Merry Christmas

2012 Coming to an end

Look At The Wonderful Woodwork On This Bedford Housebus...

Carolyn and Keith arrived at the recent Bedford get-together in their immaculate 1971 Bedford Housebus named Gecko.
The buses' interior is rustic and warm but the piece de resistance is this stunning wooden steering wheel and dashboard detailing.
I don't covet much but they were very lucky to drive home with this wonderful wheel still attached to their steering column... 

A rare Morris Minor convertible towing a single axle caravan.

What a beauty, VW split screen with beetle trailer.

1930 Model A Ford coupled up to a 1979 Excella 500.

 Despite the volume of fuel it would take to get anywhere in that ole boy it's a gorgeous iconic vehicle. Rustic and rugged.

Ketterer: A motorhome and horsebox RV combo without peer

Ketterer Spezialfahrzeuge AG – a specialist vehicle manufacturer based near Karlsruhe, Germany - can provide prospective RV buyers with an exclusive and personalized motorhome that will be the envy of your friends and neighbors. Popular with Europe’s professional equestrian and motorsports fraternity, Ketterer’s custom designed horse trucks and recreational vehicles have traveled as far afield as the Middle East, Canada and the United States. The company currently manufactures around sixty vehicles per year and, as you might expect, these rigs don’t come cheap. The basic 240hp Mercedes Benz Atego 1524L horse truck-motorhome combination retails for €188.500 (plus tax) – that’s a $280,000 hit for what has to be the world’s most expensive horsebox (and this is the cheap one). You just got to love those horses.

Established in 1990 by Michael and Ulrike Ketterer in an 800 square metre facility in Karlsbad, Baden-Württemberg in Germany’s picturesque Schwarzwald region, the company began life with just 3 employees but has grown to encompass a design, manufacturing and sales team of 65. It was a lean first few years but the Ketterer’s got their big break in February 1995 when the then German world show jumping champion - Franke Sloothaak – purchased a luxury horse truck from the fledgling RV Company’s “Professional” range of motorhomes. As a consequence, orders for Ketterer’s horse trucks, promotional trucks and race trucks came flooding in and by 2001 Ketterer were able to further enhance their motorhome line – and their customer appeal - by adding a twin 1.20 metre (4-foot) slide out option to their units. In 2010, Ketterer introduced their 10 metre “Continental” RV line - featuring a 7 metre long (1 metre wide) lateral slide out - which promptly won the 2010-2011 Caravanning Design “Innovations for New Mobility” award – and the same year Ketterer opened their first overseas showroom & service Centre in Didcot, Oxfordshire, in England. Situated close to Blenheim Palace (home of the annual 3-day horse trials) and within a stone’s throw of the race courses at Ascot and Newbury, Didcot lies at the epicenter of England’s horse racing and horse training industry and provides Ketterer with a perfect UK based sales platform for their product.

Massive sausage crashes

The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile (as featured in this edition of The Weird World of Wheels and The Best of the Weird World of Wheels) crashed in the US.

The driver of the 27-foot-long promotional sausage lost control on a patch of ice in Pennsylvania in the US. The humungous four-wheeled meat replica was eventually pulled back onto the road by a tow truck.

You don't need a big van to enjoy yourself

Hybrid

Other conversions based on hybrid or all-electric engine technology are also becoming popular in the USA, where the Toyota Prius is the conscience-salving planet-killer of choice for pretty well most of celebrity California.  The overall effect is a bit like driving a Trimphone though.

RVs for the Rich & Famous

Part I looked at high tech camping vans for ordinary mortals.  Celebs have different and surprisingly varied tastes, but share a love of gadgetry.  Jamie Oliver is probably the highest profile home grown UK media favourite who used a camper for his book tour launch, but his fame and vehicle can’t compete with some of the more extravagant American celebrity adherents.  Vin Diesel has what can only be described as a mansion on wheels with a sunroof that automatically changes to suit the light levels.  Colin Farrell has a classic Airstream that he uses when he’s filming in the USA and Pamela Anderson had her motorhome fitted out with a vibrating bed and stripper pole.
High- tech goes bananas when you enter the realms of mobile palaces for the super rich.  Here it’s gizmos and gadgetry that dominate.  Aside from the obvious gold plated fittings, flat screen satellite TVs the size of the IMAX, lightning fast broadband, living, sleeping and dining accommodations that would make the Ritz seem like a tawdry Travelodge as standard, you can also get an extra set of wheels. The VARIOmobil 1200 Platinum comes complete with three axles to handle its 25 tons gross weight thrown down the road by the equivalent of 420 horsepower and gives you an integrated garage for a Mini Cabriolet to boot – or rather where the boot would normally be!

