Renault Trafic Van Camper Conversion

Since coming back from Cowes on the Isle of Wight, we have failed miserably to use the van as much as we'd hoped for various reasons... These include but are not limited to the following: I have basically used all of my work holiday now, so I'm struggling to find the time to use the thing. Work for me is quite tiring as it is, so I usually find the prospect of getting the van gone to be used fairly daunting, and that I'm in need of my beauty sleep! We also have a holiday in Croatia booked for the begining of October, and since this has occurred we've been saving a bit of money to spend there, so the van has taken a back seat sadly. We're not really equipped for wild camping yet, and camp sites cost money, diesel the same, etc. Motivation has been low sadly :( Unfortunately I have considered SORNing the van so I don't need to tax and insure it, thus saving several hundred pounds, ready for its use again in March/April time next year. I haven't actual

It’s been really quite quiet this summer so far, mainly because I’ve been at work so much! We've also just cut short our most recent camping trip to Dots Camping in the New Forest due to the AWFUL weather. Typical isn't it? Blindingly hot for weeks and weeks, and then our one trip that we've had booked for several months, ruined by excessive wind and a little rain. We made the decision to pretend to have a summer BBQ on the saturday, which basically meant sitting there while the wind blew horrendously, pretending we were having a good time and hoping the BBQ didn't get blown out.... Mind you the weather was a bit weird as it would be extremely windy one minute, making us fear for our awesome Sheltapod, and then suddenly it would disappear and the sun would come out. I kept putting my thick and fluffy hoody on, and then taking it off as I started to sweat, then off again and on and off and blah blah. Frustrating. Then, it started to rain properly. Up until this poi

Right so as usual I haven't posted as much as I wanted to, but hey ho, thats life. There have been a few significant changes to the van recently, some more money spent on things I should have thought about a long time ago, but hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it eh? The significant changes are as follows - I have added a new red gear stick gator, which frankly looks bloody awesome, and matches the steering wheel cover (covered in a previous blog post and video). I have then also added a new and smaller, much better finished red table in the back. This has opened up the space magnificently compared to the older table. This also happens to look much better, and be literally a tonne lighter in weight. Its total opened up the back of the van, leaving more room for stuff that can be unloaded into the Sheltapod later on (www.sheltapodcampervanawnings.co.uk) . The new table is about half the depth of the last one, so a significant loss in actual usable table, but to be hon

So since Durdle Door, we haven't really used the camper as we said we would, which is a shame, as I'd hoped to get on it! But the weather as usual has been really weird, and my work rota hasn't lined up at all for any trips, which sucks. However, we do have some trips planned now, somewhere in the New Forest towards the end of June, somewhere else in the south with some friends towards the end of July, and of course Cowes on the Isle of Wight in August. Not as many trips as I'd hoped, but will endeavour to get more booked in as and when I can, maybe even a mountain biking trip to Wales.... Onnnn the other hand, lots of mods to the van, as I can't help spending money on it! It is my project after all. The latest edition, as explained in the below video, is a new table to replace the rigid one I built originally. Took my bike somewhere recently, and it does squeeze between the table and the sofa bed, but only when it is in sofa mode......... when you come back f

So it's been a little while.. not much has been going on. Except a lot of prep and messing about with the van, in the hopes our first delayed trip would be success. And it was! Thank the lord. The van didn't miss a beat, it got us to Durdle Door and back without any worries at all. Which was a massive relief given how much I have spent on the van for both the conversion and to keep the engine running. It may have helped that I gave it a fresh service just before we left, new oil, filters and just a bit of lovin'. It wasn't a long drive there, its only about 76 miles from Portsmouth apparently (according to google maps). But it takes a while, about an hour and a half of lovely motorway through the New Forest. It's actually quite simple, you just hit the M27 west, and just keep going until it merges into the A31, and then just follow that for ages, and turn left a bit! When you arrive, you'll be met with the steepest and fairly narrow entrance ever

I think that myself, along with everyone else who wants to go camping, wants the weather to improve already! There is a minor rumour going around about a 3rd cold spell... which I dont care about unless it snows. If it snows, our country falls apart. Completely. No one has been taught to drive in freezing conditions. Saying that, neither was I, I somehow just know. Again, it might be my job, or my mother, who always seems to have the answer to everything. The concept however is very simple. If you drive a BMW, just dont go out. Full stop. Or indeed the same for any rear wheel drive vehicle. PLEASE JUST DON'T GO OUT. It's you that messes up this country.  If you drive anything that is front wheel drive, go slooooowllly. Start moving off in second gear perhaps, third if its really icy. Try not to let your wheels spins, because when they do they polish the floor and make it worse, or dig down, and obviously wheel spin is frictionless so that means you won't move.

