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Vapour 101 camper

miketomcat

By miketomcat
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Blanco

Blanco

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Seen last night on FB there are 4 Tacr2 6x6 Range Rovers at Lee on Solent, can't find it this morning which is typical of my keyboard skills, probably not really big enough but while you're just dreaming they are probably close enough to go and look at? ex Bembridge and Daedalus.

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Daan

Daan

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15 hours ago, FridgeFreezer said:

The difference is both of those are at least somewhat suited to your purpose - the Bex may not be everyone's idea of a practical family car but it does at least do everything you need and will basically last forever. A Gem is small, cheap, and fun as a runabout.

A 101 is not a practical vehicle for almost any modern purpose - its original purpose was overtaken by either better trucks or the 130 and as I said previously almost everything about it is "wrong" for what you want, other than the fact it's a large box on wheels which is true of trucks, vans, ambulances, fire engines, etc. as well. True it's got character, but you're sacrificing a hell of a lot for it.

You're somewhat sensitive to running costs, ferry costs on family visits, etc. so a 101 is going to be fairly hideous on fuel and the eventual height/length may land you with a more expensive ferry ticket anyway.

A caravan behind the bex gives you more space/storage in the camping part, more space in the car part, and means you can park the van & go out & about (or one of you can go to the shops while the other stays with the van), plus when it's not in use it's a lower maintenance thing to keep stored. I know you hate them but caravans are incredibly practical for family trips.

 

@steve b don't worry I know Mike far too well, if it wasn't for all this virus nonsense we'd be having this conversation in the pub or drinking tea in his kitchen and saving the rest of you the bother :D

I do find it an interesting discussion to have, there's a lot of "overland" rigs and home-built campers etc. out there that don't really fit the use-case at all but people either fall for the marketing / instagram lifestyle posts, the groupthink (must have a £2k roof top tent and £5k sankey trailer and still end up cooking/washing outdoors and having to fold a damp tent up every day), or as we see here the heart rules over the head and a cool vehicle trumps practicality... and I'm in no way claiming that my ambulance is practical, it's absolutely a "heart" purchase, but we did have a LOT of the same discussions before buying it as are going on in this thread.

We very nearly bought a very cool 109 ambulance, but that suffered a similar practicality deficit to a 101 - it would need an engine+gearbox swap if you wanted to be able to press on to get somewhere, it had drum brakes, no PAS, the rear box was only just enough for 2 people travelling very light (having a toilet of some sort was a non-negotiable requirement, which eats a significant space), and it was still strong money (it sold on eBay for more than we paid for our 127). The 127 makes quite a few sacrifices over a LWB Sprinter (which would be my #1 sensible choice) but it's still very tolerable and the fun-factor outweighs them.

 

I forget who in this thread said "it's about the journey", while I agree with that in principle, in practice sometimes you just need to tuck 1000 miles of dull motorway miles away as quickly as possible to get where you actually want to be - and I know in Mike's case he needs to be able to get the family either up to Scotland or down to Bulgaria with whatever vehicle he ends up with. Spending a week chugging along at 55mph slipstreaming the HGV's is not my idea of an inspirational journey, and every time we cruise past a classic VW camper wheezing along at 52mph flat-out and going deaf doing it I am quite glad I fitted the V8. Being able to clip along at the speed limit can make the difference between a single long day of driving and two slightly shorter days of driving plus a motel/campsite stay, and that can add up over long distances in time & money.

This is the long version of what I was saying.

9 hours ago, miketomcat said:

Yeah but practicality aside they look cool. :ph34r: :hysterical:

Mike.

I will end up building something in the future just don't know what or when at this point.

 

True, keep us updated on your totally impractical but cool looking machine!

6 hours ago, Snagger said:

I swapped the diffs between 109 and 110 Salisbury axles and didn’t even need to alter the shims.  There is a difference in the carriers between 4.71 and 3.54 diffs, though - the ring gear flange is set at different positions to allow for the different pinion head diameter, the 4.71 diff having its flange around an inch closer to the pinion axis, so you have to swap the whole diff for significant ratio changes.  I don’t know if there is a third specification diff centre for the even lower ratio of the 101 axles or whether they used 109 diffs with very thick ring gears.

What I thought. It will go on, probably use the defender diff carrier and swap in the 101 side gears in or something like that.

Daan

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FridgeFreezer

FridgeFreezer

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8 hours ago, Blanco said:

Seen last night on FB there are 4 Tacr2 6x6 Range Rovers at Lee on Solent, can't find it this morning which is typical of my keyboard skills, probably not really big enough but while you're just dreaming they are probably close enough to go and look at? ex Bembridge and Daedalus.

Do it Mike! :ph34r:

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miketomcat

miketomcat

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1 hour ago, FridgeFreezer said:

Do it Mike! :ph34r:

AHH that's more like it, fridge is back all this sensible talk was getting me really worried. I did have a look but couldn't find it.

Mike

Found it.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/380657948739917/permalink/1863895053749525/

 

 

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FridgeFreezer

FridgeFreezer

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TBH once you're down the rabbit hole of 6x6's and trucks you may as well go back to the 6x6 Volvo radio wagon someone posted a few pages ago and just save a lot of faffing about :ph34r:

Although at least a TACR ticks a load of boxes in terms of parts commonality, ride comfort, height, etc.

 

And definitely don't look here;

https://www.padh.de/home.html

 

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