Suspension & MOT

That was Friday. Monday we got Jon and Malcolm (ex work colleagues of mine) from Bedford Street Motors to pick her up, with the promise that she would be returned to us with her suspension sorted and 12 months MOT.

The suspension turned out to be a little bit of a headache. With limited funds to get the work done, we bought a second hand set of suspension springs from Twigworth Breakers, the single versions, which would leave her a little bouncy, but she would be on the road, and later on we could get heavy duty springs fitted. Twigworths had a pair or £70. Job done. Nu uh. Had a phone call from Jon which started with a phrase I was to become used to hearing through the week, "we've got a problem", hmmmmm. The springs from Twiggys were too short, they didn't fit !

Turns out they had been marked up wrong, and were probably from a Trafic, not a Master. This actually may have been a blessing in disguise, Jen managed to source a pair of used heavy duty double springs from a breakers in Essex, who delivered them straight to the garage next day for £180. Yes we had to pay more, but we did get a refund on the first ones and these were the springs we really wanted and recommended by camper converters online.








*(This is what an air suspension 'leaf spring' looks like, keeps the axle attached :S.)*

She then went to the MOT station and promptly failed on - sidelight not working, headlamp aim too high, wheel bearing loose, and rear brake compensator valve not working. The wheel bearing just needed tightening and the other bits were easy, apart from the valve !

The valve had been modified to incorporate the air suspension, unfortunately it wasn't as easy to modify back to normal. Jon did a fix on it, but the MOT guy wasn't happy, even though it worked perfectly, he just took a dislike to the 'fix'. Needed it on the road and out of the garage, so rather than pay over the odds for a new valve quickly, we tried another MOT station and paid a second MOT fee, reason being the brake readings were fine at the original station, he just wouldn't pass it. She passed straight away, thank you Halfords Commercial on Bristol Road !

We will fit a new valve so it's original, but now we have time to find one at a decent price.

During all this happening, we tried to think of a name, this came via Facebook from Pauline (Cole), her name is now Nina, as you may have gathered from the title of the blog :). (comes from the sound an Ambulance Siren would make, nee naa nee naa, you get the picture ! ).

Lots of things to do now, not least deciding on a layout !

A few pics of her pre-conversion, or as we bought her :).
















































































































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Location:Gloucester

Ok, I'm going to bring you up to speed .....

Right, where do I start ?

Two years ago, I was in the process of converting a VW T4 work van into a bespoke campervan that said something about me. I'd never done anything like it before, and had a whale of a time doing it, despite all the drawbacks, the biggest being the engine blowing on it's first trip out !

Sadly last year I had to sell it, not quite finished, and have regretted it ever since.

Which brings me to a year of saying to Jen, "I want...... I wish....... If only we had...... I WANT !" :P. Over that year I've been thinking about what sort of van would I want to convert next. The VW was nice, easy to drive, easy to park, but the space is so limited inside. I do shows where I set up a marquee and photograph pets. When I had the marquee and all the rest of the stuff I needed to get me through the day loaded up, it left little room for anything else, couldnt really take a couple of our dogs, or even one, plus if we were to use it for camping the night before a show, we'd have to dump everything outside the van to sleep in it.

So what we decided would be a nice base to get, one day, in the distant future, was a bigger type van like a Sprinter, Transit, Master. Something you could stand up in at least, preferably a LWB. Looking around we noticed there were alot of Renault Master ex Ambulances around, they even do special Ambulance auctions in Merthyr Tydfil. These seem to be ideal for a camper project because of what is normally fitted to them, ie windows, insulated, roof vent, lined walls etc. So our 'intention', was to save up and buy one 'one day', which of course never seems to happen.

Well, I think that I complained so much about wanting a new project, that Jen must have gotten really fed up, because 'one day' she emailed me a link to an auction for said Renault Master Ambulance, that was both a good price, and local ! Just for something to do, the night before the auction finished, we rang the people selling it and arranged to go and have a look at the TWO ambulances they had listed. We liked them both but I preferred the slightly newer one with the better engine, unfortunately, this one had it's air suspension removed, but it was still the better van.

In a moment of madness the next day in the last few seconds, Jen put a bid in over the starting price of £800. Her bid won it at £870 ! Oops. :P.

The people selling selling it delivered it the next day on the back of a trailer (as it had no suspension on the back), this was on a Friday !

Well that's how we ended up with it, not really looking to buy one, but it was such a bargain it really did seem silly not to !

The day it was delivered, Jen rang the NHS and asked who she could talk to regarding it's servicing. They told her to ring their Fleet Servicing. The lady Jen spoke to was very helpful and promptly emailed us the past 6 years of it's service and repair history, which detailed everything down to a lightbulb replacement. It made very good reading, so much has been done, including completely new rear brakes, a recent cam belt change, a new battery etc. We had most probably seen it driving around, it had been based around 4 miles from where we live for the past 6 years. Originally in service in Bristol from new.

So we knew we had bought a good one :).

This is the original eBay photo ......






Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Gloucester

Her name is Nina......

Hey guys, just trying out the BlogPress app for my iPad to see if it will upload pictures.

Yes I did buy a new base van, her name is Nina, and this is her first 'official' photo, pre-conversion :).






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad.

Location:Gloucester,United Kingdom

Deja vu.......

Well, it's happening again ! Those of you that followed will trials and tribulations of Damoscamperblog will know how much I have wanted to do it again at some stage after having to sell Scooby to raise some cash way back last year. Through the experience that the T4 gave me, we have some clear guidelines for a future camper that we felt the T4 fell down on. To start with, a better base engine. The feeling of despair last time when the engine blew on it's first outing I do not want a repeat of. Secondly, more room, we would like to use the camper as a convenient base and a stopover vehicle for the various shows we do around the country. If you remember we do alot of Dog Rescue and go to dog shows to raise money for the charities. I'm a photographer, and have a portable studio at the shows for pet photography. Each photo i sell, I donate £5 to the charity or rescue that has organised the show. So I need storage for my huge tent. If staying away over night, the third must have is a safe well ventilated caging system for any dogs we may take with us. This will also double as a vehicle to use for transporting rescue dogs in the middle of the night too, meaning you have somewhere comfortable to grab a few hours sleep.

So after much research and thought, we decided on an ex Ambulance, they have special auctions for them, and you can pick up real bargains. Our Ambulance of choice was the community Ambulance Renault Master LWB, these are ideal as they already have windows all round, and are fully insulated. Being NHS vehicles they are well serviced too.

So there we have it, did we find one ? Some of you already know, read the next entry to find out ;).