Flight Deck in the Tellytubbies House”

Luxury travel in the sea or on the road is common of course and if you want a virtual mansion that defies convention and is a touch futuristic, look no further than the Marchi Mobile luxury camper. The chassis can change geometry to suit your needs and the tables and furniture retract into the walls like some bizarre but lavish full size Thunderbirds set. International Rescue could do with the integrated communication/location system, satellite television with 40-inch screens and of course full on internet access as well as six business class type lounge chairs with auto massaging functions.
The umm – well   “Flight Deck in the Tellytubbies House” seems to be the only fair way to describe the view forward from The Marchi Mobile luxury camper.

Another unusual setup

Off Road Camping

The more adventurous get their shot at RV glory too.  4×4 camper van conversions abound, including quaintly bonkers and British Heath Robinson affairs for battered old Land Rovers.

YES IT DOES GO IN THE WATER!

Luxurious interiors are hand crafted of the finest materials.

They just get smaller and smaller, room for one

 QTvan

Although there are a few bike towed caravans floating around worldwide, we choose this one as a home grown UK example. Commissioned by the Environmental Transport Association to promote the limitless possibilities of the bicycle during Green Transport Week and designed by Yannick Read, this mini living space features a single bed, a 19 inch flat screen TV and a kettle for hot drinks. Not actually available to buy, the QTvan turned out to be a viral promotion for scooter and bike insurance. At least for now anyway…

The Floating House

Two brothers working together on various projects since 1999, French designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec finished the Floating house in 2006. The design is reproducible on a fair budget and it’s some surprise they are not in mass development yet (as far as we’re aware) to replace the smaller and less spacious traditional narrow boat.

Multi-level caravan park

If anyone knows where this is located please let us know, as there seems to be limited information on this image available online. Another thing we’d like to know is how they got 6 caravans up there in the first place. We would make the guess that these caravans don’t travel around much seeing as they’d be difficult to attach to the back of a vehicle!

. The Rolling Stone Eco Capsule

Designed by Nice Architects and submitted to the Andes Sprouts Society for a residency program, this environmentally friendly blueprint of the traditional caravan is work in progress. Built from environmentally-friendly materials the Rolling Stone is functional with natural energy and resources, powered by either wind turbine or solar panels. The front panel can be opened to double as an open studio space and water for waste and cleaning is sourced by two reservoirs. Could this be the next generation of caravan evolution?

'66 Sovereign  Of  The, International, Land Yaught

Towing with a duramax in a motorhome - Chevy and GMC Duramax Diesel

This truck-slash-log cabin. It doesn't look like it's going anywhere soon, but it's nice to know that whereever you're parked, you've got a window to throw trash out of and a tiny stove for cookin' up some grits.

Amazing Tear Drop Design

The most unusual. A Volkswagen camper towing a Volkswagen Beetle, having been converted into a single axle caravan.

Subaru Sambar is an automobile built by automaker Subaru for the Japanese market. It is available in microvan and pickup truck body styles and adheres to kei car guidelines. Still flourishing in the Japanese automotive industry, the Sambar continues to be produced in Japan, China, Korea, as well as in Finland with a joint venture with Elcat Automotive. With a few modifications the Subaru can be mistaken for the 60's classic the 'Samba' All variations

& models are available to order through Subaru Sambar but we only stock the VW Replicas.

Old time motorcyle with side car, towring a small Carahomes caravan.

This is a 1927 Model T Ford with the fifth wheel built from scratch on two truck axles.  The bathroom is at the rear, bed up front, kitchen counter, dinette, TV and cabinets run both sides.  Its all white and red inside.  What a funky house.

Shed Caravan or Caravan Shed?

Not quite sure what this caravan owner was trying to achieve by cladding it in wood, maybe it’s a ready made man shed?

