Billy the Bus's Blog

Added mains hookup

2009-07-29T01:07:00.000-07:00

The geeky electrics work continues. I've now bought a smart charger, and a mains hookup (not a snazzy one, just a mains reel with a 16A plug on the end). As well as powering my charger, I've also adapted my switches and things so that my mains socket and TV can switch between using the invertor and mains supply.

Here's the geeky wiring diagram!

Billy's snazzy new table

2009-06-02T01:15:00.001-07:00

Folds up all small and stuff :)

Billy in the snow

2009-02-01T11:03:00.000-08:00

It's snowing in Clapham. Always a good time for a long-exposure photo.

Camper electrics

2009-01-11T07:10:00.000-08:00

I've finally finished a job I've been wanting to do for ages. Basically, I've sorted the camper electrics. I know a) understand the behaviour of the leisure battery, b) have good meters in place, and c) have a well arranged 240v system.

While I was on the big trip, the leisure battery didn't perform very well. I posted about it here. I wasn't getting more than 30 minutes of juice really. So when I was at home for Christmas, me and Dad did some experiments trying to find out what was going wrong. They proved pretty inconclusive - apart from a slight voltage drop off between the two batteries (maybe 0.2v) it seemed to be getting plenty of juice while charging (14V), allbeit at a fairly gentle current (1.5A).

So we did some more reading and discussed it on the forums, and found out more about the chemistry and construction of deep cycle batteries. I think the mistake I made before the big drip was not conditioning the battery with a really good mains charge. I did charge it on the mains before mine and Dad's experiments, hence the low current. Since then, the battery has been running fine. So, feel a bit stupid about that.

One thing that came out of the experiments with Dad, is he made a really good ammeter. He made his own shunt, and measured the voltage drop and all that stuff and ... basically, he's a very clever chap and I now have a 20A meter on my panel, switchable to show charge or discharge.

And finally, I have put a couple of switches in place to help me manage the 240v invertor better. On the trip, I used the switch on the invertor to turn it on and off, which involved putting my hand deep into the bowels of the cupboard and finding it blind - it was a bit annoying. Also, I ran everything off this one 4-gang which meant even if I was just charging the laptop, the whole TV and everything had to be on. I've now put a separate switch in now for the TV stuff, so you can turn it on separately.

Finally, here's a wiring diagram I drew. Nerdingly brilliant.

Big Billy Trip 21 - Brugges, Belgium to home

2008-10-25T15:10:00.000-07:00

Route - Brugges, Belgium to Home!
Distance - 283km (final total = 4,317km = 2682 miles)

And so that's it! I'm home. I visited some cash n carrys and the big Cite Europe shopping centre in Calais before I left, but basically hurried on home. Here's the map that shows my entire trip. 2600 miles in 3 weeks. It was brilliant!

Big Billy Trip 20 - Brugges

2008-10-25T15:08:00.000-07:00

Big Billy Trip 20 - Brugges

Decided not to rent a bike in the end, because it was raining. Went into the city and went to the Fries museum, the chocolate museum, two pubs, a pancake house, and a bunch of shops. Nice day

Big Billy Trip 19 - Bockholtz, Luxembourg to Brugges, Belgium

2008-10-25T15:05:00.000-07:00

Route – Bockholtz, Luxembourg to Brugges, Belgium via Brussells
Distance - 304km (4,034km total)

These last few stretches are all seeming to go very quickly. Probably a combination of flatter terrain and me being more used to driving long distances.

I awoke in a really misty foggy Luxembourg this morning, and had the mystery of working out which house on the farm was the home of the campsite owner; I had to pay her, and ask her how the showers worked. They were token showers, but the tokens she used were old Belgian 5F coins, so I had to get one from her little tin. She was very sweet, and didn't even realise I'd come back to stay at her place – she assumed I would've found somewhere else near the castle. I did think about it, but her place was in the direction I was travelling, and it was a sweet little place rather than one of these holiday park affairs.

The sun burnt the fog away fairly quickly, and the road to Brussells was uneventful. I got there around lunchtime, and just wanted to park up somewhere for a couple of hours to get some food and have a mooch around (I'd heard it was fairly boring, as cities go). I found a multistorey, but misjudged the height limit. It said 1.9m, which I know is right on the boundary of Billy's height, but I chanced it anyway. Mistake. I've got some nice red scratches on the roof now, from the red and white striped pole thing they have hanging at the entrance to show the height limit. Ah well, at least it was that rather than a concrete ceiling. Hopefully it will rub out with some t-cut.

So in the end I found somewhere to park on the street, then found a chippy, then found a fancy old building or two, then found a waffle shop. All good. Back on the road for Brugges.

I've learnt you can get a feel for a city fairly soon upon arriving, and I decided even on the ring road that I really liked Brugges. Maybe it was the guzillion kids on bicycles that crossed in front of me when I was at a red light? It just feels really nice here. I got the bus into town from the campsite, and had a wander around, and then some Moules Frites for me dinner. On the bus back, I made friends with a couple who were visiting as part of their gap year – I gave them a copy of the Alan Rogers PDF to help them on their travels. The whole city and its people and its visitors just seem really laid back.

So I'm going to stay another day, and I'm going to rent a bike tomorrow, and cycle all over. Huzzah. One last night here, than it's off to Calais for the 14.20 on Saturday afternoon. I think I'll go via some hypermarkets on the way back, for some booze and sweets and things. Fun.

Big Billy Trip 18 - Esch to Bockholtz, via Luxembourg City

2008-10-25T15:01:00.000-07:00

Route – Esch to Luxembourg City to Bockholtz
Distance - 72km (3730km total)

Today was a much better day than yesterday! I did lots of driving again, but instead of it being about covering distance, I drove around this really nice country just soaking it all up.

I had read nice things about the capital, so I headed there for lunch time. It is indeed a really nice place, very cosmopolitan feel, lots of people of different ages and different backgrounds all doing their own thing. I saw the ruins of the original castle (the reason Luxembourg became a place) and the caves underneath it, then had a sarnie.

I also liked Luxembourg City because the whole of it is one big WiFi hotspot. It's the future. So I sat on a bench as they cleared up the flower market, and uploaded a few photos and stuff.

Next I drove North, trying to find the fairytale Chateau I'd read about. My map is poor on detail, and the one in the Lonely Planet was no better, so I did quite a bit of driving around in circles to find it. But it was such lovely driving, I didn't mind at all. I also found a campsite to stay at, on the way to the castle, which is a bonus. The castle itself was nice enough, but mainly because of the nice views from the top of the pigeon-poo-encrusted tower.

My new favourite road in the world is the Luxembourg N27. I only found it by accident, but it is so much fun. It's fairly flat for starters, which is good for Billy, but it sweeps around, following the flow of the lake in the bottom of this valley. At one point, you cross the river on a wooden bridge, take a sharp left, and then re-cross the river almost immediately back to the other side. If you were designing a fun race track, it would be a bit like this. If I lived round here, I'm sure I'd be doing time trials on it, like I used to on the A60 Lboro to Nottingham.

Not even 10pm yet, but I'm in bed. It's the easiest way to keep warm. I would definitely not do this trip any later in the year than this. The cold is just about manageable, but I can understand why 30 Sept is generally seen as the close of the camping season. Italy was hot and lovely, but you can't really avoid several days in the colder North to get there can you.

So two nights left after this – I think one near Brussells and one near Bruge. I may as well drive Bruge to Calais on Saturday morning – no point staying a night in the mingy North of France if I can avoid it. Night! x

Big Billy Trip 17 - Stollhoffen, Germany to Esch, Luxembourg

2008-10-22T04:50:00.000-07:00

Route – Stollhoffen, Germany to Esch, Luxembourg
Distance - 273km (3658km total)

Really very uneventful day. Got up. Drove to Baden Baden to see what that was all about (kinda posh, full of tarts with little dogs, I walked around some shops for a bit and found some free wifi). Then I drove to Luxembourg. I had a Burger King on the way (omm).

I decided not to plump or another night in Germany in the end. I think I'll visit Luxembourg City tomorrow daytime, and stay at another campsite in the north of this wee country tomorrow, before heading into Belgium.

Need to make sure that I actually DO something on these last few days of this trip. It could very easily just be about getting home and killing time between now and my ferry on Saturday. That would be a sad way to end a good holiday.

