westycapri
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 264
Club RR Member Number: 105
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Following that first trip at the end of July I had a few snags… not surprising as I hadn’t driven the van very far in about 6 months or so, it had a multiple engine removals and a new engine and had be submitted to a load of welding. Firstly the lid for the cooker came off, resulting in me having to glue and clamp it the laminated chipboard back together and ended up using some wood shavings and matchsticks to fill the screwholes so the new stainless screws could bite into something.  Amd fixed...  Secondly the viscous fan i fitted actually caught the radiator. I thought it was a tight fit, but ended up actually to tight… so the radiator had a love mark. Amazing it didn’t leak but it was annoying as had to replace the whole radiator that was brand new. At least got the right one this time so no need to swap over the brackets id made. I put back the original non viscous fan although had to modify it slightly with a dremmel to go over the threads of the viscous coupling water pump.  Thirdly the gearbox was leaking a noticeable amount of oil. The speedo drive had been damaged with all the engine removals that was part of the culprit so I swapped in a new one. This had the bonus of that as the dash was appart, I was able to reattach the air ducts to the vents (one had dropped off on the drivers demister) and I also did some wiring updates to change the centre console I made so I had 2 voltage guages one for each battery.and 2 12v sockets again one for each battery. Going back to the gearbox, the second cause of the leak was the join between the main body of the gearbox and tail. When Id previously started to swap the gearbox then aborted I had already drained the oil, as at the time i didn’t have enough of the right oil I just popped in what I had lying around and asked the garage to top it off when they were playing around with it so maybe it was slightly thinner than previously in there so found its way out. I thought id make sure it had the right oil in it, so got some fresh oil and added a gearbox/diff stop leak/stop whining formula to it as thought would do no harm and thicken it up a bit… it still leaked after all this but maybe not quite as much as a fair bit was coming out the speedo drive. I’ve added gearbox oil to my spares pack for the van although as of now its actually doesn’t leak. I think it was slightly overfilled when I did this. Now its a smidge under the fill plug it doesn’t seem to leak.  Fourthly, he started battery was loosing charge. I suspected it prior to that trip, it was confirmed on the trip so new starter battery required as had to jump start it off the leisure battery.. I also replaced some of the battery terminals etc… to try and improve things with the solar setup.  I also wasn’t 100% confident in the alternator, so also got a replacement and fitted (again these seem to be service items every few years) and the Voltage sensitive Relay had packed up again after a few years so replaced this. After the snags I also wanted to do the front discs and pads so did those. Had some fun with an old rim and sledgehammer removing the hubs from the discs :-)   The vans always sagged on the rear ever since i got the front springs replaced, so got hold of some NOS heavy duty shocks and fitted them. They didn't make a difference to ride height but are definitely less prone to bottoming out with weight over the rear axle.  Noticed when doing this the rear wheels where sticky. Turned out it was the handbrake cable sticking on one side. I ordered a new handbrake cable but just to get it going i got it working just on the one side. My temp fix...  I also replaced some of the bushes in the front springs as was knocking… this seems to be a regular occurrence as think i only did them a year or 2 ago., I think i may look at swapping out the front springs to some less high versions to bring the front down… so it looks a bit better and maybe put less pressure on these bushes. During the multiple times I took the engine in and out the gearbox mounts took at battering and the rubber unbonded itself. So with some super super glue I restuck them together. I fitted a lap belt on the other side to where the isofix is fitted so my wife could sit in the back a bit more safely if she wanted to sit next to my son. We tried this once and actually probably won’t use it as she didn’t like it and if a babys crying when driving there isn’t really a lot you can do. Maybe it will be used when he gets a bit older. We needed more storage with the tent/awning plus baby stuff, so picked up this roof box for a bargain price off ebay. I bolted it to a tow bar rack added a cheap light board. The lightboard didn’t want to indicate right, so as the power was directly fed from the main loom, I purchased a relay that had its own power feed, to reduce the load and also tidied up the wiring. I Also upgraded the jockey wheel to a pneumatic one to help the swingaway towbar on rougher ground. I think the faded white goes pretty well with van and definitely doesn’t look to offensive… for a rear box   The top windows of our pop top don’t have curtains so we realised we needed the van as dark as possible with the baby so my mother in law made these blackout blinds, which just pop into place. Nice and easy plus practical  Then I felt like was on the home straight. I hadn’t managed to sort the cosmetic points on the van from the welding yet, so finally managed to paint the new steps and cills plus an area where I had a magnetic UK sticker on the rear door, that caused moisture to lift the paint. So glad I rollered the van. Can’t notice any of the touch ups i’ve done really, and very easy to do with some brushes in a couple of hours. To finish it off I also made some new floor mats, and re-stuck down some of the side trim to make the van look a bit tidier at the front. I had the rubber roll lying around for ages so was good to finally make them.   