What they do inside them we don’t want to know!

5 Crazy Motorhomes

These races place destruction and ridiculousness above speed.

If you're someone who thinks that racing isn't racing without a little rubbin', then you'll love checking out all of these crazy motorhome and camper races. These races are filled with destruction and hilarity and prove that anything with four wheels and a motor can be raced. Then again, this so-called "hobby" isn't for everyone and some may find it a bit strange.If you're the type of person who cuts people off in the fast lane while towing a trailer, then this is the sport for you.

London Double Decker

Project: To convert an ex-London Transport double-decker bus into a motorhome for 2 families and a disabled child with complex medical needs.

This ambitious project started with the purchase of a 1985 MCW metrobus. You don’t just walk down to the local car dealership and pick one of these babies up. After much Google-ing, one was located in southern England. Steve flew to Stansted airport to pick it up and drove it nine hours home.

The camper construction includes an upper deck bathroom, four bunks, a fully equipped kitchen, computer workstation, and inverters and generators for all the electrical needs.

Stephen Stewart’s travel beginnings go back to an 18-month stint in the late ’60s as a mission hospital mechanic in South Africa. For his return trip home to the UK, he did what any normal person would have done: he got his hands on a Land Rover, drove north to Kenya, shipped the vehicle to India and cut a trail through the central mountains in Afghanistan.

In 2000, Stephen bought his 1980 Unimog U1300L and spent about a year camperizing it. He then proceeded to take it to China and Tibet, northern Europe and Iceland, Siberia and Mongolia, and Central and South America.

This is the sickest camper I’ve ever seen. It’s no wonder the Japanese are world leaders in auto engineering. Over two years, three highschool mates built a freakin’ two-story house on a truck, complete with shoji(Japanese traditional screen) andtatami mat.

The best part is, none of them are carpenters or engineers, giving the rest of us some hope.

Between 2000 and 2002, they traveled over 25,500 kms around Japan in the “house-mobile”. You gotta see it to believe it.

By the early 1900s the rich were taking to this gypsy lifestyle for holidays.

His books attracted other gentry to this novel way of spending leisure time and as the early 20th Century loomed the caravan movement was slowly growing. Several books were written by various users of these horse drawn caravans, with advice given on where to go and what to look out for with regard to terrain and inns en-route.

History of the Campervan: From Humble Box Van to Luxury Motorhome

The humble beginnings of the campervan go back as far as the 1920s with the first homemade attempts to adapt touring caravans into motorhomes (with very strange results!). But it wasn’t until 1947 that the campervan we know and love today was first conceived, purely out of necessity, starting the vehicle on a long road of adaptations and improvements that resulted in modern, luxury motorhomes. Here’s a quick potted history of the campervan.

In 1947, the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsberg, Germany needed to transport parts around the building, so the quick-thinking engineers built platforms on to the chassis of the iconic Beetle car, creating the very first prototype of a camper van! A Dutch businessman, Ben Pon, was so excited by the potential of this idea that he drew up plans for a box van. Only two years later the ‘Type 2 Transporter’ was revealed at the Geneva Motor Show. Volkswagen went on to develop 90 variations of the Type 2 up until 1954, from ice cream vans to fire trucks. In 1957, production began in earnest and by the early 1960s adaptations had been made to make it family-friendly, with seats, windows and cookers. The word started to spread around the world: in 1963 America had ordered 150,000 campervans, and the vehicle became a favourite of the footloose hippy generation. By 1975, Volkswagen’s Hanover factory in Germany had produced four million campervans and today the Type 2 has become a sought-after collector’s item, fetching up to £20,000!

The modern day motorhome has been so refined that it has gone from being a goods transporter and weekend camper to a spacious and luxurious option for longer holidays.  With turbo diesel engines; power steering and air conditioning; fantastic onboard cooking, shower and toilet facilities; stylish interior design and space to comfortably sleep up to six people; the original designers of the camper would barely recognise this beautiful, modern and powerful vehicle as a campervan at all!

Before auction: 

Type 2 comes from an unknown year with uncertain mileage and nothing about condition other than what's visible. Expected price: $8,000 to $12,000. 

