A Week with the T2 Camper
After
a few practice sessions we got used to the gearbox and the
extraordinarily heavy steering. The version we have has lowered
suspension (annoying, rubbing) and wide alloy wheels which is a
mixed blessing. We got more used to the brakes and they actually do
work fairly well once bedded in a bit - we suspect the previous owners
had not really used the van and the brakes had become weaker than usual
if that is possible.
The EMPI exhaust is loud if you floor it -
pedestrians take notice at about 50 metres. The EMPI gear stick is not
quite as good as the VW at aligning the gears instead offering a simple
bias spring arrangement and a gate for reverse hence some of our
previous gear change problems. There is no real adjustment there, just
doing up the gear lever fixing bolts when they work loose.
The
luggage capacity of the van is quite large - we took about two Peugeot
307 SW worth of stuff with us and could have fitted in more camping
gear if we had needed it.
We
set off with the prospect of dire weather forecasts so we decided to
give up on camping en-route. We spent some time finding any hotels in
the West Country with a vacancy on Friday night. In the end we found
the four star Southgate Mercure in Exeter where we booked two rooms. We
already had a booking for a holiday chalet near Bude for a week and a
Travelodge near Tiverton on the way home , made before we bought
the van.
We
experienced fog and rain and slow traffic on
the way to Exeter , first the Bournemouth Air Show, then queues on the
A30 where we diverted north to avoid Bournemouth. Once on the
A30 south to Exeter we had a good brake test when a truck pulled
out in
front of us and then stopped in the way. We started seeing other
VW vans coming the other way and were waving a lot.
As
usual, second gear became harder to find as the transmission warmed up.
Never vanishing , just the gearchange becomes more sloppy and harder to
align , but eventually the waggling the stick resulted in a second
gear. In hillier areas, the inability to easily hit second became more
annoying.
When I parked up in
the Mercure car park , I parked badly and when I went to start the van
again to move it, nothing. I spent a while working through possible
problems - but I noticed the headlamps dimmed totally when turning the
key and there was a click from the solenoid, but no engine turn over.
Off load the battery was 12.6 volts : charged but low capacity ?
I tried rocking the van in gear but still nothing. I sort of
remembered a problem like this immediately after we bought the van
which cleared itself. We also noted the starter motor seemed to be
having more trouble turning over the engine after a pub stop near
Salisbury on the way down. Fortunately we were round the back of the
Hotel so we did not mess up the wedding reception going on - Shirley
thought the Wedding car Porsche 911 was the van with me driving around
to celebrate the van running again.
Even 2 hours after stopping still no life, but an easy start the next morning.
Next
morning we drove to a nearby Halfords using the Nokia's satnav function
and bought a new Type 065 (bigger) battery which turned out to be 50%
higher in designed capacity. We simply plonked the battery in the
back between the driver's and passenger's seats and continued our
journey.
The
A30 was blocked at Okehampton and we queued for about an hour before
turning north to Bude. No overheating problems and because of the
traffic jam isolating the region, we met hardly any traffic on the road
to the Atlantic Highway down the north Cornish coast.
We arrived
at Bude a little early and parked up at Summerleaze Beach, where we
went for a walk around. Noticing the darkening sky we retreated to the
van and hid from the rain.
British Summer Time
At
the peak of the rain, the gutter was overflowing and water started
trickling down the inside of the sliding door. Only a few drops and it
might not have been fully closed when we got in . We certainly
were not opening it again to shut it properly.
From Japanese Zen Garden to reversing up a narrow Hollow lane.
We
went down to St Mawgan to visit a Japanese garden near the airport. The
garden is in the village down narrow roads and steep bends.
On
the way back we took a wrong turning south and to correct we ended up
turning north going down a very narrow road without passing places
between rock walls . We met somebody coming up, and as we were closer
to a widening of the road we reversed back up the hill - fairly easy
using the rock wall as a guide in the passenger side wing mirror.