This was around Mid August and we then did our furthest trip yet, and drove up to the peak district to spend the weekend with my family (we all have campervans… i was the first to get one so think I inspired them all :-)) Drive up was good until the issue that has been there since the engine swaps… getting into 3rd gear, was progressively getting worse, until I could select it at all anymore. I ended up forcing it and lost access to most the gears, however a bit of wiggling around meant I could all gears again bar 3 but was a bit disconcerting as the gearstick was very floppy. I was only a few miles from the campsite so got it there and parked up for the weekend. It wasn’t as windy as the first time so did manage to get the awning over the rear doors (one of the criteria i wanted to make sure I could do prior to getting this one).  I then investigated the gearstick, turned out a pin had come loose, so we literally field repaired with some foil to wedge the pin in place that meant I had all gears bar 3rd again. I assume that the combination of failed gearbox mounts and the gearstick having a load of force put on it when I was taking the box out had knackered the pin causing it to go loose. Luckily the power of the engine was such that I was able to drive around the lack of 3rd and we got home safely with no real dramas although the field repair had pretty much failed by the time I got home.  So i mentioned previously briefly that we had a trip planned to Portugal… hence me rushing around to try and get everything sorted on the van. We had the eurotunnel booked on the 1st of september. We got back on the 22nd August from the Peak district. So rush was on to sort the gearbox out. Initially I tried fixing the current gearstick, i used chemical metal to glue the pin back in place. This didn’t work. I was then searching for gearboxes as wasn’t sure if id be able to find the exact same gearstick for the van as none on ebay or the normal spares suppliers where the same. Luck would have it that some lovely gent in South Essex had left an add up for a Transit gearbox on facebook… he thought he'd removed the add. Even though the gearbox looked different I messaged him to see if was available and if he knew the length of the gearbox, no. of splines etc… so I could work out if it would fit. He responded to say he had another gearbox and I could have both for £80 and he reckoned this other gearbox was the same as the one in the van. So I rushed off to essex, with my chemical metalled together gearstick with no 3rd gear on the evening of Thursday 24th. Yep he wasn’t lying he had 2 gearboxes, 1 which was the same as my current box including the gearsticks, and a gearbox mount result. As a result of me not being able to get anywhere near selecting 3rd gear, I by this point had resigned myself that something in the box was knackered so had the bank holiday weekend to replace it.I had just jacked the van up/put it on ramps when i thought i should just try the gearstick from the replacement box… instantly i was able to select 3rd what a result was supper happy with that as a fix and meant I wasn’t spending the whole bank holiday weekend replacing a gearbox :-) Gearboxes collected :-)  With that result, I could then focus on a few other snags and improvements to the van. Firstly the gearboxes in the back had caught the door and was extremely loose on the hinges. I replaced the screws to sort that out with slightly larger ones. I mounted a mirror with some velcro so we could keep an eye on the baby when driving. The rear box was flexing a fair bit, so I reinforced the base with some wood battons and added some tie down points, so I could ratchet it to the gutters (like you would with a bike rack on the top of a hatchback) and also strap it to the swingaway to give it triangulation points. It then still wasn’t dark enough in the van for our son to sleep, so I ordered some thermal insulation foil roll and cut it into shape so all the windows had a thermal blind as well as a curtain. This improved the darkness in the van so much more.   I had wanted to make some additional storage boxes and get rid of the need for the table to form part of the bed. I had run out of time due to everything engine, so I asked my Dad to help. He ended up making me 3 boxes. They can be moved around to give me different configurations, but essentially theres 1 large one that sits in the centre permanently, then there are 2 that sit either side under the bench seat. The bench seat front section can be folded away to enable the seats to be forward facing so these 2 occupy that space. When I need to make the bed I can pull one box out and refold out the front of the bench seat that means I then have a full bed.This also means we have 3 boxes that can be removed, making it easier to load and unload the van with our clothes etc… These were extremely useful. I think finally I also fitted some door pockets that were considerably larger than the single one that was on the drivers side so had a pocket on both the passenger and drivers side. I had to rearrange where the speakers were on the door cards, but I think don’t look to out of spec to the originals. Think thats everything that made us Portugal ready! Will edit this post later with some extra pics where I didn't seem to take them at the time :-) Next post will be roadtrip time :-) |
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Last Edit: Oct 23, 2023 19:37:46 GMT by westycapri: Removed duplicate pic
@fantasticmrford
1984 Ford Capri 2.0s
1978 Ford Transit Autosleeper
1975 Landrover Series 111 Dormobile
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Yes I thought the torquey spec might be of interest . I believe the chap who wrote it trades as penguin motors in Ely , Cambridgeshire.
Excellent thread .
