Hello 
My name is Sarah I’m in the first phase of a small midlife crisis! Wanted a camper van for at least a decade and last year finally got to borrow a friends vw camper for 2 months - I travelled for most of that two months just me and my two dogs - abdicated motherhood and wife duties and left the 3 mean at home. I was hooked!
The day came end of Aug to give his vw back and I told hubby I wouldn’t rush to find my own van but that it was inevitable. 12 hours later found us driving 6 hours up country to view and purchase a converted Fiat Ducato maxi 3l high top van that had been fully converted and remained virtually unused.
It’s perfect I declared and weirdly hubby who hates camping agreed and after negotiating we drove it straight home.
WHAT HAD I DONE!!!
Next day as I looked out of my bedroom window to the behemoth on my drive that at 6.2 metres long hung out over the path I felt a bit queasy! It’s totally fine I declared - I set about driving it most days to get hang of its length and width - many admirers, friends and neighbours ooo’d and ahhhed over its magnificence and so I stopped pulling rabbit in headlight face and cracked on tweaking it to my preference.
I’ve wracked up many adventures since Sept 24, ironing out the many small irritations along the way - the funniest was the master clutch cylinder failing 17 miles into a 5 day break to Peak District- I carried on keeping foot under clutch pedal to stop it dropping to the floor and managed to change gear with a deft manoeuvre of said foot that involved flicking up, pumping a few times and quickly changing gear before putting foot under pedal before it dropped again. This I did for next 4 odd hours of journey til I arrived on site.
At this point you must be thinking I’m slightly deranged to carry on… and you’re perhaps not far off but it’s amazing what you can do with a bungee rope and a zip tie!!! Quickly a temp repair to hold the clutch pedal up and give me ‘spring return’ and a zip tie to stop bungee slipping off pedal I was able to drive all over Peak District for next 4 days and home again with only a few jammy moments.
Incidentally we changed the master clutch cylinder a few days later and with in a few more days the gear selection cables failed so we did get stuck in 3rd for a few miles from home but still managed to get her back onto the drive. So following weekend those were replaced. I’d would like to point out that dear long suffering hubby helped me lots with these repairs. And he still hates camping!
Sorry for rambling… anyhoo - I love the freedom of travelling and seeing stuff and escaping life regularly- I still think my beastie of a rig is too big but I’m good at parking her (hubby impressed) and he’s started joining me on my escapades which is nice/ not so nice - I do like the complete selfishness of being on my own but then he does come in handy - bit like a multi use tool so that’s about it really - that me and my ‘BIG RIG’ as she’s affectionately known as. I’ll attach some photos. Thanks for reading
My name is Sarah I’m in the first phase of a small midlife crisis! Wanted a camper van for at least a decade and last year finally got to borrow a friends vw camper for 2 months - I travelled for most of that two months just me and my two dogs - abdicated motherhood and wife duties and left the 3 mean at home. I was hooked!
The day came end of Aug to give his vw back and I told hubby I wouldn’t rush to find my own van but that it was inevitable. 12 hours later found us driving 6 hours up country to view and purchase a converted Fiat Ducato maxi 3l high top van that had been fully converted and remained virtually unused.
It’s perfect I declared and weirdly hubby who hates camping agreed and after negotiating we drove it straight home.
WHAT HAD I DONE!!!
Next day as I looked out of my bedroom window to the behemoth on my drive that at 6.2 metres long hung out over the path I felt a bit queasy! It’s totally fine I declared - I set about driving it most days to get hang of its length and width - many admirers, friends and neighbours ooo’d and ahhhed over its magnificence and so I stopped pulling rabbit in headlight face and cracked on tweaking it to my preference.
I’ve wracked up many adventures since Sept 24, ironing out the many small irritations along the way - the funniest was the master clutch cylinder failing 17 miles into a 5 day break to Peak District- I carried on keeping foot under clutch pedal to stop it dropping to the floor and managed to change gear with a deft manoeuvre of said foot that involved flicking up, pumping a few times and quickly changing gear before putting foot under pedal before it dropped again. This I did for next 4 odd hours of journey til I arrived on site.
At this point you must be thinking I’m slightly deranged to carry on… and you’re perhaps not far off but it’s amazing what you can do with a bungee rope and a zip tie!!! Quickly a temp repair to hold the clutch pedal up and give me ‘spring return’ and a zip tie to stop bungee slipping off pedal I was able to drive all over Peak District for next 4 days and home again with only a few jammy moments.
Incidentally we changed the master clutch cylinder a few days later and with in a few more days the gear selection cables failed so we did get stuck in 3rd for a few miles from home but still managed to get her back onto the drive. So following weekend those were replaced. I’d would like to point out that dear long suffering hubby helped me lots with these repairs. And he still hates camping!
Sorry for rambling… anyhoo - I love the freedom of travelling and seeing stuff and escaping life regularly- I still think my beastie of a rig is too big but I’m good at parking her (hubby impressed) and he’s started joining me on my escapades which is nice/ not so nice - I do like the complete selfishness of being on my own but then he does come in handy - bit like a multi use tool so that’s about it really - that me and my ‘BIG RIG’ as she’s affectionately known as. I’ll attach some photos. Thanks for reading
And 
Sarah.
Bob and Janie. 
well possibly second to duct tape.