After auction: 

Dharma Van: $47,500 

Our guess is that this little motorhome isn't speeding up any steep mountain passes -- talk about underpowered! This photo, snapped in Arizona, was passed along to us with no comment. From what we could learn (not much!), there were only a handful of these produced -- probably less than a dozen. If you know anything about this little RV, please leave a comment and help us expand our knowledge.

A motorhome holiday may be the best family holiday you can imagine, but there’s a couple of things that you ought to know before you go….

Here are some tips from over 15,000 hires - I hope you find them useful:

1 Plan your trip. It’s amazing, but some people turn up to hire a motorhome, then think about where they want to go! That’s completely the wrong way round. You have to plan a motorhome holiday in order to get the best out of it. When you are looking at a map of the country you are touring, remember the distances

involved and the amount of time it will take to travel from one place to another. To visit the entire British Isles, Scotland and Wales in a week or less is totally impractical - all you’ll see is lots of motorways and not much scenery. Better to limit your trip to a few key places that you really want to visit and enjoy the journey.

2 Book at least the first two nights of your trip at a campsite in advance. During the summer, campsites book up very quickly so it’s best to book the first two nights or so, that way you can relax, knowing that you have a place to stay for at least the first couple of days. This takes the stress out of trying to find somewhere to stay
late at night and when you may be tired. Make sure you bring an up to date campsite guide with lots of sites in the areas that you are planning to visit.

3 Avoid bringing rigid suitcases. When you hire a motorhome, you have a limited amount of space, so your suitcases can really get in the way! Better to bring your clothes in a soft bag or rucksack which you can easily store away using the minimum amount of space.

4 Do not pack too much! On a camping holiday, you do not need lots of changes of clothing or large toys, gadgets etc. This is a time to bring families together and games such as cards, colouring books, a few CD’s or an ipod, are ideal and take up very little space. If you are bringing bicycles, check the vehicle has a bike rack fitted – it’s not practical to add one later, and find out how many bikes the rack will hold. Alternatively use a motorhome which has garage/storage area to house your bikes. A motorhome holiday may be the best family holiday you can imagine, but there’s a couple of things that you ought to know before you go….


5 Check that campsites are open. A common mistake is presuming that a campsite is open all year round – most are closed from November until March. The reason that campsites close in the winter is because the ground is too soft to support the weight of a motorhome. You can find details of all the sites open in the UK in guides like the Caravan Club Site Guide. It is not advisable to simply park in a lay by – certain councils have a
‘zero tolerance’ policy on overnight camping in the UK. In the more remote areas, such as the Scottish Highlands, this is less of a problem.

6 Do not overfill the fresh water tank. If you are staying on a campsite, there is no need to carry water between sites – it’s very heavy and will burn fuel and affect the handling and performance of the vehicle. Better to fill the water tank up to about a third full (maximum) initially and when you arrive on site, fill up.

7 Use the campsite facilities where possible. Although a motorhome has a toilet, shower, hot water etc. they do not compare with the facilities you will find on most campsites. It’s much better to use the site facilities wherever possible – it keeps the motorhome cleaner and you’ll have less to do when you want to move on. Most sites provide mains power hook-up and when you connect to their power supply, switch the fridge and
the heater over to running on mains electric, rather than using your gas.

8 Make sure you carry a spare gas bottle. If you are travelling for a long period of time in Europe, you should carry a spare gas bottle. It is impossible to refill a UK gas bottle in Europe and it’s also difficult to use a European gas bottle in a UK vehicle. The best solution is to use the gas economically and to carry a spare.
Again, using campsite facilities will extend the life of your gas supply!


9 Black out and insulate. Make sure you ‘black out’ the windows, sunroofs, windscreen and cab area with the special covers provided. It’s easy to forget the windscreen and the cab area, but a great deal of heat is lost through the windscreen during the winter and you will burn more gas trying to keep warm. In the summer,
the covers also keep the heat and light out.

10 Don’t pack too much food and drink. The fridge in a motorhome is not as big as the one you have at home. Overloading it with food to last the whole week is not advisable and it will not keep. Better to bring a few days worth of food and buy more from a supermarket during the trip.

11 Pack a torch. Have you noticed that things go wrong at night? Depending on where you camp, there may not be any outside lighting. If you need to unpack a locker or find something in the dark, a torch is the essential must have item!