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westycapri
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 264
Club RR Member Number: 105
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Oct 24, 2023 19:17:15 GMT
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Back to it, so the whole reason for the concerted effort of the van was my prolonged paternity leave and the plan to spend it in Portugal. There are a few ways you can get to Portugal, you can go across to Calais and Drive the whole way or get the ferry to Northern Spain and save about 2/3rds of the drive. We would of preferred to get the ferry to Northern Spain, as we’d done on our last trip to Spain, but we now had a dog, and the idea of putting Stevie (the dog) into a boats kennels didn’t appeal for the 24hrs crossing. Some ferries do have pet friendly cabins, but they were all booked as it must be popular with folk going to Spain for the winter so we decided to go plan B, I’d drive down with Stevie, whilst my wife and son flew out. Taking a 5 month old baby on a prolonged roadtrip where we’d be driving 12 or more hours in a day also didn’t seem like a good idea. I did also do the math on costs, I think they were pretty comparable, plus I love a roadtrip so wasn’t complaining at all. I booked our crossing for late on Friday 1st September taking the Eurotunnel. I booked Eurotunnel because although a bit more pricey its just so much easier, once your onboard the train, its a quick 30mins or so and you are in France. Id done the Ferry before thinking Id take a nap onboard and drive into the night, but with all the folk onboard you never end up getting any real rest. Day 1 - Trip of a lifetime commenced!After running around stressing about getting the van working, Friday 1st September came. I had a busy day at work, but eventually finished and was able to put my out of office on for a full month until October. After packing a few final bits and seeing my wife and son head off with my in laws who were flying with them, the dog got comfortable in her position in the van on the front passenger seat.  I headed for Folkestone in the rain. Plan for the day/Night was to get into Northern France and stop at the Baie de Somme Aire, rest up then the next day try and complete France. All went to plan, I managed to get to folkestone ontime, hindsight was I wish I had got a later train, as I was still caught in Friday night traffic. After a speedy pet check in, check of fluids, sticking on the light deflectors and replacing a fuse for a headlight, I got on the train and was in France for around 10.30pm. A couple of hours down the autoroute and I reached my planned stop the Baie de Somme Aire. If you are travelling in France and want to do a similar thing… ie late crossing, and drive a cpl of hours before stopping I thoroughly recommend this Aire. Must of stopped here 5 or 6 times now, and it never disappoints, with a spot to walk the dog, as well as a shower, plus you aren’t right next to the road so there isn’t headlights and noise to keep you awake. Parked up amongst the motorhomes  Day 1 Route  Day 2 - Saturday - Not quite to planWaking in the Aire, did a quick toilet walk with the dog, and made a cup of tea. Plan for the day was to drive for around 4hours and stop at the Loire to take the dog on a more meaningful walk, then crack on and drive to Biarritz, approx 600miles in total. I did have a stretch target of 7-800miles if I could get into Northern spain Id be very happy and likely involve driving late into the night. My only deadline was that on the Monday (day 4) my wife and son was landing in Porto, so wanted to try and be there on arrival, and ideally if I can do France quickly, it would mean me and the dog could do some exploring of Northern Spains coast. I did the pre-flight checks again, all was good with van… i considered filling up with fuel, but the one negative about this aire is the price of fuel, so decided to continue on. I had about 100miles of range left so wasn’t in a particular rush. Heading out, I went through Rouen. They have a emissions charge/restriction here. I did before the trip try to register the van, but unsurprisingly it didn’t meet the criteria. I also naively assumed there would be an obvious detour around the zone, but there wasn’t so I just cruised on through, so far no ticket. This was when the problem started. Just after Rouen I did start noticing the van wandering quite alarmingly. I did think the previous evening and earlier that morning it was being caught by the wind and didn’t think to much of it as its an old van on 4 leaf springs. It was getting worse and definitely felt really weird, As I was on the autoroute I regretted ignoring it and not pulling over and having a look sooner, but I definitely need to have a look so should pull in at the next Aire (services). Unfortunately before I could reach the next aire the handling deteriorated even further, to the point that it was undriveable so I had to pull over pretty sharpish and luckily managed to pull over in a bit of a layby which also handily had a phone….  It was also raining by this point. So out I hopped of the van to be greeted but a rear drivers side wheel at a bit of a wonk. Further inspection and the wheel nuts were obviously loose, but weirdly had embedded themselves and disintegrated slightly into the wheel… that would also explain the noise that I thought was the road surface I kept hearing a little while earlier was obviously the nuts hammering into the wheel. I got my tools out and started trying to swap spare wheel on. I was thinking if I can get the wheel off, I could take a nut off the other wheels and limp it to a services or a garage… unfortunately i couldn’t get a socket on the nuts, and in one case the stud was also spinning freely with the nut… Offending wheel  Beyond my abilities on the roadside, I used the yellow phone. Within about 30mins or so I got picked up  Not speaking french, I used google translate (what a lifesaver!) to ask the recovery driver if he could drop me off somewhere I could get the van fixed, so I got dropped off at a Ford main dealer in Bernay. Now although sceptical as the van is way older than anything a main dealer would do normally, I initially was hopeful to get a fix the same day, even with it being a Saturday as the commercial services department seemed to be open all day on Satuday… according to Google. Evidence of Opening hours:  Unfortunately hopes were dashed when only the new car sales dept were open… I had to wait until Monday… Doh, there goes the planned stop in Northern Spain! Luckily there was a hotel in walking distance that were fine with Stevie staying so i grabbed a bag of stuff from the van and left my keys with the sales lady. I did consider asking if I could stay in the van, but as they lock the dealership compound and the temps were hotting up, i thought being in a hotel was probably better. Day 2 journey..  