I think the reason beavertails are difficult to find is simply because there's not much demand for them. It's got to be a very, very small part of the vehicle rental market, so most companies don't do them at all....and those that do offer them don't have a very big fleet.
A few years back I remember someone from the Series 2 Land Rover Club tried to set up in business as a vehicle-mover (using a trailer towed by his LWB Defender - he didn't try to use a Series as a tow vehicle. I think it would've been possible, but it would have been very slow). He had to give up after a while because there just wasn't that much business around.
As I mentioned somewhere above, the other day I tried to rent a truck from Easirent - who
do offer beavertails at some of their locations according to their website - and I was basically told no, because "it's in Manchester at the moment". I thought, what?
It's in Manchester? You mean you've only got one?
I eventually rented a truck from Abacus in Andover (thanks to
moglite for the tip) which isn't too far away from me and is actually quite handy for the return trip from Wales. I can do the drop-off on my way home without really going out of my way. They seem to be a reasonably big company (I looked at their depot in Google Streetview) and I could book and pay entirely online - none of this meet me at a secret location with cash in hand stuff. So the Mini move will happen this week. Stay tuned for an update!
I'm perfectly happy living in my scruffy and un-gentrified corner of London - after all, I chose to come and live here. I grew up in a small village on the outskirts of Cheltenham, so I know what its like to live in the country and in a smallish town. Frankly it sends me stir-crazy after a while.
London is full of stuff that just doesn't happen elsewhere. I spent seven years as a live music promoter (at the Camden Underworld and the Borderline in Soho) and had a fine rock 'n' roll time which wouldn't have happened anywhere else. I was slightly famous at one time as the promoter with the Mini van....
That's me at the back. How about that for a tour van!
Sorry that's such a low-rez photo - if I can find the original I'll do a better version. I sold that van to a member of the London & Surrey Mini Club who was going to restore it...but I never heard anything else and the (real) registration is not on the DVLA database any more.
I also used my Mini Clubman Estate (the one that I still have) as a rock 'n' roll van. They're surprisingly practical vehicles for carting band hardware around. It's possible to get two Marshall 4x12 speaker cabinets, two Marshall JCM900 amps, two guitars in cases, and one band manager into a Mini Estate. Who needs a Transit?
But even though I like London, I also like the fact that my garage is in an obscure location, tucked away between a couple of Welsh mountains. Sometimes it's nice to shut the doors, lock the gate, and go right
away from the place. But it's also nice to make the trip up there - it's like going on holiday. And I do think it helps me make more progress with the project. After all, I'm making a specific journey to a specific location to do a specific job, and that helps me get the job done. I'm not really a working from home kind of person. If the garage was closer to home I'd be popping back every five minutes to have cups of tea and waste time on the internet.
And much like @grumpynorthener 's situation I do have London to thank for the fact that I was able to buy the garage in the first place. Back in 1989 I bought my house at the very bottom of the property market, which had spectacularly crashed. Interest rates were stupidly high (about 15% at one point) but house prices had nosedived (about £50,000 - £80,000 for a 3-bed house in parts of London at the time) and mortgages were incredibly easy to get. Lenders were so nervous that the property crash would wipe out their business that they were offering all sorts of incentives - stamp duty paid, first year's repayments waived - and dishing out mortgages to any chancer who asked. So I took a chance and asked...and they said yes.
I bought the cheapest house I could find in the cheapest location I could find, and then had to spend the next few years living on economy baked beans because the mortgage repayments were so high. But 25 years later I found myself with a freehold house in London which - incredibly, because the area is still fairly scruffy - is now worth the best part of £500,000. And that gave me a useful bit of financial leverage to buy a semi-derelict garage in Wales. So London made it all possible.
Anyway. I digress. Car transporter adventures will follow soon...
duno who took this pic but nobody seems impressed.
