Your first Drive of your bus

After a three year rebuild and within just a few yards – what’s that ‘donk, donk, donk’ noise?

Two years and many thousands of miles later, a MOT pass, a CT (French MOT) pass and inspections by several VW specialists none of whom could discover the cause I replaced the new wheel bearing for another set, now it’s as quiet as an air-cooled VW is going to be.

 

When I bough mine it was parked near the bottom of a slightly hilly residential road. The end of the road/bottom of the hill was a bit larger to let you do a U-turn without any manoeuvre. And the back of the van was loaded with a lot of spares.
All the elements where gathered for a massive fail.
And I am seating at the wheel with a massive smile on my face, blinded by the joy of finally owning a camper to even think how wrong it can go.
So, I start the engine. Select what I thought was 1st gear. And off we go.
And then my though were:

• I am going down hill fast! U-turn will be bad!
• BRAKE! Thanks god they are working fine....
• I am cornering way to fast for this to be a safe first U-turn.
• Big noise in the back... Lot of stuff moving... I hope nothing is damaged.
• Success! I made it pass the U-turn! Let's go!
• Stalling the engine....
• Previous owner watching me, running toward me to tell me: "By the noise of it you were in 3rd..... Do you think you will make it safely back home?"

 

What did you drive before that could have been even more basic that a bus?
Although now I came to think about it my 1994 BMW 525ix didn’t even have a radio as standard.

 

driving from Glasgow to Sheffield $h!tt!ng myself as the fuel gauge didn't work worrying if I was going to run out of fuel!! Great times, and would do it again tomorrow!

 

Mine was a bit of a baptism of fire, it was a day after passing my test so had only driven the instructors car before, I remember driving along a busy road thinking the gearbox was knackered, changed from first and couldn't find anything, no second, couldn't get back to first, just moving the gear stick around in circles with nothing happening, had cars behind beeping and I was approaching a hill, managed to find fourth I think, crawled a bit, dropped to something else, got up the hill then a Bug passed going the other way flashed me and put a huge smile on my face, still one of the most stressful driving experiences I've had, but I remember it as fun.

 

Short journey for me around 15 miles. Smiling all the way, as I bounded of the kerbs and wandered into the centre of the road (LHD).

 

I'd had a quick test drive when I went to look at it the week before but my first proper trip was driving home from Stratford on Avon to Northampton. I must confess I had a grin from ear to ear all the way
I absolutely loved driving along in it and I still do. My enthusiasm was only slightly dampened when I got home to be informed by the following MrsNTFC that the brake lights didn't work and I was driving all over the place as I got to grips with LHD

 

I was scared s******- when i got it home I found the front tyres were 16psi, which explained having to wrench it around roundabouts.

As I found out later this seemed to typify the quality of the maintenance of it

 

Pootles along nicely , all the gears are there , seems to go and stop , years mot, 6 months tax , never welded , solid underneath , bit tatty inside but i can live with that , left hand drive is funny but not a problem as i`m going travelling ..... Hmmm

He wants 1200 quid , i`ll offer him 900 .
He turned it down , never mind says i , there`ll be another to look at

Three days later i picked it up

 

Why is my engine bay covered in oil?
What's that petrol smell?

 

Bits of all of the above!
"Where's reverse" as I needed to get it out of the garage.
"Where's 1st /2nd /3rd /4th" shortly after.
Chanting "Must keep to the left must keep to the left" as my rhd brain tried to drive down the middle of the road...
"Hope I don't have to do any hill starts as this handbrake is bizarre"
"Hope no creepy crawlies made it over here in her"...
But by the time I'd got a mile down the road I'd forgotten all that and was loving it!

 

I wonder what the Missus will say when I get home?

 

And the first drive in the T5 it lost all electics on M5 at night as it pis sdown heavily, a duff alternator was the problem.

 

It really was my first ever drive actually in control in any VW, let alone a VW T2. Bought on eBay and first seen when we handed over the money in an envelope, after checking it started and could drive a few feet and stop. All legal , taxed with five days MOT remaining.

Braaaaake !! Braaaake !! WTF going crash in the back ? The A26 is at the bottom of this steep hill !!! Ahh where is the handbrake !!! On the dash - i see - pull it really hard and stand on the brakes. Ok, we are stopping.
(the crash in the back was the poles for a cab hammock bed rolling under the R&R bed) .
It wouldnt start at the filling station. But it did eventually (bad starter and ignition switch)

And then a few stops en-route to tweak the gear shifter to try and get second gear more reliably. (that gearbox gave up after a trip to Bude a few months later)

It made it 120 miles from Royal Tunbridge Wells to Southampton without needing the AA or falling apart or hitting something.

 

First one I drove was a 2 year old last model year 2l panel van that belonged to a farm i worked at. It went like a rocket, the handling was great, brakes superb. You could have rallied it. It was more than 20 years until i got my own.

 

M5-M4-M25-M11-A11 280 miles!

Picked up from Taunton after spotting on EBay two weeks before Christmas. 4 degrees C, no heating, oil leak and chucking it down with strong crosswind. Struggled to keep control when every truck went past, probably got mild hypothermia and made it to Norwich in 6 hours.

Worst bit was being locked out of bus at first petrol station not realising the door keys only work one way around!

Loved it

 

I bought it unseen, (nice pics on Ebay), drove it home to Manchester from Newquay. Petrol leak, way too low, seats down to the springs and a copper who stopped me to tell me to cover up the blue light or else it's a £60 fine. (Liked the bus though).

 

Will it get me home???? (400 miles Hastings to Barnsley)