Big Billy Trip 16 - Munstertal to nr. Stollhoffen, Baden, via Titisee

2008-10-22T04:48:00.000-07:00

Route – Munstertal to nr. Stollhoffen, Baden, via Titisee
Distance - 176km (3385km total)

I'm having a problem with Germany. I find the language too funny. I can't stop seeing words and pronouncing them to myself in a cod-German voice, slightly high pitched and urgent, and making myself giggle. Maybe it's too much Allo Allo as a kid. Add to that unfortunate sexual double entendre (such as the place I visited today, called Titisee) and I find I'm just walking around laughing at my host country. Not good.

My other observation so far is that the 'working leisure' hair cut is alive and well in Germany, as is the rat tail. Rock on.

(Oh, and the word for exit is Ausfart. Tee hee. Ahem)

I drove around the Black Forest today, taking lots of photos and stuff. I had intended to drive to several little Black Forest villages, to really suck up the atmosphere, but the driving was so arduous (Billy doesn't really like hills) that I only went to Titisee, then headed for the motorway. It was 3pm by then, so it was the right thing to do.

It's all fairly picture postcard, but also all has the feel of being quite tacky. I'm certain that's unfair, and that we've taken the heritage of this place and plastered it across so many things for the last 100 Christmases, that its our fault not theirs, but it does leave a lasting impression. In fact, a lot of Titisee did just make me feel Christmassy – maybe it was the wooden toys and things for sale, it as all very 'visiting German craft market'. All I bought was some shnitzel (tee hee) and some little bottles of booze to try. Might buy some of the Kirschwasser tomorrow, cause it tastes pretty good with coke.

OK geeky campervanny bit now, turn off if you're not interested. I'm having real problems with my leisure battery. I bought it anew before the trip, because the last one had karked it (or had it, I now wonder?). It is 75aH, so plenty big enough for an evening of DVD watching or accessory charging, I thought. I have a 300W power invertor, so I can plug in mains powered devices – I have a DVD player, a 14” screen, and a socket for charging this laptop and other things. The invertor has a cut-off alarm, to stop you flattening your battery, and it starts beeping when the battery reads 10.5V. At the moment, it is doing this after about 90 minutes usage, which is a bit shit. By my calculations, I'd have had to be drawing 50A for the battery to be flat in this time (which obviously I haven't been; there's a 25A fuse!). So I'm a bit confused.

My dad has suggested there's perhaps a voltage drop-off between the battery and the Invertor, causing it to read 10.5V before that's actually the case. I will do some investigating along these lines when I get home, but my voltmeter at the fusebox also reads 10.5V, and anyway I wouldn't expect to be losing so many volts from long wiring and poor connections. Even with the TV (5A) and DVD (2A) on, and the laptop charging (2A), I would expect the battery to last at least 8 hours. Maybe my idea of alive and the invertor's (10.5V = dead) are different?

The other thing that's weird is that after the invertor has beeped at me, I turn it off, and the voltmeter starts to slowly creep back up. Before long, it's at 12.5V again, but as soon as I turn the invertor back on it slowly falls back down to 10.5V over about three minutes. Is this normal?

One thing I think I will definitely invest it for 'next time' is a mains voltage hookup kit. Not to charge the battery necessarily, but just so I can run a cable into the van to run mains-powered devices. I could even have it plug into the cupboard that contains the invertor, and have a bypass switch so my devices get their power from the outside source instead.

OK, geeky campervan bit over now. Tomorrow I'm going to drive North and West, into the bit of Germany that borders Luxembourg. Think I'll spend one more night in Germany, before heading to Lux the day after. Night night!

Big Billy Trip 15 - Lungern, Switzerland to Munstertal, Germany

2008-10-20T02:52:00.000-07:00

Route – Lungern, Switzerland to Munstertal, Germany
Distance - 248km (3,209km total)

Switzerland continue to live up to its reputation for loveliness this morning. I awoke from a bitterly cold night's sleep, and couldn't even bring myself get out of bed, so lay in and watched a couple of episodes of The Wire on my iPod. By ten, the sun was poking above the mountain, and I could hear Billy creaking as the cold body work started to warm up. I poked my head out of the sliding door, and watched steam rising off the side of the van, as the sun baked and defrosted the metal. Fun.

I took it appropriately easy this morning. I took advantage of the sunshine to dry off the rear bed cushion, which was still damp from the Italian rain, and cooked some toast and eggs whilst gradually packing the van up to leave. It was then I noticed the cable car running up the mountain; I'd seen in the night before, and assumed it was closed as a summer thing. So, this helped me decide what to do next.

£12 to climb 2500m into the sky? I think that's a bargain. The first part of the journey was by cable car to 1500m, and the last 1000m was by ski-style chair lift (in fact, it's clearly a skiing region, it's just not snowy at the moment). The vista was so unbelievably perfect, I just gawped in wonder. None of my photos will do it justice, I am certain – though, that didn't stop me taking loads. It was the reason I decided to drive through Switzerland, and made me so happy I could burst. Yay.

But I had to come down and get a move on. I fancied staying in Switzerland another night – I'd withdrawn 300 SFr, not knowing what their currency was worth, so I've still got loads of it left and might as well spend it here. I drove to the capital Bern, and found their only campsite to be closed - Alan Rogers has naff all campsites listed for northern Switzerland, so I was on my own here. So, I decided to carry on to Germany, since it was only an hour away, and had lots of listed campsites.

I've just had a meal in the campsite restaurant, which was an amusing experience. I speak no German at all, and they seemed to find this most peculiar – like a campsite on the German/Swiss/French border in a major tourist region might not entice non-Germans to visit it. I picked through the menu, ordered the only thing I recognised (Rumpsteak mit pommes frites is pretty self explanatory; shame, I had steak last night, but ho hum) and then ate it whilst everyone around me watched – perhaps to see if English people eat differently to them, I don't know.

So I'm here at the gateway to the Black Forest, and tomorrow I'm gonna go see my some cookoo clocks and try to get some gateau. The campsite has a pool which I think I'll use in the morning, and try to make my way to Heidelberg or somewhere for tomorrow night. (I think I'm going to aim or Luxembourg and Belgium on the way home, just to notch up the country count!)

Big Billy Trip 14 - Lake Maggione, Italy to Lungern, Switerland

2008-10-20T02:49:00.000-07:00

Route – Lake Maggione, Italy to Lungern, Switzerland
Distance - 214km (2,961km total)

Tonight, dear reader, I am a man. I ever there was doubt cast about my manhood (heaven forfend) let that doubt now be cast asunder. I am a man because, having arrived at my campsite in Switzerland, I have this evening: gone on a hike, found firewood, chopped it up with an axe, made a fire on the beach, and cooked steak on it for my dinner. Whilst drinking whisky. Oh yes; I am a man.

I am also probably breaking a million Swiss laws or something, I've heard this country is a stickler for properness. Ah well; fuck em. I'm leaving for Germany tomorrow. They're much more understanding. (did I mention the whiskey?)

I was slightly put off whilst eating my steak by the miriad cow bells jangling behind me. I think the cows know. Cows always know, don't they?

Oh and when I saw I 'found' the firewood... I nicked it off someone's woodpile. Ahem.

Seriously, it's beautiful here. Think Heidi and Sound of Music, and that's what this lake whose shore I'm sat on is like. The brazzier is burning to the right of me, and the lake is lapping a few metres from my feet – not that I can tell, because it is pitch black out here. It's everything you wanted Switzerland to be.

I left Italy at about noon. It absolutely pissed it down in the night. This meant two things. One, all my laundry got drenched on the line; not to worry, they had a tumble dryer for 3 EURO. And two, Billy sprung a new leak. Took me ages to work this one out, at 2 in the morning. Basically, because of the way I was parked, the rain water was gathering in the rear gutters, and overflowing, and pouring into the top of the tailgate. On to my head. I tried the Bestival method of blocking the holes with dirty socks, but it was no good. So I went outside (in waterproof trousers and jacket, rarrrr) and stuffed the dirty socks in the tailgate out there instead. Much more effective.

So, I know I need new door rubbers on the tailgate. But I was also able to do some crafty DIY the next morning. I remember my mechanic telling me a while back that rear gutters are meant to have drainage holes, but mine had been bodged by some previous owner. So, I used the dremmel-type tool I brought with me (just call me Sam the Ever Ready) to drill a 4mm hole in the gutter on the back offside corner. Hopefully, if the gutter fills up again, it'll be able to drain itself better. Of course, it may now pour down the van into the tailgate or light cluster, but I'll deal with that another time.

