The most memorable moment of your 1st van?

Everything I teach people not to do now, we did. We bought our first, an Auto-Trail Pullman

We met a guy/sole trader, at a motorway service station, we did no checks, didn't do a test test drive, paid with cash counted out on the dinette. Drove it home uninsured.
 
Two memorable moments come to mind. The first was our first ever trip out to Delamere Forest camp site when it pee’d down all weekend, the forest was a quagmire and we wondered what we had let ourselves in for. Not only that, when we were leaving and emptying out waste water we didn’t realise you had to lift the cover off the drain and opened the tap on top. I still cringe thinking about the poor soul who had to follow us and lift the dirty cover.

A more happy memory was our holiday to Wales the same year and how sitting on a car park with the sliding door wide open whilst hubby and dog admired the view from the bench is what to me, camping is all about.
1653724321869.jpeg
 
The Old Man said:
A very old air cooled VW plan van, with the bare minimum fitted to make it a 'camper.'

Dropped the dreaded valve into the engine whilst in Valencia!!!!!

Somehow it kept going and I managed to drive home on three cylinders, to the UK, including crossing the Pyrenees through Andorra. Had to go that way to get cheap goods to smuggle home and partially fund the trip.
Click to expand...
Your nicked 🤭🤭🤭🤭
 
We went on a wet Saturday afternoon to Hayes Leisure in the late 80s to look for a van. I was working 9 months away, 3 months home, a van seemed ideal. Bill Hayes (snr) got us coffee and spent the next few hours telling us everything he could. Even sent us to another dealer to look at a layout he thought might suit. Learnt so much, he even showed us how to deal with the toilet cassette and gas bottles.
I get back to work and who is on the ship as an entertainer, Bill jnr.
 
Most of the memories seem to be things going wrong or not understood.

I have two early memories and cannot remember which came first.

One night I was parked up on a west-facing bluff in Gloucestershire and it was blowing a good F7, lying bed the MH was rocking a bit but I was thinking this is good because I have 4 wheels solidly on the ground and that it was much better than being on my boat worrying whether the anchor would hold!

The other memory was being parked at a station on the Severn Valley Railway, asking the station staff if I could stay the night, being given the number of the Station Master at home, who kindly made an exception and said 'Yes'. I had a wonderful afternoon/evening because the CP was slightly above the track and I had a great view through my panorama windscreen of the steam trains coming through.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
For me, it was the first time I could legally drive my van to a campsite without having to get eddievanbitz to drive it for me and stop half a mile away from a site. (I couldn't bring myself to having my Dad have to drive my van onto a campsite!)
 
VW pop top, drove down to Cornwall into campsite field wife and 3 kids, clutch went. Site owner towed van to garage where owner dropped us into town told me to phone 4.00pm to pick us up.
All ready he said. All holiday money spent on first day. Happy memories.
 
Mine has to be my very first camper a vw bay window devon poptop bought locally for £675 , 2 weeks later me and 4 friends were going to france belgium and Holland for 3 weeks ,. On leaving day we broke down only 13 miles from home and the aa guy said the dynamo was knackered. But we had a ferry booked so we carried on anyway , we couldn't drive when it got dark or when it rained as putting the lights or wipers on meant the engine cut out due to flat battery and no charging. We had to push it to start it everytime 🤣🤣 and we did that all around france Belgium and Holland . We had to get towed off the ferry on arrival in France. You can imagine the state of a small vw camper with 5 18/19 year olds in it , it stank . The table nearly killed one of my friends when i had to brake suddenly and it flew out from its storage place below the rear overhead cupboard and hit the back of his head , he still has a slight lump there. It broke down loads of times on that trip , the exhaust fell off and we had to tie it on with bits of wire , lost the skylight in Holland so it had a bit of wood with a black bin bag taped over it screwed to the roof 🤣🤣 but it got us there and back and when i got home it got fully rebuilt and that led me on a path of having owned over 70 vw's at least 55 being camper vans ....and then later caravans and motorhomes. Now on my 12th motorhome and im still a youngster 🤣

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
We hired an overcab van before buying ours.

Mrs B missed the step on way to loo during the night in the pitch black and fell from height landing on her ar*E 😂.

She squealed on way down past Jasper our African Grey who promptly entered his tourrettes vocabulary at length and at full volume. Those of you who met Jasper can imagine the language.
 
dazandandrea said:
Not our first but possibly our first " Proper" campervan.
We picked it up in August and it was red hot . Wife drove me to Southampton to pick it up .
On the way back i was melting and thought ,christ i wish it had Air conditioning.
I kept saying this to Andrea for a few weeks after we picked it up.
On one trip to Wales, i again mentioned the lack of Aircon as it was hot again.
Abdrea looked at the dash then at me and said " this button in the middle of the console with the snowflake on it , what do you think it does ?"
I looked back at her and i probably shrunk about 3 feet.
" Try it i said"
Wooooosh .
Cold air. 🥶
Click to expand...
I asked the sellers of my van if it had aircon. "Ha ha, open the window" was the response, followed by "we boiled last year in France". Got the van home - hang on, what's this button for? A quick grovel under the bonnet - yep, that's a compressor! It needed regassing but then I guess it hadn't been used in 6 years........ :LOL:
 
