The Crappy Hamper Thread

[Broccoli]

Darrens camper appeared in Volksworld many years later and I’ve been working away at different things to try and convince the Mrs.
However, as I mentioned in the other thread, the rental didn’t go quite as planned. I figured if I could get her hooked on a Vanagon, then a Brazilian T2 was a mere step away. But it didn’t go well - mainly due to my intolerance to be a food source to Wisconsin mosquitoes and so damn hot.
It was still fun and a good memory maker. Even though the packing Tetris with a kid and two dogs (and a wife who generally overpacks) was painful at the end of every day.
Pretty cool seeing parts of the US you would only otherwise see via a freeway - if at all.

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We bent the rules slightly taking two small dogs (they only strictly like 1) be we figured two small dogs = 1 big dog...

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The pop top was a godsend as the little un could make that his and also my lumbering 6'2" frame could stand upright.

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It was good during Covid to be able to grab food and eat it in the wagon.

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The pups seemed to enjoy their time traveling with us and sniffing out deer in the woods (of which there were many) Just being careful of deer ticks.

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It’s a fun way of seeing America off the beaten track.

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And prebooking state park camp sites at $18 a night (with communal showers and toilets) made it a little easier. All the sites we stopped at had BBQ grills in our camping area as well as fire pits. Though you can only burn local wood. I think there was only one place we stopped where you could see anyone else from your camping place. A far cry from ‘getting away from it all’ in Somerset or Cornwall used to be as a kid. That said, I’m not sure which I prefer... For some reason it feels a little safer in a field with a bunch of other people, rather than being woken up in the middle of the night, dogs going bananas at the window and trees rustling...

Financially, a hotel would be cheaper.
The camper rental was $150 a night, plus an extra 50c per mile after 50 miles a day.
Gas wasn’t inexpensive, $18 for the camp site a night. Probably cheaper to fly somewhere internally in the US, have a cheap hotel room and rent a car! Not as romantic though (as being eaten alive by the mozzies.)

[mercrocker]

"Memory Maker" That's the phrase that always underlines the sometimes pointless-seeming round of maintenance, expense and general faff of campervan ownership. Over the past decade and a half me and the missus have had some great times in the van. Need to get out and do some more this year. I do like the look of the North American campsites - my sister and brother in law have raised a whole family of trailer monkeys and I do get twinges of envy at the pics they send over.

Pretty impressed at how many people/dogs you accomodated there - ours gets crammed with just the two of us.

[Broccoli]

It was squeaky tight with 3 of us and 2 dogs.

One night I woke up pinned down and panicking as I couldn’t breath. I tried to sit up but I had a dog on one arm, another sleeping on my chest and the wife stopping me from moving side to side.

I pushed with all my might (and rolled Winnie the 50lb bulldog off my chest at the same time) sat up and immediately hit my head on the rear parcel shelf and shot back down again. The wife wanted to know what I was messing at.

After that we slept the other way around.

[panhard65]

Forget the VW's this nearly tempted me to try another camper. The listing didn't run for long as it was silly cheap at 4.5k.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dodge-ram-wi ... true&rt=nc.

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[Hooli]

Those US campsites do look good, shame they're in the US.

[Hooli]

easy enough to swap out.

Replace.

[SiC]

easy enough to swap out.

Replace.

Part out

[Hooli]

easy enough to swap out.

Replace.

Part out

Strip for parts.

[AMCrebel]

Hmm, a bit too much VW bias here. The better thing to do would be to opt for something conventional and British like a Bedford Dormobile or Ford Thames. When I eventually extract the Commer Walk-Thru from my friend's barn I am looking forward to getting it up and running and staying overnight at car rallies and things. It must be better to have something more spacious and with a bit more privacy than the VW size campers which are like a goldfish bowl. These old ambulances were therefore ideal candidates for conversion.





Mine came from the same batch as this one and is only a number or two away in the registration.





6 cylinder petrol same engine as my Snipe so will be a smooth and very torquey drive if a trifle thirsty. I must check my photos on the old PC as I snapped a few ambulance/camper conversions at autojumbles and suchlike including Morris LD and Land-Rover. They are very interesting vehicles.

over on ebay finds

I really like this but not £8k like.

They seem to have that shortarse Chevy too.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1966-commer- ... 4681596841

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[Bangernomics]

I’m a fan of the old T2, I had a J REG early T2 bay that had a right cobbled mix of split running gear. The front axle snapped on the coast road going to formby whilst working over there and staying in digs in Halton (right shithole but had a pay phone you could easily fiddle for free calls).

I bought it in 90/91 for £500 it was rotten and spent almost every evening and weekend for two months cutting and welding the bottom back on using bits of old washing machine sides as we were skint at the time but saw it as a cheap way for a holiday.

I’ll dig a photo out of it from somewhere later.

Aha found one albeit a shit one.




I sold it about three years later for about £1k just before they started to get stupid pricewise obviously.

Then a long gap as the former Mrs B hated it so when she was fired off I bought a 30 year old C25 based hymer,





that promptly shit it’s head gasket on the way back from buying it in Dorchester and so I spent a month pulling it to bits and going over the top replacing everything I touched. We did almost a month driving round France in it without too much fuss and it basically was cheaper than a month of (as mercrocker said) seaside lunches and with the convenience of a shower and a loo and a double bed.

Bought for £5k and sold for the same as I bought another on the spur of the moment for what was a very good price at the time a 1997 hymer but sprinter auto based.

Another photo placeholder.

Only £13.5k and when we bought this place in France I decided we wouldn’t be using one for a couple of years so I sold it on for £17.5k which was a bonus but it’d probably fetch an easy £20k now as covid has made the market crazy.

I’m currently browsing leboncoin as I miss a convenient & clean WC and a choc ice that doesn’t cost me £10.


Less annoying tag line.