Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum and currently Bay - less. So I'm hoping you might be able to help solve this! Based in Hampshire, prepared to travel 75 - 100 miles to view and purchase. Right hand drive please, too old, too blonde and too set in my ways to remember to get in the van through the wrong door Ideally body work, welding, minor filling, respraying would be done already. Engine, gear box, steering box etc in a good state preferably. Don't mind looking at cosmetic issues with the interior, but would love it if there was a cooker, sink, cool box / fridge already in. Rock & roll bed would be a must. So what do you think? Any chance I could be camping in time for the summer? Ah yes, the budget..... much as I would love one of the 16, 17,18 thousand quid examples on ebay, I can't afford one. Any where near afford one! 12k top whack I'm afraid. Preferably nearer 10k. Do I ask too much? Any help , ideas, sightings of suitable candidates would be very much appreciated. Thanks!
I do that now ,sit in the passenger seat and think "where is the steering wheel?" Good luck on your search ,if you find a van pop it up on here and we will gladly rip it apart .(in the nicest possible way)
....Thought I'd scoured this page completely, will look again (although the sun is shining and I really should be out weeding the garden and doing household stuff rather than sitting on my computer trying to buy a campervan!!)
Yes, I looked at the one... very nice, but I just assumed it would have sold by now as the thread is a couple of weeks old. I've added my interest to the thread though just in case! Thank you.
Whereabouts are you in hants? You could hang around Just Kampers warehouse in odiham to check any visitors vans! If you've not had a van before I would look at as many as possible as there is quite a wide variation in price/layout/condition. Good luck
Thank you. I know there is one out there for me somewhere, in my price range, with enough needing doing to keep me occupied (ha ha), but in a good enough state of repair to not scare me away completely - I'll do the full resto on my next one ....now I just need to find out where it is!
We might just be able to help you, we are getting ready to sell lou's bus called Gavin, He's a N reg , registed Jan 1975, he has a full camping interior to a high standard and a very good 1600 engine, he is a devon poptop, we are gonna get him taxed and MOTed in the next few weeks and he will be ready to roll
ooh, looks rather nice. any details and photos would be appreciated. I'll PM you with my email address if that is okay
If you want to camp in it get a poptop to avoid neckache! I'm a fan of swing out cookers too as one bacon sandwich and your clothes and bedding can whiff for days. like @Merlin Cat said, spend ages just checking out interior layouts to get your eye in. And test drive a few too if you can so you start to understand what a good one feels like. Assume you've seen the section on this site called Buying a Camper? Lots of good advice there.
But most importantly, look underneath! See @zed 's thread on buying a camper. Great way to know what to look out for.
I've been reading through the forum very eagerly, there is just so much good advice on here. I've test driven a few campers now, so hopefully I have a better idea of what feels right or wrong than I did a few weeks ago. And enough to know that I do definitely want to own one! I take your point about cricked necks in tin tops.... I had thought maybe it would be less hassle without worrying about canvas issues, but as I intend to travel and camp, you are right about the extra height a pop top gives For the record, as I had no idea what type of van I would end up with I joined this forum and also the 'prototype bay' one..... There is no contest. You are all so friendly here on TLB, I feel very welcome and am looking forward to actually getting a late bay so I can join in properly Thank you all! Edit: ha ha just read back and saw the change of my wording to 'prototype'!! Thought my autocorrect was playing silly beggars... but I think maybe not..... !!