Quick update for the few people that may read this or follow any of my stuff. Unless you've already seen my Twitter. We have had to rearrange our first trip of 2018 to Durdle Door due to the frigging weather. As all good British people who sh*t the bed when a little white stuff falls from the sky, we rearranged so that we didn't get caught up in other people sh*tting the bed in the snow. Plus sitting outside in a Sheltapod when its minus 1 degrees and blowing a force 7 wind, didn't sound like the ideal first use, or much fun. Very disappointing as this is the second trip away this month we have had to cancel due to the snow, and we were really looking forward to it. And I really want to fly my drone. Like really badly. Like now... But onto the actual point of this post below............ As soon as I got my van, I joined some Facebook groups aimed at TVP's (Trafics, Vivaro's and Primastars, Renault, Vauxhall and Nissan). These were set up to help people who own the

This post is going to be about reliability, obviously. Thats what it says above ^. I find this an interesting issue, especially as its not really been a problem for me, as I've only experienced one break down in my Trafic, and one previously in a friends van. Just before our trip to Cowes on the Isle of Wight last year, around April time, the EGR valve on the Trafic gave up. So the engine just stopped running like I'd switched it off. Except this happened somewhere totally unwelcome. Any ideas? MCDONALDS DRIVE THRU! Awesome. Thanks life. Luckily it was in the middle of a weekday and no-one was behind me. One guy came in and asked if I'd broken down, as if the hazard lights flashing weren't enough for him to make the assumption I had indeed, broken down. So rather than help, he promptly said, 'I'm out of here!', and reversed out!! Leaving me to bang on the drive thru window to get someones attention, to ask for help pushing the damn thing out of the

Right, so we're still in boring and poor mode, having spent over £1k on the van in January, I'm still dealing with the overspill in February. And the my car started wanting attention, in the way of new tyres and a service upcoming.... Anyway, I have finally gotten the wheels a little more sorted out on the van. I bought two steel wheels from a scrapyard in the hope that one of them would be round....one of them was perfect, the other had a flat bit like another on the van. At least I only spent £15 each on them! So in case I didn't previously tell you (as if I'd remember), my mechanic told me back in August that some of my wheels were '50p shaped'! This was making the steering wheel rattle and wobble etc blah blah... Well I didn't do anything about it, for nearly 9 months. I took my van into a trusted tyre place that I use at my work for the vehicles I look after there. I asked them to balance all my wheels, and replace the obviously flat wheel on the

So I have still haven't been anywhere yet, but hey the month and the year are still new! Despite the square wheels, I drove the thing home the other day, in order to give it a bit of a clean. Last year before our trip to the Isle of Wight, we sort of sporadically kitted it out with bits here and there, so I wasn't exactly sure what we had inside. I took everything out of every knook and banged it on the table to see what we actually had. Like utensils, cutlery, pots and pans etc. Turns out we had everything we needed onboard, a couple of sharp knives, normal cutlery, disposable cutlery (not very environmentally friendly I know, but more about that later). Tea supplies were also plentiful, UHT milk and cups of all shapes and sizes. So good good, no need to buy anything else yet that I can think of (except for another portable stove and a ridge monkey)! All that was needed was a reshuffle and a tidy so I know where everything is. I decided all cooking utensils and some cu

Finally got the van back from the garage, new power steering pipe and gear box mounts sorted. No more leaks or rattles for the time being. As mentioned in the last post, I was thinking of changing the spare wheel tyre, as it turns out the garage did a health check on the van for me, running their skilled eyes and hands all over it, and that was the only other thing they mentioned. So along with the car also needing a service soon, and two new rear tyres, then tracking, the van needs a new wheel (just the one thats misshapen), all four wheels balanced properly, a new tyre on the spare (balanced also), again followed by the tracking as I already know that that is out... Its been such an expensive beginning to a new year, and its only going to get worse with my car too.. After receiving the van back, and now realising my car needs some attention, the wheels on the van may have to wait a little bit so I can conserve cash. How bad can it be? They wheels have been like they are for a y

Got lots of new things coming up in the near future for the van, including some trips away in it at long last! I still can't believe that our last proper trip was Cowes week last August!!! Nothing overly exciting to begin with, but I bought two steel wheels to replace the 50p shaped ones currently on the van. My mobile mechanic swapped a front wobbly one with a rear one so I wouldn't feel so much wobbling when driving, but I've been meaning to swap them for a while. And get the tracking done after 6 months!! I won't feel so bad now going in, I can ask them to swap the tyres onto the wheels, pop the new wheels under the steering wheel, get all the wheels balanced, and the tracking done, and hopefully thats my problems for now solved. Secondly! My insurance is now sorted hopefully, I'm just waiting for proof of my no claims to come through in the post. Once I have that, I have found a slightly damaged (chipped) sliding door window with opening in it, that I am