VW LT Collection story (so far)

[whatever_mate]

Some background - I've been registered here for literally years, but didn't make it past the lurking stage ... Till now.

 

I've been wanting to get a camper for some time now and by chance I stumbled across the add for John's (now my) camper. It looked ideal.

 

Messages were exchanged. It was still available - great! But! I live on Raasay, which is is a small island off the side of Skye, in turn an island off the side of Scotland, which is a part of an island off the side of Europe (for now).

 

I was at the top left corner. The camper was in the middle... now only a fool would basically commit to buying a vehicle sight unseen over the interwebs and just head off to go and get it. So! Vehicle inspection company to the rescue. Or so I thought. It turns out that you can get either the van part inspected or the campy part. Very very occasionally you can find someone that can do both, but they're all busy. Ah. Okay. Backtrack.

 

Plan B. I'll Drive my car down. Then I can have a look at the camper, if it's a goer, give the car to a friend and head back up the road. Message John to change the plan. Great! We're on!

 

We're off. No not like setting off, like "not on" off. For reasons that definitely aren't* that the MOT was long gone and I'd forgotten about it I found myself not able to drive my car down. So the night before I was to look at the van I was able to talk a friend into coming across to Skye from Inverness to rescue me, my many bags and my mountain bike. (the bike will make an appearance later again, much later). Messaged about the change of plan again. Poor John! I'm pretty sure he was thinking "this guy...!" But finally a plan that would work. I'm a fool that would commit to buying a vehicle sight unseen over the internet

 

So Day 1: Raasay -> Sconser by boat Sconser -> Inverness by car. Inverness -> Bed.

[Cavcraft]

This should be ace, welcome in and look forward to pictures and more details!

[overrun]

Pineapple wanker!

[billyboy406v6]

Hurry up , the pez shot is overdue. Bon voyage etc.......

[John F]

At this point I was getting so used to would-be purchasers* dicking me around via ebay, etc. that the prospect of an Autoshite lurker coming to view / inspect / buy the LT from somewhere off the coast of Scotland seemed positively straightforward.

 

But this isn't my story...

[Richard]

.

[tooSavvy]

????

 

"which is a part of an island off the side of Europe (for now)."

 

Really?

 

Not shifting any time soon, lyke

 

 

TS

[stripped fred]

A good start. Looking forward to seeing how this goes!

[Richard]

.

[whatever_mate]

Day 2 started in a more... normal fashion.

 

I dragged myself to the train station in Inverness and parked my rear in Virgin Trains luxurious* quiet compartment headed for for York. I'd love to be able to tell you more about the journey but I must admit I was mostly sleeping so my observations were as follows:

 

1. There are way more really old people on trains than I thought
2. I don't know how much power is lost by those fancy laptop charging plugs by converting to A/C only for your laptop / phone / whatever charger to convert it back to something else DC. It must be loads.
3. There is a tradition on trains and buses that at least 1 person must bring really really smelly food. (On buses this person must also sit behind you and eat with their mouth open.)
4. That's it.

York!

 

York.

 

I spend a sum total of 27 3/4 minutes in York. It was great. I savored the tail end of the heatwave that never actually reached Scotland. I bought myself a cappuccino from a little shop in the train station. Everyone was polite and friendly. I wandered about the station as I waited for the coffee to cool. The coffee was hotter than the sun itself. I actually burned my mouth off. (and before someone says it's meant to be hot... I know...).

 

I got on... some other train. Some other train left York. On this... other... train, there was, what appeared to me to be a meeting of train drivers. It was pretty surreal! I drank my tepid coffee and stared out of the window. In time I reached Bradford.

 

At 15:24 pm I finally got off the train. A mere 7 hours and 29 minutes of sitting down and staring into space. Phew!

 

John picked me up from the station in his Discovery. Which is magificent, by the way! I'm pretty sure it took us nearly 5 minutes before realizing we're both fluent in German. The conversation continued in German from this point.

 

Der Camper sas bei John auf'm hof, und saar perfekt aus.

 

Just kidding.

 

Sometime around 4 I finally set eyes on the beast and I was thrilled! It was exactly as described and everything I was looking for! Ace. I got the tour of the beast. We both had exactly 3 coffees. Talking about the bodywork conversation switched to English. We took it for a spin. John made finding the gears look easy. At one point we were getting blank looks while discussing the finer point of (I think it was) shims for the valves in a Maserati. The conversation switched back to German. Right. Great. I'll take it!

