Our Bob Is An Awesome Bob!

Techenders is a technical weekend organised through the Just Kampers Forum. We would have gone to Techenders 13 but we were in Bali and L was born two days after Techenders 14 – we’ve been waiting to attend one for over a year. Techenders 15 was our first foray into weekend ‘meets’ and we were a little bit nervous of what to expect, after all what do we have in common with the other people beyond ownership of a VW Camper?  The meet was held in Leicestershire and despite putting our names down several months in advance we only decided for certain to go the weekend before.

Bob had only been back on the road a week and so I did a few test runs to make sure she was OK, and then on the Friday we took her out and washed her with a pressure hose and cleaned and hoovered her interior. After stocking her up with food and clothes she was ready.

The trip up to Techenders was fantastic. A little cold as it was an early-ish start but no rain, no wind, not much traffic and Bob running like a dream. We arrived without having to stop and with L contentedly staring at me, transfixed by my mirrored aviators! With only a rock & roll bed in the back I had the pleasure of L‘s company in the front which, for most of the time, was lovely. We parked up next to a smart looking T25 and nervously looked around at the Splitty, assorted T2s, T25s, T4s & an original Beetle and wondered how we should introduce ourselves and who to. That problem was solved as almost immediately ‘Superhands’ came over and after saying nice things about Bob showed us how our fuel tank vent pipe was badly split and needed replacing. If we found out nothing else during the weekend…

As a picture to capture the sense of Techenders 15 this is pretty rubbish (I didn’t get around to taking a picture from the other side with all the other vans in the background!) but it does show us camped up so it’s something! Saturday was spent watching other people service and repair their vans. There were people making a custom interior, others doing services and more trying to tune and improve the way their vans ran. By the time we arrived there was already one engine out due to a clutch being replaced, and by Saturday afternoon a routine carb replacement had turned into engine out number 2! (Both vans drove home by Sunday afternoon.) Lunch was a vegetable chilli made by another Techender and was enjoyed by all including L who seems to love spicy food.

Saturday evening H took L to bed in the roof and I stayed up to have a couple of beers around the camp fire with the others. L‘s first night camping went well for her as she was well wrapped up in her grobag and I was OK downstairs on the rock & roll bed in the double sleeping bag, but H was freezing in A‘s single sleeping bag and didn’t sleep well at all. Next time I’ll have the smaller sleeping bag as I don’t feel the cold so much, but it was also a reminder that there’s only canvas between you and the outside temperature when you’re up top.

Sunday was much colder and saw several people who had been there since the Friday gradually leave as they finished sorting their vans. We had a go at some tuning and Bob’s running speed was altered somewhat. Although she was running well, a go with the strobe showed the timing to be too far advanced. Dad came up to to have lunch with us and after saying our goodbyes to the other Techenders we left with a list of small but important jobs to do and reassurances that Bob is actually the very nice van we hoped & thought she was.

The journey home wasn’t quite as relaxing as the one to Techenders. L was tired and irritable, I was just tired and the crosswinds… The A14 isn’t a good road to drive a vehicle with ridiculous aerodynamics on and after the previous day’s chilled driving I was constantly on my guard for Bob being blown around. L picked up on my apprehension and that made her worse. Eventually the wind died down, we got off the A14 and after a couple of feeds L was much happier. As for Bob, well an occasional misfire suggests that she has been tuned down a little too far so I’ll have to sort that soon along with the rest of the  jobs list, but otherwise she was great. Again.

Techenders 15 was a very enjoyable weekend. It was great to spend time with other people who ‘get’ what it is about a VW Camper that makes them special (and that was enough to have in common to get along) and it was an opportunity (taken) for H & I to learn a lot more about how to keep Bob running well. It also pushed me towards wanting to take Bob onto the continent this summer. It’s the vibe, it does things to the mind…

So…great company, great vans, great camping – roll on Techenders 16 in September!

We’ve been looking for baths for quite a while now. The plan is to build on the success of our first bath (from our bathroom refit) in growing vegetables – we want to use them as ready-made raised beds. Good second-hand baths get sold on eBay for lots of money & bad second-hand baths get thrown in skips. Eventually, after many requests on Freecycle, one turned up! At last a second bath for the garden!

A bath is too big to fit in the back of the Picasso so it would have to be Bob making the 60-mile round trip, just a day after being put back on the road. As has been so often the case during our time with Bob she didn’t miss a beat…bath picked up and delivered back home without any problems. Good old Bob, you can have a carrot when they’ve grown…

Bob & Mandy (for that’s what I call her in my head – take this to be an official announcement!) meet for the first time!

Alfie & I (assisted by Dad via live ‘phone link-up) got Bob going after 6 months of hibernation. I believe we flooded her at first but she got going soon enough and drove (almost) flawlessly round the estate whilst being moved between our front and rear gardens. Almost flawlessly because she’s never liked low revs & first gear when she’s cold and after 6 months asleep it was more obvious than ever. She didn’t cut out though and the brakes were fine. In hi-tech news you may notice the solar battery trickle-charger in the side window – works a treat!

I’m going to take her out for a small drive today where I’ll do the tyre pressures and fill her with fuel, and then tomorrow it’s off on a longer run to pick up a bath for the garden. She’ll probably need a clean too.

This is the first time I’ve ever woken something from hibernation and years of watching the Blue Peter tortoise in my youth make me want to go and rub a damp cotton bud over Bob’s lights. Maybe I’ll just polish the chrome eyelids instead…