We’ve just got back from a week in Dumfries the sites in Scotland – there the facilities are covid locked down so we had to use a loo tent and cold water showers – it wasn’t very luxurious :) Then again we’re a tough bunch :)
Good to know about the bench seat – in the sprinter I swapped the single for a bench as well. Now little un can use the dinette if it has rear belted seat.

Bonus on the McLouis the front seats swivel (see here

Thats pretty rare. My research suggests that most overcab motorhomes have fixed front seats due to the overcab intrusions or something or other,

So : on your McLouis does it have screen blinds? If not then do you use an exterior or interior sun thingy on the windscreen & side windows?
Remis blinds are nice but cost quite a bit, not used them in practise though.

Nice one @mrhoppy – that goes on the list. Do you know if you have a compressor or an absoprtion fridge? To me it looks like a dometic absorption fridge but I’m not sure.
My Sprinter is a dual wheel so no issues with payload but yeah on some vans they can be uprated.
Thanks everyone for being super helpful. Far more so than the motorhomefun forum (which is anything but fun).

Great that’s so helpful. :)
So a double bed garage is pretty flipping big. Takes 3 bikes easily with room for an electra-glide by the looks :)
What mbike is that? Must be a Kawa with that colour… unless some Yam MT. cannot make it out ;/
Now all I need is a picture of a single bunk garage….

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202006220393003?utm_source=triggered_emails&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=email_a_friend

one of these would fit without annoying the territorial neighbours too much I think.
But they have a reputation for damp …

Nice try but that’s too long at 7.2m for my ‘drive like space’ :)

Yeah that is the kind of van @epicsteve the CI Carioca is on my radar (but getting on a bit now).
Pretty interesting stuff yes indeedy ;)
Also this is doing my head in now. Yeah most panel vans are 2 birth, the xlwb and super high ducato has potential but I’d probably have to get it built up and that is ££
https://www.lastrada-mobile.de/en/vehicles/avanti/avanti-hplus this is pretty cool

How many estates or 4×4’s can you hose down the boot area in?

I reckon more people will have the desire to put some massive 22” chrome look alloys on their pickup, like some vehicle from Barbie world or something, than people hosing their vehicle down.

Fatties like fat cars!

Hah good one!

In my family we call all those silly bloated cars ‘nappy cars’ on account of the rear ‘nappy’. Also the ridiculous driver aids and other crap that nobody needs.

Here’s a classic ‘nappy car’

oh on the subject of YouTube….

STAMPYCAT !!!!!!

Well it’s for big kids but the 3 Musketeers (2011) was utter tosh.

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Some kind of steam punk galleaons that float through the air its really confusing from every perspective

Any Transformers franchise movie : they’re confusing and the teen love story sub plots add naff all.

You could do worse than a Highlander Blade (jetboil copy) team it with a ‘fire maple’ gas canister support, I’ve actually used this set up on numerous wild camps no problemo, works well in wind and is quick to boil, £50 that’s all.

The Cardigan bay area is nice too, like around Newquay. All the seaside resorts can get busy ish, but nothing compared to the rest of the mainland like Swanage for instance! Bets Y Coed is always busy too, as is Tenby.

I can’t believe that no-one has mentioned the A5 through the Ogwen valley. There are a couple of good campsites on the road, as well as a YHA.
Not to mention Tryfan (the most awesome scramble in Wales).

Taking the A470 down from Betws past the Trawsfynydd reservoir (some easy walking and cycling around it) with views of the Rhinog mtns inthe background (not much easy walking there though).

Also Barmouth is a cool place to visit, take the A496. Some great views of the Lynn peninsular (though much better view can be had from Rhinog Fach especially at dusk/dawn).

Or take the A487 as mentioned in other post, there may be some noisy jets screaming about on the Mach Loop.

St Davids is great (walk the coast path) but you’ll be struggling with time unless you love driving that much!

Have fun Wales is awesome!!!

Whilst I like my modified SV650 I still miss cycling when out early on a Sunday morning! Also I miss my motocrossers like CR250. The SV feels a bit soft to me, but it’s great around town and ear splitting noisy too.

Surely some of the attraction of camping is living a simple life without this sort of stuff.

True it’s simpler to eat at the pub every night if that’s what you mean.

