Renault Trafic Van Camper Conversion

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 ...