I felt a bit nervous crossing the border, for some reason. A little man opened a barrier for me, and didn't even want to see my passport. I could have been a terrorist! Good job I'm not. I stopped to buy the 'vignette' (motorway tax disc for switzerland) and also to get some money out – apparently swiss francs are quite like US dollars, ie. there's roughly 2 to the pound. This led to my first discovery which is that, actually, stuff is quite cheap here. I was led to believe it was a fairly expensive country. But petrol is about 85p a litre, coca cola is about 75p a bottle, and camping is just £10 a night. So, hrumph to that. Switzerland is much cheaper than Italy, that's for sure.

Drove through some ore of those kick ass tunnels to get here too. And all included in my £20 motorway tax. And it'll last until the end of the year, if I want it to. Ace.

OK, so the fire is dying down, and I am getting a bit chilly, so I better go back to Billy. 'The trick to staying warm is not getting cold in the first place', Freya said last week. So, I better heed her advice. Tata for now! (ahem... manly grrrr)

Big Billy Trip 13 - Bologna to Lake Maggione

2008-10-20T02:41:00.000-07:00

Route – Bologna to Maccagno, Lake Maggione (Italian/Swiss border)
Distance - 311 km (2,747 km total)

Just another big day of driving really, with only the motorway for company.

I'm now quite excited about the week ahead, driving through new countries and seeing new things. Slightly bricking it about not speaking the language, but everyone tells me that most people in Switzerland and Germany can speak a bit of English, and by the time I get to Belgium I'm hoping my French will get me by.

The A1 north of Bologne is the first four-lane motorway I've seen in Italy. They seem to get by with just two lanes most of the time, and the occasional three laner. The flamboyant Italian driving style comes into its own on the four-lane motorway. Its as if the pent-up frustration of the two-lane road is set free, and all of a sudden this nut job drivers are set free on a race track (especially the A1 Bologne-Milan, which is basically a straight line for 100km). It's quite nerve wracking, being the guy on the inside, when 3 lorries are trying to enter the motorway from only 30m long sliproads, whilst a zillion drivers on the outside won't let you pull out. Add to that the fact I'm sat on the wrong side of the car, and half of my off-side view is obscured by a cupboard, and it's quite scary!

Every motorway service station in Italy seems to be this brand called Autogrill. I'm growing quite bored of them. They are all exactly the same layout, and sell exactly the same products. I want a bit of variety in my breaks. Can someone open a Welcome Break or a Moto in Italy please?

The campsite by the lake is lovely. It's called Azur Parkcamping Maccagno, and seems to be entirely staffed and patronised by Germans. I suppose it is practically on the Swiss border, so that would explain it, but even all the signs are in German! I've started saying 'danke' already. It's right alongside the lake, with thankfully a mere chainlink fence separating us from the water, as opposed to hedges or tall fences at other places.

I swam in the lake when I got here. I got a few funny looks, padding out there in my wetsuit, but I figured what the hell. It was ruddy cold, and I had fish for company. Then I did some laundry, some more washing line engineering, and cooked up some yummy bangers and mash with kinda ratatouille gravy. Ok i'm getting boring now. Night night! Switzerland tomorrow.....

Big Billy Trip 12 - Rome to Bologna

2008-10-16T13:05:00.000-07:00

ROUTE - Rome to Bologna
Distance - 389km (2,436km total)

So the plan is afoot. Basically, my aim is to get out of Italy as soon as possible (not because I don't like it; just in the name of variety) and get into Switzerland and onto Germany. So today was basically just about doing miles.

The drive from Rome to Bologna was 250 miles straight up the A1 motorway. You could ask for more simple, more boring driving. The iPod kept me company obviously, and I treated myself to a stop and a break every 50 miles. Wow, what an exciting life I lead.

The campsite I chose was Citta da Bologna campsite - basically a huge municipal car park of a place, alongside the city's massive trade fair centre. Very uninteresting, and staffed by very grumpy men. So I didn't hang about there, I got the bus into Bologna for a few hours in the city.

Bologna is a mixture of really old stuff a la Rome, and bustling cosmopolitan university town. The demographic was significantly younger than anywhere else I've seen in Italy, and it was also a lot quieter. Apart from the usual old Piazzas, churches and towers, the most interesting thing was a trio of streets selling gorgeous Italian foodstuffs. It was a kinda Borough Market for Italy. I bought some tortelloni, salami, and some bread, and cooked it up when I got back to Billy later that night.

So tomorrow I think I'm going to head for Milan, and try to go beyond it if I can. It all depends on what campsites are open and what the best routes into Switzerland are. I'm going to do all that research now, as I watch Casino Royale on my DVD. Night!

Big Billy Trip 11, Rome!

2008-10-15T14:32:00.000-07:00

Our second day in Rome, and Freya had had a rough night. She'd got some sort of fever, and had the dreaded hot n colds all night. So we took it a bit easy, laid in until about 11, and even then had a nice sit in the sun and some breakfast before we headed into the city.

So we just spent a couple of hours visiting the Colloseum and the Pantheon, then came back to the site, where I had to say goodbye to Freya and put her on a bus to the airport. Boo x

I made myself feel better with a nice plate of grilled meat at the campsite restaurant, a beer, and a session online planning my next move. I think it's Bologna here we come tomorrow, followed by a route through Switzerland and Germany. Yep, I'm feeling brave. Wish me luck!

Big Billy Trip 10, Montepulciano to Rome

2008-10-15T14:17:00.000-07:00

ROUTE- Montepulciano to Rome, via Lago di Bracciano
Distance - 198km (2,047km total)

Our intention was to avoid Rome altogether, just popping to the Ciampino Airport around 6pm to drop Freya off for her flight. We had earmarked a campsite near a lake, about 40km north of Rome, which our book said was open until 31 October. Alas, it was not.

So we went to the nearest town, and hung about looking at the lake for a bit, and decided to plump for Rome anyway. We picked the Flaminio Village campsite (which we rang to check it was open) and headed in.

I had a bit of fun and games navigating the GRA (Rome's equivalent of the M25, but much more complicated). The confusion came threefold - one, the junction we wanted from the GRA was missing its number (6) due to recently completely roadworks and lack of signage. Two, the road we wanted was actually very near the road we were on, so in actual fact we didn't enter the GRA, just brush alongside it using its sliproads. And three, the road we wanted was called Via Flaminia, so as I followed signs saying 'Flaminia' I didn't actually realise I was heading out of Rome (toward the town of Flaminia). Once I worked all of this out, and turned around, I found the site no problemo.

The campsite here is lovely, and full of facilities. One of these is their own Tourist Information desk, who sold us tickets for an open top bus tour of the city. It was fun to see Rome by night, and afterwards we hunted for a nice little restaurant to have dinner. We ended up having the most overpriced meal I think I've ever had. This restaurant, which looked to all intents and purposes like a restaurant from the outside, was in fact a room with tables and chairs and decor, above another room with fridges and microwaves and work surfaces. I think for something to be called a restaurant it must have a cooker. I know this one didn't because I accidentally stumbled into the kitchen looking for the loo. I ordered lasagne, and freya ordered an eggplant lasagne thing, and we ordered a mixed salad to share, and a bottle of E25 Prosecco. The whole thing came to 65 Euros, which was hilarious since the salad was a bag of lettuce, some tinned sweetcorn, and some shitty cheap olives. Ho hum. When in Rome.

Final note of the night is to mention the luxurious toilets at this campsite. They are marble, kitted out with about 20 cubicles each containing a loo, a shower, a basin, and ecoutrements. Classical music was playing on a speaker system as I pooed. Quite lovely.

Big Billy Trip 9, Florence to Montepulciano

2008-10-13T12:12:00.001-07:00

ROUTE - Florence to Montepulciano
Distance - 110km (1,849km total)

Elissa joined us on the road to drive to Montepulciano, where her parents were staying. Freya had been there before when she was 16 years old.

We met the Krakaeurs, and explored the town after a nice meaty lunch. Nico, the guy that ran their agritourisme apartment, said we could sleep in Billy on his grounds, so no need to find a campsite.

We had a lovely dinner that Margie prepared, and drank some nice Montepulciano wine
Loads of photos online at flickr.com/samuelbailey

Big Billy Trip 8, Florence!

2008-10-13T12:11:00.000-07:00

The first place we've stayed two nights, washing line engineering, domestic bliss, visit to the Duomo, Boboli Gardens, met Elissa, drank wine, had nice dinner

Big Billy Trip 7, Rapallo to Pisa to Florence

2008-10-12T01:42:00.001-07:00

ROUTE - Rapallo to Florence, via Pisa
Distance - 230km (1,739km total)

Leaning Tower, campsite overlooking Florence!

