How we prepare for summer in our VW campervan
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- čas přidán 23. 05. 2024
- Summer is nearly here! Join us as we get ready for the summer camping season in our VW campervan. In this video, we're looking to share with you our top tips and tricks for preparing our campervan for summer adventures.
Join us as we take you through our pre-summer preparations, covering everything from de-winterising our van after the long winter and getting our van ready for the warmer months ahead.
Whether you're a seasoned campervaner or new to the van life scene, our video offers valuable insights and inspiration to help you make the most of your summer travels. Get ready to hit the road in style, comfort, and with peace of mind, as we share our tried-and-tested tips for summer campervan preparation.
We are Richard and Jackie and we live in the UK. We retired from teaching at the age of 51 in the summer of 2022. Our plans for early requirement include relocating to the Yorkshire Dales, developing our forever home and travelling the UK, Europe and eventually the world in our VW campervan Nelson.
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Check out our blog earlyretirementwanderlust.com
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Many thanks,
Richard & Jackie
I too travel in my little camper van since retiring a few years ago. I can’t tell you how inspiring your videos are to me, especially at the moment. I’ve only recently found them… I’m currently downsizing from a five-bed house on one acre to a tiny two-bed cottage with a courtyard for all the same reasons you did. But, I’ve been stressing about things like my winter ski kit, my mammoth book collection and various bikes that I want to keep (road bike, gravel bike, touring bike, Brompton 🤣). Seeing your lock up made me smile!!! Yes, it’s ok for me to keep some stuff but have the clutter out of my home! Ridiculously, I feel like you’ve given me permission to keep my lock up for all those extra bits I don’t want to let go of just yet!! I love your videos. I do much of the same stuff, but solo!!
Magnificent!
Thank you so much for your lovely words! It is a huge step downsizing and like you say there is so much stuff that simply will not fit into a 2 up 2 down smaller house! The lock up is handy to just keep the bigger items that we use seasonally out of the way as well as a few wooden toys and bits and pieces that have huge sentimental value as Richards dad made them. There are still a few bits that we need to declutter from there in the summer, but for now they are out of sight and out of mind 😊 Happy travels and hope all goes well with the house move. We are so happy in our lovely clutter free little cottage. 🚐
I would love to see a packing video. I like to see what people take and how they fit the essentials ( and not so essential) in.
Hi we did a packing video last June when we were setting off on our European tour called ‘5 week European campervan road trip - what to pack’ the van was pretty full 🤣
We've just found your channel and are really enjoying it. We too retired early, almost 2 years ago at 51 & 54 so seem to have a lot in common. We're on with the 3rd (and final) revamp of our self built campervan, getting ready for another summer of adventure.
So inspirational to hear of others with a similar mindset and outlook and looking forward to exploring the full back catalogue of vlogs, when not out on our own travels.
Thanks for sharing, Steve & Heidi
A very similar story - it will be 2 years in July since we retired which just seems to have flown!! We love the freedom to travel on a budget as much as we want in the campervan - we are in Dorset at the moment. Thanks for watching and have a great summer of travels 🚐
Hi guys! Just woke up on our first day on Mull, our first adventure of '24 😊
Love your videos. Wishing you both wonderful trips in the months ahead.
Have a great trip! I hope the weather is good for you - it is a stunning island. We particularly enjoyed the areas around Calgary Bay and Fionnphort if Fidden Farm is open yet for the season. 🚐
PS my add on is that I always have three 2L stainless steel (Klean Kanteen) water bottles for separate drinking water - I hate drinking water that has been stored in plastic, especially in a hot summer van!
We just travel with a gallon water bottle that we buy from the supermarket and top it up whenever we have access to fresh drinking water. I know what you mean about warm water in summer vans - we do keep a glass bottle that we top up in the fridge in the summer.
It's great when the clocks go forward, our roast beef cooks in 2 hours not 3. We put it on at midnight to achieve that time saving. On that storage locker, you might be better renting a caravan pitch and putting a box trailer on it for storage. Storage would cost around £500pa and you can bring your things home in the trailer and take it back again when unloaded.
Luckily we seem to have got a good deal on the lock up and at some point we will need to add some items from Richards mums house which we need to put up for sale in the near future. It's pretty handy as we go past most weeks when we visit his mum in her home.
