25 years on the road

Our first foray into motorhoming started in April 1989 with the purchase of a P-reg VW camper. We wanted to enjoy the outdoor lifestyle but, with a dog in tow, camping didn’t seem right.

A couple of years later we were tempted by a small coachbuilt, built on a P100 pick-up truck. This still didn’t work well for us, as we had to move the whole unit to get to the shops or where we would be rock climbing.

Following a visit to the NEC Show in 1995, we met with the late Peter Howman of Niche Marketing and his son. The company agreed to send our design for a demountable on a flatbed Cabstar to its builders in America.

Weeks later a deal was struck for £9,100, and the wait began. In April 1996 we got the call and went to collect our new addition to the family. Some 25 years on, the European Adventure demountable is still going strong.

I said our camper is 25 years old, but this is not all together true. It’s a bit like Trigger’s broom in Only Fools and Horses; you know, same broom but with a new head and new handle. Well, it’s not quite that bad.

Back in the old days, the unit and vehicle lived on our driveway. But, let’s face it, light commercial vehicles are designed for high mileage and a short lifespan and rust was causing us issues when it came to the MoT, but 14 years wasn’t a bad run with only two new vehicle batteries, one-and-a-half exhausts and a diesel pump, plus one recovery on a bank holiday for the sake of a six-inch piece of hydraulic pipe (£5.50)! The only other expense being servicing and tyres.

So, we decided it may be time for a new base vehicle, which wasn’t as straightforward as it might have been.

However, we found a brand-new chassis cab model available not too far away and so grabbed it and had the flatbed bespoke manufactured. I got electric windows that I played with for weeks before getting bored with them.

Unfortunately, the cab had a tilt action to facilitate access to the engine bay, this meant the demountable could never be permanently attached because the cab overhang prevented access to the engine bay even to check oil and water, etc.

After moving house, Cabstar number two now lives in its own garage and, 11 years later, looks just about as good as when we bought it. The only maintenance needed so far has been a split-charge relay that gave up the ghost in the summer of 2020.

Over the 25 years, the camping unit has been updated. As we mounted and demounted the unit every time we used it, after five years we bit the bullet and purchased motorised jacking legs in part due to Sally being heightchallenged, but mainly it just made life a lot easier and quicker. These weren’t cheap and aren’t exactly trouble-free, but they are used frequently and, considering their age, we wouldn’t be without them.

As for the inside we’ve replaced the upholstery, including foam done by a friend at mate’s rates. Three new sprung mattresses were an easy and cheap exchange due to it being a standard 4ft (we sleep head to toe so this gives us more room and enables one to read in bed without disturbing the other). I can also tickle her feet to get her out of bed first in the morning to turn the thermostat up. I have thought about repositioning it within reach of the bed, but it’s not me that has to get up.

The shower and toilet, although modest in size, is adequate and, for a 15ft unit with a permanent bed and a kitchen worktop larger than I’ve seen in most A-classes, it will do us.

I fitted a second leisure battery that gives us another 85Ah and eventually got round to putting our portable solar panel on the roof. That helps me sleep at night as motorised jacking legs use a lot of power. The legs can still be operated manually if needed. We also use a 600W pure sine wave inverter to charge our e-bike batteries, which seems to be plenty.

Some 90% of our camping is done off grid so we leave the unit on and use a scissor action set of steps to access the unit. This enables us to use aires, etc, when abroad but, if we fancy a week or two on a site, we will demount the unit, enabling us to use the base vehicle.

I tend to think that an expensive pair of shoes that are never worn are expensive, but an expensive pair of shoes that are worn, repaired and feel like slippers aren’t.

This unit has given us memories and experiences both here and abroad that far outweigh any maintenance and running costs incurred. There may be some battle scars collected over the years, but it was never our intention to keep it in showroom condition. After all, it’s not called ‘Adventure’ for nothing.

Our travels with the demountable have taken us to every part of the UK from Scotland to Cornwall, with Wales a frequent favourite and, in keeping with its name ‘European Adventure’, France, Holland, Spain, Belgium and Germany have all featured in our quarter-of-a-century of adventures.

I am now semi-retired and soon to be fully retired but, what with dirty diesels, emission zones, electric vehicles, the pandemic and now Brexit, the world seems to be an evershrinking place. I wouldn’t be surprised if our unit doesn’t eventually end up somewhere as a chicken coop or posh Wendy house but, one thing is for sure, we will carry on as long as we are able and adapt when we are forced to do so.

Whilst I endeavour to be optimistic, I hope that sometime in the future common sense will prevail and everything will settle down to allow freedom to roam again, whether that means a motorhome, caravan or even a comfy chair with a virtual headset, the demountable owes us nothing and we are looking forward to the next 25 years of adventure.