Big Billy Trip 6, Arenzano to Rapallo

2008-10-12T01:35:00.000-07:00

ROUTE - Arenzano, Italy to Rapallo, Italy
Distance - 64km (1,509km total)

Notes:
Day 6, more beaut weather, random bloke who told me life story, drive through Genova the skankiest city ever, Portofino/St Margerita Legura, more hunting for campsite, found a different one, cute old couple, cats everywhere, weird derelict 30s building, scary petrol smell

Big Billy Trip 5, Dalai Lama to Arenzano

2008-10-12T01:03:00.000-07:00

ROUTE - Camping Dalai Lama to Arenzano, Italy
Distance- 227km (1,445km total)

As anyone who knows her can testify, Freya goes gooey at the site of a cat. As we woke up and started about our day's business up in heavens of the French Alps, Freya stumbled across two very young kittens, scampering about the campsite. We'd laid our towels out to dry in the morning sun, and the kitties had decided to use them as their new play thing. It was quite adorable. Freya was most disappointed that the cats were of the scaredy variety, and ran away when she got within three metres. No playing was to be had, but they were dead cute to watch!

We pretty much owned the Dalai Lama campsite that morning, and felt very privelaged to have such an awesome location all to ourselves. We had to say goodbye to it though, to plod down into Italy through more tunnels and along more toll motorways. We made a decision not to aim for Lake Garda, but to drive South to the mediterreanean coast, in the hope of nicer weather and some time lying on beaches.

It was a good decision - the weather was getting hotter and hotter as we left the mountains and drove South, and my truckers' tan was doing well out the right hand window. By the time we arrived at Savona (having circumnavigated Turin on their equivalent of the M25), I pretty much jumped out of Billy straight into the sea. It was brilliantly refreshing.

After our little respite, we started our latest game of driving around aimlessly, searching for a campsite. There were none listed in our book anywhere nearby, but we figured we'd just drive along the coast road until we stumbled across one. As before, we found a lot of closed ones, and eventually found one just past the town of Arenzano, about halfway between Savona and Genova.

If Alan Rogers had reviewed this site, he would have said something like: "Sandwiched between the motorway, the coastal road, and the railway, this 2* site is fairly shabby and cramped. Its friendly multi-lingual staff will show you how the microchip system works, and where to find the fishy-smelling grey pebble beach". It wasn't brill, but it did the job.

The beach held a treat though. Previously, when we were swimming in Savona, we noticed we were swimming amongst huge shoals of tiny little blue fish. They kept their distance, moving hypnotically, a bit like they were iron filings and our limbs were huge magnets. But there were millions of the little fellas. Now, as the tide was turning, these same little fish were all being washed up along our skanky bit of campsite beach.

A man was collecting them in a carrier bag to take home. We asked him if they were good to eat, and he made lots of appropriate Italian gestures that suggested they were. He also mimed to us how the crabs come in the morning, and by 8am all these washed up dead fish were gone, and how this happened each and every day. The circle of life, you might say.

So I collected up a few of these little fishy morsels for myself, and took them back to Billy to cook in some butter in a frying pan. They were quite tasty, but with a bitter aftertaste, that may have been the fish, or may have been the slightly old thyme and oregano I added to the mix. Either way, it was an exciting adventure to have, before going out for pizza, and coming home to go to sleep.

Big Billy Trip 4, Annecy to Italy

2008-10-12T01:02:00.000-07:00

ROUTE - Annecy, France to Chatillon, Italy via Mont Blanc Tunnel
Distance - 179km (1,218km total)

Day four, and we knew today would be the day we left France and drove into Italy. We didn't know it would be as beautiful as it turned out to be; both the drive there and the place we found to park up for the night.

The drive to Mont Blanc was as picturesque as the preceding drive up to Annecy. Glorious alpine terrain of steep climbing motorways, with a backdrop of snow tipped mountains and lush green foothills dotted with villages. Hopefully the many pictures Freya took from the passenger seat will do it justice.

As we approached the famous Mont Blanc tunnel we paid the latest of our motorway tolls – so far I think we must have spent nearly 100 EURO on tolls alone – and made our usual qualification to ourselves that 'at least we were getting there quickly, and what we're losing in money we're gaining in saved petrol' etc etc.

And then the Mont Blanc tunnel cost 33 EURO to go through! Anyone that complains about paying £4 to enter Wales, should think again! It was expensive and boring – about 8km long, and obviously just dull tunnel walls all the way to the other side.

There was a dedicate Mont Blanc Tunnel FM radio station though, which was quite amusing – it played naff soft rock, which it interrupted every 3 minutes with pre-recorded safety announcements in French, Italian and English. The signs on the way up to the tunnel said we MUST listen to this radio station, so we obediently did. It were shite though, so we turned it off just towards the end, like the rebels we are.

On the other side of the tunnel, we stopped for a wee and to take a few photographs. We hopped back in hoping for more lush driving views on the way down the mountains, but those crafty Italians had buried all of their motorways inside tunnels. The first 20 km was almost entirely tunnel, with brief breaks for fresh air – the longest must have been about 3.5 km long, and the shortest about 500m.

Every single tunnel and bridge in Italy has a name. As we proceeded to our destination (the Aosta region, where we'd earmarked the intriguingly named Dalai Lama Campsite) we obviously went through quite a lot of hilly terrain. This include quite a lot of little archways cut in cliffs, and quite a few little bridges over brooks and streams. Every one of them as a name, and a little sign tells you the name and distance before you cross it. The shortest I noted was just 30m long. Hardly worth it I thought. Especially when it got to the point where bridges were just called Placename I, Placename II, Placename III, etc. Funny.

And so we arrived in Aosta and headed for the Dalai Lama. The book warned us it involved a fairly steep climb up a mountain, but we weren't prepared for this; the last couple of km was almost entirely 2nd gear all the way. We knew we were in for something pretty special just by the amount that we'd climbed up into the gods, but Dalai Lama Campsite was out of this world.

Perched pretty much as high as you can get (we noticed no buildings higher than us, in sight), this campsite looked down upon creation from amongst the clouds. For an extra 14 EURO each, we gained access to their swimming pool / health spa, with jacuzzi and sauna. From our vantage point in 35 degree bubbling water, we watched the sun set on the French Alps, as the clouds play games with the snowy peaks. Bliss.

Big Billy Trip 3, Beaune to Annecy

2008-10-12T01:01:00.002-07:00

ROUTE - Beaune, France to Annecy, France
Distance - 234km (1,039 km total)

Day 3. We had a good lie-in, and hit the road at about 11.30. The aim today was to get to a wicked-sounding campsite near Mont Blanc, going via Annecy for lunch. The weather was beeeyootiful, so the driving was much more pleasant. It was however very hilly, so the distances took a lot longer than the previous 450 miles. It was stunning driving though, as we were basically ascending the foothills of The Alps, cutting through tunnels, and along viaducts. We made it to the Annecy exit by about 2.30, and it actually took about an hour and a half to get into Annecy on the local roads. The driving remained very picturesque, so we weren't that bothered, but our stomachs were disagreeing by the time it hit 4pm.

Anyone that's ever been to France knows that they like things to happen at fixed times of the day, so trying to get lunch at 4pm was not easy. Add to that we'd travelled to a holiday town well out of season, and you get a combined crossover episode of our two favourite dramas – the "we're out of season" soap, and the "driving around aimlessly" comedy. We ended up eating fairly shit food at a roadside cafe calling itself Le Brooklyn. I don't think my burger was cooked properly, and I expect to see it later.

It being quite late in the day, and not wanting to drive up Mont Blanc with dodgy headlights, we decided to stay put in Annecy. The Lake here is beautiful, and the surroundings are the epitomy of Alpine. We know them very well now as well, because episode 3 of "driving around aimlessly" was spent trying to find a campsite that was open. They're all signposted from the main roads, but they are of course in much nicer spots, at the end of long windy roads, which take you 10 minutes to get to, only discover they're closed.

On the fifth attempt, and having almost fully circumnavigated Le Lac, we found Coeur du Pres, a fairly rustic (read, a bit tatty) campsite that was completely empty but completely welcoming. The elderly proprietor did have to take the lawnmower out of the ladies' toilet to allow Freya access, but he was most sweet and pottering and doddery.

