The last days of april

I was hoping to go on some camper trip on our long may weekend, that starts the day after tomorrow. In Poland we have national holidays on 1st and 3rd of may, so this year with one day of leave absence we get four days of free time. I thought we'd go to Slovakia or some nice place in Poland.

My camper is not fixed yet. I wrote 'bout it in march. Last time I wrote that I was told to have it back by the end of last week, as you can guess it wasn't ready then.

I visited the repair shop where the camper is repaired today. I tried to call the owner couple times today, but his cellphone was off. When I finally reached him, I just left work and went to see him in his workplace (three tram stops from where I work). We spoke for a minute or two, he told me that some small adjustments need to be made:

• clutch adjustment,
  
• gearbox lever adjustment,
  
• fixing glow plugs that don't work on their own (whatever it might mean).

When I was going to see him I thought that I won't leave Warsaw until the camper is ready. I live in Żyrardów, 45 km from Warsaw and go from home to work by train. When I leave Warsaw, I don't want to return there until the next day. But when I spoke to him my enthusiasm weakened. So I decided to visit him tomorrow to pick the camper. He told me that it'll be ready by the end of today... I hope so.

We won't go anywhere far with the camper, even if I'll get it tomorrow. Why? I am affraid that something will go wrong soon after I pick it up. If it was repaired for almost a year (to be honest most of the time it spent waiting for it's turn...), surely something will be wrong. I just hope I am wrong about this...

Here's a photo, made yesterday by Tomek, who sent it to me via MMS.

From Volkswagen Tr...

Shopping for camper stuff

Tomek promised me, that I'll get my T3 Camper this week. Yesterday, today, tomorrow... On monday guys from the repair shop were supposed to put the engine into the body, because they had their lift repaired. Tomek went to Germany and will be back tomorrow, I guess they didn't do anything with the T3 and I'll probably get it next week.

Nevertheless, I ordered some stuff at Allegro.pl (the same thing as Ebay, but polish). I bought some stuff that I want to be installed in the T3.

First of all, I need to get all the electrical wiring done. At this moment all the electrical stuff is powered from the single, mail battery. There's another battery, attached to charger and solar panel (my camping solar set). I want all the camping equipment to be powered with this second battery. I have 12/230 V inverter at home, bought it last summer. I will also do some wiring for 12V devices. CD-player, CB radio, refrigerator, lights, water pump -- it all needs to be powered from the second battery. I'll add two quadruple lighter sockets, they'll be very handy, especially in front of the bus. Cellphone charger, GPS receiver charger, CB radio -- they're all powered with lighter plugs.

I bought some stuff for my CB radio. A new rubber ring for my magnetically-attached antenna. A speaker to be installed below my bus so I can yell at other drivers and pedestrians using the CB's microphone. :)

I have some other things planned for future purchases.
First of all, I need a good secondary battery. If I will have enough money, I'll buy a gel battery of large capacity. Enough to power my laptop computer for two-three days, couple hours daily. :)
I want to replace as many lightbulbs with LED bulbs as possible. Of course, the camping light above table is fluorescent, but the light above driver's head is an ordinary bulb. I want to add some light in the back of the sleeping space -- it'll come in handy when I want to read a book or repair something in the engine space (engine is located below the mattress). The taillights will probably have bulbs replaced with LEDs. I also'd like to purchase some LED daytime running lamps.

We'll see what will happen with my VW T3. I wanted to drive my camper on the first may weekend (we have national holidays on 1st and 3rd of march and because 3rd is saturday our employer gave us also 2nd off) somewhere, but now I don't know if I will do this. I don't think that everything will be done on time. But I bought all the stuff mentioned here, because I have some extra money at the moment. Better shop now, when I have some cash than later. ;)

I don't know why people make such movies... Oh yeah, probably to show off. Nevertheless, the precision seen on this video is not usualy seen on parking lots. They didn't show the left side of the bus, so I can't tell if they scratched it against the wall. ;)

If I was to buy VW T3 right now

I'd choose Volkswagen Doka, Doppelkabine. A lot of space for both passengers and cargo. Preferably it'd be a Syncro (4x4 version), but may be as on the following photo:

From Volkswagen Tr...

Home made Vanagon DOKA

Every Volkswagen T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 owner knows exactly, what is the so called doka -- the van with two rows of seats and open space for carrying stuff.

Today I'll show you doka that's capable of having three rows of seats. The home-made-doka. :)

From Volkswagen Tr...

Inside this doka there's enough space to hold three rows of seats. For now there are two of them. You can add the third. The back of the van is made from scratch, it has new tail-lights and a nice trunk door. ;)

If you'd like to buy this van, go here. Note that PLN 1 = $0.45.