Hello 👋 New member with a self-build camper called Roger. (1 Viewer)

[Bikevanhappy]

Hello everyone!

I've finally got round to posting after lurking for a while and thought I'd better introduce myself.

We are a couple, both working full-time and are close to finishing our second self-conversion, Roger, which we have already spent 50 nights in. I say close to finishing, we never actually finished the last one...

We have two weeks off in early September which we were planning to spend cycling in the Alps and watching the Tour, but that's off the cards now so we are thinking - tunnel - non stop to Germany- stay somewhere just across the border - Austria near Innsbruck - Italian Dolomites.

But there's nothing booked at the moment and we are still keeping our options open. I have to admit the change in the weather has made Wales or the Lakes seem less appealing and I suspect it is going to be hard to find nice places to stay with such short notice.

 

[movan]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[ambulancekidd]

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[Next Stop]

Welcome!
Have you any photos of your build, always keen on seeing other peoples designs!

 

[HugoBNB]

Welcome

 

[Riverbankannie]

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[AnnB]

Hello and welcome.

 

[davidbaldam]

Hi and welcome to FUN.

 

[WynandJean]

Hello and welcome from West Midlands.

Wyn

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[Howard H]

And

 

[f6c]

Welcome aboard

 

[gus-lopez]

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[phillipsheila]

 

[Bikevanhappy]

Thank you all. I'll get some photos of Roger up ASAP.

 

[jollyrodger]

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[Dazza 6863]

Hi and to the fun,
got back from the lakes on Sunday, we were there for 7 days and the sun shone every day, you might be lucky once schools reopen in Sept so worth looking online

 

[Snoopy]

Hi and welcome

 

[Figaro]

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[rangi]

We had friends , well not exactly friends, but, eeerrrmm, party friends, they were pheudo interlectual , they owned and ran a news Agentcy Book Shop

They got a Signwriter to paint "ROGER" on the Facia fronting the street, and sat behind their net curtains wetting their knickers every time someone walked by and stopped to ponder the sign.

"ROGER" is of course Victorian for ***k They were telling the street to "enjoy"perhaps?

 

[Bikevanhappy]

I may have misunderstood the nature of this forum. Can I have my £15 back?



He's called Roger the Renault.

 

[movan]

Any photos of Roger please? Or have I missed them?

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[In a Pickle]

 

[Cherryb]

And welcome from another newbie all the best with completing this project. And doing trip

You said you work full time please may I enquire, how ofen do you get away?

(We haven’t bought yet because we are not sure we can justify the purchase if we don’t get in it often enough)

 

[Bikevanhappy]

We bought Roger last spring and have had 52 nights away. Bearing in mind we spent a lot of weekends doing the conversion and then had lock down through this spring that is still a reasonable amount of use. We'd have used it more this summer but everywhere has been busy which has put us off a bit. That said we are about to add another 16 nights away and once things quieten down we'll try to go every other weekend so we are more than happy our purchase was justified.

Having your own van does make it easier to get away. Most of our camping stuff lives in the van. We have a shelf each and a kit bag each which fits on the shelf. If we are going away we pack our bags the night before and when it is time to leave just chuck them on the shelf. Our bike loading faff is now down to a few minutes and then we just need to put milk and cold beer in the fridge and go.
This makes getting away on a Friday straight from work easy. Our biggest issue is a lot of sites (the two big clubs are the worst for this) want you there before 8pm. If you don't get home from work until 6pm that really limits options and adds a degree of stress when you are sitting in a Friday evening traffic jam wondering if you are going to make the cut off. If I'm booking a weekend site, the first thing I ask is "how late can we arrive". Pub sites are usually the best as you can check in at the bar which is usually open until at least 11pm. Obviously if you are intending to wild camp this will be much less of an issue.

Life's what you make it.

Here's Roger on the claimed highest road in Europe. I don't have any current interior ones as we are part way through putting in new flooring.

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[Next Stop]

Stunning view! We bought our van 12 months ago with the intention of spending 6 months converting then start our travelling adventures we were supposed to be off to the Lake District for my wifes 40th last week, but what with covid and other family issues the van is still mid way through the conversion, ever hopeful for a better year in 2021!!!

 

[cmcardle75]

Nice van! (Biased, as I'm also converting an L3H3 but with a different badge on the front). It's not been anywhere as pretty as that yet. It's spent most of its life transporting drunks in Carmarthen.

 

[David and Sally]

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[Bikevanhappy]

Cheers all.
Good luck with your conversation cm.

Roger does seem to be a happy smiley van.