And that's where we are now; Freya's reading, I've just written all that above, and we're drinking honey and lemon (expensive 9.75 EURO honey, buzzed by local bees or summat) with a little dram of whiskey in it, before we cutch up in bed. Tomorrow, we're going to enter Italy through the Mont Blanc tunnel. Wicked. x

Big Billy Trip 2, Saroucourt to Beaune

2008-10-12T01:01:00.001-07:00

ROUTE - Saroucourt-le-grande to Beaune
Distance - 443 km (total, 805 km)

Day two, and the weather was just as shite. Not really many stories to tell here, except of trying to do as many miles (or kilometres actually, which are less than miles, and therefore things seem to be further away, but in fact the numbers go down quicker, so it feels you're actually travelling faster than you are) as possible. For lunch we began another apparent theme of this holiday – driving around aimlessly hoping to find somewhere and in the end settling for something we should have thought of in the first place. We drove around the town/village of Fage-something-or-other looking for a cafe of some sort... in the end we settled for a DIY sandwich in an E Leclerc supermarket car park.

By night we managed to get beyond Dijon to a campsite in our book on the outskirts of Beaune. It was run by a nice little man who looked like he drank a lot, and he charged us just 12.50. Freya cooked a kick ass dinner of lentil stew and rice (she thinks it was tagine, but it was not in a tagine, and was therefore a lovely stew). By now I was starting to feel a bit minging, and was wondering if I might have man flu, which I always seem to get when I stop doing work. So I had a nap, and Freya looked after me. What a dear.

At this campsite, there was a well cute 60s caravan that we both fell in love with. It appeared to be Dutch. Freya took photos, but got nervous when she realised its occupants realised she was taking photos, so she did them under her arm all secret like. I think Freya could be a spy.

Big Billy Trip 1, Home to Seraucourt-le-Grande, France

2008-10-12T00:59:00.000-07:00

Route - Home to Seraucourt-le-Grande, France
Distance - 362 km

Ok so this is the official Billy Blog for our holiday – three weeks of driving around in Europe in the blue camper that has had attention poured so lavishly upon him over the last year or so. The plan has changed a bit since the original itinerary discussed on here a few months back – the intention is now to bomb it as quickly as possible through France, and spend more time in Italy kicking back and relaxing. Billy's had a pretty good couple of weeks – made it to Hayley's wedding and back, and to rain-soaked Bestival – so I'm feeling good about what he can do!

Day 1, and the shlep down to Dover. We got there early, so went for a pub roast. The rain and wind were shocking, which meant a fairly choppy crossing, but we both slept for the first half hour or so, and by then the sea had calmed down quite a bit. My first experience driving on the French autoroutes, and it was in lashing rain and lateral winds. As it started to get dark, I started to realise that I'd probably fitted my headlamp adaptors wrongly, because my headlamps were beaming up into the sky, and not on the road in front of me. It was a bit scary. We came off the motorway much further north of Reims than I had planned, and drove to a campsite Freya'd found in our book, in the village of Seraucourt le Grand.

The first of many amusing 'it's not really camping season any more' stories now; the place was locked up, but there were lights on in the house, so we decided to have a knock. I was greeted by a fat red-haired woman with a mixing bowl and wooden spoon in her hand, with a face that looked like it spent most of the year chewing wasps. She was not pleased to see me, and my whimpering "le camping, pour ce soir?" GCSE french didn't impress her either. She shot back a stream of Francaise, and I had to whimper the ultimate defeat of "I'm sorry, my French is tres mal". She repeated her phrase, but this time in English: "Why couldn't you get here earlier, I've just locked up?". Thankfully there wasn't time to get into the tale of bad weather and failed headlights, before she relented with a tutt and a begrudging "OK, give me five minutes".

But at least we got in, and slept, and it was a good rest at the end of the first day.

Finally, a table!

2008-09-21T08:45:00.001-07:00

This innocent looking plank of wood is a table. It's been hanging around my flat for ages, and it's finally in the van! Don't underestimate how mentally taxing this table was - it may look like a plank of wood on a hinge, but there's allsorts of intricacies.

First there's the leg. It's 26" tall. This means the table also has to be 26" long, so that the table leg can fit underneath it. This also means that the table has to be hinged 26" from the floor. That took me a long time to understand, for some reason.

Then there's the hinge. I originally had the table hinged to a piece of timber, but when I attached that to the 'wall' it was way floppy and was not at all secure. So I mounted that onto a piece of board, so it would have a larger footprint, and that seems to be happier.

But then there's the bed - the whole mechanism needs to be flush enough to the wall that the bed can still rock'n'roll while the table is flat.

ANYWAY, it's done now, and here it is. Hurrah.

Bestival!

2008-09-10T14:46:00.000-07:00

Another smug festival experience. All my mates getting wet and muddy and cold in tents, and I was warm and cosy in the camper. Shame the festival was a washout and all the bands I wanted to see got cancelled. But I *did* do lots of sleeping.

Billy was a wedding car!

2008-09-03T03:45:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons I've been working so hard on getting Billy looking good this summer is because he was my friend Hayley's wedding carriage this weekend. And I was the chauffeur, with a hat and everything :)

I've been upholstering

2008-08-16T10:33:00.001-07:00

I've been sweating over a sewing machine for most evenings the last few weeks, and the results have been worth it. I've covered the bed cushions, and made some cushions for the buddy seat. I've also covered some new door cards for the tailgate and the sliding door (half-inch foam, then denim). Here's the results -

Best piece of furniture EVER

2008-06-23T00:53:00.000-07:00

I think I am possibly more pleased with my buddy seat than I have ever been pleased about anything I have ever made ever. Here are some pictures. It has a cool box in the seat, and a flat screen in the back (and no, burglars, the flat screen is not in there currently, it's in my house, the one with the big door and fat locks :)

Haven't blogged about furniture in a while

2008-06-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

I know my loyal readers will be eager to read about my adventures with furniture, so here's an update. After the success of the infamous cupboard, I've set about building two other cabinets in the same way - timber frame, clad in MDF.

The first unit is the sink unit, to replace the one of similar design. This one will be built properly, and will not be used for a fridge. It will have the sink, the water bottle, the leisure fusebox, and storage area for cups and plates etc.

The second unit is to replace the wardrobe unit, behind the driver's seat bulkhead. It will be of similar design to the wardrobe unit, but with a built in buddy seat. Inside the buddy seat, will be a 28L coolbox, instead of a fridge. In the back of the buddy seat, I will put a 14" flat screen monitor, for DVDs and possibly the game cube.

Today I finished building the second unit's frame, and have both of them in position. The first unit was a doddle to build the frame, and quite a bit of fun to chisel out bits of wood to make way for the sink. But because I had a hard job visualising how it would look, the second unit was kinda designed on the job, so it took a bit longer and I wasted a bit of wood. Nevermind.

Next job is to get the MDF cut to measure, and start turning them into proper units! I hope to get something snazzy for the 'worktop' over the sink. Simple pleasures for simple sams.

Builders dropped a fence on Billy

2008-05-28T14:11:00.000-07:00

I'm actually writing this months after it all happened (I'll pre-date the post), but it's part of the Billy story so it needs to go in. The builders scaffolding up our block of flats dropped a fence and it scratched all down the side of the van. Well, it took several months, but in the end it all got sorted by the insurance. Erm, great story huh. Here's some pictures.

Camping and throwing-up

2008-05-26T08:37:00.000-07:00

Me and Freya took Billy to a campsite in Kent, and went to visit Leeds Castle. It was a lovely day out. It was a very rainy night, and the gutter and window repairs I have done to Billy all worked and we stayed bone-dry. But then in the night I started throwing up... from both ends. All very unpleasant, when you're half dressed and it's peeing it down outside. :(

Billy's gutters latest!

2008-04-27T06:15:00.000-07:00

Back in December, I blogged about my gutters looking a bit rotten. Now the weather is better, I thought I'd have a pop at fixing them. Its one of those jobs I've been planning in my head for ages, so I was fairly sure I knew what I was going to do.

1) use a screwdriver to scrape away all the crap, 2) cure the rust with some kurust, 3) pack any cavities, 4) seal with proper car filler stuff, 5) prime and paint. It pretty well went as planned.

Here are the holes after I'd cleared and kurusted them - the first picture is the middle of the gutter, the second picture is the back corner:

Here's a photo of the middle hole from inside - look, you can see the daylight shining through!

Once I'd cleared all the holes out, I decided to pack the cavities with clear silicone. I know it's usual to use newspaper and chicken wire or something, but these holes were all really weird and cavernous, and so I thought I'd just squeeze loads of goop in there and let it find it's way into all the nooks and crannies.

Then, I got the lovely clever car filler stuff and filled the holes. I like the way it comes in two tubes, and when you mix it together the little tube makes the stuff in the big tube go hard. Clever.

This was layer one, I put a second layer on as well which was more smooth and sanded and stuff. I then primed it, ready to paint another day...

But the next day... it rained, and I found it's still leaking!!!! :( boooo.

