Newbie

[Jimbo]

Hi all. My name's Jim and I live in Sydney's western suburbs. The wife and I are doing the grey nomad thing when we retire (another 10-15yrs unless we win lotto or something) and we've been tossing around different idea's on how we'd do it: Motorhome, 4WD w/- caravan or trailer or camper van. Anyway, we were on our way home from watching our son play in the Australian Indoor Cricket Championships in Brisbane and stopped for the night in a caravan park in Coffs Harbour and we saw a guy in a camper pull up and plug-in. So i said to the wife, why don't we go around in an older style kombi or a van like the mystery bus from Scooby Doo, you know something a bit retro and she liked the idea - surprise, surprise. And so I found this site while looking for Beddy's (Kombi's unless you get a good one are too hard to maintian-see below).

I'm not looking to buy one just yet, not enough spare $$$$. But I was wondering how difficult they are 2 maintain, as I'm not very mechanically minded (I'm talking about a stock standard van with little or no mods). I believe they mostly came out with Holden 186 motors is that right? Is the other running gear, brakes etc compatible with Holdens of the same era?

[Worzel]

hi, everything can be fixed or replaced, but often everything has to be

not the same as holden, but many simple mods, holden disk front, highway diff, mine even has holden drums on the back.

most mechanics don't like them but i haven't worked out why, probably because they are usually so oily and dirty underneath

my partner won't drive the bedford, says it's too scary so take a few for a drive to make sure you like them.

the caravan and car is a pain if you are hopping around alot but great if you want to leave the home somewhere and go out for the day.
 the beddy is not as practical if you are staying a good amount of time in the same spot as you have to pack it up each time you want to go somewhere to look at something

horses for courses, now, beddy and caravan??

[Warren]

Hi Jimbo and welcome to the site.

It sure is horses for courses mate, its all about how you want to do it.


Bedford's are (in most cases) low tech, and the drive train is based around the 186/202 of the era. Often though they have been molested over the years, with people dicking around with diffs, gearboxes, and wiring more than likely a motor replacement . None of this is necessarily a great issue but something to be aware of when looking for one.

I have 2 beddies, one that is an eight seater with a 202/ 4 speed which I use as the family bus, I tow a Aliner camper when we go on holidays, but I find the A liner just a little too heavy (1000Klg)for the 202 on the hills. I'm going to go to a camper trailer for more room and lighter weight in the future.

The other bedddy I have is a proper camper, and plan to use that when its just me traveling around - just got to get a running motor in it

So my advice would be, think about the trips you want to do, what time frame the trips will be, what level of comfort you want, whether you wanting to go off the beaten track or just stick to the main roads etc.

Westy has just finished a circumnavigation of Oz in his van with only a minimal amount of creature comforts, but that may not be for you.

When you do decide on a vehicle, look for the best body you can find, anything that bolts on can be replaced, but if it has a lot of rust then (unless you are able to fix it yourself) it can cost to rebuild.

Read through this site to see what others have done, there are campers, motor homes, and in Benny case wrecks on here being driven and maintained by all sorts of people with varying skills.

Give it a go, get involved and have fun

Warren   
 

[Jimbo]

The plan at this stage is to use "the camper" for emergency and short stay accomodation. The rest of the time we'll be staying in van park cabins or similar. All it really needs is a decent bed, water storage, a fridge of some description, an awning and a bit of interior lighting. i have a load of camping gear for cooking; stove, BBQ etc. Do they have swivel front seats?

Most of our travelling will be on bitumen or graded dirt roads. If we want to go 'off the beaten tack' we'll look for 4WD day tours or such like. I'll probably be towing a small tinnie for fishing.

The season we leave will determine our direction; winter-north, summer-south and then go wherever the whimsy takes us and get home whenever we've had enough. We'll be installing a GPS & UHF radio, for safety's sake.

And that folks, is pretty much the plan.

[ben]

hey jimbo welcome to buga!!! my favorite website on the world wide web hehe..

swivel seats? they are definatly not standard. but people do install them either getting them from other vehicles or manifacturing them themselves. i have a van with very simple ones. others have bearings and clips and all sorts.

so much stuff you can do with a beddy. really brings out the creativity in you which is fantastic!!

one thing you must be warned about is bedfords can be a very costly vehicles. only because parts are expensive if you dont have them and need to source them, and can be expensive to get worked on if you dont do the work yourself.

but they are in my opinion the best vehicles around!!

i just drove my beddy to sydney and back. im from yarram vic (2hr south east melb) and had a ball. even with my heater not working. sorting that now.

cheers
ben

[mezzmo]

you're right Ben, it can be costly but, i am living proof that you need next to no mechanical aptitude to work on a Beddie - there's heaps of room to work on and around em' you've got an awesome group of people on here that can walk thru nearly every step of rebuild, re wire, repaint and rebuild. Hope you get as much out of the site as i do Jimbo - welcome aboard!

[ben]

on the other hand, they can be very cheap to own also. like mine lol. the most i spend on my van is gas..

since ive had my van since 07 ive bought for it

a temp guage - $30
some sound deadner $40
a parker - $3
some ply for the back flooring - $50


anything else brakes down i just grab it off another van. or make so with what i got

yesterday i busted a heater hose on metro freeway melb on way back from sydney . so i cut it off and went to put it back on and it kept falling off cause coroded.

so i got soome sticks and shaved them for the right size with a stanley knife. knocked them into the holes of the heater hose outlets (martys idea thanks marty!!) and hooked the gas up to the water pump on the otherside. took me an hour and i was back on the road out of the rain!!

cheers
ben

[matty]

You sound like you would make a good bush mechanic Ben.

Your story reminded me of the time I was heading home from camping trip in Vic and
had a over heating problem, we ended up pinching some hose from the motel we stayed at and bought a funnel from the servo, we tied the one end of the hose to the grill in front of the radiator and ran the other end inside the car with the funnel attached to it.
We had to pour about a liter of water down it every 15 min or so to stop it over heating.

We made it home.

[ben]

haha nice work.

i drove with a big hole in a radiator once. had to get 2 hours away. gathered about 10 soft drink bottles, milk containers whatever i could find from servo bins, pleoples houses, side of the road and used 30 litres of water to get home!! and we were on water restrictions lol..

knew i was out of water when the heater stopped working, was pulling over every 5 mins till home. and didnt blow the engine wahoo!!

funny you say that matty its not the first time ive been told that lol..

ben

[doofhard]

fibreglass fixes anything lol.  Hey Benny Boy my mate ended up buying one of those crysler 300c's.  Put a deposit on it today picks it up next week.