Supplementary to my From tent to camper thread (and trying to anticipate the pitfalls) ... What has spoiled your holiday / weekend away and seen you tinkering at the side of an A road or waiting for the RAC?
I've found on here that when looking for "facts", even in mech tech, you have to also take a certain amount of opinion (and of course some banter) I haven't broken down so here's my two pence worth: Really? This will be your second negatively framed thread and I'd say if you're risk-averse, or thinking you can control the future by knowing what the possible pitfalls are, these buses are not for you. By all means be prepared, by learning maintenance basics and carrying spares etc, but you can see from your other thread that there's a wide range of experiences and opinions on this, a vast resource of help and advice on here, none of which will be of any help to you if you need that big of a push to make you take the plunge in the first place. There's potentially a whole lot of fun ahead, but if (as I suspect) you'll be forever "looking over your shoulder" I wouldn't do it ......
Good maintenance ahead of camping season bodes well, keeping on top of little jobs makes running a bus easier! We've only had one breakdown and that was last year when we went up to Dent, the bloody bus broke down at home before we headed off (and back at home again when we stopped off in passing for a change of clothes). Look after the bus and it will look after you!
Mate just search for threads started by Wonty to find all my major disasters ones I can remember that added an extra level of humour to our trips .. Liquid wise...Fuel and oil and just fuel and just oil spewing over the driveway/ road/ campsite/ motorway... Electric wise... Battery, alternator, lights, ignition wiring, earth faults, radio, additional mystery wiring looms being found, dodgy fuse box wiring by PO, alarm system triggering mainly through the hours of 2300 and 0500... Mechanical wise...starter motor, carbs, fuel pump, tappets, brakes, brake servo, brake sensors, engine, CV joints, gearbox, clutch, slide doors, doors, locks, gear mech, accelerator cable Rubber wise... CV boots, all window seals, door seals, lid seal, engine lid seal Camping wise....raining in on the sliding door side, dogs having bowel issues as we slept, awning collapsing, awning ripping, awning falling down, forgot the food - but oddly not the booze, bus just refusing to start as we set off for a weeks holiday (bus packed), losing the bus keys ... BUT when it all comes together....it's amazing!
Hello I’d get a temperature gauge fitted. My first few breakdowns were all related to over heating issues when the thermostat flaps were stuck (shut?). It blew a valve in the end. Regular service of all the consumables once a year. Regular Oil change especially. If you have good breakdown cover (essential) then they will fit the above parts for you if you ask nicely. My clutch cable snapped on the way back from France. My wife two kids and the dog were sat on a roundabout in Kent while the rac happily fitted the new one as I had it on board. Gave him a tenner. Everybody happy! My worse one though was when we arrived at a beautiful campsite on the Atlantic coast in France and on the last pitch available, right in front of a full bar of french people a small screw fell out of the gear linkage into the sand and I couldn’t change gear. I got underneath and had a rummage. Luckily I found the screw put a new wire on it and fitted it. But it was at night and I emerged covered in grease and sand (nice) to the applause of the on lookers at the bar! Oh yes get the Muir book. How to keep your Volkswagen alive. It has saved me on many occasion! Best of luck. P.
I think we were relatively lucky that in roughly 10 years of owning two bays, we only needed recovery once...that was after our first Techenders, and were only a few miles from home (loose flywheel). A few bits n pieces here and there since then, but nothing major. Being able to get on TLB for tech advice when there’s an issue has helped us no end on a couple of occasions.
Just spend £40 on a years worth of Autoaid recovery, a few quid on a couple of second hand paperbacks and concentrate on breaking down some where picturesque. Sod learning to mend the bloody thing, I just keep a cupboard filled with pop n crisps and long life snacks.
Never not made it to where I was going. Had a few pit stops like refitting a rocket cover gasket in a German motor services or driving from Yorkshire to Somerset with no tickover. But I had similar with triumph spritfire and TR6 I had before.
Never lost a major trip to a breakdown. Have reattached throttle cable, refitted a loose sparkplug lead, fitted fanbelt, topped up oil when leaky on family trips. Outside of that on trips to / from work which is about 80 percent of annual mileage, I have had three AA callouts. One loose alternator wire flattened batteries and eventually died. One rocker arm clip broke causing backfiring which partly disabled two opposite cylinders by blowing out rubber seals. Bus wouldnt drive up a slight slope. Vibration shook the flywheel off the crankshaft leading to eventual replacement engine a few months later. 38000 miles driven to replacement. One dropped valve resulting in destruction of piston, hole in engine case and needed a new engine. 28000 miles driven. And there have been several 1500 to 2000 mile holiday trips without incident.