Northernraider said:
Mine has to be my very first camper a vw bay window devon poptop bought locally for £675 , 2 weeks later me and 4 friends were going to france belgium and Holland for 3 weeks ,. On leaving day we broke down only 13 miles from home and the aa guy said the dynamo was knackered. But we had a ferry booked so we carried on anyway , we couldn't drive when it got dark or when it rained as putting the lights or wipers on meant the engine cut out due to flat battery and no charging. We had to push it to start it everytime 🤣🤣 and we did that all around france Belgium and Holland . We had to get towed off the ferry on arrival in France. You can imagine the state of a small vw camper with 5 18/19 year olds in it , it stank . The table nearly killed one of my friends when i had to brake suddenly and it flew out from its storage place below the rear overhead cupboard and hit the back of his head , he still has a slight lump there. It broke down loads of times on that trip , the exhaust fell off and we had to tie it on with bits of wire , lost the skylight in Holland so it had a bit of wood with a black bin bag taped over it screwed to the roof 🤣🤣 but it got us there and back and when i got home it got fully rebuilt and that led me on a path of having owned over 70 vw's at least 55 being camper vans ....and then later caravans and motorhomes. Now on my 12th motorhome and im still a youngster 🤣
Click to expand...

Tam

i am surprised that the HMRC have not treated you as a 'Trader':LOL:
 
eddievanbitz said:
Lyn and I were in our twenties and we bought a shiny new Autohomes Highwayman, four weeks later we were off to Italy as newbie as you like

AshVanBitz James & Simon-Alan Kerr who was four at the time (Nick wasn’t born then) Simon waited for a least a quarter of a mile before asking “Is this Italy?” Every roundabout, traffic lights, getting on the Ferry, getting off the Ferry “Is this Italy?”

In the end we put Erasure on, the only cassette we had (told you were were newbies) and the five of us loved it.

To this day, for any of us, much to the bewilderment of Nick and the boys spouses, Erasure takes us straight back to that glorious holiday in our first camper and our first European family holiday

“I tried to discover, something to make me sweeter, Oh baby refrain from breaking my heart”
Click to expand...
You have made me smile. Went to a few Erasure gigs back in the day with my brother :h:
 
It was that memorable i can't remember a thing about it :unsure:

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
1980 Borrowed a mates bright orange 1970 VW pop top struggling down the M6 over Shap at about 30mph in the pouring rain with the alternator on the way out, got back to Blackpool with the faintest of gloworms for lights and water coming in everywhere.
 
The Coops said:
1980 Borrowed a mates bright orange 1970 VW pop top struggling down the M6 over Shap at about 30mph in the pouring rain with the alternator on the way out, got back to Blackpool with the faintest of gloworms for lights and water coming in everywhere.
Click to expand...
Not exactly the illuminations then?
 
dazandandrea said:
Not our first but possibly our first " Proper" campervan.
We picked it up in August and it was red hot . Wife drove me to Southampton to pick it up .
On the way back i was melting and thought ,christ i wish it had Air conditioning.
I kept saying this to Andrea for a few weeks after we picked it up.
On one trip to Wales, i again mentioned the lack of Aircon as it was hot again.
Abdrea looked at the dash then at me and said " this button in the middle of the console with the snowflake on it , what do you think it does ?"
I looked back at her and i probably shrunk about 3 feet.
" Try it i said"
Wooooosh .
Cold air. 🥶
Click to expand...
we did 3 months in spain and found the aircon when we got home the button was hidden by the reverse camera screen

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
mitzimad said:
If was to tell you my most memorable moment in our first van my wife would kill me
Click to expand...
Cone on spill the beans it's past 9pm!🤣🤣🤣
 
Our first camper was a converted layland fright rover 17 seat patient transport.
On our way to the ferry at Dover heading for Spain for Christmas.
We stopped at a services near Cambridge I ask her if she wanted to go for a coffee I got no answer.
And she looked sund asleep got out went for a coffee the toilet.
Got back to the van dident even give the back a second glance.
A few mills Dow the road I would say abut 20 I have this idiot flashing me peeping his horn.
What up with this xxxx any way he over takes me.
Sumone verry I know in the back Its the wife
Face like a bulldog chewing a wasp still carry the scars till this day.
Bill
 
Jim said:
Everything I teach people not to do now, we did. We bought our first, an Auto-Trail Pullman

We met a guy/sole trader, at a motorway service station, we did no checks, didn't do a test test drive, paid with cash counted out on the dinette. Drove it home uninsured.
Click to expand...
Tut tut
Bill
 
Seeing ‘the one’ a couple of years ago on the forecourt at the dealership, thinking the price was good for nearly new. Then going back out with the salesman for a closer look and noticing four circular discs underneath the body. Is that a leveller, I ask. Oh yes it is, he said, didn’t know it had one. Will that bump up the price, I ask. Nope, we’ll honour the price you see. Then I get a £2k discount. This 9 months into the covid pandemic. Result!
PS the dealership now has another two loyal customers.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 

Join us or log in to post a reply.

To join in you must be a member of MotorhomeFun

Join MotorhomeFun

Join us, it quick and easy!

Join us

Log in

Already a member? Log in here.

Latest journal entries

Back
Top