What bike is it?
If it’s road legal then probably not a ‘real’ MX bike which are race bikes, more likely a trail bike with a softer tune. I’d say you’ll be OK when you’re cruising, but at slow speed you’ll need some time to get used to using the throttle to get over smaller obstacles that you cannot blast over (because you’d be going too fast for your ability level), so that sort of ‘trials bike like’ riding where you blip the throttle to lift the front, possibly with the back end moving sideways, will catch you out. If you’re wearing the big MX boots (you must) then you’ll be fine. The bikes are not heavy only 105kg or thereabouts. The throttle is your friend.

Dometic ACX40 runs of 240/12 or gas. £250 it’s a bit more than aldi version. Its’ not a compressor type instead it’s an Absorption fridge, silent in use. the 12v is only for transport though, it draws about 10A on 12, 240v has a thermostat, gas use should be in a ventilated area. Works for us!

What did you do in terms of prep?

depends how bad but mine did not have any oil in the concrete, so all I did was wash thoroughly with jet wash or hose and a stiff broom, washed out completley about 4 times.
If you have oil or similar then not sure but you’d need acid or something to remove the oil like this stuff :caustic agent for use on metal there must be a concrete version somewhere but this is a start and may be OK

I used DIAMOND HARD GARAGE FLOOR PAINT from Ronseal after cleaning the crap out of the floor with a jetwash.
It gets bad reviews because it lifts, I’ve found it to be not too bad for light use, my motorbike will not pull the paint up even when the tyres are sticky.

Nice ideas, not sure about the wrap though that would cost more than I paid for the vehicle!

I was considering doing a hand painted Mondrian style one in the style of the LOOK (LeMond) Tour team.

Bought one of those ‘hairdresser’ ones, just the job. My local barber reckons he has some Japanese scissors that cost £500!

that was a quick bit of image manipulation : what did you use do it?

“You can laugh if you want but your daughter might be in here”

Good one the wife won’t take kindly but it’s mine.

Maybe a ‘Renthal’ sticker is what I am after.

‘fairly Expensive toys outside on expensive rack’ anyway..

Yeah like I’ve got a jumbo road.cc ‘Cyclists stay awesome’ sticker on it at the moment, that was tricky to get level.

‘No Fear’ that’s appealing. Nice idea (or am I sad)

Definition of ‘Skid Row’

Is it a VW?

No it’s a Murc, so all that ‘vee-dub’stuff is N/A, and I hate petals hanging from rear view mirrors

Lucky for me I’ve got a little spot of the country on the outskirts of a big city, but like the OP hanker for more wilderness locally.
Depends but if it was me I’d ‘go large’ or ‘no half-measures’ : if you think you like wild places & can work from home or adapt than how about the Hebrides for example?

some other things :

Check out local drainage such as storm drains, they can block and cause a nightmare.

Trees will rain down leafy sh1t and sycamores will self seed everywhere they can.

Singletrack roads can be tricky to cycle on.

Not much in the way of garages or choice so you may be stuck with what’s local.

On the plus side you could have ferrets and things like that.

It’s easy to feel isolated in a big city too.

I assume it was because Dorris invited you in for a sherry and you have mentally blocked the next 4 hrs

hah good one

Scooby do would cost a mint to spray up (unless I hand rollered it, then it’d look a joke).

I see a lot of horse transit wagons with ‘horses’ done in swirly italic like horses

how about ‘humans’ instead?
Would people find it at all funny?

Maybe try renting somewhere remote for a while?
contracting somewhere remote or different?

I asked for advice on this forum about a camper van, was advised not to buy it, but then bought it. And it’s been a good decision. I know better than you lot.

XUbuntu worked fine for me on an older Dell. Or you could try puppy linux on a bootable USB stick.

I read somewhere there is a 3 ton limit bridge, funny you lot have come up with the goods hehe. I’ll have to look into the weight limit stuff ‘cos I’m not sure of the whys and wherefors, but I wouldn’t want to come a cropper and face bad fine that’s for sure.But if no ones looking and the vehicle is under 3 tons on the weighbridge, can I cross a 3 ton limit bridge? (ton == tonne == 1000kg)
Post edit : Probably it applies to MGW which means I cannot cross it as the vehicle is plated at > 3.5t though will have to check exactly what it is when I get back.

Oh and thanks a ton anybody who has helped me on this project, STW rocks! (most of the time)

Van goes anywhere, it’s a MWB double wheel with heaps of ground clearance, so no problems. Will grab some smidge and coils to add to the stockpile.