So I'm sat inside Billy doing some carpentry (!) and the thing is merrily dripping away. At first I was catching the drips in a bowl, and then I had to upgrade to a 5 litre jerry can!

When I was priming my repair, I did find a little area that didn't look like it was properly filled - you couldn't really see it until it was painted. I hoped for the best, but it looks like it's the culprit.

I know this because I did a little test - I dammed the gutters with blu tak, and filled them with water, and I could see all the little bits of flotsam and jetsam vanishing down the crack. So, next time it's dry, I have to sand down the primer and get my filler on again! Booooo

I finished my cupboard!

2008-02-16T11:42:00.001-08:00

I finished the cupboard! Well, apart from painting it and doing doors, which will be a whole other exercise in another chapter. But here it is, the finished article!

I built a cupboard! part two

2008-02-10T10:38:00.000-08:00

I spent another day on the cupboard today! Stage two in fact, putting the walls on the frame. It took me 2 hours in total yesterday to buy the bloody wood - bad traffic mainly, but also both Homebases near me having broken down board cutting machines. B&Q it was in the end. One big sheet of MDF (4ft x 8ft) which I got them to cut into 15 bits, all to a beautiful drawing wot I made. I had to scribe the exact edge profiles, and cut away other bits and pieces, but it was fairly straightforward really. Here's a few pics. Still shelves and doors to go tho...

I built a cupboard! part one

2008-01-27T13:41:00.000-08:00

I've been planning this cupboard for Billy in my head for a while now... it's a cupboard for the back of the van, alongside the bed, where the spare wheel currently lives (we'll worry about what to do with the wheel later!). I want it to look a bit like this one. I'm not sure of the cupboards/drawers/compartments layout yet - I'm starting by making a frame, and I'm going to skin it later. Here's the frame - it looks wicked!!

Starting to plan my trip

2008-01-23T14:45:00.000-08:00

I've planning a big trip, probably in August. I'm thinking I might have 3 weeks. I want to take photos of Billy in front of loads of landmarks, so Paris, Pisa, and Rome are essential. The rest I've thrown together from looking at routes and reading the bare bones of some guide books. I'm going to spend the next six months talking to people about where they've been and what I should see, and that's going to make this plan change I expect. But here it is for now -

London, Calais, Paris, Marseille, Pisa, Rome, Basel, the Black Forest, Amsterdam, Bruges, Calais, London. View Google Maps

VW interior plans

2008-01-09T04:29:00.000-08:00

I was doing my periodic peruse of ebay for the random VW items that turn up from time to time, and I came across a guy selling copies of 70s conversion plans for van interiors. I bought a couple, cause they were only £2 each and I was intrigued. They make fun and geeky reading, and the devony-style one is particularly useful.

I did wonder about copyright though - is this guy right for making money from their sale? Almost certainly not, since he told me he didn't write them and just found them one day and scanned them and cleaned them up a bit to redistribute. Indeed, one of them he said he just found on a CD. So I'm not going to make a big song and dance about it, but I am going to put them on this blog for anyone who wants them to download.

I suspect nobody will find them, but perhaps if they google VW, camper, conversion, plans, templates, or something they might show up. Do enjoy -

Devon-style - part A
Devon-style - part B
Quick on-off furniture

Billy's gutters

2007-12-29T07:06:00.000-08:00

I gave Billy a really good wash today. A proper deep clean, with sprayey bleach and a toothbrush in all his difficult to reach areas. I think it was actually the first time I've ever cleaned his gutters, since I got him - there was a lot of black crap in there, and it seems it was covering up a world of sins.

I remember when I first got him, and he was freshly painted, there were some quite bad leaks in the gutters, which I fixed with some squirty silicon to keep the interior dry. Well... I think the holes I covered up have got bigger.

Wondering now how to fix this... will it require getting someone to weld on some new sections of guttering, or maybe a bit of filler at this stage is ok?? I'm going to ask the forum.

Billy visible on Microsoft Earth

2007-09-07T06:34:00.001-07:00

Now, I always like it when Billy turns heads and gets noticed, but I never expected him to be visible from space. This is quite cool. On Microsoft Earth, Billy can be seen from three different angles. And in one of the shots the side-door is open, so I'm pretty sure I must be in the picture too! I'm gonna do these as screen grabs, in case Microsoft's images change.

Spotaneous Billy trip

2007-07-14T13:01:00.000-07:00

On the spur of the moment, I went away in Billy last night. It was a lovely little place called St Ives Farm near Hartfield in East Sussex. There were loads of kids running around, and families having big family parties. It was centered around a man-made fishing lake, and kids were getting excited about catching little tiddlers. I turned up about 10.30, found a spot, then found a better spot with less greenfly buzzing around. Pretty much went to sleep straight away, slept in late, read lots, then came home at about 2pm.

It's all part of the "do more in Billy" plan; not just a thing about getting out more, seeing some country, reading, watching films etc, but also about giving Billy more opportunities to breakdown! The idea is, if I only do journeys when it's something really important (trips with friends, festivals, holidays, house-moving trips) then the likelihood of Billy breaking down and screwing up something important is quite high. If I go out in Billy for random unimportant trips, he'll have more opportunities to break down and I can just get towed home and go to bed, and not feel really pissed off.

Billy went to Glastonbury

2007-06-26T08:39:00.000-07:00

Billy went to Glastonbury this weekend. He was wicked, he got there like a dream, not a hint of a problem. There was a lot of rain, and a lot of mud, and Billy kept as dry and warm and entertained by the radio. We felt spectacularly smug, and I may even treat Billy to a hand car wash and wax to say thank you. He even performed better than most getting out of the car park - only needing a push at the last minute through what can best be described as milkshake.

Misfortune

2007-06-18T11:29:00.000-07:00

It's taken me a while to get round to blogging this sorry episode, because various misfortunes have befallen me, and Billy's was only the first. They said bad things come in threes, and sadly this whole weekend only counts as one (having badly twisted my ankle, and then suffered from a 6-day shitting disease since all this happened).

Others have recounted the disasterous (but ultimately fantastic) bank holiday weekend in Cornwall already, so for this blog I'll keep it to the Billy bits. Ben, Lucy and I set off for Cornwall from Clapham at about 6pm, and only made it as far as Hammersmith. I'd been thinking just the day before (when I had the engine lid open) that the fan belt and 'stuff' sounded a bit noisy, but didn't really have the time to get into it. I really should have.

The rattling was probably the alternator bearings getting ready to give up, because the alternator itself seized on that railway bridge in Hammersmith (though I didn't know that at the time). Somehow, the tension of the fanbelt managed to stall the engine. I started the engine again, and it stalled again. I started it a third time (as you do when you've stalled) and gave it some gas. Smoke came pouring out of the engine, and that's when I decided to stop.

The fanbelt had melted on to the pulley wheel (that was the smoke, thankfully), and the pulley wheel itself had ground a groove all the way round the front of the alternator casing. By luck and coincidence, two really nice guys (who called themselves members of the BBC - "Black Beetle Club" :) drove by, and pulled over and tried to help us out. They pulled things apart, which revealed the extent of the damage and helped make the decision that billy had to go home. Meanwhile, we proceeded onto cornwall via Polo.

New alternator £200. Annoyingly, I only had that alternator fitted in 2003, when I first bought the van. It was clearly a shit alternator - either a rubbish second hand one, or a cheap new one - thanks very much cowboy VW nobhead in Ringwood.

Onward to Glastonbury...

Billy's fridge is broken

2007-05-22T16:02:00.000-07:00

Erm. That's all really. I think something in the power circuit is blown. I might have blown it when I've been pratting about with the leisure battery. Might be able to fix it but... ho hum.

Leisure battery and split charge relay

2007-04-21T06:35:00.000-07:00

Way back when I got the new engine fitted, my garage told me they would have to strip out the secondary electrics (battery and split charge relay) that I had fitted a few years previously (they were pressure washing the engine bay, so it made sense) - they also told me it wasn't working, which was news to me. But hey ho. So today I re-fitted it.

I couldn't remember which wires fitted to which terminals, so last week me and Dad (when he was down visiting) did some playing with the black box (i.e. took it apart) and made a circuit diagram. It's quite a neat little gizmo (it's called a Combo Split Charge Relay, and I can't remember the brand, but I bought it from a local caravan electrics shop when I lived in Bournemouth). Basically, a single live wire charges two separate relays (hence 'combo') that close two switches to allow power from the main battery out to two terminals (nominally, one for a fridge/cooler, the other to charge the leisure battery).