🤣 I love it when the clocks go forward and the nights are lighter and you know you have 6 months ahead of you to enjoy 🚐
I've been following your channel from the start and really enjoying watching it grow and grow. Well done guys and alway great content.
Thank you for watching - your kind words are much appreciated 😊
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I have tried desperately to think of anything to add but honestly I think that you’ve got summer covered 😂.
Safe travels and thanks again ❤❤.
Thank you 😊 We are excited to get going with our summer travels, particularly now the clocks have changed and we have 6 months of lighter nights! Happy travels 🚐
Thank you for sharing - this will help with our 1st summer of adventures in our vw campervan. So please to of found you and enjoy and learn from every one x
Our pleasure! Hope you have a great summer of travel in your new van - we have certainly never looked back 🚐
Some great ideas there thank you! We are preparing our motorhome this week for a trip to the Cotswolds. I am originally South African and we have a Cadac too. Can't beat them.
Happy travels - we have never been to the Cotswolds and it is on our ever growing bucket list to visit. We love the Cadac as it is so compact to store in the van and versatile to use - although I do love a good charcoal braai with some boerewors on!
Congratulations on the 10k 🥳 well deserved!
Thank you so much!! ☺️ It is something we had never envisaged when we first set out on our Early Retirement Wanderlust journey. We really enjoy making the vlogs as they help give us structure and purpose to our weeks.
Safe travels in your summer adventures!
Thank you - we are excited that the clocks have changed and the nights will now be lighter for 6 months! Happy travels to you too 🚐
Love this channel, long way off retiring but it’s giving me inspiration
Thank you ☺️
Really enjoy these videos. We’re having our van converted next month and are slowly getting the van life accessories together 😊
Enjoy the Southwest trip, if you’re anywhere near Praa Sands Cornwall give me a nod and we’ll treat you to a beer/cider 🍻
very exciting! I hope it will all be ready for you to enjoy most of the summer and autumn, I remember being so excited for our first trip which was to the Yorkshire Dales. We have bought the wild guide for Cornwall and Devon and are going to follow the weather and cheap campsites/parkups! I know one of the areas we want to explore is Porthcurno and Mousehole so we will be going your way at some point 🚐
10k subs …. Well done guys
Thanks! 😃
When my wife retired from her teaching job aged 55 ( 20 years ago) we had the mad idea of buying a motor home to travel in the UK with our two labradors. With hindsight we should have hired one before buying as in the year or so that we owned it it mainly sat on our driveway. My wife only drove it once as at 28ft long and 8ft wide and left hand drive it was quite intimidating. Oh and one other thing we had not thought of is bouquet of wet Labrador in a warm van - not to be recommended!!
Wow, that was a big motorhome!!! I would not have even attempted to drive it 😮 I think we will stick to a smaller van free of the eau de Labrador 🤣 I hope the rest of your retirement has been filled with fun adventures though? Thanks for watching x
Dewinterise!!? Perhaps yo are a tad early. I hope not. I' m going away soon to Whitby. Have som good summer trips.
Ever the optimists 🚐 😊 I haven't quite got around to changing to a light tog duvet yet but we are hoping the weather improves for our Cornwall trip in a couple of weeks time! Have a great time in Whitby - one of our favourite places from both our childhoods 🚐
Some great kit guys. We are having to plan a move from our motorhome which is our full time home to our smaller van for a month whilst the motorhome has some work done! The disagreements have already started about the kit we need.
fingers crossed that the weather is good for you living in the smaller van for a while - we find the summer van life so much easier with all the extra outdoor space we can use! Hope the motorhome work is not too extensive for you.
@@earlyretirementwanderlust hopefully and we have a house sitting job for a week and then start on a small campsite in Dumfries and Galloway in mid April. Hope the home on wheels is fixed then!
Great advice for summer kit, I must get myself a fire pit. 😊
Congratulations on getting to 10k subs. 🎉
Thank you - we do love a fire in the evenings and both of the fire pits we have are portable so we regularly take them down to the beach or lake side where permitted.
We really can't believe how much the channel has grown over the past 8 weeks!!
Awesome guys .. we have subscribed as well .. cheers Chris & Sammy
Thank you so much 😁
Interesting video, always good to compare other people’s ‘essentials’ to our own.
