Welcome to the family, Trevor

This is the story of Trevor, our ancient (1973) Bedford CF camper van. It's been a labour of love with him but the hard work is behind us (we hope), and I felt now was the time I told the world about one of the greatest things we own, and all the top travels we are having in our lovebus!  This blog will be a diary of where we go and what we get up to in our van, and the various modifications and issues we come up against. A ride out in Trevor is never boring for sure (and there's always the slight fear we might not make it there and back)!

The story began in 2007 when my other half convinced me we should buy a beaten up, neglected campervan for £250 - he dazzled me with technical knowhow (or gobbledygook) about how he could get it on the road, and how wicked it would be to throw in some pillows and a bottle of wine on a Friday afternoon and take off for the weekend, and so I duly agreed. Collected from Southampton, Trevor arrived on the back of a trailer in the dead of the night and was an ominous looking, obviously beaten up and neglected white van which hadn't been touched for 5 years.  I wasn't sure we would ever get a go in our new camper, bar sitting in him on the driveway - Trevor looked so sorry for himself.

what trouble lay under that bonnet...

natty exterior!

Despite the decrepid state of Trevor, two years later a LOT of work by the other half (and lots of advice from the Bedford CF forums) had got Trevor working, just.  We took him for an MOT and the fail sheet ran to 2 pages - more on the mechanical side of things soon)...Husband was however, undeterred and squirreled away so that the next MOT only failed on two things - wow!  Eventually on 23 March 2009, third time lucky, Trevor was declared fit and well - what an achievement! Here he is in all his gloriousness!

We ventured up to Wing, near Rutland Water, for our first camp out. We had a break down 4 miles north of our house, but after a tweak, we got there (albeit by chugging at 20mph up some hills and reaching a top speed of 40mph) and it was awesome to pop the top, put a brew on and sit down with the crossword, all within a few minutes - I was a converted tenter and very content!

Trevor's back on the road! Yay!