Tag Archives: Van Life

Mercedes Benz 608D LF8 Fire Engine Camper Van Conversion | Van Life

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Feuerwehr from Düsseldorf | Fire Engine Camper Van Conversion | Mercedes Benz 608D | Van Life UK

In 2017 I took a bike ride from Düsselfdorf along the Rhine, on the way I found a Mercedes Benz fire engine in a park up. At the end of the summer I travelled back to Germany to collect a Mercedes Benz Fire Engine to convert in to a camper.

The initial project took six months to complete, turning a working fire engine into a family camper, a basic conversion but a working one none the less.

During the conversion I made some rough videos that explained what what was going on, these videos form the basis of the film that I introduce here. This film takes me from a trip to Kempen, Germany, to collect the Mercedes Benz 608D Ziegler LF8, a drive across Holland to the ferry at Hoek van Holland and back to the UK to Hundon and the workshop, this is where the work took place.

Forget what you might have seen on the TV, this one works well.

If you see it come and say hello, take a look around and hop in.

The first MOT and registration was completed by the end or March 2018 and the Fire Engine Camper Van took to the road at the beginning of many adventures, and may more to come.

We have been to France and Holland many times, Belgium and Germany too as well as a few trips around the UK. When I collect the Düdo it had 19,000kms on the tacho, now it is reading 29,500 or so, over 10,000kms in two years, here comes year three.

Enjoy the video.

#FireEngineCamperVan #608D #VanLife

Long Time Coming

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This update has been a long time coming but I have had so much to do over the spring and summer I have had no time for updates, everything of interest has been on Instagram and Twitter, videos have been a bit slow to appear but as the nights draw in towards the closing of the year time becomes available to sit down and review things.

The first video update is from a trip we took to The Haut Languedoc at Easter this year. We took the VW T5 and spent 8 days travelling across France and back.

This is not a Van Life Video though, this is a document of a road trip. I like to see VanLife videos on YouTube and stuff on Instagram with people doing things and travelling with their chosen vans though these have become something of a cliché these days, the pained expressions of those who are catastrophizing about the worst case scenario of the predicament they find themselves in, the ‘big deal’ about travelling Europe in an old vehicle, perhaps even 30 years old, well I have a couple of those and it doesn’t phase me, I have probably been doing it too long, once upon a time we were called ‘New Age Travellers’ I suppose. How to ‘make the most of a small space’, simple, get rid of your stuff. The worst is probably the ‘chavs in vans’ type thing, no interest to me, I like to travel and see stuff, no supermarket Park4Night for me.

It has been a long spring and summer and most of it has been spent travelling around France, Belgium, Holland and Germany in the VW T5, the Mercedes Benz 608D Fire Engine Camper and the Renault 4, some work on the Citroen AX and a cycle around Benelux.

This is the first of a number of films made while travelling.

In this short film I document the main points of a road trip we took to the Haut Languedoc in April.

Leaving Cambridge and travelling through the Channel Tunnel onwards to Amiens for La Grande Réderie d’Amiens, on around Paris to Orleans, driving through the centre of France to Clermont-Ferrand and finally to the Haut Languedoc and Sète and the Mediterranean. Heading back we spent another day in Amiens and then the final afternoon and evening in the citadel of Montreuil-Sur-Mer.

This film has no talking, no explaining or how to information, it is just a document of 8 days spent travelling and being in France, April 2019.

#roadtrip #vwt5 #vwcamper #campervan

@TheGlennJobson