12 Be careful using the awning. The one item that causes the most amount of trouble on a motorhome is the awning. They are very delicate and fragile – you should only attempt to use them if you are familiar with their operation. You need at least two people to unwind one and two people to pack it away. Never leave the awning unattended, the mildest gust of wind can ruin it, never force it back into the housing or try to wind it in when it is wet. Remember, it costs over £500 to replace!

13 A motorhome is very different to your car! When a motorhome is loaded up with passengers and contents, it can weigh well over 3,500 kilos (3 tons or more). Keep in mind that it will not stop or corner like your car. Keep your distance from the vehicle in front, do not approach corners too quickly and check the tyre pressures before starting your journey. Keep weight down to a minimum by not over filling the water tank, make sure the waste tank is empty and do not overpack (see my earlier tips). Take care when trying to park or drive through gateways, as it is very easy to misjudge the rear and cause damage. It’s best for a passenger to get out and guide you into parking spaces or round tight corners. Think about trees which may overhang on the road ahead – they can cause expensive scratches! Keep away from the edge of the kerb.

14 Plan your return. If the last night of your holiday is hundreds of miles away from the return point, you may be very late and pay a lot of money in late return fees. Plan to be in the vicinity of the return depot the night before, and if you are going to be late let the hire company know in advance. During busy periods motorhomes are booked out ‘back to back’, so it’s only fair on the next hirer to return it on time…

15 Have fun! Despite your best plans, things can go wrong. Your holiday enjoyment depends on how you react to problems that come along, rather than the problems themselves. Unlike a hotel or an airline, once you’re away on a campsite or in the middle of nowhere, you’re on your own! There’s always a ‘work around’ or a way to make things better, but don’t let anything ruin your holiday. If an issue cannot be fixed by phone or quickly by a nearby specialist, carry on with your holiday rather than allow the problem to get to you. Keep a note of anything that doesn’t work properly and bring it to the attention of the hire company when you return.

Have a great Motorhome holiday

Driving in France 2012 - Tips and vital information

Driving in France 2012 - Tips and vital information

Driving in France 2012 - Tips and vital information

Driving in France 2012 - Tips and vital information

Most Expensive Motorhome

This is currently the worlds most expensive motorhome at £1.9m.

 It only takes one quick glance to realise that this is no ordinary motorhome, but there's much more to this dramatic creation that just its startling looks.

Named the Elemment Palazzo, this motormansion is made by Austrian company Marchi Mobile and boasts the kind of figures that dwarf even the most luxurious of caravans.

The lavish interior measures 215 sq ft, but a slide-out section doubles this to 430 sq ft, and the internal headroom of 8'2" is more enough to satisfy even the tallest of guests.

Luxury features on-board include a working fireplace, under-floor heating, a 40-inch satellite TV, and an en-suite bathroom for the (admittedly garish) master bedroom.

There is also a separate bar area and a pop-up roof terrace for enjoying the sunshine, but all this luxury doesn't come cheap.

King of the road

Weighing in at a hefty 20-tonnes, it takes a 510bhp engine (not to mention an HGV license) to drag this juggernaut up to its top-speed of 93mph and, somewhat predictably, fuel consumption is very low at an eye-watering 13 mpg.

Fortunately Marchi Mobile has gone for a sculpted 'biomorphic' front-end, which makes this playboy's toy around 20 per cent more aerodynamic.

Practicality has been kept in mind, as the Elemment Palazzo features glow-in-the-dark paint so that visibility at night is never an issue.

Prices start at a cool £1.9m, but the optional extras are theoretically endless, with the company even offering to cover the whole thing in diamonds - if that's your kind of thing.

Protecting such an enormous investment is clearly a highly priority, so it comes fitted with CCTV for added peace of mind.

However, if you're budget doesn't quite stretch that far then you might be better off buying a house in the exclusive London neighbourhood of Hampstead. The Daily Mail points out that this would be much cheaper per square foot.

        Before you Travel to France.

There are supposedly two major changes for travelling in our Motorhomes / RVs to France from this year.

It is hard to prove conclusively that they are now law but it would be sensible to know about them.