Day 3 - Sunday not FundayHoled up in a hotel Saturday and Sunday really dragged by, I was however able to research and source a replacement hub, a whole axle and not to mention some studs and wheel nuts just in case it was worse than I thought. Do ask if you need any contacts in Europe for Transit or Ford stuff. Vans holding pen:  Locally I also found a scrap mk2 Transit in a travellers camp/field. I considered and very quickly decided not to go asking around that van if they had any spares. It was a twin wheeled van, so it would have the handed nuts, that i don’t think would be compatible to the van. I also researched and scoped out other garages locally incase the Ford main dealer were not able to help. Silver linings were that I doubled up on tarte frambois 🙂  Day 4 - Monday Heating up!After what seemed like an age, Monday came and I went to the Garage for opening. After having a chat (using Google Translate) I think they said they were able to fix the van, although couldn’t be 100% sure. After watching them for a bit they eventually sent me on my way back to the hotel as I think me watching them wasn’t helping. I was told to come back after lunch around 2pm. The suspense was killing me I wasnt 100% sure they were going to fix it, due to the language barrier, and if it may need parts they didn’t have. I needent worried, I got the hotel receptionist to call the garage, just to make sure it was ready, and he confirmed it was. The garage had managed to get the wheel off and replaced teh wheel nuts… result I was able to get going again! Additional bit of luck, and I assume because they couldn’t put it through there normal system, they said I only need to give them a tip rather than through there system, so I popped out to a cashpoint and gave them a tip.. Think i gave them 100 euros as i was a bit excited and so greatful I could get moving again. My wife and Son had landed in Porto by now, so I was already very late and around 1100miles away. She was there with her parents though, as we had a villa booked for the first week, so although annoying at least she wasn’t on her own with the baby. My revised plan of the day was to head as far into France as possible, maybe get into Spain if I could. It was however already about 3pm so was going to be late one. It was also very warm, low to mid 30s getting warmer as I headed South, which wasn’t ideal with the dog and a van with no aircon. I should of chilled at the hotel for longer then left when it was a bit cooler and driven overnight, but I was to excited and desperate to get moving after being holed up for a couple of days We made good progress, but as we went South the temps increased and it got to hot for Stevie so we had to stop and rest to let her cool down, it was about 38 degrees C and very humid with the sun coming in the windscreen so difficult to escape it even with multiple fans on her and windows open. Ended up wetting her down to cool off whilst parked under a tree and I made a cup of tea. Do like a French Aire though, just very easy to pull off the autoroute and chill out.   Poor Stevie was a bit hot at this point:  After it was cooling down as the evening drew in, we cracked on fuelled by ham and cheese baguettes, we eventually got pass Bordeaux and stopped at an Aire not far from the turning for Biarritz. It was about 1.30am by the time we stopped and we’d travelled about 600miles in total that day, Park up...  Me and the dog cuddled up in the van and passed out.  Day 4 journey...  More to come Cheers Josh |
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Last Edit: Oct 24, 2023 19:19:49 GMT by westycapri
@fantasticmrford
1984 Ford Capri 2.0s
1978 Ford Transit Autosleeper
1975 Landrover Series 111 Dormobile
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westycapri
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 264
Club RR Member Number: 105
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Oct 25, 2023 20:51:33 GMT
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Day 5 Tuesday - Finally Reaching Spain!At this point I was only going to be 1 day late. My original plan was to get me to the villa, that was 1hr North of Porto around 3 or 4pm on the Monday to arrive around the same time as my wife and son. It was now Tuesday I could in theory blast down through the rest of France and across Spain to reach portugal in maybe 12 or 13 hours, taking account of the vans speed, dog walks and petrol stops. I was very excited and motivated to get up and get going so woke up around 5am excited to reach spain with the knowledge that I’d see my wife and son by the end of the day! 2 cup of teas made (1 in a normal mug and 1 in a insulated Yeti mug… so i can prolong the tea drinking) and I set off hoping to make a good inroads into the journey 30 miles in, over the sound of the music I was listening to I heard a slight metallic sound that increased frequency with revs…. curse word. I kept listening hoping it would just magic away but alas it wasn’t! Pulled over into another Aire… it was still dark but found a spot under a lamppost and started investigating. My initial thought was that the water pump was seized, as it was super stiff to rotate, I also flicked the van back on so i could check my theory and greeted by a plume of smoke and screeching. The fan belt was slipping and something was seized. Testing my water pump theory a second time with my head under the bonnet, I wasn’t so sure, so decided to loosen the fan belt to release some of the tension on it so I could twist it. This quickly meant the waterpump was discounted, before before suspicions turned to the alternator as a more likely culprit and actually confirmed the alternator was seized solid… That would do it and this was a lot better than the waterpump going as I was carrying a spare alternator but wasn’t carrying a spare waterpump. So I got the spare alternator out the back of the back cupboard. It was buried in there with all my spare parts so a lot had to come out to get to it. I removed the alternator pretty quickly then I noticed something…  Bolt was loose on the alternator housing, rubbing on the fan. When I stopped it had moved further out and jammed the fan on the alternator causing the smoke and squealing. A quick search of my nuts I had in the van, amongst fuses and other small bits, I found the correct sized nut and was able to tighten it back up. Not wanting it to happen again as it had obviously vibrated loose i lit a candle and spread some wax on the threads to hold them in place  Poor stevie, she was my partner in crime, although did feel for her here  As you can see it had got light… I’d lost about 1hr30 faffing with this, so all my advantage of getting up so early> Another cup of tea made and I headed off again. I made it into Spain within an hour or so and headed across the country to Portugal. I will say the Spanish services aren’t great and the roads (or at least the road i took A-52) was dreadful. Full of potholes and in terrible nick. I did take the most direct route, however in hindsite would of taken the slightly longer coastal road along the top of Spain then down into Portugal as the road I took was pretty featureless with no real opportunity to rest up anywhere or obvious spots to walk the dog. I hadn’t mentioned this but also had another issue with the van, since it had been in the garage the tracking had gone out. I thought I could get to the villa then get it sorted out locally in Portugal rather than add more time to the