with a camper van. I leave my car in dodgier places and never had anything stolen from it – one attempt at stealing the car though from in front of a chez moi which failed thanks to a humble steering wheel lock they failed to get off.

You’re thinking of Buoux but the most notorious break-in car park is the one for the Calanques. We took the train to Marseille and the bus to the Calanques, and took everything up the routes with us. We knew not to take the car as our friends had their car broken into and everything nicked. Thinking there was nothing left to steal they went back the next day and parked in the same place – all the wheels were nicked.

No I was on about Fontainebleau, as it use to be called I think its now fashionable to call it Font. Anyway France certain places can be bad for car crime and the Calanques one of the worse, friend left windows open absoluteley nothing to steel so they Shat on his seat.

Sod worrying about the lack off space, embrace it.

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/81030-The-Long-Way-South-A-Pan-American-Adventure?s=835ddd6536b527f77b0094f63b092d6a

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Long-Way-South/287351621355890?ref=tn_tnmn

http://www.thelongwaysouth.org/

Or, for the UK equivalent that I’ve posted once before http://www.campervanlife.com/micro-camper-van-peugeot-bipper

http://www.campervanconversion.co.uk/just-converted-very-small-van-peugeot-bipper-0

Its not just those dam Frenchies my mate was turned over at Yellowstone last year on first day of his climbing holiday which put a bummer on his trip to say the least.
I for one am a happy van dweller though, its a bit Marmite really. Love it or not but very happy putting the bike in the back today with no hassle and driving home with the armrests down after a top ride in the sunshine.

Its not just those dam Frenchies

🙁

The ones I identified on police files or were caught on video cameras weren’t French, just “travelling” in France.