Anyone done any long term/distance travelling in their bus?

[StuF]

Finally arrived after a long one today!
Managed 332 miles and have take in the following
Switzerland (briefly)
Germany
Belgium
And finally Luxembourg

Two fuel stops and one lunch stop!
Not too bad and the bus has been smashing

Off to Gent tomorrow before the Chunnel on wed!

 

[magui]

http://www.bodeswell.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Quincey]

We have just returned from France and Belgium.
Spent three weeks over there, completed 1250miles of travelling and spent approx £250 on fuel.
We had no problems with the bus, however, as stated earlier, a valve adjustment mid journey would have been in order, but we managed to get home alright. I needed 1 oil top up, maybe half a litre.
We all had a ball. Although, I had a massive brain fade before we left and decided I would risk the weather and not take the drive away awning and only use the pop up gazebo. Bad option. When we set up camp just out of Brugge, we went for a walk to buy milk. When we got back 30 mins later the wind had got up and the gazebo was half a mile away in 50 billion pieces. We spent the last week huddled under a spare tarp draped over the wind break, but we still had a ball.
Only drama we had was a puncture 10 miles from home on the return journey.
The upside to the Brugge debacle was the Tempo Matador that was parked a few pitches away. What a lovely machine.
I dip my lid to the Michelin website as well. Helped no end with planning. Busfest next then a little winter maintenance planned.

 

[Trikky2]

Just covered 6000kms in the last 3 weeks......
All on a Stock engine

Are you going to post the story of your trip with some pictures?

 

[soysauce3]

Drove down to Croatia in May, went through Czech republic, Hungary, Slovakia then back home via Slovenia and Austria. Had a brilliant time. Took 2 weeks.
My advice would be take spares, just incase anything happens then you can fix it at the side of the road!
I also make a note of campsites near to where we intend to stop off, we don't have to use them as sometimes we just wing it but its always handy to have a rough idea and also for the Croatia trip I looked up places of interest on the route for ideas of what looked worth visiting on the way.
I love travelling in my van, in fact Europe trips are my highlights of the year

 

[DuncanF]

Just wondering what you guys do for breakdown cover abroad? We're off to Flanders for a week next month so I've been looking for suitable Euro cover. Unfortunately Green Flag (who've always covered us very well here) won't touch anything >16yrs abroad, so our 1970 bus is a bit beyond that.
I took a decent-priced policy with the RAC (about £80 for the week) as their "Comprehensive" (higher) level cover had lots of "Unlimited" statements about roadside assistance and repatriation etc. But today the paperwork arrived. Item #1 on the detail sheet was "1 call out". No mention of that in their pre-sales web site, so VERY MISLEADING, although it is tucked away in a link to their T&Cs document. That's a massive limitation - if I have a trivial problem early in the week I'm stuffed if the engine blows later in the holiday. On that basis I've cancelled the cover.
If I take an annual policy (about £240) then I get 3 calls, which is more realistic.
Looks like the AA has the same limitation and more expensive.
Any better options out there please?

Duncan

 

[Telford Mulisha]

Try these, they're a sister company of autoaid which i use. You need the means to pay, but then claim it back.
https://www.eurorescue.co.uk/index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Duncan]

Thanks for the suggestion but according to the web site they also don't cover anything over 15yrs old :-(


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[StuF]

My roadside assistance comes standard with RH insurance - maybe it will be cheaper and easier to give them a bell

 

[Supertramp]

Thanks for all the replies. We've moved from the 'thinking about it' stage to the 'crap, we need to start saving' stage.
Thinking of heading off in March and continuing until the money runs out, hoping to be gone for at least 6 months though.

I've been developing a bus timeline to estimate when work on the bus should be done, I want to have it all pretty much finished by January so that we have two months to iron out any niggles before we leave.
Already got free accommodation in Italy sorted for a week or so helping out with some rescue horses, cooking Italian food and looking after a dog.

We're estimating about £10,000 between us, including petrol, sound doable?

 

[70-CA-Panel]

Good thread, glad to hear you'll be off on a proper bus adventure.
Just wait you might end up like the Rehm family of Bodeswell.org
Great trip have only browsed their blog, but they took their 71 all over the US and South America, brilliant!

I lived in my bus for about half a year and travelled all over the west of the US with two hicups, one the points broke, sorted in 15min, then a few years later my front main bearing gave up I'm restoring it now haven't driven it from then 2005.
Nearly done, hoping to get MOT in about a week.

