The new news 24 thread

[cobblers]

I thought two months was excessive for it:

[Six-cylinder]

I thought two months was excessive for it:

In my Fiat 500 I did 2,000 miles in 14 months, that was when Mrs Cyl suggested I should sell the drive ornament while it still had some value!

 

It did look stunning and even now I miss it looking good on the drive.

[twosmoke300]

The other thing with caravan ownership is that you may end up driving a bigger more expensive to run car all year just to pull the caravan twice a year

[vulgalour]

Not really news, but I think I spotted Vulgalour in his Rover coming off the A1 at Newark. Either that or there are 2 red Rover 400s with black roofs driven by men in trilbys.

 

I managed to get some internet to find out if it really was you I saw hurtling off the roundabout of DEATH in the Aerodeck, which, btw, looks ace.  I'm Lincolnshireland for the weekend and the Bourne show.

[Kiltox]

On the final train of the morning. Standing room only.

[M'coli]

Camper: costs around £500 or so to insure, tax and MOT for a year, it does about 25mpg, campsites with electric vary from £15-25 a night but you can just park and sleep in some places.  As compensation, here's the view as I woke up one morning two weeks ago.

 

[Guest Hooli]

I can haz builders van!

 

 

110 reclaimed tiles to finish the garage seem to compress the suspension a touch...

 

 

(Still hasn't FTP'd btw)

[Craig the Princess]

I thought the first picture was showing a coolant leak :-S

[kfsgo]

In a few words; Utterly brilliant, unique, frustrating, tiring and expensive.

 

Utterly brilliant as you get to see parts of the country, your office window is often a wilderness of beautiful greenery, different little towns ditted all around and the countryside etc... You are not having to go to the same place everyday sat between 4 walls surrounded by a bunch of twats who don't like you that you are forced to work with and no one is really breathing down your neck.

 

But like most jobs, it has its frustrations; failed jobs, (cars you have reject due to dangerous defects/bald tyres) smarmy arrogant unhelpful dealers/customers, travelling costs, crappy public transport, other drivers, places that be found, time limits and not really knowing where your gonna be/sleeping from one day to the next.

 

It can be very tiring as I'm finding out now. Many early starts and late finishes are usually down to traffic and the distance you travel.

 

Travelling from job to job can be fairly wallett hurting. Depending on your employment structure, you can either have this cost reimbursed every week or get most of it back in a chunk by the end of the financial year if you are self-employed. If starting out in this game, you really need a chunk of money behind you and be savvy about finding overnight digs if you work for a company like mine.

 

Also, it is important that you can drive pretty much whatever they throw at you (and of course according to your licence entitlements) you can't turn up to a job and refuse it because you don't like a certain car's driving position/handling etc... it just wastes everyones time including yours.

 

It's not a job that suits everyone, money can be a bit up and down, some weeks are great, some not.

 

That sounds about right - I work for a vaguely reputable phone company's van tinkering dept and so end up talking to a few dozen movement drivers a week - most of the ones driving for smaller subcontractors are completely exhausted all the time, stories of being on the road from 2am and expecting to be on the road until 2am (this when taking a van from us at 4:59 to jet off down the M62!) are common and it shows even before they leave us - had one just this week who neglected to close the back doors of the van he'd just finished giving a once-over and drove off with them flapping in the wind, not a glance at his mirrors or anything; cue failed chase down the road and covering about 5 miles before I got through to one of his colleagues on the phone to stop him !. 

 

Drivers employed by the larger companies/auction houses seem a lot more relaxed - lot more semi-retired/hobbyist/'smart' drivers, like the one regular we have who spends six months driving and then takes off to South Africa for the other six, more likely to have a regular team and bus driver to shuttle them around, try to keep normal business hours etc. Don't think the pay is any better, but conditions far less awful. I think I could manage the latter, the former would kill me stone dead pretty quickly...

[Largactil]

A few of the local lads are off to France to cheer on Ireland, and have created an Autoshite camper specifically for the purpose...

 

 

It's currently down in Bordeaux, and has only 'failed to proceed' three times so far. Not bad!

[andy18s]

Watch out for low bridges..........

[Largactil]

It's come on a bit...

 

 

 

 

[oldcars]

Lot of work gone into that. Paint looks good too, was it rollered?

[cros]

That's similar to my thoughts on campers.

I like the idea, but don't want to drive around in a 30yr old van with a bungalow on the back of it.

