Let's kick things off with a goodbye

At the beginning of February 2009, my partner Nikki and I decided enough was enough when it came to the old T3 camper van we had. The miles were starting to take their toll and the amount of use per year against the cost of road tax made us rethink our camping and weekend strategies.

In the early days the romance of cruising down the motorway with your buddies at 60mph was fantastic. But it's amazing how quickly the rose-tinted view fades into the reality of overheating in traffic jams, heavy, un-powered steering, an untrustworthy handbrake (no good in Cornwall!), and a general feeling of 'are we going to get there' when first turning the key.

Don't get me wrong, it's been a great little van. It's never left us in the lurch on a motorway hard shoulder and never really let us down at all - you could call it a touch of the old 'classic motoring paranoia' creeping in!


We put a lot into the T3. It started out as a £500 panel van, completely bare inside. We changed just about everything, adding quite a few caravelle upgrades, Porsche wheels, a handbuilt interior, Recaro seats, a nice big stereo, the list goes on and on...

We're lucky enough to sell it on to friends who will enjoy it as we first did and, hopefully, we should see the van quite a bit at Volkswagen shows up and down the country.

So the van has sold. We also traded in a perfectly good VW Polo too, we raided our savings and finally found this...



A Stone Blue VW T5 174 2.5TDI. A van we can use every day to get to work, then sling some camping gear and mountainbikes in the back at the weekend. Instant, worry-free camper-vanning that we've been craving for a number of years.

So this blog will be the continual updating and upgrading from panel van to camper van over then next few years. I'll try and give away some hints and tips throughout the conversion. I'll be suggesting links of parts and accessory suppliers along the way.

Here's to a great journey!