New camper van.

Capt Lightning

Capt Lightning

Well-known Member
Location
Historic Buchan, Scotland
I'm not sure what you call various styles of "motorhomes" in your country. I've just changed my trusty old van for a "Hightop motorcaravan" . In the UK, a "camper van" is usually one like a VW much favoured by surfers. A hightop is usually a larger van with a high roof that allows full standing room inside. There are various sub-classes of "coachbuilts" which are specially built from the chasis up and we usually reserve the term 'RV' for the large American style vehicles.

So, here's what I've bought.....van1.jpg

Loads of storage, but nothing to stop plates rattling, so a few enhancements are needed.
Going away for a few days next week - hope the weather is a bit better than it's been so far!
 

That's called a "Class B+" here in the U.S., Capt. They're all the rage right now. Class A's are the big motorhomes, Class C's are the smaller motorhomes built on a truck chassis (but some are pretty good-sized), Pick-up Campers are the ones that slide into the bed of a pickup and of course there are all kinds of "trailers", ranging from tiny little Teardrop trailers up to huge fifth wheel trailers. As far as I'm concerned, anything you're having a good time in is a RV.

To keep your plates from rattling, get some of the soft shelf-liner stuff and cut pieces the same size as the plates. Put a piece between each plate. You can put socks on the glasses to keep them from clinking.

We're in our sixth year of taking 4-5 month trips (we have a fifth wheel), so I've probably tried about everything there is to try in a RV to keep things from cracking, breaking, spilling, rattling, sliding......with various levels of success. (Sometimes, something is going to break so just be prepared).
 

Thanks jujube. This is our 6th van in over 30 years and I don't think we've had one that didn't rattle. The roads here aren't always the best! We see very few 5th wheels here, but I've looked at some when I've been in the U.S.
 
We call them, much the same here in Aus, looks good. We are flying to Gold Coast for a month in August , it's day time temps are on average for this time of year 25c Compaired to SA's 12-14 c
On our return we hope to start getting organised to do a little traveling with the caravan hope to get away in December/ January for about three months. ( depending how hot the summer is) Hubby has just fitted a tank to contain grey water from the sink, as we like camping in national parks, and places away from the crowds and most of the camp areas requirements are self contained meaning only leaving your footprints on the soil.
We are planning on traveling with friends we traveled with for three months in 2004/5 They live in Queensland..
 
Sweet van, Capt.!

Who is the manufacturer of the chassis / engine? I realize they go to a custom shop for all the extra work, but don't they start life as a "normal" vehicle?
 
Quite right SifuPhil. All our vans are based on commercial vehicles / chassis. VW is more of a 'cult' vehicle and with a rear engine, it has limited scope for its internal layout.
The popular vehicles here are Ford, Fiat/Citroen/Peugeot who all make the same basic van with different trim, and if you've got a bit more cash, Mercedes. My last van was on a Peugeot 'Boxer' chassis and the new one is converted from a Citroen 'Relay' van.

This one has a 2.2 litre turbo diesel engine. Not much power, but plenty of torque.

We use the term 'Caravan' to refer to a trailer, towed behind a car. Self propelled ones have a lot of interchangeable names like "camper", "Motorcaravan", "Motorhome" etc.. and we sometimes call the larger American style ones "RVs".
 
Capt Lightning said:
Thanks jujube. This is our 6th van in over 30 years and I don't think we've had one that didn't rattle. The roads here aren't always the best! We see very few 5th wheels here, but I've looked at some when I've been in the U.S.
Click to expand...

The big ones would have a problem pulling over to passing places on the single track roads here!

I thought caravans here were like mobile homes in the US, only they are for holidays mainly, not permanent. ? There are quite a lot of caravan parks around us.
 
Capt Lightning said:
The popular vehicles here are Ford, Fiat/Citroen/Peugeot who all make the same basic van with different trim, and if you've got a bit more cash, Mercedes. My last van was on a Peugeot 'Boxer' chassis and the new one is converted from a Citroen 'Relay' van.
Click to expand...

Wow! Just to show my limited world exposure, the only Citroen I know of is the classic DS model.

1970CitroenDS21_01_700.jpg

Thank you. ;)
 
Yes, that sure is a classic car!

Ken, as Ameriscot put it "The big ones would have a problem pulling over to passing places on the single track roads here!"
European vans are generally usually small - probably average 20 foot long, but they do appear to be getting larger with more bigger vans on the campsites. Only seen one or two 5th. Wheels here.

The far north of Scotland is pretty bleak in places - ideal for testing a 'Lunar Rover', but not for large RVs. Still, I'm sure you have plenty of places like that in the U.S.
 
When you talk about Citroen, the definitive model is the 2CV ("deux chevaux"). This is the ultimate in minimalist engineering.

The design brief was to produce a car which was :

"low-priced, rugged "umbrella on four wheels" that would enable four small farmers to drive 50 kg (110 lb) of farm goods to market at 50 km/h (31 mph), in clogs and across muddy unpaved roads if necessary. The car would use no more than 3 L of gasoline to travel 100 km (78 mpg).The design brief also included the requirement be able to drive across a ploughed field while carrying eggs, that the envisaged smallholder customer would be taking to market, without breaking them."

I think it also had to be suitable for transporting the farmer and his wife to church on Sunday.

The Citroen badge of a double chevron derives from the pioneering use of gears cut with a double helix to improve reliability and reduce noise.

images
 

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