Campervans as your main car.

[Scramble]

Have a mad urge to get a campervan, but can't afford to run a car and a campervan.

Looking at a bargain basement ancient thing probably, will it cost too much to run day to day? I do about 140 miles a week on average. I want to be able to go off the od weekend here and there and use it for weekends away working through the summer.

Ripe for a make over

Price creeping up

Possible

Possible looks intersting - a home conversion by the looks of it, which isn't always a bad thing, but if they used domestic cabinets and things inside it might make it heavy!

Ripe for a make over is a good looking van (same shape as ours, different internal layout), body work looks tidy and although the pink velour could do with changing (unless you like that ) everything else looks pretty clean.

Price creeping up is also v. nice looking - but I imagine there is maybe at least another £1k to go on that one.

Might be worth going for a look at all of them if you can - get a feel for what you can get for your money?

As an aside, if you were going to buy a VW T3 (otherwise known as a T25 or 'wedge') then this place

www.brick-yard.co.uk/VehicleSpecific/T3/info/menu.htm gives lots of handy tips on what to look for before you commit your cash.

And if you bought one, this place :

www.justkampers.co.uk/interactive/kamperchat/index.php
stocks pretty much everything you need to refurb or fix them.

Another vote for a T25 here - we have one as our sole vehicle and it is fab. It's a G reg, and - touch wood - very reliable. One of the best things about them is that they are well insulated so warm in winter.

I would recommend having a good lurk around the chatrooms on www.justkampers.co.uk - I did this before we bought and learnt a LOT.

The real thing to watch out for seems to be dodgy body work - lots of horror stories of people buying vans and spending £000s on welding just to get them through MOT. So definitely bring somebody who knows their stuff with you to view.

Other than that, I would say go for it - they are terrific fun.

PS Forgot to say, we got ours through Autotrader, from an older bloke who had looked after it beautifully. So worth keeping an eye on their website too.

Good luck!

Oooh, am in a similar situation.

I used to own a 1971 VW camper in purple (sigh - I still miss it) and a 1980's Bedford.

I'm about to flog my 2000 Ford Ka (can't justify having it anymore) and I'm looking to swap it for a camper of some sort. I will be using it as my main vehicle but only for a bit of pottering. I love VWs and you generally make money on them, but with a toddler and a baby on the way I think I need something a bit more roomy - a VW would be a nightmare for us now, sadly.

I'm looking into another Bedford. They're not as cool to look at but at least my lanky DP should be able to stand up in one and the storage space is usually brilliant.

dustbuster - yours must be a bit swankier than ours I think, I nearly laughed at "warm in winter"

we camped out in ours for 3 nights on our way to Germany over Christmas, and on the coldest night it got down to -3 deg in the van, only 2 deg warmer than outside!!

Still fun though.

Thanks guys great to have all this info, emailed the possible and it only has two seats, I don't think I can fit more seat belts with those types of seats. It was the only one close enough to go for a look see. I will have a look at autotrader, I have been loking at all the free papers but nothing come up yet.

hi

price creeping up is just a dealer isnt it? tho looks ok.
and possible look suspiciously like a transit to me - its just sooooo big.
ripe for a makeover is just that, tho looks reasonable. MOT running out in june isnt ideal. ask for photo of roof space and what its used for. looks like roof is only part cut away for head room and no space for bunks.

and nearly forgot. ask if any have an onboard drinking water tank. mine did, under the back seat, with an electric pump to the tap, really handy. tho all lines have to be either replaced or disinfected of course.

and my lancia search is still just that. am about to resort to another audi, tho quattro this time. is quicker than putting my gti back on the road.

we had an old VW camper as our second car (well it was my first car but dp had another which we used mostly). It didn't work well when we needed to use it regularly for nursery run. very unwieldy to park and negotiate in rush hour type traffic - you have to be driving in a different mentality - the "don't care what time we get there it's the journey which counts" mentality. Other drivers may not appreciate this.

our old air cooled van used to go at 70mph on a good day. But we did bust two engines going over mountain passes - that was £1000 a time.

we sold it for more than we bought it for after 7 years though.

only sold it cos it was like a noisy screamy stressy sardine tin once we had 3 under 5's in it. we loved it.

TRhankfully where I live rush hours are not to much of a worry, our rush hours invlve tractors, sheep or cows at milking time. Parking can be a hassle but can't be anyharder parking a camper than it was parking a transit or a freelander.

Audi Quattros and GTI bays toys eh? lol

Solution for old caravan, its going in the garden as a play house.

Off to bed to dream about bongos .

Any opinions on this one?

looks tidy tho is the 1600 aircooled.
against that i'd say underpowered and slow, uses more fuel, only a 4 speed box, and the heater doesnt really work, he's having you on about the cables needing adjusting - they never work.
other than that it does look tidy, and it may have the 3 belts on the back seat - mine did.

I will have to buy it blind. ARGH!!!! thats too scary, but I am tempted, my car is a wreck and I want to get something before everyone gets the spring bug and the prices go up, plus SECC is hosting the caravan show jsut to put everyone in the mood.

Should I live dangerously and go fo it if the price dones't jump above 2000?????

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!

DO NOT BUY IT WITHOUT HAVING IT CHECKED THOUROUGHLY FIRST!!!!!!!!!!

erm...did you get that?

I really wouldn't have a clue what to look for anyway and unless I can kidnap my BIL it would be just me going to pick it up, nothing for sale localy.

here's a true story from last night.

was looking on a car site called pistonheads for a beautiful little lancia....sigh. found one in paisley near glasgow for £2000 cash a bargain it said. and it was, worth more than double. looked at the pic and thought i've seen that on ebay. went back to ebay and there it was - in shropshire for £4000!! back to the car ad and at the bottom of the page was a fraud warning. said people had bee using their site for armed robberies. honest. put ads at rediculously low prices - said cash only - then when someone turned up 2 blokes pulled out guns and took the money. and i was ready to drive to glasgow, it was so good. i reported it to the administrator - about the ebay link and 2 mins later the ad was gone.

so dont go on your own, even if it is ok, get it checked first.

Fuck this I will never get a fecking car, sometimes you need a bloody man [.

we have a vw campervan 1971 bay, we use ours as a daily driver, but we do have another car as back up which is just aswell!!!
what i would say is if you are going for a T25 it is probably better to go for a water cooled rather than an air cooled. As much as i lover aircooled vw's the engines can over heat fairly easily which as someone said cost alot then to replace. hth

Thanks for the advice I am still looking but getting no where.

I think the best I will get just now is an old transit with nothing in the back.

Looking at a ldv minibus 200 series diesel 1995. It only has 6 seats so I can drive it OK, near enough to go and see before I buy. Not fitted out, but a mattress and camp cooker will see me through the summer.