We choose to stay at Malvern for one night after our stay at White Hall. It was a last minute decision and it really happened because we felt we had lost a day with the puncture earlier in the trip. We were going to drive over to Malvern and just have a day wandering around, but felt it would be nice to have a whole day there if we could sort a campsite out.
So we called and made a booking for Brick Walls Barn campsite. Pleasantly surprised. Plenty of space as you can see 🙂
Custom Trailer
Our day in Malvern town center was very nice, although bitterly cold.
North Piddle was the location we choose for a 3 night stop in March 2014.
White Hall Owners Property
The location of the campsite was great. the weather was largely fine but a little damp. Our first day was dedicated to getting to the campsite and setting up our drive away awning.
All set up and ready to camp 🙂
The owner was a nice enough chap, but very OCD about how people should behave on his site. I got the impression he had been running the site for some years, and got less and less accepting of people that stayed. Post it notes were dotted everywhere. The coin meter for the shower had a note explaining that people shouldn’t put soapy coins in because it damages the machine 🙂 .
Anyways, after a good nights kip we got up, had breakfast, dropped the roof and unhooked the awning. Great. Lets go to Worcester 🙂
Breakfast
However, I soon realized that something wasn’t quite right! It soon became apparent that I had a fat, and pulled over before we had even gotten chance to get off the campsite.
Trying in vane to change the tyre 🙁
Although I had a perfectly serviceable spare wheel, I couldn’t fit it on the van due to the fact the longer wheel studs were preventing me from tightening the nut far enough to clamp the wheel in place. So we called the AA out and finally made it to a garage to have a repair done. Pretty much wrote the day off. Ho Humm. We did eventually get to Worcester you will be glad to hear 🙂 . No phone signal as i remember 🙁
After I spent a great deal of time buffing up the faded paintwork the van didn’t start looking half bad. The down side of this was that your eyes became increasingly drawn towards the parts that weren’t so glossy. When looking at the rear of the van, the exhaust appeared as one ugly, rusty lump. So the decision was made to rectify this. My van was due to go into a show (Dubfreeze 2014), so the decision was made to change. 🙂
I did some research and the Brickwerks exhaust seemed to have a good following. I placed the order and received the parts the next day. Blistering service as always 🙂 .
Anyways, I didn’t want to tackle the job myself so took it to my local trusted garage and asked them to fit it along with a few other parts. Not much more to say really other than i have had it on the van now for over a year and it looks as good today as it did when i first had it fitted 🙂
We started 2015 camping. The weather was exceptionally cold but we were looking forward to trying out our new Outwell Country Road drive away awning. We had the bikes on the back and had every intention of putting in a few miles on them. However, the extreme cold and eventual rain put a stop to that. We did enjoy a day in Lincoln City Centre and got home after the four days feeling we had had an adventure 🙂
-6 degrees. A very cold night indeed 🙁‘Steep Hill’, LincolnLincoln Cathedral
Barrow upon Soar, nr Loughborough was the venue for a one night camp over. Most of the folks attending this event went into Loughborough to the fair for a few drinks on the Saturday afternoon. However, we got to the campsite mid afternoon so things were pretty quiet until they got back. I think we all had a little too much to drink that night 😉
Well I brought my van and boy was i chuffed with it. T3s were new tome…so new that i had no idea what one was supposed to handle like. I knew it was made on the brink 80s / 90s and I wasn’t 100% sure from memory what the vehicles of this era should handle like. I mean I drove a lot of them…but maybe I had just got used to a modern equivalent.
However…after persisting with the van for a few months i decided that I wasn’t happy with the height of the van. With any vehicle I own I tend to want to make changes so this was just a matter of course for me. So after a little research I decided to plunge for the Brickwerks Eibach Pro springs which offer a 40mm drop from standard. I also decided in light of the poor handling that going for a set of the Powerflex Steering Rack Mount Bushes couldn’t do any harm.
Delivery of springs and bushes
I received them, and promptly had them fitted by a local mechanic that works on my Lotus. When I collected the van after fitting the height was great with a subtle but noticeable drop. The van seemed to handle slightly better on the multiple speed humps in my area. Little did i know things weren’t anywhere near as good as it should be. The next months salary were spent on replacing the dampers. Boy did this make a difference! I went for the Bilstein Fronts and Rears, (again from Brickwerks).
Bilstein FrontsBilstein Rears
It was pretty clear after changing the dampers that this turned out to be the single biggest issue with the handling of the van. Basically, the van used to take an age to settle after going over a hump because the original ones were shot and not doing what they were supposed to. On this I concluded that the original springs we not brilliant. They were not progressively coiled so offered a very basic rebound effect, so changing to the Eibachs offered a slightly better ride. Twin this with a new ‘WORKING’ set of dampers and it was a transformed animal.
My Birthday weekend in November was the second time we used the van. This was less than a month after the first. We played it safe and went to the tried and tested campsite ‘Eriba Glade’ in Warwickshire. We were still finding our feet with our new van. There was a lot to get our heads round, but it was all good fun 🙂
My love affair with the T3 campervan was cemented in September 2014 during a romantic stroll along the the seafront at Woolacombe on a warm summers evening with my wife Mandy. A late T3 Syncro Westy caught my eye, and after a brief chat with the ownerthe cogs in my head started turning. Days later my mind was made up and the wheels were in motion to to raise the funds to buy a campervan.
