Post by caroleheard on Aug 10, 2013 22:12:08 GMT
A couple of years ago, I decided that I'd take up hang gliding again, a sport I'd left many moons ago.
After a while it became clear that some form of over night accomodation would be best, so Steve and I started looking for campervans.
We started off looking at van conversions but were put off by the plethora of toot that's out there. We started looking at bigger conversions and dedicated motorhomes.
I saw a motorhome for sale on Gumtree at a suspisciously low price. There was a good story to go with it, including a fake web-site for the "shipping agent", but Google Earth soon rumbled the bogus addresses. It quickly became apparent to me that many of the adverts on Gumtree are all trying the same scam:- A camper is in a location where you can't inspect it. The seller has had to leave it because of an urgent appointment, being divorced, being posted to Afghanstan, sailing on a nuclear sub, etc etc. But it's all OK because the documents are with "an EBay escrow agent". It's all nonsense of course.
We zero'ed in on a few likely vans. After inspections, we came to the conclusion that for the year of 'home we were looking at, the continental designs offered higher build quality. We saw a Hymer "Camp" C544 that we liked and struck a deal with the very nice owners, Rod and Sue Martin. Rod was in the motor trade, about to retire, and had lavished his extremely competent care on the van. The 544 model has a rear door, rear kitchen, dinette seating arrangement with an over-cab bed. One feature is the 6 fully-belted seats. Rod had laid aluminium tread-plate on the roof with extremely sturdy roof bars, both being perfect for loading and carrying hang gliders. With a tow-bar and scooter rack, the van seemed ideal for hangy outings. Satellite TV and an autoclutch completed the list of extras.
The left hand drive caused a little caution at first, but we soon got used to it; now I couldn't imagine driving Hermann from the right hand seat. The cab is a little spartan. The continentals apparently deem things like air-con, electric windows, electric mirrors merely foppish embellishments. That there cab gets hot in summer and Rod left us a stick-on fan, heads for the cooling of.
I would have liked an oven and grill, maybe for a little bit of toast, but the ability to have a good shower at the end of a day's diving into cow-pats is very welcome. The "fresh" water tank is 120 Ltr and the 4000kG MPTLM means we can fill up at home before we leave. Steve packs away his amateur radio gear too and can bore the pants off like minded Hams while I'm flittering around.
We have bought Hermann a few little presents like a 2kW suitcase generator, a GPS tracker and a Snooper Ventura GPS Caravan Club Edition. You can get this from the Camping and Caravanning Club as well I believe, as well as direct from Snooper. www.snooper.co.uk. The special editions come with the club info already loaded. As we're members of all 3 of the motorhome clubs, I'd like to be able to load the info on all of them, but haven't yet found a way. Nevertheless, I really like the Ventura that can also function as a rearview camera screen with the right camera, a video screen for DVD's and as a bluetooth enabled phone repeater. Very impressive really.
Things to get are: A Growler intruder deafener, a motorscooter, Tyrebands, bull bars, airhorns, forward facing rocket launchers.....OK, well, maybe not the airhorns.
In the year since we bought Hermann, we've been to Suffolk (lots), Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Somerset, Devon, Lancashire and East Sussex. Somerset is on the cards for the August bank holiday. Here are some piccies:
After a while it became clear that some form of over night accomodation would be best, so Steve and I started looking for campervans.
We started off looking at van conversions but were put off by the plethora of toot that's out there. We started looking at bigger conversions and dedicated motorhomes.
I saw a motorhome for sale on Gumtree at a suspisciously low price. There was a good story to go with it, including a fake web-site for the "shipping agent", but Google Earth soon rumbled the bogus addresses. It quickly became apparent to me that many of the adverts on Gumtree are all trying the same scam:- A camper is in a location where you can't inspect it. The seller has had to leave it because of an urgent appointment, being divorced, being posted to Afghanstan, sailing on a nuclear sub, etc etc. But it's all OK because the documents are with "an EBay escrow agent". It's all nonsense of course.
We zero'ed in on a few likely vans. After inspections, we came to the conclusion that for the year of 'home we were looking at, the continental designs offered higher build quality. We saw a Hymer "Camp" C544 that we liked and struck a deal with the very nice owners, Rod and Sue Martin. Rod was in the motor trade, about to retire, and had lavished his extremely competent care on the van. The 544 model has a rear door, rear kitchen, dinette seating arrangement with an over-cab bed. One feature is the 6 fully-belted seats. Rod had laid aluminium tread-plate on the roof with extremely sturdy roof bars, both being perfect for loading and carrying hang gliders. With a tow-bar and scooter rack, the van seemed ideal for hangy outings. Satellite TV and an autoclutch completed the list of extras.
The left hand drive caused a little caution at first, but we soon got used to it; now I couldn't imagine driving Hermann from the right hand seat. The cab is a little spartan. The continentals apparently deem things like air-con, electric windows, electric mirrors merely foppish embellishments. That there cab gets hot in summer and Rod left us a stick-on fan, heads for the cooling of.
I would have liked an oven and grill, maybe for a little bit of toast, but the ability to have a good shower at the end of a day's diving into cow-pats is very welcome. The "fresh" water tank is 120 Ltr and the 4000kG MPTLM means we can fill up at home before we leave. Steve packs away his amateur radio gear too and can bore the pants off like minded Hams while I'm flittering around.
We have bought Hermann a few little presents like a 2kW suitcase generator, a GPS tracker and a Snooper Ventura GPS Caravan Club Edition. You can get this from the Camping and Caravanning Club as well I believe, as well as direct from Snooper. www.snooper.co.uk. The special editions come with the club info already loaded. As we're members of all 3 of the motorhome clubs, I'd like to be able to load the info on all of them, but haven't yet found a way. Nevertheless, I really like the Ventura that can also function as a rearview camera screen with the right camera, a video screen for DVD's and as a bluetooth enabled phone repeater. Very impressive really.
Things to get are: A Growler intruder deafener, a motorscooter, Tyrebands, bull bars, airhorns, forward facing rocket launchers.....OK, well, maybe not the airhorns.
In the year since we bought Hermann, we've been to Suffolk (lots), Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Somerset, Devon, Lancashire and East Sussex. Somerset is on the cards for the August bank holiday. Here are some piccies: