has anyone ever been on holiday in at2 and not broke down lol the reason i ask is at the mo my devon is poorly due to an engine fire however when it has been rebuild (professionaly) i kind of hope it will be a bit more reliable with regular services . i am thinking of taking my kids on a tour of the uk next summer so lots of miles ... can anyone offer any advice to reduce to the risks of brakedowns i know t2 aren t the most reliable things i knew this when i bought one but i have spoke to a lot of owners how have traveled around europe with no problems i welcome your feedback lobie
I went on a long holiday once (10 years ago) and never broke down! I bought a T2 Bay and drove around Australia. Twice. And then right up the middle. I thrashed it all the way, pedal to the metal for 1000s and 1000s of miles, often over very rough terrain. Most of the time I was completely alone, 100s of miles from the next human being. It never bothered me as I had complete faith in the bus. It never broke down once! The only problem I ever had was a lose wire, so couldn't start the thing once. I fixed it in a couple of mins though. Couldn't have been serious if I fixed it. It broke down whilst driving through what I thought was a shallow river once. But that doesn't count! What served me well was regular servicing by top class air cooled specialists. To me that's the problem. There's too many buses out there which have been bodged over dozens of years.
thats made me more confident thanks guys i intend to have it serviced every 3000 miles by my local aircooled specilisted may be a bit more money than the local garage but it piece of mind at the end of the day lobie
I agree. I think the term "hippie rigged" might have originated from old VW's with clothes line for a fan belt and everything else held together with coat hangers and Super Glue. After so many home repair jobs, I think most people just need to take it to a pro for a good check-up once in a while. They are also a bit more maintenance-needy than modern cars. Just read How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive and your manuals, stay on top of it and you should be fine. Most of my holiday trips are around 300-400 miles round trip. After about 4-5 trips ( I've only had it a year.) the worst I've had so far was a flat tyre. And that was because the previous owner failed to buy the proper heavy duty tyres with reinforced side walls. (hint-hint ) Damn lucky I noticed a slight vibration and pulled off the motorway just before it blew.
One more thing- I have read from a couple different sources that driving between 50-55mph rather than 60-65mph can prolong the life of your engine by 30-40 percent. I'm sure that's very debatable but it also seems quite possible to me. 65 might be a constant strain while 55 might not. In any case, 55 saves fuel and you really do get used to it. When you no longer have the option of overtaking and passing the cars in front of you, when you are forced to just twiddle along in the slow lane, I find it quite liberating finally. To just drop out of the pass 'em- dodge 'em road rage game and coast breezily along is quite a load off. And you'll be amazed to find how few extra minutes it takes to get there.
i like the idea of 50 - 55 mph when i went to warwick on m42 almost everyone who overtook us waved and pip their horn ... but then my kids were waving at everything in site through sheer excitment lol
Taken my bus around Europe for the last 2 summers. 1000 miles on the first trip and 1800 on the second - not a single issue. Doesn't mean I'm not nervous sometimes though!!
I went to Portugal (via bilbao)this summer in my 73 westy. I didn't lift a tool for the whole holiday apart from the tent peg hammer! 2500 miles and not one issue. The same last year on our trip down the west coast of France. I service my van regularly and drive with a light right foot. 50-55 mph most of the way makes for a relaxing drive
We do 3 or 4 "big" trips (2500 - 3000 Kms) a year & only once has the van let us down. Even then it was something as silly as a wire off the voltage regulator & the battery went flat.
I've never broken down properly, I did have to bump the bus once but other than that its super reliable.
Id owned the bus less than a week and did vanfest my first vw show The engine spat a bearing on the way home i stopped driving it before it blew a hole in the case 8 People in dubs stopped to help me 1 dubber gave me his aa crad and his addy and said get you and the mrs and kids home and post it back to me a guy from telford who i never met before rebuilt my engine for £30 above the parts cost Dubs break down from time to time but mostly dub people are good people
As mentioned above, poor maintenance, poor parts, incompetent people fiddling and you get problems. The T2 is quite reliable if looked after. It's Volkswagens good work that's lead to people abusing them thinking you don't need to service them which is why we are now all having problems mending the faults never corrected or bodged before. Good luck with it. And one other thing, use it regularly. Buses don't like sitting idle.
As birdy said they were so reliable back in the day people just ran them into the ground then left them for dead We have problems because were sorting out many years of previous owners just keeping them on the road Im very sure my bus after resto will still be road worthy once petrol is no longer affordable
