So I'm sure many of you would have seen my IP Romini caravan at various RR events.
I bloody loved that caravan for what it was worth, Compact, lightweight, very retro and rather silly. But we have now got a small human man to accommodate, and Baby Doug does not like sleeping in his pram bed thing in the Romini, as proved on a trip to the New Forest with HARDCORE
Sneaky extra shot of Hardcore's absolutely bonza Benz.
So the hunt was on for a 'van we could all fit in. My criteria was lightweight(ish) and not some soggy old timber framed chintz disaster. I did that the first time round with the Piper 'Idiot' (actually 1000T in a stupid font) and promptly fell through the floor.
I was basically looking at Eriba Tritons and Trolls, or a Freedom Sunseeker, and it was just a case of every nice Freedom sold almost the second it was advertised. But I found this beaut on market place. Priced somewhere around what I wanted to pay, I arranged to view and hoped it still had a chassis. (Spoiler, most cheaper Eriba vans have rotten steelwork)
Pics from the advert:
Chassis is pretty good, little flaky in a few areas but nothing I'm worried about. The interior is by and large un-molested save a few extra lights, UK sockets and a weirdly 240V-only TV. But the gold. God it's awful. Someone has sneezed it on from a distance. First things to go were the whitewalls (wearing a groove in the tyres is not my ideal breakdown scenario) and the gold on the wheels.
I then pulled the arch spats off, resealed the body seams underneath as a precaution and repainted the spats off-white to break up the gold. I ordered some retro wheel trims from the 'bay, to be pleasantly surprised at how funky they are. And also they are called 'Boony Candy Pop', Boony being the brand. Love it.
Long term goal is to repaint the bottom half a more appeasing vintage colour. The gold just isn't nice in the flesh.
I've brought it home now to investigate the electrics situation, as it's all a little interesting to say the least, the fog lamp pin in the 7 pin trailer socket was connected to the leisure battery so the foglamps on the car were back-powered but the 'van, that was a fun quick 'repair' in the petrol station on the way home when we noticed.
More as I do it.
I bloody loved that caravan for what it was worth, Compact, lightweight, very retro and rather silly. But we have now got a small human man to accommodate, and Baby Doug does not like sleeping in his pram bed thing in the Romini, as proved on a trip to the New Forest with HARDCORE
Sneaky extra shot of Hardcore's absolutely bonza Benz.
So the hunt was on for a 'van we could all fit in. My criteria was lightweight(ish) and not some soggy old timber framed chintz disaster. I did that the first time round with the Piper 'Idiot' (actually 1000T in a stupid font) and promptly fell through the floor.
I was basically looking at Eriba Tritons and Trolls, or a Freedom Sunseeker, and it was just a case of every nice Freedom sold almost the second it was advertised. But I found this beaut on market place. Priced somewhere around what I wanted to pay, I arranged to view and hoped it still had a chassis. (Spoiler, most cheaper Eriba vans have rotten steelwork)
Pics from the advert:
Chassis is pretty good, little flaky in a few areas but nothing I'm worried about. The interior is by and large un-molested save a few extra lights, UK sockets and a weirdly 240V-only TV. But the gold. God it's awful. Someone has sneezed it on from a distance. First things to go were the whitewalls (wearing a groove in the tyres is not my ideal breakdown scenario) and the gold on the wheels.
I then pulled the arch spats off, resealed the body seams underneath as a precaution and repainted the spats off-white to break up the gold. I ordered some retro wheel trims from the 'bay, to be pleasantly surprised at how funky they are. And also they are called 'Boony Candy Pop', Boony being the brand. Love it.
Long term goal is to repaint the bottom half a more appeasing vintage colour. The gold just isn't nice in the flesh.
I've brought it home now to investigate the electrics situation, as it's all a little interesting to say the least, the fog lamp pin in the 7 pin trailer socket was connected to the leisure battery so the foglamps on the car were back-powered but the 'van, that was a fun quick 'repair' in the petrol station on the way home when we noticed.
More as I do it.