trip. The tracking issue was definitely exaggerating the state of the road in spain and after a period of particallarly bad potholes it had gotten even worse. At this point I was due my to fill up so pulled in for fuel and check the van over. I noticed a black dust down the side of the van and inspected the front tyres… curse word they were wedge shaped with the inside edge worn heavily. I hadn’t realise how it could completely destroy tyres. They still had tread so thought I could probably limp it the rest of the way. So I jumped back on the autoroute/Spanish motorway and travelled at a much more leisurely speed to try and reduce the wear on the tyres, about 20miles down the road I pulled over again… the tyres had visibly worn even more, and I knew i definitely wouldn’t be able to drive the whole way without destroying them completely. I had actually pulled into a local village off the motorway that had a mechanic as well as fuel stop. These are signposted all along the motorway. Unfortunately the mechanic was shut, and hadn’t been open for a long time. Out came google and was able to find another garage but it was another 15miles down the road, so off I went, it was actually mountainous here, so I took the local roads as meant i could limp the van along at slower speeds. I arrived at the mechanics, and luckily he spoke pretty good English but unfortunately said he couldn’t look at it today. He did say there was a town another 20miles down the road… off I went again heading for a town for Verin. After a very slow 20miles I finally made it to Verin, and managed to find a tyre shop pretty easily. It was around 5pm at this point and thankfully due to siestas they open til about 7pm so was well in the opening hours. I pulled the van in and they had a look. At this point you could see the threads of the tyre in a couple of places so wasn’t good and was a bit embarrassed Id driven with tyres in this state.  This was a proper family owned garage, with loads of customers about and folk constantly popping in. Even with the language barrier they were able to have a look and searched for the tyres to see if they had a spare in stock… I only needed 1 as could use the spare… although the tyre would still need to be swapped off the rim as that was knackered. Unfortunately they didn’t have the right tyre size in stock so I had to admit defeat and accept it was going to be another day of waiting A quick search of Park4Night (another great app for travelling around in a campervan/motorhome) found a riverside spot a mile up the road where I could sit out until they’d get the tyre in around 2pm. Campspot was nice though and Stevie enjoyed the walk and river…  Day 5 route across Spain another 500miles  Day 6 - Wednesday Final legI had til 2pm to kill so after having a reasonably relaxed morning, I had to get stevie out for a walk before it heated up for the day. The parking spot was great as was shady and was right by a river and park area, couldn’t really ask for a better spot to wait in. 2pm came and I took the van back to the tyre shop. The tyres were delivered.. I got 2 so i could keep a spare. They were quickly swapped over then I took the van to the nextdoor garage where they do the tracking. The reason why the tracking was out was obvious. The tie rod between the front wheels was bent, pulling the rear of the wheels in and pointing the front of the wheels out. I had actually had a look underneath and couldn’t see anything obvious to the cause, but i think the bend was in line with the cross member so wasn’t super obvious when just looking at it from the front of the van. Sledge hammer came out and the bar was straightened with all the tracking info going green… what a relief!  On the road again I had about 150miles and less than 3 hours to go. Tracking was terrible before and it was so much nicer to drive now all sorted. No more Dramas and we finally got to to the destination 2 days later than originally planned. 1400miles travelled, not issue free but at least we got there. Finally parked at the Villa  Day 6 Final route:  I realise I haven’t explained the causes of the main issues. In a nutshell it boils down to 1 thing. I think I loosened the wheel nuts to take the wheel off, then changed my mind and forgot to re-tighten them, this led to the wheel trying to fall off. This then led to the recovery truck using the tie rod to pull the van onto the bed, resulting in it bending and pulling the tracking out, which led to the tyres self destructing. Bummer but glad to of finally made it, only 2 days late. Felt like the van was kicking and screaming the whole way 🙂 Now in portugal we were here for the whole month, so will update with more of the trip later 🙂
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Last Edit: Oct 25, 2023 20:55:31 GMT by westycapri
@fantasticmrford
1984 Ford Capri 2.0s
1978 Ford Transit Autosleeper
1975 Landrover Series 111 Dormobile
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Oct 25, 2023 23:14:57 GMT
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Thanks for sharing your adventure. We fancy doing a trip to Europe in our van so it's really interesting reading real life accounts, we live in Scotland so it's a 12 hour drive just to get to the south coast for the ferry.
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westycapri
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 264
Club RR Member Number: 105
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Oct 26, 2023 13:55:54 GMT
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Thanks for sharing your adventure. We fancy doing a trip to Europe in our van so it's really interesting reading real life accounts, we live in Scotland so it's a 12 hour drive just to get to the south coast for the ferry. Thank you! You definitely should do it, its great hitting the continent, done it now a few times in the van and done the South of France in my Capri. Give me a shout if you've got any questions? Whether costs, tolls, breakdown cover etc... Getting the ferry to Spain is a good option to get far south, and its not that much difference from a fuel and toll perspective vs driving from Calais plus less taxing on the van. If you've driven to the south coast from Scotland, you'd have c.24hrs on a ferry where you can relax. Northern Spain is a great climate, like a warm UK weather, not to hot... typically wouldn't get the 40degrees temps you hear of some spots in France and Spain. When in Northern Spain could head West, as the coast is stunning and have mountains like Picos de Europa, head east and you get to san sebastien, biarritz and the pyrenees. Head south and you can go to Rioja wine region, and these are just the areas I know from previous trips all within 3hrs of the ferry. You could also get the ferry back to England, or drive back up through France if you want to mix it up. |
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@fantasticmrford
1984 Ford Capri 2.0s
1978 Ford Transit Autosleeper
1975 Landrover Series 111 Dormobile
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Oct 27, 2023 10:23:36 GMT
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What an epic journey, and great write up! Thanks for sharing.