You're right, if you spunk up 16 grand that most new caravans seem to be, insure it, fill it with all the shit that people can't seem to manage without like TV and bidet and central heating. I have a 30 year old one that lives in the garden. I wrote about the costs on my recent 'delivery' post. Worked out less than B&B for two of us did when we had a similar holiday 3 years ago.

 

 

Quite a few places let you camp free these days, this was at a friends place that was unoccupied so free. No electricity needed as this must have been the last of the gas lit caravans, but LEDs will run for ages off the car's battery. Just about every other car you see these days is four wheel drive and have lots more than my series 1's 75 bhp so slopes should be a piece of piss.

[Kiltox]

Target acquired

 

 

Driven about 40 miles so far and it's behaving

[anonymous user]

I've just about finished my shonky caravan, it's been fun building it and it's turned out pretty much as I wanted, but I am still deciding whether to use it or just sell it on unsullied; hopefully to the trendy glamping/garden room brigade. What puts me off using it is the idea of having to stay on a campsite with other people.

 

Ideally I'd prefer one of the giant showman's living vans, a selection of fields around the country to park it up in and a Scammell Explorer to move it around as necessary when I fancied a change.

[skattrd]

I managed to get some internet to find out if it really was you I saw hurtling off the roundabout of DEATH in the Aerodeck, which, btw, looks ace.  I'm Lincolnshireland for the weekend and the Bourne show.

 

Cheers Angyl, red Aerodeck looks worse close up

[mercrocker]

What puts me off using it is the idea of having to stay on a campsite with other people.

 

 

 

Yep, they are pretty grim and not much fun.   

 

Kids bought us a caravan club membership for Xmas, not really understanding what we use ours for..... 

 

Did two sites, both fucking horrible.   They are soul-less cemeteries full of other peoples kids and about as interesting as a Tesco mother-and-baby car park.    Also, I do not appreciate kneeling on gravel winding the legs down while some chopper next door with a "Dad" tea mug brandishes his Aldi cordless drill and brays about "You need one of these".    No I don't mate, I need a big field without people like you in it.

 

Also, if reception see you are just solo in a small van you get "tucked into a wee spot, you should just fit" next to the bins and where the "proper" caravanners empty their shit kegs at 0645 every day.   And have a nice chat about Kias outside your window.

 

Nah, they are just microcosms of shitty suburban life without  brick walls to keep the twunts out of earshot.  

 

I have found some brilliant sites where the pitches aren't marked out and everybody else (all 5 of them) on an otherwise empty site appear to be socio-paths.   You won't find these in a Plakky-Van Club site guide, though.

 

Mostly we use our caravan as extended accomodation for the camper van at rockabilly weekends and the camper as a mobile beach hut or replacement for over-priced "hotels" that used to be known as guest houses.     

 

Why people tow a conservatory round with them and then spend 4 hours twiddling a satellite and another six putting up a flappy awning just to go and watch telly is frankly completely beyond my understanding.

[Cavcraft]

Target acquired

 

image.jpeg

 

Driven about 40 miles so far and it's behaving

 

 

Don't these shed gears quicker than Transit Dis shed heater positions?

[Kiltox]

Don't these shed gears quicker than Transit Dis shed heater positions?

Gearbox is in good order - seriously doubt it's original though!!

[egg]

I know that you can get original dealer number plates recreated, but how about dealer stickers? This is fading rapidly (pic from February, now a lot worse)....Any thoughts? I have emailed Cuff miller in the very unlikely event they still have some old ones!!

[Skizzer]

I know that you can get original dealer number plates recreated, but how about dealer stickers? This is fading rapidly (pic from February, now a lot worse)....Any thoughts? I have emailed Cuff miller in the very unlikely event they still have some old ones!!

DMB Graphics do dealer stickers as well as number plates.

[beko1987]

Yep, they are pretty grim and not much fun.

 

Kids bought us a caravan club membership for Xmas, not really understanding what we use ours for.....

 

Did two sites, both fucking horrible. They are soul-less cemeteries full of other peoples kids and about as interesting as a Tesco mother-and-baby car park. Also, I do not appreciate kneeling on gravel winding the legs down while some chopper next door with a "Dad" tea mug brandishes his Aldi cordless drill and brays about "You need one of these". No I don't mate, I need a big field without people like you in it.

 

Also, if reception see you are just solo in a small van you get "tucked into a wee spot, you should just fit" next to the bins and where the "proper" caravanners empty their shit kegs at 0645 every day. And have a nice chat about Kias outside your window.

 

Nah, they are just microcosms of shitty suburban life without brick walls to keep the twunts out of earshot.

