06/02/25
After getting over the emotional turmoil of selling Bertie, we were immediately into the excitement of picking up our new van, making it our own and planning a shake-down trip.
Making the van our own
As part of our deal with Highbridge we had negotiated some extras. This included an additional battery (sadly we were unable to negotiate lithium), bike rack and re-fillable gas. One of the quirks of this van is that, although the heating is diesel, the hot water is still gas (and electric) heated. The fridge and hob also use gas so refillable bottles will enable us to top up easily throughout Europe. Our previous van had two 11kg refillable bottles and this van has space for just one 11kg bottle. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts.
Paul has also added a few additional sockets for both 12v and 240v and installed our inverter we had removed from Bertie. It’s not a powerful inverter, just enough to top up my laptop and charge the toothbrushes. We needed to put some shelving in the cupboards and add shelves and fixing points in the garage. Tinkering with all of this kept Paul pleasantly occupied for a couple of weeks. He loves it!
Some modifications in the kitchenette
I spent some time restocking the van with our equipment we had taken out of Bertie, working out the jigsaw puzzle of fitting our cooking equipment and basic necessities in the various cupboards and shelves. It’s amazing how many nooks and crannies there are to be filled. We bought seat covers for the front seats and I made covers for the bench seats. Neither of us really like sitting on leather effect seats especially when the weather warms up.
we drove down to Truro (in the car) to pick up a second hand silver screen to add a bit of insulation to the front. The screen we had fashioned for Bertie didn’t fit and was such hard work to make that I didn’t relish trying to adapt it.
Very conveniently this van fits in our driveway, unlike Bertie who couldn’t be manoeuvred through the tight entrance. We were able to bring the new van back from storage and Paul could work with all of his tools to hand. Sadly, as our driveway is communal, we can’t keep the van here permanently. It it was very good of our neighbours to allow us to use it for a few weeks while they were away, and we should be able to prevail on them to allow us to park for a few hours while we are packing or unpacking for future trips.
Shakedown trip
We decided to go to Cardiff and visit Aaron for our first trip away and stay at the very well situated campsite in the city. This was pretty successful, we had our first in-van shower and decided we needed some way of storing our shower gel and shampoo in the shower area. A suction mounted net bag sorted that out. We also found that the single point attachment for the shower wasn’t very flexible so Paul added a rail and now we can adjust the height of the shower. A benefit when I’m trying to avoid getting my hair wet.
First meal in the van, using the fold out table to create more dining space
We found out a couple of things that were minor annoyances. Our new fridge is three-way (it runs on gas, mains electric or – when driving – the 12v battery) but unlike Bertie’s fridge the energy source is not automatically selected. We have to remember to change it when we start/stop driving and when we hook up. How tiresome! I’m sure we’ll get used to it, it’s just one of those budget features that has kept the cost of the van down.
Also, our water heater doesn’t have any indication of when it has reached temperature. Our old Truma system had a small LED that turned green when it reached temperature. We’re relying on guess work to know when we have a full tank of hot water. Half an hour should probably do it. Paul will be the one who finds out as he is always second in the shower. On the plus side though we now have the option to heat our water using electricity when on hook-up, something that Bertie didn’t have. That should allow us to extend the life of our gas bottle.
We tried out the grill. There is no oven in this van, but for the UK market Chausson have added a grill, weirdly placed above the bench seat. It’s ok, it toasts stuff, but really we would rather have had the extra storage. If we find we don’t use it on our next long trip we will be removing it and putting a cupboard back in. We made our first warranty claim when the heat from using the grill made some of the trim above it come away.
Apart from that we were pretty happy that we had already anticipated everything we needed. 8 years of van ownership means we know what we like. The van layout is pretty similar to Bertie, just shorter and narrower, so we didn’t have many major adaptations to make and no big disappointments so far.
By the end of this trip I had done two stints of driving the van, including navigating the tricky entrance to our driveway. Paul is getting used to the idea of sharing the driving. He says it has both its up and down sides, but it makes me really happy to be able to share the driving.
Now we were ready to take the van away for a longer trip. Let’s get away to the snow.