Meet "Duckie" - VW T25 Pop Top Camper!

We have been thinking about getting a camper for a while now, but time has been against us. It has been a case of just looking at Autotrader and Ebay and getting a feel for what is about.

We did go to a local dealer to look at campers but none were below £30,000 which was way over budget.

So Sunday morning found me sipping coffee in bed and scrolling through campers on ebay.

We had finally came to the decision that a T25 was the right model to go for.

After our searches we thought that the T5's were either way to expensive for what they were, the standard of the interiors were a bit hit and miss and to be honest looked a bit chavvy!

T4's were looking dated and with basic trim levels just looked tired and unappealing.

The classic shaped Bay window VW's fetched silly money for something up together and once again the interiors for our budget were pretty sketchy!

So, we settled for looking for a T25.

With time being an important factor, we did not want to spend time travelling around the country looking for our perfect van, so when we found a van in Christchurch which is not far away we thought we had struck lucky.

It had everything we wanted, looked good, had loads of history and was well within budget. But, after a quick phone call found out that it had just been sold the day before!

Feeling a bit despondent, I carried on looking. The very last advert on ebay came up with "Duckie"! Being in Lymington she was just down the road.

"Duckie" as she is known as is a 1984 VW T25 with a 1.9 petrol water cooled engine with 99% service history and certainly with enough to be sure that her 77,000 miles is absolutely genuine.

A couple of years ago she had an extensive refurbishment, mechanically and internally. This was done locally and Kiera happens to know the guy that did it.

I think it would be fair to say that we both fell in love with "Duckie" the moment we saw her.

We were shown around "Duckie" and everything looked good. A quick test drive did not show up anything to worry about so after a quick discussion we decided to go for it!

So here she is

A 4 berth with a pop top roof, she also comes with a full drive away awning which is brilliant.

As you can see from the pictures above she has a rather unique layout for a VW. To be honest it is brilliant for 2 adults and 2 kids. Much better that the standard layout with just two seats along the back.

Underneath the seats is loads of storage, so we should be able to get everything we need stowed away.

The upholstery material used is normally only found on super yachts to cover the seating on outside seats, making it fully wipeable and hard wearing whilst being luxurious. It has the feel of suede. 

The pop top roof is simple to operate and has loads of space for the kids to sleep in. The bed down below is large enough due to the cabinet layout. Some of the layouts we have seen have cabinets both sides which obviously restricts the sleeping space.

The galley consists of a two ring burner and grill, more than enough to knock up some fantastic grub. Also a fridge that runs off gas, it is supposed to run off the 12v/240v as well but I don't think it is wired up to do so. I don't remember seeing a 240v hookup point so this will be a little job to get done.

As you can see the whole of the bus has been reupholstered 

Plenty of storage in the rear, and it does have a tow bar which is great as we have a cycle rack which slots onto the tow bar. We do need to get electric to it.

So there she is - a rather fine looking camper which I am sure will give us hours and hours of memories!

We collect her on Sunday, so a whole week to wait, then the fun of kitting her out and putting her through her paces. The day we get her we will be off for a cuppa some where I'm sure.

Can't wait!!

Till later................