I'm considering doing a summer road trip to the Alps in our Splitscreen VW Camper next summer but I do fear the random breakdowns in the middle of a foreign country with the family on board. We've done it a few times before in relatively modern motorhomes (if 90s is modern) and didn't worry about it at all, but the old van would require an extra level of bravery.
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67 VW Split bus
69 Beetle Cab
96 Jeep Cherokee XJ Sport
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westycapri
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 264
Club RR Member Number: 105
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Oct 27, 2023 19:21:32 GMT
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What an epic journey, and great write up! Thanks for sharing. I'm considering doing a summer road trip to the Alps in our Splitscreen VW Camper next summer but I do fear the random breakdowns in the middle of a foreign country with the family on board. We've done it a few times before in relatively modern motorhomes (if 90s is modern) and didn't worry about it at all, but the old van would require an extra level of bravery. Alps would be awesome, not gone that way before in the van, would be a proper adventure in a splitscreen :-) I never really gave it to much thought before I had all the issues this year with the van. I think the stress levels would of been considerably more if my son and the wife were onboard. However the issues i had has given me more confidence. I normally take all the engine bits likely to fail (dizzy, alternator, oil, spark plugs, ignition leads etc...) now will definitely take wheel bearings and wheel studs/nuts incase I'm an idiot again> At least then if you do breakdown you've covered most bases even if you can't fix it yourself. I do also know there is a network on enthusiasts who'd be up for helping. i had relatively easy fixes in the end, but id managed to source help from folk all over from my Instagram account and facebook groups, could of got a complete axle shipped to me. Reckon if you line up some contacts in france for spares prior to going, means youd at least know who you'd need to contact for help if the worse was to happen, and hopefully by the fact you'd prepared would mean they wouldn't be needed. |
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@fantasticmrford
1984 Ford Capri 2.0s
1978 Ford Transit Autosleeper
1975 Landrover Series 111 Dormobile
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Scott
Part of things
Posts: 51 
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Oct 28, 2023 21:30:05 GMT
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Bloody hell what an adventure, Poor Stevie (at least you knew what you were getting into  ) But seriously now, I'm glad that you made it there safely and had a fantastic if slightly expensive story to tell us. |
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What looks right is not necessarily right,
but what looks wrong is definitely not right!
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Oct 28, 2023 22:58:15 GMT
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Every time this thread pops up I start thinking about pan-European camper travels.
Bravo, and thanks for taking the time to write it up.
Me & Mrs Generallee once spent the night in a Mercedes Benz main dealer just outside Munich 2 days before Christmas as the recovery truck dropped us off there and buggered off.
Character building, I think they call it.
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westycapri
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 264
Club RR Member Number: 105
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Oct 29, 2023 14:42:29 GMT
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Portugal!
That was a relief getting down only 2 days late with 2 issues that weren’t being fixed on the roadside, actually if I take out my incompetency in not doing wheel nuts up there was really 1 issue the whole 1400mile trip, that was the alternator that was sorted easily. (don’t count the blown fuse just before the eurotunnel). In summary this was the drive myself and the Dog had taken so so far… We were now reunited with my wife and my son and had a week booked into a villa with my inlaws,  That first week didn’t really do much driving, just a few short drives down to the beach. Where we stayed was around an hour North of Porto around near a village called Afife. If we weren’t in a Villa would of been ideal to be in the van as lots of beachside car parks with toilets & showers where you could of camped for a few days with no real issue. The beaches were amazing, really wild with the Atlantic, so not really “swimming” beaches more, go in dodge a few waves then come out. If you can surf there is obviously surfing as well. I did have my body board with me, but didn’t fancy going in on my own in an unknown beach with noone else in it. Boardwalks over dunes were a constant theme in Portugal. We could of camped here  literally just over the dunes to this beach  Whilst we were in the Villa I did order a replacement Tie Rod as mine is now “S” shaped, some additional wheel studs and nuts from Motomobil so I had some spares get them swapped out if needed Motomobil were superb to deal with so highly recommend. Because shipments can take some time and didn’t think it would arrive before I left the Villa, I got it shipped to a recommended distributor for Motomobil just outside of Porto called Paulo & Ferreira . They were super helpful and didnt’ charge anything to hold onto them for me. They also do VW, Citroen and Mini parts so would recommend them as contacts if you get stuck in Portugal Websites below: www.motomobil.comwww.pauloeferreira.com/Leg 1 - Down past Porto
