Do you actually enjoy driving your camper?

peasant

I have to say I do ...and I don't:

pros:
sitting high up, enjoying the scenery through that big shop window of a windscreen is class. The van is nimble enough (not too big) and the engine pulls nicely, so I'm no moving road block.

cons:
The roads ! You only notice how bad they really are in a fully laden camper. Humps, dips, potholes, hanging cambers ...all combine to a less then pleasant experience. The body jumps and wallows, swings from side to side, all to the choir of protesting crockery in the cupboards.

And whenver you think the worst is over and you start to pick up speed again, you have to throw anchor again because there is another nasty coming.

The only thing I'm semi-happy about is that my yoke is ancient ..so I don't mind the odd creak and bang. I pity the tourist that come over here for the first time in a nice, shiney, large van ...they might think twice about coming again.

stapeler

I agree with driving height and scenery which make it more pleasant. I don't like the narrow roads and tend to stick to motorway/main roads where possibe.
I must say the air suspension certainly makes it a bit easier as does the 2.8 litre engine for pulling power.

peasant

ahhh...but motorways / dual carriageways / good N roads are boooring. They're all inland, nothing much to see.

I love the little narrow roads, just came back from the "Atlantic Drive" in Achill ...I could drive that all day, even if it means dashing from one passing spot to the next all the time.

It's the mean and nasty main arteries in the countryside, those badly neglected R and N roads that my main gripe is with.

corkbuoy

Went to Dingle for the weekend, the roads get worse every time. It felt like the front suspension was about to fall apart at any minute. Wish some of the money being spent on motorways was used to resurface some of the main tourist routes.

Other than that, enjoy driving the van, it gives you a different view of the country.

KoNiT

Don't mind driving it but I try to limit the time to 2 hours max as the ducato seats are not the most comfortable & I'm thinking about changing them.

Stapeler - did you fit the air suspension?

chrisblack

I love driving the van...

I spend loads of time driving the car during the week (100 miles a day to the office and back, without all the additional driving related to the job) and its such a refreshing change to be able to potter along on the back roads with a queue of cars behind me (that I can hardly see anyway from the lhd cab)... although I must admit that the camber of the roads sometmes frustrates me as I feel myself being sucked into the ditch on a bend...

I go as far as taking the van for a spin to the shops once a week - my excuse is that it keeps the oil flowing round the engine/gearbox and helps to keep the battery charged.. It's great fun for "practice" as well - negoitiating the narrow(ish) streets in Skibbereen, and also for watching the faces on the worried on-coming car drivers as I squeeze between them and the parked cars.. (hee hee...)

Chris

peasant

air suspension discussion in new thread

dollydishmop

I drive mine everyday and love it....all pros, no cons

zagmund

I like driving mine, looking down on all the 'norms', getting envious looks from kids in the back seats of cars . . . since most people know that if you're in a campervan you're on your hols and they're not.

A definite con is the handling on roundabouts . . . remind me never to approach Galway or take the old N1 past Swords again. There's an awful lurching feeling as you go around roundabouts at anything over 50 or 60 km/h. I know it's not going to tip over, but it still feels awful.

Another con mentioned above is the terrible bouncing you get when you are happily motoring along at 100 km/h and you suddenly hit a crummy patch of road - like when you cross county boundaries and the new county hasn't kept up the surface.

Pro (and this one can't be beat) is the look on drivers faces when they see that the person sitting in the 'drivers seat' is attending to her nails, eating a sandwich and having a coffee or even getting up and heading down the back. Get's them every time . . .

z

3ps

I'm just back from 2 weeks in France and enjoyed driving it over there.
The first thing I noticed back in Ireland was the roads.

Where there are new dual carriageways it's fine but the N roads are terrible. There is something about the surface of them... even when there are no potholes there is more roadnoise and a general harshness.