1. The need to carry a breathalyser kit for each person on your Motorhome with you

2. If you have speed camera detection on your SatNav under POI (points of interest) you will have to disable it.

You can order a twin NF pack of personal breathalysers here from Alcosense. Just make sure you get the ones that conform to the supposed new French law.

We are not sure what you do if you cannot disable the POI function on your SatNav but from things we have read that under the new french law they can fine you up to Euros$1000 and impound your motorhome. This is in line with them ‘hiding’ speed cameras and ensuring being aware of them is illegal under french law.

We will continue to research and update the Blog when we know more definateively. If you know more please let us know in the comments. Thanks

Before Buying A Motorhome, Research Online

Did you read about lower back pain remedies at home? When you really think of it, Motor Home shopping is something that can have a tremendous impact depending on the circumstance.

That’s the reason you have to consider all of the available information. It is not hard to find out more about this, and you can probably save yourself some hassles by doing so. When you are satisfied that your research is thorough, then that is the time to assess the possibilities. We will present you some exceptional and important details on Motor Home shopping so you can carefully consider as much as possible.

While it may be similar, getting a motor home has a number of details that may not readily apply to buying a car. So, it can be a good idea to carry out as much research as you can online before visiting a mobile home dealership. I suggest you be well-educated on the area of motorhomes before you make that big purchase. It is commonplace for people to buy a motor home without thinking through what they actually want. As a result of conducting your research online, you’ll understand what makes a good motor home and you’ll know what you need.

Theres more on Ultra Spinnable Articles here. Compelling stuff, we think – what are your impressions? No question, we are just getting going with all that can be acknowledged about Motor Home shopping. Yes, it is true that so many find this and other similar subjects to be of great value. Continue reading and you will see what we mean about crucial nuances you need to know about. Do you know precisely the kind of info that will help? If not, then you should discover more about this. We will tie all together plus give you a hint of other necessary information.

Similar to a car or truck, you’ll have motor homes in various quality conditions. You might have a lovely and glistening motor home but it fails to work very well at all. By making the effort to investigate online, you’ll find all the pitfalls and issues for different models so you won’t end up buying a dud. It can be so easy nowadays to research things over the internet, such as motor homes, there is no reason for not doing it. There are many tools online that can help you with your motor home research. When you visit a popular search engine, you should have no hassle finding motor homes for sale. Should you have a specific model in mind, you can do a search and find forums or discussions on that specific model.

You can go through all of the information about the motor home, and see if any of the owners have complaints. You can make use of the Kelley Blue Book for motor homes online to give you good reliability information of a specific motor home. If you’re unable to pick one up that you can examine online, you might just have to order one. You will save cash if you understand what the actual price and worth of a particular motor home is. There are quite a few websites about consumer reporting, which could be good to visit. Look up the phrase "motor home consumer reports" and you will be able to gather some valuable information.

As soon as you figure out the motor home to buy, you can see if there are any recalls or repair issues. If you find a lot of reliability issues, you may want to think about getting a different motor home. Recalls have become quite common in the automobile industry,so you want to examine motor homes to make sure if they have been recalled, they have been properly fixed. You can uncover these records online by looking for recalls.

You can readily start off doing your research for a motor home all online. If you do not have access to the web in your home, you can visit the library.

See Eazol The nice thing about what we have covered is the ease of implementation. But it is important with Motor Home shopping that you only decide on what is most suitable for your needs. There is all types of good and not so good content on the net. It can be easy to make an error when you are writing on the net.

Check out this old timer, a totally different experience.

Happy St Patricks Day to everyone

Enjoy St Patricks Day, may the world turn green for a day.  Happy Camping

Motorhomes testing

01March 2012 Motor Caravans will need to be Tested at Commercial VehicleCentres.  Please call Stan with anyqueries in preparing your vehicle for the test.

IRFU win

Great win for Ireland Rugby today

Domestic Market

The Domestic market accounted for 1.5 million bednights and Overseas account for 932,000 bednights. 
The biggest foreign market was the UK 30% followed Netherland, Germany and France.
78% of visitors travel between June and August

Season has begun

The Season has begun, get your camper or caravan serviced and orrepaired so you have trouble free holidays. No job too small, all aspects of repairs undertaken.
Happy camping to all.