Have travelled with my partner after only dating her for two months and then living on different continents for 8months before meeting her again and living in a small Toyota Hiace in NZ for a year. We worked for a month here then travelled for a month, worked... We did get a room in a house twice for about a month each to break it up, but were able to sustain our year travels with less than six months minimum wage jobs.

Then we did the same in Oz in 2009-10 and going back in a couple of months to continue...

Here are some pics of Oz of the van and a little bit of the set up it was a long wheelbase, but we didn't need that much room. The NZ van was a shortwheel base and was fine. have an eski (we didn't have ice in it nor plugin) for veg, cheese and milk and buy meat fresh. HAve your bus organised and set up so you're not moving stuff about all the time, that's why we left our bed out all the time, too much faff otherwise.
Oh we free camped only in OZ and and a couple of nights in NZ. My family and I travelled 5 weeks through Spain and Portugal pulling a caravan and only stayed in a campsite for a week the rest we found free spots and stayed several days at some and that's a car and caravan, you'll find many awesome spots to camp for free!




This is nearing the end of our travels so a bit skinny.


Yup those are freshly picked mangoes and cocomuts!

Best of Luck and have an awesome trip!!

Andy

 

[soysauce3]

I always use Heritage for my euro breakdown 01212466060 - I think that takes you straight to the correct department or heres the website http://www.heritage-quote.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Duncan]

Yes the Insurance route looks the best way to go. I'm insured with JK and they have a breakdown option, sadly it can't be added later in the year. So for now it looks like I'm stuffed and back to the RAC for an annual policy I don't need, just to guarantee up to 3 calls in our week-long holiday.


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[soysauce3]

you really should try Heritage they are normally reasonably priced (about £35 for a weeks cove.
You dont need to have your vehicle insured with them, you can do one off breakdown cover.
They also came out exactly at the time they said they would when my friend broke down in Austria.

 

[Mr Brightside]

Try this for inspiration, not VW, but still

http://vimeo.com/75264472" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Edit, embedded link will not work on Tapatalk

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[Supertramp]

Good thread, glad to hear you'll be off on a proper bus adventure.
Just wait you might end up like the Rehm family of Bodeswell.org
Great trip have only browsed their blog, but they took their 71 all over the US and South America, brilliant!

I lived in my bus for about half a year and travelled all over the west of the US with two hicups, one the points broke, sorted in 15min, then a few years later my front main bearing gave up I'm restoring it now haven't driven it from then 2005.
Nearly done, hoping to get MOT in about a week.

Have travelled with my partner after only dating her for two months and then living on different continents for 8months before meeting her again and living in a small Toyota Hiace in NZ for a year. We worked for a month here then travelled for a month, worked... We did get a room in a house twice for about a month each to break it up, but were able to sustain our year travels with less than six months minimum wage jobs.

Then we did the same in Oz in 2009-10 and going back in a couple of months to continue...

Here are some pics of Oz of the van and a little bit of the set up it was a long wheelbase, but we didn't need that much room. The NZ van was a shortwheel base and was fine. have an eski (we didn't have ice in it nor plugin) for veg, cheese and milk and buy meat fresh. HAve your bus organised and set up so you're not moving stuff about all the time, that's why we left our bed out all the time, too much faff otherwise.
Oh we free camped only in OZ and and a couple of nights in NZ. My family and I travelled 5 weeks through Spain and Portugal pulling a caravan and only stayed in a campsite for a week the rest we found free spots and stayed several days at some and that's a car and caravan, you'll find many awesome spots to camp for free!




This is nearing the end of our travels so a bit skinny.


Yup those are freshly picked mangoes and cocomuts!

Best of Luck and have an awesome trip!!

Andy

Love this Andy, looks like an amazing trip. Get some more pictures up!

 

[camit34]

For a 4 month temp job in another state I drove my '71 Westy the 1100 miles to get there, lived it for the 4 months while there and drove up and down the west coast of California multiple times and then back home for a total of just over 6000 miles. Besides some general tuning and maintenance, she performed perfectly.

 

[70-CA-Panel]

Sweet pictures ^ !!

The second looks like where I got my "Salty's Sea & Tackle" sticker for my rear bumper which now hangs in a bodyshop.

Nice roadtrip, same as you, no worries back then... we'll see if this continues in the future :lol:

I'll post some more pics next week.

Where are all the others??

Cheers

Andy