We just completed a round trip from Southampton to Cologne via the Floriade in Venlo in the Netherlands in our camper. Yesterday we drove 500+ miles in a day. And all without the help of a friendly tow truck. In [glow=red,2,300][glow=red,2,300][glow=red,2,300]FACT[/glow][/glow][/glow] we actually tow started a Transit pickup en route at clackett lane services.. They spotted the towbar.. The bus had a new Weber 32/36 fitted to the standard 1600 engine which still needs tuning from stock setup so I had to set the timing to be slightly advanced from normal. Exhaust is a twin quiet pack. The cruising speed on this setup is 63-67mph when the exhaust is resonant. Top speed is still around 75 on the Autobahn. Oil temperatures are colder than with the original Brosol but Mpg still sits just over 20. Problems were cold running as preheat has been removed - needs refittingt, and hot start which was helped by 2 degrees ignition advance. Also the crankcase breather hose I fitted seems to be too small and this has made the flywheel oi seal leak oil spray all over the place - but just in a messy way rather than needing constant topups. By the way the Cologne Zoo Park and Ride multistorey has a 2.0 m height limit ( at the Cologne low emission zone boundary) Campers can be parked at the youth hostel nearby. Also if you are visiting the Floriade don't trust satnav near the festival. Follow the road signs as the roads nearby are all new or blocked off. Just come in via the motorway and park and Ride about a milennorthwest of the festival. And watch out for the very tight curves on some slip roads.
Nice one... It's great to hear when these little vans triumph on the long journeys!! Good luck coming back!!
Thanks for the comments - (and I appreciate that in Ozthe distances are huge but apart from road trains which go past you , you dont have to keep on planning assaults on the next line of 10 trucks in the rain all running nose to tail at 90kph) . Another time we would keep the mileage down and stop more often - 200-250 in a day is much less stress. And remember the airbag is that big thing bolted on the front with 'Radial' written on it and the dashboard is made of steel .. and going a bit slower. We did enjoy ourselves on the trip but it has taken most of the rest of the week to get over the fatigue. While still a zombie on Sunday , changed the crankcase breather hose from 10mm with a T piece reducing its diameter to straight through 12.7mm with the fuel tank breather led into the air filter through a separate grommet , and it seems to have stopped spitting oil on a quick run up and down the M27.