It was a piece of piss to fit the thing, mainly because I'd done it before and all the holes and wires were still in place. The longest part of the job - about 20 minutes - was spent sanding down the nearest earth terminal of rust so that it was a sound connection. I suspect this is why it wasn't working that day when the garage man stripped it out. I really need to secure the battery somehow, but it's really not going anywhere in a hurry.

Pair of seats for sale

2007-04-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

Seeing as I've just fitted new seats, I now have a pair of original basket-weave seats for sale, with the runner parts as well (though, these got a little damaged during removal). In need of upholstery, but not urgently. No springs poking through or anything though, as you can see! If you're interested, message me on Just Kampers forum. UPDATE: I sold them for £65 on wee-bay.

Fitting New Driver's Seat

2007-04-09T00:46:00.000-07:00

I had a fun Easter weekend with my Dad in London - he came to stay with me for a couple of nights, so we could finish the job we started in November of fitting new front seats for Billy. The reason we didn't finish it before, up in Loughborough, was because we were worried we wouldn't finish it, and I didn't want to get stranded in Loughborough with no driver's seat to come home with.

The passenger seat was fairly easy to remove - it wasn't on runners, it was hooked onto a metal plate, which we had to remove by drilling-out spot welds. The driver's seat was actually pretty much the same principle, it's just there were a lot more welds to drill out, about 20 on the outside runner, and 10 on the inside runner. We tried our best to just drill out the welds, but in almost every single case, we ended up drilling right through to daylight; we actually found that almost every single weld on the main runner was a sloppy mess, had missed the pre-manufactured dimple, and become a big splodge of weld to the side. Some of them took 3 drillings to clear them, and we punched through in most places. I'm going to slap some underseal in the wheel arch to try to fill the holes.

The long runner was also welded on at both ends, and we went at it with an grinding stone to remove the final welds. The idea then was to lever the runner off the car, popping each of the rivets as we went along. That popping sound was very satisfying and we let out a little cheer each time a rivet went. With the runners finally removed (it took about three hours) we did some clean up with some wire brushes, magnets and a hoover, and also rubbed away some of the old grease that was still there. We also did a bit of rudimentary panel-beating to flatten points where we'd pulled the rivets upwards - we placed a lump hammer underneath each hole in the wheel arch and whacked it with another hammer from above. Apart from the holes, the metal work wasn't looking too bad and was pretty flat.

Offering the seat up to the space we'd just created for it, we found that the runners were too close together to sit comfortably on the old seat's runner areas. We noticed that the passenger side featured a sort of metal extension of the runner area out into the void beneath the seat. So we decided to make one of these ourselves using a bit of wood. A strip of 9mm ply, with the corner cut off fitted the curve of the metal nicely, and essentially made a giant wooden washer for the bolts.

So that's about it really. There was quite a lot of positioning and repositioning of the seat, to make sure the driving position was ok, there was enough movement forward and backward etc. and we measured and marked up where the holes should be quite accurately. We drilled clearance holes through the wooden strip and down into the wheel arch, and fitted high tensile allen bolts with nylon locking bolts to stop them shaking free. I now have comfortable Porsche seats in the van instead of the knackered old ones that were there before.

Before primer and After primer

2007-03-31T12:20:00.000-07:00

Rusty cab floor

2007-03-31T08:02:00.000-07:00

The main project I'm working on in Billy this spring is the cab - new seats, paint metal work, new visors, door panels, etc etc. I figure by partitioning the work between rear and front, I'll focus on one thing at a time! The new bed in the rear has distracted me for a while, but I'm back to the cab for the next few weeks now.

I've had a pair of Porsche seats ready to go in since autumn. Me and my Dad fitted the passenger seat back in November, but the other one has been sat waiting for a time when I know I can finish the job in one session (having a car without a driver's seat, though perhaps a good theft deterant, is not the smartest idea). We're going to do that next weekend, so watch this space.

Before we do that, I decided to paint some of the metal work in the cab, such as the floor and the bulkheads that the seats attach to. I've found a fair bit of rust under the rubber mats, which is a shame. But I've rubbed them down and I'm about to coat them with some primer, and we'll see what happens.

Rock n Roll Bed 2 - Cushions

2007-03-31T07:25:00.000-07:00

OK, so call me a cheapskate, but having spent £100 on the R&R bed, I decided I didn't want to spend another £60 on foam. Partly on an environmental tip, but mainly because I was feeling skint at the time, I decided to see what sheets of foam I could get for free via Freecycle.
Ideally, I wanted 3" or 4" thick foam, but I managed to get two sheets of 2" instead. In order to sandwich them together, I made kinda cotton pillow cases using old bed sheets (again, from Freecycle :) and stuffed the foam into them. The result is pretty comfy!

The next thing is I need to make some proper covers for the cushions, and I've been looking at fabrics. I had thought to do it in denim, and I've taken a few pictures of a few different types of denims. But there are also a few other options in there too. Not in a hurry, so might have a long thing about it first :)

Heating problem solved...

2007-03-02T02:39:00.000-08:00

Back in November, me and me dad were trying to work out why I had no heating in the van.

It's a common misconception that VW campers are cold and have no heating - one of the founding principles of an aircooled engine is that a ruddy bloody big fan blows the very hot air away from the engine. On the camper, there's a bunch of conduits and stuff that carry that heat from the engine along pipes to the front of the van, depositing the hot air on your feet and up the dashboard.

Often the heat exchangers are gone, or the pipes are knackered, or there's simply not enough oomph to get it all to the front. Having ruled out all of these, we were baffled why the pipes were hot to touch, but there was no blowing air. We assumed there must have been a blockage in the pipes somewhere, and I took a length of hosepipe home with me and was going to start trying to do a dynarod effort under the van.

Needless to say other things got in the way and I never bothered. But last night, driving home, there was a huge fluttering crackly noise, and FWOOF a whole load of crap came out from my dashboard vents, including what looked like feathers/fur/hair or something. And now... I have hot air coming through :) If the stories are true about Billy's life during the 80s being spent in a barn going nowhere, then maybe something crawled up and made a nest and died in there. It finally got dislodged. I just have to pick remnants of it out of my dashboard vents now. Eugh. But still... result!

Starter motor buggered

2007-02-04T13:17:00.000-08:00

Billy wouldn't start this morning. The battery's fully charged (measures 12.5V) and it's not even trying to turn over, just a 'chck' noise when you try to turn the engine over. A bump start got him going though. Sounds like the starter motor's not doing its thing, so I'm going to read about that mechanism and see if there's anything I can do myself without taking him to a garage. Hopefully it's just the solenoid, that's only about £16 and according to my book its quite easy to fit. The starter motor itself is nearer £60, and a bit trickier to fit.

Three weeks later ... after a pair of Saturdays lying under the van trying various tricks (ranging from 'clean the contacts' to 'whack it with a hammer') I concluded a) it was properly broken and b) I wasn't going to replace it myself. There's a ruddy big bolt that is hidden behind the fan housing at the back of the engine which I couldn't really imagine myself finding, and there was also about 3 inches of clearance between my nose and the van when trying to work underneath it. So I took it back to Jack's, and for £110 (bosch part plus an hour or so's labour) they did it for me. They gave me the old one as well, so I can take it apart and learn about its gubbins :)

(Also learnt that it's a LOT quicker to drive to Jack's in the evening than in the morning - 25 minutes instead of about an hour. Plus, you avoid the newly extended congestion charge if you drive after 6pm).

MOT not so good this year

2007-02-01T11:24:00.000-08:00

I've been pretty lucky with MOTs so far since I've owned Billy, but this year... booooo. I had to fork out £480, which smarts a little after the engine expenditure last year. The main issue was brakes, which is more than ok considering they are pretty important - both rear brake cylinders were leaking badly, and one of the rear drums was paper-thin. The handbrake cables were all stretched and two rubber gromits were perished as well. On top of that, it seems my two front shock absorbers have been pretty much hanging off, so they had to be replaced - I thought that creaking over speed ramps was a bit suspect. Together with one new tyre and a couple of halogen bulbs, and a little bit of fibreglass and underseal on the rear inner sills, it was a bit of an expensive year.

This gives me an opportunity to write about my garage, Jack's Garage in Ladbroke Grove. I really like these guys - a bunch of Kiwis, led by a guy called Grant, who have the cleanest most hygienic garage I think I've ever seen. One of the things I love is that they keep all the old parts they've removed and lay them out on the table to show you afterwards. On the left you can see my handbrake cables, shox, cylinders and bulbs. It's just great to have guys that explain exactly what's going on, without being patronising. And they're not too pricey either.