After the Villa we didn’t have any set plans, just a rough idea that would be nice to drive down to approx Lisbon exploring the coast. The only firm thing we had was a hotel and flights booked out of Porto at the beginning of October. It gave us approx 3 weeks post the Villa in the van. First day back on the road was great. I was so excited to get moving again in the van. The villa was nice, but I do love being in the van. We were there to explore Portugal, so put it in our next destination, about about 2hrs away, then added suitable detours to stay relatively coastal and avoid the motorways once we were south of Porto so the journey was around 120miles covered in around 3hrs. Would say the route through Porto was what you’d expect driving through a big city, South of Porto, we were expecting a bit more scenery but ended up driving through a lot of long straigh roads, with really quiet towns/villages (assume being september we were out of season and they were holiday homes. It was also a relatively flat area compared to the mountains Just behind the beaches in the area North of Porto. Pic of route  Final destination on this leg was Praia de Mira. Its a traditional tourist spot, a few campsites in the pine forest behind some enormous dunes and a stunning beach. Was again pretty quiet as we were in September, but that suited us and meant we could pick a spot in a campsite. There is multiple sites here, reckon they are all much the same with relatively short walks to the beach/boardwalk. Sunsets were amazing Campspot  Beach was amazing, Happy family:  Stevie was happy  Sunsets were amazing…  We stayed for 2 nights, we were still relatively new to travelling in a van with the baby, so not being too adventurous. I was delighted how all the stuff worked. I could put up (and take down) the awning/tent on my own, and the rear box took all the excess baby stuff plus the awning. Leg 2 - Moelly
Continuing the southern trajectory we headed down the coast to a place called Sau Pedro de Moel. We followed the coast as close as we could, and avoided motorways. Route we took  Amazing beaches all the way down and plenty of fishing related tractors  We could of stayed at number of campsites on the way down, plus if you were wanting to wild camp there were plenty of places. If fact I’d say the campsites in this part of Portugal, before you get to Ericiera are a bit run down, and not that great to be honest.They did the job but weren’t breathtaking in terms of views, not brimming with facilities and lacked a vibe(ie people) so you didn’t really want to spend any time in them. On the flip side they were quiet, so booking never even crossed our mind. With the campsites being not that great, we thought we’d try a dry run of doing a minimum camp in a campsite, without setting up the awning/tent, to see if we could be a bit more flexible and be able to camp not in a campsite. It was a success, wild camping is something that hadn’t crossed our mind prior to the trip having the baby on board but we now know it was a possibility Minimum setup  Had to go a bit off piste in the campsite to get to this spot… was a bit creepy overnight in the trees.  Campsite was reasonably close to the town we took a half hour stroll to to have some cocktails/beer that evening on the beach. Following day we packed to leave and headed to a beach that was a cpl of mins drive up the road. Portugals beaches are stunning! View of beach from van:  Endless beach  We had a morning on the beach then ate at a restaurant overlooking the beach… The food in Portugal is amazing as well and good value.  Plenty more to come. If the rain continues this afternoon there maybe another update before the days out :-)
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Last Edit: Oct 29, 2023 14:50:47 GMT by westycapri
@fantasticmrford
1984 Ford Capri 2.0s
1978 Ford Transit Autosleeper
1975 Landrover Series 111 Dormobile
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westycapri
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 264
Club RR Member Number: 105
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Oct 29, 2023 14:46:00 GMT
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Every time this thread pops up I start thinking about pan-European camper travels. Bravo, and thanks for taking the time to write it up. Me & Mrs Generallee once spent the night in a Mercedes Benz main dealer just outside Munich 2 days before Christmas as the recovery truck dropped us off there and buggered off. Character building, I think they call it. Haha, has it got the point you can laugh about it now, or are the memories still raw? |
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@fantasticmrford
1984 Ford Capri 2.0s
1978 Ford Transit Autosleeper
1975 Landrover Series 111 Dormobile
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Oct 29, 2023 19:45:03 GMT
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It was a bit stressful to begin with, but like yourself, it all turned out ok in the end.
The after market immobiliser immobilised us, but the garage owner was very understanding and got us going the next day.
Free parking for the night too!
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Portugal!