Having just been hit with a van service and mot which included the timing belt and water pump along with an advisory of suspension bushes in the future. Maybe a video on your van maintenance costs over its ownership could be interesting.
Hi John, thanks for this comment. We have a service and MOT due in the next few weeks- but hoping it is not going to be an expensive one🤞 We made the decision a few years ago to not use VW dealerships for services- we use trusted local garage that uses all appropriate VW parts. We noticed a big savings in cost and their work is first rate. We are not due the timing belt change, we had it done a few years ago, but the saving on that alone was quite significant.
Thanks again, R
Hi Richard and Jackie, this was such a fun and informative video to watch. I love watching you guys your voices are easy on the ears and your mannerisms are just spot on. I can’t believe what you can fit into the van. Do you think you will up grade from Nelson are there any features you wish he had? Looking forward to your next video. Tina xx
Hi Tina, thanks for your lovely comment 😊 It is amazing what you can fit into a tiny van but also how little you need for long road trips! We will keep Nelson for at least 2 years which will make him 9 years old. We have loved all of our travels in Nelson, especially the fact that it is small enough to go to anywhere you could take a car. We will look for a van no bigger than 6m and one that has a toilet which opens up a few more options of places to stay, particularly the aires in Europe. (Lots of people who have transporters do travel with a porta potty to overcome this problem) We will probably go for a van no older than 1-2 years as we will want this van to last us a good 10+ years. We have seen some fab vans that are based on a 5.4m Ducato base that look amazing.
Hi peeps 😉, absolutely love your volgs very informative. Just watched your latest volg ,excellent. We love your chairs could you please let us know the brand many thanks Steve and Diane, from sunny Leeds (not) 🌞 👍
Hi thanks for watching. There is a link in the description to the video to our Amazon store which has our chairs in. We treated ourselves to the 2 Helinox chairs after going through a few sets of normal camping style chairs. They are expensive but after over 3 summers of continued use they are in excellent condition still. We have also added a couple of other similar styles that are much cheaper. Happy travels 🚐
Thanks for the info - I have been looking at awnings like yours - can I ask who makes your one? Thanks
Hi it is made by funky leisure
Do you guys have a link or a name of the chairs? I need to travel with four so those look like I’d save a fair amount of space. Thanks
Hi we have put a link in the video description to our Amazon store. The chairs we have now are Helinox chairs which are at the more expensive end but we have had them for three summers of extensive use and they are still in an excellent condition and really comfortable. We have also put in a couple of links to a couple of other types of packable chairs that are much cheaper. We have not tested them obviously, but they all pack away to a really good size if storage space is a premium. Happy travels this summer 🚐
@@earlyretirementwanderlust thank you, I’ll take a look at those 👍🏻
Hi Richard and Jackie, really enjoy your videos, great content. This one is particularly helpful, as I am a newbie to vanlife, having bought one for our retirement, but my wife was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s and is in care so sadly I am now going to be a solo traveller, but excited by the sense of adventure. I would be keen to know what chairs you selected as mine are very bulky. Also the thermal cups?
So sorry to hear about your wife's diagnosis - We have been looking after Richards mums care as she has dementia and recently went into a home. They are both such cruel diseases. I am sure you will enjoy your travels, there were times when it was just what we needed to escape the reality and responsibilities for a few days and there are so many stunning places to visit in the UK. Our chairs are 'Helinox' ones which are at the more pricey end of the scale but we have used them for 3 extensive summers and they are still in excellent condition. We have also highlighted a couple of similar models in our amazon store that are more competitively priced (there is a link in the description below) I know we also ordered the cups of Amazon - I will have a look and add a link. Hope you have some epic trips this summer x
Ahhh Jackie is from South Africa? I’m from SA! Where is she from? I’m from Durban… she’s obviously been in the UK for a long time ….❤
I was born in Johannesburg but came to England when I was 10 😀
Thanks for the video 😊 just wondering what you do for drinking water? Do you filter yours or just buy it on the road 🚐 thanks
We take one of the big gallon bottles that you can buy in the supermarket and just refill it when ever we have access to fresh drinking water. If we know we are using park ups rather than campsites more on a trip we take 2. Happy travels 🚐
The clocks went forward Sunday morning not Sunday night lol.
🤣 oops!