Camper chassis numbers

2007-01-26T08:55:00.000-08:00

OK, time to geek it up big time now with this post. Just been reading this article from earlybay.com about how the VW chassis numbers work. My chassis number is 2132081286. This means...

21 = my camper was originally a panel van
3 = made in 1973
2 = specifies second decade of production, i.e. it's '73 not '63
081286 = my production line number

According to that article, the cut off point for UK tax free status is 102496. So, I'm only 21,210 vehicles away from being taxable :) Result.

Rock n Roll Bed

2007-01-21T16:27:00.000-08:00

I've decided to get rid of the Devon pull-out bed and fit a rock n roll bed (so called because it easily rock n rolls from seat to bed and back again). The Devon bed is dead comfortable, but I've had enough of pulling it out and lining it up and screwing the legs in. I just really like the idea of pulling the bed out in on easy motion and going straight to bed. I was planning on buying a new one from Bluebird, but I opted for a second-hand one I found through the JustKampers forum for £100. It's in perfect condition, and just needs cushions making.

First thing to say... these things are well complicated! I'm a pretty logical minded kinda guy, but the physics of this thing confused the hell out of me. I put it together in three different ways before it was right, and even then it was so bloody heavy I had to take the boards off to be able to handle it. Finally managed it though, and it looks great (suspicious wet-looking patch is just the grain of the wood!).

The bed kinda slopes down a bit, which is a bit weird. I think I might try chocking the vertical board up by a couple of inches, and moving the hinges up the same amount where they're attached to the van. Unlike with the Devon, you sleep with your head at the back of the van I think, so it doesn't really matter that much. But I'd much prefer it to be level. Still, it's a good start....

By the way, here's an animation of the outgoing Devon pull-out bed. Suspect I'll be selling this on JustKampers or Ebay some day soon.

The story so far

2007-01-21T15:26:00.000-08:00

I bought Billy in Feb 2004, from a guy called Gary in Bournemouth. The story is he had been stored in a barn for about 15 years without moving, so the bodywork was in pretty good nick (I've had it confirmed by my garage that rust-wise, Billy is in pretty good health). I bought him for £2,800 which included a partial Devon interior and a new (if a little slapdash) paintjob. Immediately I paid £200 for a dynamo-to-alternator conversion, so I usually consider him having cost £3k. He is tax-exempt (just!!) and the serial number shows he was originally a panel-van.

Here are some pictures of how he looked when I first got him. That exterior picture is the one I always show to people when they ask what Billy looks like - he looks his best in that picture because the paintjob is fresh (3 years on, inevitably, a small amount of rust has started to bubble through on the gutters and other joints).

Billy lived with me in Bournemouth for about six months, during which time I did some tarting up of the interior. The list includes:

fitted a make-shift roof lining done by gluing on some table-covering felt stuff (the condensation you get when you sleep in a tin-roof camper is a nightmare unless the roof is lined)
fitted a car stereo, which included having to cut the dash to fit
fitted a radio aerial
fitted a cheap carpet throughout (though not the cab)
built a top-locker unit from 12mm ply, and installed speakers in it
built a sink and fridge unit from 12mm ply, and fitted a second hand sink and 12v fridge, complete with mosaic'd lids!
fixed the cooker unit onto hinges, attached to a hastily crafted (!) piece of 2x3 wood
fitted recoil seat belts
fitted a split-charge relay and leisure battery, with auxiliary fuse box for non-driving electrics (stereo, interior lights, sink motor, fridge, lighter socket)
removed some crummy wood-effect interior panels that had been fastened, and made my own which I upholstered with denim :)
fitted some shelves inside the bizarre Devon wardrobe unit, to make it mildly useful
bought and installed a gas canister and a number of cooking vessels and tools!
painted the bench seat and my new units in white gloss
fitted Silent Gliss curtain rail, and threw up some cut up old curtains from the house

As you can see, he became a bit of a project. Even after just 6 months TLC, Billy started to look quite respectable. Here's a picture of what he looked like in March 2005 (these photos are taken annually, for insurance purposes). I managed to go camping in him a number of times from the Bournemouth base, including to Exmoor, Lulworth, and er Southampton! There was an amusing incident with the Devon pull-out bed right near the beginning, when we realised (by virtue of ending up with our arses on the floor) that the bed wasn't properly fastened to the car. I didn't get proper Devon legs for Billy until about two years later as well, and was making too with make shift scraps of timber - quite an adventure in the middle of the night, when you wake up feeling yourself falling...

In Sept 2004, Billy and I moved to London, where we still are now. The rate of jobs slowed down, partly due to the work that the London flat needed doing to it, and partly because of the now lack of working space, tools, places to store timber, etc etc (the Bournemouth house had a very nice lean-to out the back that my Dad and I built, which became a bit of a workshop; the London flat is on the first floor and any work is done in the lounge or out in the street!). That said, little jobs that did get done during that first year in London included:

Painted the dashboard with black hammered hammerite (it was quite a bit rusty)
Replaced rear bumper and rear off-side quarter panel, after an altercation with a london bus (their fault, I should add, and they paid)
Made Billy his very own curtains, from a nice blue and white stripy fabric (yep, I used a sewing machine and everything)
Replaced the stereo after some swine pinched it, and also had to replace the off-side window unit, because that's what they broke to get into the van (moral: never leave CDs in the glove box, and never leave the front panel on the stereo)

That year, Billy had his first trip to Europe (Northern France, Easter 2005, left) and also had the privilege of going to Glastonbury (the year that all the tents floated away in a river of shit - needless to say, Billy's comfort was appreciated, but the noise of a monster rainstorm on a tin roof camper has to be heard to be believed).

As enjoyable as these little trips were, they started to highlight a major problem with Billy's
engine (especially Glastonbury, where climbing hills at full revs but only 15mph started to get quite scary). Over the space of a year, I made three separate visits to Jack's Garage in Ladbroke Grove for tunings, replacement parts and other work. The general consensus was that the engine had been cooking for those first two years, and was pretty much buggered. The timing had been set to +20 degrees for about two years, the fan was impeded with some foam housing, and the tappits were practically closed shut. It was no surprise that finally, during a trip back to Bournemouth in 2006 to properly move out of my old house there, Billy conked out for the last time. I recovered him to Jack's, swallowed hard and opted to wipe out all my problems in one £2,700 fell swoop.

But I don't regret it for a second (before and after photos, left). The brand-new 2006 VegeUK 1.6L air-cooled engine purrs like a kitten, cruises at 65mph, doesn't burn oil in the slightest, and most importantly instills me with complete confidence. I think even if I'd had major restorative work done and every part replaced (which might have been cheaper, but taken longer) I would still have a nagging doubt every time the road surface changed and caused a different noise to come from down below. As handy as I am, and despite my "Beginners Engine Maintenance" night class last year (!), engines scare me. It's something I need to get over if I'm to enjoy Billy properly, but it's a task ahead.

So Billy has a new heart, and his body is in pretty good shape as well for a 34-year-old, so I'm starting work on giving him facelift now as well. My main focus at the moment is the cab - here's a list of jobs in progress:

Have fitted door speakers, though I think I will actually replace the door cards with new ones, because mine are quite water damaged. While I'm there I'll insulate the doors, and upholster the door cards in the same denim as I used in the back.
I'm fitting a pair of Porsche seats to replace the fairly battered original seats (I know, I know - they can be restored and made to be very comfortable, and I'm destroying the original look and feel of the van, but I'm not a massive traditionalist, and I'd rather go for comfort any day). I'll get the Porsche seats upholstered one day, but for now I'm installing them as-is.
I'm going to paint the interior metal work white, to cover all that unsightly rust and stuff.
New cab carpets or rubber mats? Not sure

I've also lots of ideas for the main van, including a rock and roll bed, full wardrobe unit to the rear, remove the devon wardrobe unit and build something proper, maybe a DVD and screen, renovate or replace cooker unit, full proper head-lining etc etc. Lots of ideas, not much money, and wherever possible my own skills. I'll keep posting on this blog to show how it's going....

Billy the Bus's Blog

2007-01-20T06:33:00.000-08:00

I know I've already got three other blogs, but I've decided to keep one just about Billy. Billy is my beautiful early 1973 bay window VW camper van. I bought him in 2003, and last year decided to splash out good money on a brand new 1.6L air-cooled vegeUK engine. This year, I am going to do up the interior, to as high a standard as my skills will allow. And then take him somewhere. So I thought I'd write about it as I go. I'm going to start properly this week, with a very detailed post about the state of Billy today, and a summary of the jobs I've done or had done since I owned him. And then, I'll post as often as I do something.