 

Bank transfer... done! Paperwork... done! Perfect. The time... a crap. We'd spent such a long time chatting away that it was much much too late for me to call the insurance and get that sorted... 

 

...there was only one solution...

 

...we went to the pub!     

 

(I believe John has photo evidence of this... so I'll hand over to him for a second)

[Richard]

.

[John F]

whatever_mate, on 02 Jul 2017 - 7:00 PM, said:

 

...there was only one solution...

 

...we went to the pub!     

 

(I believe John has photo evidence of this... so I'll hand over to him for a second)

 

Yep, this indeed seemed to be the best option.

 

Simon is actually native German, so I thought I'd best ask him an important question... "Can you cope with British beer?"

 

The reply: "Yes, so long as it's real ale".

 

No problem then, as my local is a free house with a micro-brewery in the cellar

 

Here's a pic of Simon wondering why he's in a pub in Yorkshire, sat next to a multiple owl owner that's wearing a daft paper hat:

 

 

 

I'd like to say that it was a sensible evening with moderate alcohol intake, but that would be quite untrue. I remember much beer, several Sambucas and 3am coming around, and wondering how my housemate Hannah was going to get up for work in the morning. She managed it somehow.

 

The following day started with strong coffee at 9am, and the story goes back to Simon.

[BorniteIdentity]

[speechless.]

[warninglight]

Loving this thread! Oddly enough after being out on the Hebrides all last week (Mull and Islay) I came back looking to see if that camper had sold. I quite fancy a 508D to live out of.

 

Top collectioning, and very well written!

[castros_bro]

There are so many questions about so many aspects of this but any one of them would ruin the narrative of a perfect offhand AS  kollcetion fred and make in to Mums_net.   Karry on chaps.

[dollywobbler]

Ze Germans really are taking over it seems. Excellent. Despite stereotypes to the contrary, I find them amusing. I look forward to the continuation of this adventure.

[NorthernMonkey]

Absolute class. Lots/10.

[xkjagnz]

Yet still no photomographs of the beast!!

[chaseracer]

This place........

 

 

[AMC Rebel]

Ze Germans really are taking over it seems. Excellent. Despite stereotypes to the contrary, I find them amusing. I look forward to the continuation of this adventure.

I had a top quality German girlfriend for 11 months - she helped me mend my boiler and AMC brakes.

[KruJoe]

...much beer, several Sambucas and 3am coming around

 

Oof, sounds like I dodged a bullet last Thursay night!

 

I did have a kind invitation to pop down to Shipley to join the festivities, but I resisted the temptation, due to serious work commitments the next day. I suffered slight FOMO as a result...

 

Glad you had fun, folks!

[John F]

Oof, sounds like I dodged a bullet last Thursay night!

 

I did have a kind invitation to pop down to Shipley to join the festivities, but I resisted the temptation, due to serious work commitments the next day. I suffered slight FOMO as a result...

 

Glad you had fun, folks!

 

You'd have been fine, Joe - no Black Rat cider was consumed 

[KruJoe]

 

       *shudders*

[The Moog]

What a marvellous thread. More please !

[beko1987]

Come on, type you two

[KruJoe]

Settle, petal.

Simon's on Raasay; all his interwebs have to be translated from Pigeon Post via Semaphore, not like you Home Counties softies.

[whatever_mate]

 

Then I drove like an italian:

 

 

Arse.

 

But the journey continued without much incident. We did have a failure to proceed at Loch Lomond but I put that down to crud going through the tank... sat for a bit and she roared back into life!

 

 

Obligatory ferry shot. Also a joke about a massive boat.... and the ferry. Actually that's uncharitable, the LT is actually really good to drive... once you get the hang of the gears! The first few miles were a bit on the wrong side of "if you can't find it... grind it" for my liking!

 

Now she's resting on Raasay and I can start firing through the small (and big jobs) to bring her up to scratch. I keep calling it a her. I don't normally name my vehicles... but this one seems like it deserves a name

[chaseracer]

Were there an AS award for "lurker to shite hero in a single bound", you would be on a shortlist of one.

 

But there isn't.

 

Soz M9.

 

[chaseracer]

I keep calling it a her. I don't normally name my vehicles... but this one seems like it deserves a name

 

Brunhilde.

 

 

You're welcome...!

[John F]

Bloody hell, is that a speaker on the floor in the back there? They were screwed down...!

 

Good to hear more of the story... did you end up collecting your bike from Inverness on the way home?