After visiting @arabian_ian maybe you should continue the "Tour de BBS"... @North Yorks Red @Farnham_Red @Dragon Tyke @churtonred Or if you're feeling a bit more adventurous @SFOTyke @Tekkytyke @Merde Tete And to finish on a high @AthersleyRed @stairfoot.red @Kendray tyke It's almost enough to tempt me to buy a motor home.
Great news for you mate. It’s been quite a horrible and expensive few months. Look forward to seeing you both again when you next venture north.
I had the same concerns, so I converted a van myself (mostly) . Finished in August had 3 trips so far and going to the dales next week.
She's an old dear, 1996 N reg, based on a Renault Trafic van so parts are difficult to find and dear, so yes it was expensive. However, we bought her at a good price last year, probably £1500 less than the going rate (they must have known the gearbox was shot) so all-in-all we're not too bothered. VW commercials garage in Aberdeen charged £720 to take the box out and then be unable to repair or replace it. Axle and Gearbox specialist in the back streets of Birmingham charged £780 to repair and recondition the box. New clutch (from Germany) £220. Local garage (South Derbyshire) charged £300 to put it back in. Our breakdown cover brought the van home since it hadn't been repaired within 24 hours and gave us a hire car to get home ourselves - would have cost another £1000 at least. We were near Balmoral Castle when it failed so we got recovered to Aberdeen, thinking that a big industrial place like that would give us the best chance of repairing it. Plus we stayed in a Travelodge near Aberdeen Airport for a week at £35 a night.
All good to go again then. It'll probably be worth more than you bought it for now. We off to Dale's next week. Also planning road trip Welsh coast next summer.
Oh my god. A week marooned in Aberdeen. You had my sympathies. 3 hours making a visit for football is enough for me.
We got through it with sex and drugs and rock and roll.... Actually, we were pleasantly surprised by the place, we had a lovely bike ride on an old railway line north to a nice little town called Ellon, we had some nice walks out beyond the harbour to Torry Battery looking for Seals and Dolphins (saw Seals but no Dolphins). In the town we found a couple of nice bars serving some interesting locally brewed ales. Near the Travelodge there was a really nice pub with a chippy next door where the bar staff would go and get your fish and chips and provided cutlery etc. They even let us watch the England game against Ukraine, mind you it suddenly emptied when England scored the third goal.... Most memorable thing - helicopters. Every day they would start going out from the airport (the hotel is near the end of the runway) every half hour, then they would start coming back in the afternoon. Bloody noisy things,
We're planning to head down through France taking in Corsica and Sardinia next summer. We also want to finish our Scottish tour, this time concentrating on the West side and the Great Glen. We might also go down to visit my sister who lives in Lanjaron (near Granada, Andalucia) but that might be the year after and we could go via Ireland then across to Brittany. Trouble is, we can only go to Europe for 90 days in each 6 months since the "B" word.....
