Buying a VW Camper
When buying any camper look out for rust and poor repairs, particularly
• Rust, particularly on the bottom 6 inches all around…
• Rust on chassis box sections
• Rust on front and rear outriggers
• Rust on roof guttering, sills, wheel arches
• Rust on floors in front of the rear wheels
• Rust behind front seats
• Rust round the fuel tank
• Look for welded repair plates which can hide trapped moisture and rust
Take some old clothes and GET UNDERNEATH TO LOOK!
Engine/gearbox checks
• Oil leaks near the gearbox flange usually mean an ‘engine out’ job
• In gearboxes listen for bearing whines
• Check all gears work and don’t jump out of gear (VW Campers tend to have a floppy gear change –that’s normal)
• Pull and push the bottom pulley wheel: if you can feel a loud ‘clunk clunk’ the engine needs to be rebuilt. A very small movement is OK
Other things to look out for
• Check heaters and controls – if they don’t work they will require new heat exchangers,
• Smell of petrol inside the vehicle can mean rubber pipes have perished and need replacing
• Check round the fuel tank - they can rust through where they come in contact with more rust
• Steering should be direct with little play. If not check the steering box
You shouldn’t buy a VW camper if…
• You just have to have a VW camper and it becomes an emotional, not a rational decision
• It just looks cool or well restored (look underneath, check it thoroughly, think about it, compare several campers…)
• You haven’t thought about how much time you want to spend maintaining it
• You’re about to go on a trip and won’t have time to spend checking it over, doing some shorter runs etc
• It has a six volt system when you want reliability
• You think it will be fast and/or economical
The nostalgic appeal of old VW campers can override rational thinking:
http://www.vwcampersforever.com/category/buying-and-selling
Beware of seductive pictures of rustbuckets, next to beautifuly retored examples -unless you have time, money and high levels of skill and resourcefulness.
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