The Van Trip Family

Introduction

Will and I grew up camping and in our adult lives have always camped but it was a real desire of mine to own a camper van. We spent many hours and over a year researching campervans, talking to people who owned them and reading forums about the right kind of van for us. We were VW all the way and were waiting for the new T6’s to come out.

“In the meantime a good friend of ours, who worked at a campervan conversion company, Wellhouse Leisure, just down the road, convinced us to have a look at their Ford conversion vans”.

We were so impressed by the layout, design features, customer service and importantly price, that in December 2015 we found a year-old van, which suited us perfectly.

The van, now named Scooby (by our 9 year old), is the Wellhouse Terrier conversion of a Ford Tourneo Custom vehicle. We then spent the next few months, holidaying in it and commuting to work in Leeds. A perfect purchase. After reading an article on the Guardian website about a family taking a year out and touring with a campervan we began to consider doing the same. We had paid off our mortgage and were in a strong position financially, so the time seemed right, although, there was a lot to consider! At times I was quite daunted by the idea, at others incredibly excited. A real mix of emotions.

The van was not bought with a year trip around Europe in mind and friends have expressed their concern that our van is far too small for us all, however, with many years camping under canvas under our belts we didn’t consider the idea too crazy. Besides man had travelled to the moon and back in a more restricted vehicle, and, if it all was too much, we could always come home.

At first, we wanted to travel as light as possible, but we soon realised that we had an issue with the vans payload, which was 3 tonnes.  We went to a weighing station and found it weighed in at 2650, without passengers but with full fuel and water tanks! So, we explored the options of taking a trailer and now have a rather grand Anssems trailer (www.bdstrailers.uk) to carry all our outdoor stuff and bikes.