That was a relief getting down only 2 days late with 2 issues that weren’t being fixed on the roadside, actually if I take out my incompetency in not doing wheel nuts up there was really 1 issue the whole 1400mile trip, that was the alternator that was sorted easily. (don’t count the blown fuse just before the eurotunnel). In summary this was the drive myself and the Dog had taken so so far… We were now reunited with my wife and my son and had a week booked into a villa with my inlaws, That first week didn’t really do much driving, just a few short drives down to the beach. Where we stayed was around an hour North of Porto around near a village called Afife. If we weren’t in a Villa would of been ideal to be in the van as lots of beachside car parks with toilets & showers where you could of camped for a few days with no real issue. The beaches were amazing, really wild with the Atlantic, so not really “swimming” beaches more, go in dodge a few waves then come out. If you can surf there is obviously surfing as well. I did have my body board with me, but didn’t fancy going in on my own in an unknown beach with noone else in it. Boardwalks over dunes were a constant theme in Portugal. We could of camped here literally just over the dunes to this beach Whilst we were in the Villa I did order a replacement Tie Rod as mine is now “S” shaped, some additional wheel studs and nuts from Motomobil so I had some spares get them swapped out if needed Motomobil were superb to deal with so highly recommend. Because shipments can take some time and didn’t think it would arrive before I left the Villa, I got it shipped to a recommended distributor for Motomobil just outside of Porto called Paulo & Ferreira . They were super helpful and didnt’ charge anything to hold onto them for me. They also do VW, Citroen and Mini parts so would recommend them as contacts if you get stuck in Portugal Websites below: www.motomobil.comwww.pauloeferreira.com/Leg 1 - Down past Porto
After the Villa we didn’t have any set plans, just a rough idea that would be nice to drive down to approx Lisbon exploring the coast. The only firm thing we had was a hotel and flights booked out of Porto at the beginning of October. It gave us approx 3 weeks post the Villa in the van. First day back on the road was great. I was so excited to get moving again in the van. The villa was nice, but I do love being in the van. We were there to explore Portugal, so put it in our next destination, about about 2hrs away, then added suitable detours to stay relatively coastal and avoid the motorways once we were south of Porto so the journey was around 120miles covered in around 3hrs. Would say the route through Porto was what you’d expect driving through a big city, South of Porto, we were expecting a bit more scenery but ended up driving through a lot of long straigh roads, with really quiet towns/villages (assume being september we were out of season and they were holiday homes. It was also a relatively flat area compared to the mountains Just behind the beaches in the area North of Porto. Pic of route Final destination on this leg was Praia de Mira. Its a traditional tourist spot, a few campsites in the pine forest behind some enormous dunes and a stunning beach. Was again pretty quiet as we were in September, but that suited us and meant we could pick a spot in a campsite. There is multiple sites here, reckon they are all much the same with relatively short walks to the beach/boardwalk. Sunsets were amazing Campspot Beach was amazing, Happy family: Stevie was happy Sunsets were amazing… We stayed for 2 nights, we were still relatively new to travelling in a van with the baby, so not being too adventurous. I was delighted how all the stuff worked. I could put up (and take down) the awning/tent on my own, and the rear box took all the excess baby stuff plus the awning. Leg 2 - Moelly
Continuing the southern trajectory we headed down the coast to a place called Sau Pedro de Moel. We followed the coast as close as we could, and avoided motorways. Route we took Amazing beaches all the way down and plenty of fishing related tractors We could of stayed at number of campsites on the way down, plus if you were wanting to wild camp there were plenty of places. If fact I’d say the campsites in this part of Portugal, before you get to Ericiera are a bit run down, and not that great to be honest.They did the job but weren’t breathtaking in terms of views, not brimming with facilities and lacked a vibe(ie people) so you didn’t really want to spend any time in them. On the flip side they were quiet, so booking never even crossed our mind. With the campsites being not that great, we thought we’d try a dry run of doing a minimum camp in a campsite, without setting up the awning/tent, to see if we could be a bit more flexible and be able to camp not in a campsite. It was a success, wild camping is something that hadn’t crossed our mind prior to the trip having the baby on board but we now know it was a possibility Minimum setup Had to go a bit off piste in the campsite to get to this spot… was a bit creepy overnight in the trees. Campsite was reasonably close to the town we took a half hour stroll to to have some cocktails/beer that evening on the beach. Following day we packed to leave and headed to a beach that was a cpl of mins drive up the road. Portugals beaches are stunning! View of beach from van: Endless beach We had a morning on the beach then ate at a restaurant overlooking the beach… The food in Portugal is amazing as well and good value. Plenty more to come. If the rain continues this afternoon there maybe another update before the days out :-) Thank you for sharing your detailed experience touring the Portuguese coast, westycapri. Your photos and descriptions bring the natural beauty and cultural highlights vividly to life. As I begin planning my own Portugal visit, posts like yours are incredibly helpful for getting insight into ideal areas and hidden gems. I figured I'd start with Lisbon and Porto for the first couple of days, maybe using a local guide from gowithguide.com/portugal/guides to get oriented. Then, I'll rent a car and follow your lead, independently discovering remote beaches and towns at my own pace. |
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Jul 19, 2024 10:13:01 GMT
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What an epic journey, and great write up! Thanks for sharing. I'm considering doing a summer road trip to the Alps in our Splitscreen VW Camper next summer but I do fear the random breakdowns in the middle of a foreign country with the family on board. We've done it a few times before in relatively modern motorhomes (if 90s is modern) and didn't worry about it at all, but the old van would require an extra level of bravery. Alps would be awesome, not gone that way before in the van, would be a proper adventure in a splitscreen :-) I never really gave it to much thought before I had all the issues this year with the van. I think the stress levels would of been considerably more if my son and the wife were onboard. However the issues i had has given me more confidence. I normally take all the engine bits likely to fail (dizzy, alternator, oil, spark plugs, ignition leads etc...) now will definitely take wheel bearings and wheel studs/nuts incase I'm an idiot again> At least then if you do breakdown you've covered most bases even if you can't fix it yourself. I do also know there is a network on enthusiasts who'd be up for helping. i had relatively easy fixes in the end, but id managed to source help from folk all over from my Instagram account and facebook groups, could of got a complete axle shipped to me. Reckon if you line up some contacts in france for spares prior to going, means youd at least know who you'd need to contact for help if the worse was to happen, and hopefully by the fact you'd prepared would mean they wouldn't be needed. Apologies for the thread hijack, but our Alps trip is happening next weekend. Not in the split, unfortunately, as it is still a along way from finished. Instead we are going in our recently purchased 1988 Hymer motorhome. It's the old non-turbo version, so the driving experience is quite similar to a splitty! I've also realised that the Hymer is older now than the split was when I bought that all those years ago. |
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67 VW Split bus
69 Beetle Cab
96 Jeep Cherokee XJ Sport
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)