 

I have found some brilliant sites where the pitches aren't marked out and everybody else (all 5 of them) on an otherwise empty site appear to be socio-paths. You won't find these in a Plakky-Van Club site guide, though.

 

Mostly we use our caravan as extended accomodation for the camper van at rockabilly weekends and the camper as a mobile beach hut or replacement for over-priced "hotels" that used to be known as guest houses.

 

Why people tow a conservatory round with them and then spend 4 hours twiddling a satellite and another six putting up a flappy awning just to go and watch telly is frankly completely beyond my understanding.

I feel I have learnt something about caravanning!

[For Fiats Sake]

Went to see two caravans today, both same make though different models.

 

I missed out on an ebay auction one by £20 on monday so I thought I would try the classifieds route.

 

Both were same age but the first one didn't have a toilet and I couldn't be arsed fitting an awning just to (my least favourite expression ever now) "curl one out of a morning".

It also had original repulstory and matching curtains.  I put in a offer reflecting what I thought of an untested van of this age should be and was rejected.

 

I hit the phone when I got home and left a message with a seller of one about an hour away.

I viewed it this afternoon.  

 

Much tidier, interior nicer, inside toilet and everything working.  Managed to get a couple of hundred quid off the price (still dearer than ebay prices) but being localish and not having to win the auction only to find its a heap made me want to seal the deal.

 

 

These are about 650kg so the old panda 4x4 should be able to tow it (with a new engine fitted) and being a pop top can be stored under the car port.

 

Now just have to wait for the towbar to be fitted to collect it!

[Guest Biggus Dickus]

Just because you can doesnt mean you should.

Towing that with a Fiat Panda is going to be alarming at best and lethal at worst.

 

Ok, its technically within the weight limit of the car, but the relative mass and surface area to catch the wind will mean the van will be pulling the car all over the road.

[bub2006]

Where is it and you? If not far I'll collect and deliver

[wuvvum]

I r hippocrit.

 

 

[Guest Hooli]

Yep, they are pretty grim and not much fun.   

 

Kids bought us a caravan club membership for Xmas, not really understanding what we use ours for..... 

 

Did two sites, both fucking horrible.   They are soul-less cemeteries full of other peoples kids and about as interesting as a Tesco mother-and-baby car park.    Also, I do not appreciate kneeling on gravel winding the legs down while some chopper next door with a "Dad" tea mug brandishes his Aldi cordless drill and brays about "You need one of these".    No I don't mate, I need a big field without people like you in it.

 

Also, if reception see you are just solo in a small van you get "tucked into a wee spot, you should just fit" next to the bins and where the "proper" caravanners empty their shit kegs at 0645 every day.   And have a nice chat about Kias outside your window.

 

Nah, they are just microcosms of shitty suburban life without  brick walls to keep the twunts out of earshot.  

 

I have found some brilliant sites where the pitches aren't marked out and everybody else (all 5 of them) on an otherwise empty site appear to be socio-paths.   You won't find these in a Plakky-Van Club site guide, though.

 

Mostly we use our caravan as extended accomodation for the camper van at rockabilly weekends and the camper as a mobile beach hut or replacement for over-priced "hotels" that used to be known as guest houses.     

 

Why people tow a conservatory round with them and then spend 4 hours twiddling a satellite and another six putting up a flappy awning just to go and watch telly is frankly completely beyond my understanding.

 

 

Dunno about the caravan club, but the camping & caravan club have hundreds of tiny sites like that. I forget what they call them, certified locations or something daft. When I was a member they were black dots on the map at the back of the site book, found some utterly brilliant places to stop that way & they are members only so made the club worth it.

[Guest Hooli]

Finished tiling the garage earlier so started to fit the garage door. I really expected an electric roller shutter to be harder to do, it's in & working. I'm well chuffed as never had a posh garage door before Got it 2nd hand for £240 on ebay, much better than the £1,300 plus fitting for the same door new. It's almost new anyway, bloke had it fitted, sold the house & the new owner changed the garage & took the door out again!

 

 

As you can tell it's been sat on the floor for a year so filthy & the garage still needs gutters, a final coat of render & paint - all that keeps it at AS level I'd say?

[Stanky]

Today I finally got round to repainting the wiper arms on the Nissan. The original paint has largely come off, exposing the ally underneath, this is normally fine however if the sun catches it at just the wrong angle if reflects directly into your retinas and you can't see a bloody thing.

 

I've rolled down to Toolstation and picked up some matt black metal paint and given the arms several light goings over, so they are all black now and waiting for the paint to dry properly overnight in the shed and i'll re-fit them tomorrow.