LFGSS Camper Van owners?

It's great to finally have contact with you! Actually the auction house has promised a full refund if I don't get the car by the end of the month. They have insurance to cover shipping losses, and apparently the premium was included in the commission I paid. So if you send me £500 and make sure the car doesn't get here in the next 2 weeks, I'll give you 30% of my insurance payout. That's a £2000 profit for you.

Just out of curiosity... why a Nissan Elgrand?

Big enough and because petrol, ULEZ compliant I imagine?

Well.

Budget £7 - £10k. I ruled out anything non-ULEZ. No Euro 6 diesels because too expensive and I don't want diesel, I want to be green. Hybrid or EV obviously too expensive. It had to be petrol, with the option of LPG and bioLPG.

Bongo size would be too small because I want to take my motorbike and bicycle and have a fairly big proper mattress, not a rock n roll bed. And a composting toilet. Nothing terribly long or high because I couldn't get a Lambeth parking permit and I want to be stealth.

4WD highly desirable for wild camping off road.

So my shortlist was very short. Elgrand or Alphard or Mercedes V Class at a Japanese auction. Or a Hyundai i800 in the UK. Those are all a very similar boxy shape, which gives more volume than the other more aero MPVs like the Estima or the Elysion. And there aren't so many Elysions going through the auctions. There's a huge choice of Elgrands and Alphards - both are very popular in Japan, which ought to be a good sign?

V Class are easily the best buy, they're almost giving them away in Japan. Hyundai in the UK also a very good buy. But I ruled both out because they're RWD only.

So it was Elgrand vs Alphard. Elgrand are cheaper and said to be better as a camper conversion, with a bit more space and a bigger flat area, whereas the Alphard has more angles and slopey bits. Elgrand not as reliable or well built as Alphard, but if you know that before you start you can hope to overcome it with preventive maintenance. And mine's the V6 which has a better track record for huge mileages than the 4 cylinder one. The Elgrand has a part time 4WD which cuts in when you lose grip. I can't remember what the Alphard's 4WD is like.

Very interested to see your conversion when it turns up!

Hi all! I mentioned a few pages back that I was starting out as a new camper building business and thought I would post up a few update pics from my latest build. I've been working 24/7 the last couple of months and, whilst theres still plenty to do, I'm really pleased to see it finally all come together :D

The clients have just taken it for an initial shake down trip up to Scotland to see family and explore the islands with their giant old english sheepdog, Winnie. Looking forward to a couple of weeks off van building to do some cycle touring and surfing around the west country. My order book could do with filling (!) so please do get in touch if you might fancy a build of your own, no matter how big or small :)

https://www.instagram.com/sullytheturquoisetransit/

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Winnie quickly settled herself in

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Wow, amazing work!!

Noice. Following you on insta

Got myself a stepwagon at auction back in June, and it's just landed in Southampton. Main delay was getting it on the boat.

Next delay will be registered it, as dvla are on a go slow. Joy.

Finally got my Elgrand from Southampton today. Not registered, no number plates, but I drove it 40 miles to its MoT, which is legal. Nearly didn't make it, because it was leaking so much oil. The power steering cut out briefly - the steering became so heavy that it needed two people, at least! Thank God it started working again. The brakes were also odd...a sort of hammering noise when braking at speed. Despite all this, no warning lights came on, which makes me wonder whether they've all packed up too. The car has so many electronic gadgets...there must be at least 200 buttons. Hard to believe that half a dozen warning lights shouldn't be flashing when the car is on its knees. It might be best to cut my losses by just burying it in a field.

How disappointing. I had an Japanese imported Hiace campervan that was solid as a rock mechanically. Hopefully if you sort out the 'niggles' it will give you many good years.

Sorry to hear that, hope you can get it all sorted!

It's all sortable, it's only money! I won it with a bid of £3,800, so I have to budget for a bit of work. It pulled extremely strongly past 100 when I gave it a bit of throttle, which I hope is a good sign.

Please tell me that was 100kph, not mph, with dodgy breaks and no power steering.

*Brakes

And it was 100 mph. Or 110. I was late for the MoT. And having no number plates I was immune to the speed cameras.

Not immune from being a massive twat though it seems.

Oh fuck off. What does it matter if I speed for a few seconds on a motorway? Go back to your perfect life.

In a non-plated, non mot'd vehicle, you've literally just collected off a boat knowing nothing about it's saftey to drive, while leaking oil, with dodgy steering and brakes.

Absolute dickhead.

I think we can agree that the majority of people would suggest that this was an irresponsible thing to do but can we avoid a pile on and leave it there?

@popdown your van work looks wicked! Following you on instagram :)

@mustardbeak You can fuck off too. How much braking distance did I have? How dodgy were the brakes and steering? You have no idea but you want to make your mean-spirited assumptions so you can score some internet points. It's pathetic. Well, I'm not accountable to you.

Internet points lol, ok. It's not mean spirited assumptions, it's based on what you literally wrote.

How dodgy were the brakes and steering? You have no idea...

Well we've sort of got a gauge from your 886 post that you thought it was all enough of a shambles that you expected Christmas tree lights on the instrument panel.

So you can forgive people for interpreting that as they have.

The power steering cut out briefly - the steering became so heavy that it needed two people, at least! Thank God it started working again. The brakes were also odd...a sort of hammering noise when braking at speed. Despite all this, no warning lights came on, which makes me wonder whether they've all packed up too.

Anyway all this is meaningless without pics.

you guys aren't my real parents