To date, I’ve come home on the big yellow taxi twice, once in my Vauxhall Signum, and once in my van. I’m not a hundred percent sure how long I’ve had this van for sure, but it’s a fair bit more than ten years, might even be fifteen or twenty even, just don’t know. I drove to Dartmouth from Bristol with just about everything knackered in the motor department but flew on a wing and a prayer and overheated and rested the old dude three quarters of the way there and finally limped in on three cylinders but then opted for the big yellow taxi home as we was guzzling petrol at a bit more than standard rate by this time, any other time and I might have limped back but I had to be in work the next day.m Motor was toast and opted for a brand new motor that was equivalent to a five gallon drum of tippex, then I broke down a little more often but mostly limped home with a racket from the noisy cupboard. Still not a hundred per cent confident of this motor and I’ve still yet to get to the bottom of this problem, but that means pulling the motor again and I’m not up for that while there’s a chance of any sunshine about. So maybe I’m abusing this motor a tad ? The upshot of this post is you can give these a fair bit of abuse but if you take the yellow snow too often then it’s gonna bite you on the dangly bits. One thing or two things wrong and you can generally struggle on and limp home, but if your timing is out and your mixture is up the creek, maybe your tappets could do with a gentle massage, and your tinware has bits missing and your wiring has more crocodile clips and connectors than Mr Dundee, then you is begging for a trip on the big yellow taxi . A very obscure fact that I’ve noticed with mine, is change the fan belt and chuck the old one behind the seat and you’ll never have a fan belt break, do-that every year or two and you’ve eliminated a biggy styleee problem Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,, they’s popular originally because of their reliability
It's difficult to gauge really, all the horror stories are documented if you want to read them. I gave myself nightmares when I bought my first Camper (a VWT4) by knowing all the faults and pitfalls before buying through reading the forums. In my 8 years, some of the common problems occurred, but those big scary, horrible costly things did not. May have just been lucky, but I maintained it to a good standard. Awareness may have helped, it also may have taken the shine off a little. With the bay, I went in a little more blind. I know it will need more looking after and a different approach to the T4, but there is a good balance between being prepared and being accepting. It is what it is, look after it, be aware and get to know it. You may have to replace something big and costly at some point, just as you may on any vehicle. Have a contingency, carry the easy roadside bits and be mindful of what you're asking of it. It's all part of the adventure! They are quite basic, and once considered reliable, however, they are all old, the pace on the roads has moved on and they can't be treated the same as a modern one. When all is said and done, if you really want it, nothing else will fill the void.
This 100%! Of course you'll read about plenty of horror stories; no-one ever writes about each time they drive their bay without a problem. The only time I've been on the back of a truck was when our alternator nut stripped the thread on the shaft. Couldn't get the nut back on so couldn't carry on without boiling the engine. Keep on top of the maintenance and they're great fun. In a sea of boring modern cars a bay is a welcome sight.
Most of the broken down buses that end up getting yellow taxied to my workshop, have broken down because of failed points / Leccy ignition module. Carry a spare of whatever your ignition set up uses, a fan belt and throttle cable, and go camping safe in the knowledge that the worst case scenario is likely to be a simple roadside fix. Have you bought one yet?
I’ve never completely broken down in the bay, just once in the syncro when a wheel bearing went on the way to Glastonbury festival. With a few tools, manuals and a basic knowledge, I’ve fixed the ‘delays’ at the roadside, while my mrs put the kettle on and entertained the kids. You learn as you go along, the internet and this forum especially speeds up the process. For example, pre-internet we’d have a delay due to a perished fuel pipe or lose clip. So I’d fix them one at a time as it went. Now I know to change all fuel hoses and clips every year. They’re pretty simple, caveman technology so will keep going long after modern stuff will have given up the ghost. Are you trying to convince yourself to buy one or not buy one?
I’m not going to say I’ve never broken down in the bay, because that would just be tempting fate, especially as I’m going camping tomorrow! The daily, on the other hand, has been attended to by the AA twice this last 12 months..... and as for my work truck, where would you like me to start? Me and the local AA man are on first name terms!
Never needed the big yellow taxi (touch wood) as most incidents (I call them failures rather than breakdowns) have occurred at home: Starter motor, clutch and fuel lines. I fixed the fuel lines myself after some coaxing from the great and good of tlb and for the rest, managed to limp to our local garage which is 150 yards away by foot and about half a mile by road! Nearest i got to the b.y.t. was with suspect dodgy carbs and even more suspect replacement by dodgy moron (not me!) Which resulted in a week's holiday around mountainous Wales with a caravan and virtually no power in the bus. How we managed I'll never know. The secret is to pretend to your other half that there's nothing wrong and to keep your buttocks well clenched!
First issue for us was a very worn engine that soon consumed as much oil as it did petrol so had to be replaced. First breakdown was on the A42 after the garage that had serviced the van had over adjusted the rear brake shoes causing the offside brake to get hot and smoke resulting in me having to back it off at the side of the road and replacement of the brake shoes at Vanfest. Second issue was on a holiday in Cornwall and it transpired that a valve guide had dropped and was slowly mushrooming on the valve and pieces were going through the manifold and out the exhaust (after denting the crown of the piston). The engine continued to run and would have got us home if the driveshaft bolts hadn’t sheared when I dropped the clutch to quickly so creating breakdown 2. Third breakdown was an oil hose to the remote oil cooler melting through on the exhaust as we travelled down the M1 which when fixed and we had continued was quickly followed by a shattered windscreen. Third issue was a sticking valve resulting in a bent pushrod and the fourth breakdown was the flywheel coming loose after the gland nut came undone (I now use threadlock on them) I always tend to carry spare spark plugs, points, condenser, fan belt, oil, trolley jack, large/long socket bar and toolkit on most trips as well as a breakdown recovery number. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Where / how do you carry the trolley jack? I want to as insurance against needing it but haven’t justified the space it takes up.
worst break down for me in 30 years of air-cooled. spring plate broke. sea front at whitby. bank holiday monday.8 hours on the back of breakdown truck. it had only just passed its MOT. it was the last day of the holiday. so free ride home.my other half wasn't to pleased.
