Afternoon folks,
Well, after well-over 5yrs of deliberating the prospect of getting a 'van, I finally decided last weekend to do it. Rip the plaster, accept the decent buy-back offer that my "daily" car dealer has made, and use that equity as a deposit for a T6.1.
I couldn't even guess how many YT videos and build series I've watched over the years - all very inspiring, all have numerous things I've learnt and made a mental note of. Much as I love the idea of building my own van, and have the ability and tools to do it (have done many-a car and motorbike project over the years), it's time that's making me go the pre-built route. Firstly, my job can mean long and unpredictable hours, and secondly the days of working in the garage until 1am/2am in the evening are behind; all well and good when I was in my 20's/30's, but about to hit the big 5-0 next year.....realistically it'd probably take about a year to build something how I want. For various reasons, I want to start hitting the road, go exploring and stop-thinking-about-it and actually do it.
However, this is Van#1 and who's to say that in a few years time I won't build myself a Crafter.
My daughter and I rented a nice LWB T5.1 via Goboony a few years ago, when the world was still a bit wobbly with regards to travel. It was our litmus test to see whether vanning was for us, taking it on a 10 day trip around Scotland. In short, we both absolutely loved it, once I found my Spidey Senses and stopped banging my head everywhere. The vendors parting comments to me were "don't think of this as motorhoming, this is camping in a van". Sage advice. I was gutted to give the keys back when we got home. A pretty basic build but it was our faithful companion and didn't miss a beat.
So, the daily car goes tomorrow, and in parallel I'm writing my must-have and nice-to-have list - I'm the world worst example of analysis paralysis....but I think I'm getting there having now seen quite a few examples at local dealerships. First visit to a builder is on Wednesday, the chap sounded absolutely great over a couple of phonecalls, very knowledgeable (I'm in IT as a techie, so my BS-o-meter is always on....but wasn't triggered by speaking to this guy - a good sign).
Will post an update once I move it forward, but in the meantime, nice to virtually meet everyone and am looking forward to contributing to the forum in due course.
Spencer
Well, after well-over 5yrs of deliberating the prospect of getting a 'van, I finally decided last weekend to do it. Rip the plaster, accept the decent buy-back offer that my "daily" car dealer has made, and use that equity as a deposit for a T6.1.
I couldn't even guess how many YT videos and build series I've watched over the years - all very inspiring, all have numerous things I've learnt and made a mental note of. Much as I love the idea of building my own van, and have the ability and tools to do it (have done many-a car and motorbike project over the years), it's time that's making me go the pre-built route. Firstly, my job can mean long and unpredictable hours, and secondly the days of working in the garage until 1am/2am in the evening are behind; all well and good when I was in my 20's/30's, but about to hit the big 5-0 next year.....realistically it'd probably take about a year to build something how I want. For various reasons, I want to start hitting the road, go exploring and stop-thinking-about-it and actually do it.
However, this is Van#1 and who's to say that in a few years time I won't build myself a Crafter.
My daughter and I rented a nice LWB T5.1 via Goboony a few years ago, when the world was still a bit wobbly with regards to travel. It was our litmus test to see whether vanning was for us, taking it on a 10 day trip around Scotland. In short, we both absolutely loved it, once I found my Spidey Senses and stopped banging my head everywhere. The vendors parting comments to me were "don't think of this as motorhoming, this is camping in a van". Sage advice. I was gutted to give the keys back when we got home. A pretty basic build but it was our faithful companion and didn't miss a beat.
So, the daily car goes tomorrow, and in parallel I'm writing my must-have and nice-to-have list - I'm the world worst example of analysis paralysis....but I think I'm getting there having now seen quite a few examples at local dealerships. First visit to a builder is on Wednesday, the chap sounded absolutely great over a couple of phonecalls, very knowledgeable (I'm in IT as a techie, so my BS-o-meter is always on....but wasn't triggered by speaking to this guy - a good sign).
Will post an update once I move it forward, but in the meantime, nice to virtually meet everyone and am looking forward to contributing to the forum in due course.
Spencer
