What was your first camper van/motor home?

Scotia said:
There was a clean one for sale the other day which was garaged when not in use.
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I notice every now & again there is an odd low mileage vgc merc or two on the market. Most seem to be ex German fire service reserve motors. Very tasty but oh my god they're expensive....
 
I have just remembered what happened, I said it never missed a beat but on the way to Donnington the support bearing for the prop gave up the ghost. We drove down the hard shoulder at 30mph any faster the prop started bouncing about. We made the GP and then headed over to a mates at Thrusington on Wreak then out to the bearing shop In the morning for a new support bearing before heading home well hungover.
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Scotia said:
Found a pic of the smog monster, we pulled it out of a scrap yard for £500, new rear wheel brake cylinder and a fresh mot, ran it up and down the countryside for three years and never missed a beat. Rag arse racing!View attachment 103003
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i bought one of those .when i went to look at it ,the back was full of crap .paid 400 quid ,emptied the back and found a great big hole in the roof and the floor was concrete . worked out a builder had a mixer in the back and the hole was for the exhaust .the outriggers were rusted out so he'd added rebar ,chicken wire and concrete as needed. in places it was about 8'' thick . after fixing all that ,i fitted it out,used it a bit then flogged it to a mate .
who tipped it into a ditch in France.he said he came to,cold and wet ,lying on the ceiling in a stream which was coming in the broken windscreen and out the back doors . after recovery ,it started no probs and off he went with a temp windscreen . i think you had to lift the accelerator pedal with your toe to stop the engine
 
n brown said:
i bought one of those .when i went to look at it ,the back was full of crap .paid 400 quid ,emptied the back and found a great big hole in the roof and the floor was concrete . worked out a builder had a mixer in the back and the hole was for the exhaust .the outriggers were rusted out so he'd added rebar ,chicken wire and concrete as needed. in places it was about 8'' thick . after fixing all that ,i fitted it out,used it a bit then flogged it to a mate .
who tipped it into a ditch in France.he said he came to,cold and wet ,lying on the ceiling in a stream which was coming in the broken windscreen and out the back doors . after recovery ,it started no probs and off he went with a temp windscreen . i think you had to lift the accelerator pedal with your toe to stop the engine
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Ours had a hole cut in the floor, it came from a railway maintenance crowd it had higher ground clearance as well. We went onto a building site a mate was working on and loaded three sheets of 3/4 marine ply then drove off no questions asked, free floor!
 
then i bought an austin princess ambulance- couldn't resist it , straight 6 petrol 10 to the gallon , £150 . stupid thing ,local tax office taxed it without mot ,said it was exempt ,copper charged me with no mot ,£30 fine . stored it in a client's barn and she sold it to a scrap dealer who told her it was the best price possible- £35 . lovely drive ,and had a ''jackall'' system . but you live and learn

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Ours is rather dull compared to some of the exotic stories on here: it was a Bessacarr e795. Bought off a friend of a friend. Lovely MH but a PITA making up/putting down the bed every day so we moved to A-T Comanches and are on our second one of those now.
 
Mercedes 811d. Bought for £1,200. Had been a Snap On van. Home-converted by a couple to take their two sons drag car racing.

Had a big metal footplate at the back for motorbikes and a tow bar for transporting the drag cars (think they took the cars on a flatbed trailer?).

Loved it, really wanted to keep it and do it up, but cost an arm and a leg for parts and repairs. :oops::eek:
Old trucks are no good unless you have bottomless pockets are can at least do repairs and maintenance yourself - which I couldn't. :cry:

Big difference between a 'van' and a 'truck'! :oops::eek:😄
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Mine was a 2002 Roller Team 70 bought new from Don Amott had 7 of us sat round the table in the U shaped lounge, it was 6 metres long and powered by a 2 litre JTD engine, first trip away was down to South Wales for a cycle race, stayed in a sports centre car park.
 
This was our first. 1972 VW tin top with a Devon conversion. Travelled all over France with this. The picture was taken at Pointe de La torche in Brittany around 1987 with a dog that adopted us for the day
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And this was our second van, again, took us all over France, well before we knew what payload was and probably severely overloaded on most trips. This was around 1990, this time with our dog.

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We had been toying with a camper for a few years having shared a static caravan on Anglesey for 15 years. The turning point was the death of a work colleague killed in an accident whilst cycling to work. We were both working long hours and thought sod this you never know what's around the corner. So loan arranged we went looking and in 1995 bought a J plate Hymer from Madisons near Preston. Our abiding memory is having done the deal we went into Blackpool, bought fish and chips and sat on the front thinking S**t, what have we done!! The answer, 26 years and 5 vans later, is absolutely no regrets. We've experienced the better years wilding and toured Europe, brilliant.
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Nabsim said:
It wasn’t you that were racing the Honda step through around and through tents during the night was it? I know the step through remains were an a dead campfire near my tent when I got up next day lol
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I remember a guy doing burnouts on a ply sheet in a tent. Someone threw petrol on to the board and the whole thing went up, the guy on the bike was carted away in an ambulance. Oh and the girls on the back of the bikes going around the campsite topless... thinking it was beer being thrown at them.😂😂😂
 
Austin Princess ambulance .for those interested,this was a lovely vehicle ,and was on a par with Rolls Royce and Bentley as a regal limo . first time i drove it was out of a yard up a slope onto a busy road . all i could see was bonnet as i slowly forced the traffic to stop . the front bench seat was leather ,and the bottom of the massive steering wheel touched the leather till you sat down .
i found the 'jackall' system by accident .i was idly messing about with the ambo and was looking for rust ,when ifound a switch under the footwell rubber mat . when i turned it there was a ticking noise and after a while i realised the whole vehicle was going up on 4 rams ,which lifted its wheels 6'' off the ground . i couldn't wait to get a puncture !
sadly but unsurprisingly i got a lot of hassle off of emergency service personnel who hated to see a long haired driver in it , that and the terrible fuel cosumption led to me getting rid .
a young man's folly-a lot of us have one !
 
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