New purchase - VW T6 Westfalia Kepler One

[chasingracecars]

Great read thanks again Spuff, well done on getting along in a small space too!

[keithsmith777]

Congratulations spuff time is a great healer, good to see you're getting on with your life, the past is the past good luck introducing the little one.
Cheers Keith.

[troika]

Looks brilliant, enjoy (must get some steel wheels, they just look more fit for purpose on a camper than alloys).

[LeighW]

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

A loo is a very useful thing if you don't want to trudge over to the toilet block in the middle of the night! You can still have one in a conventional layout, ours sits under a box that doubles as a footstool.

[Globs]

Looks great, I so wish I was going camper vanning now

[Kneetrembler]

Hi Spuff,
Glad that all went well with the new wheels andcthat you had a great time in it.

Get onto the T6 Forum here in the UK, and look up lights as if you dont spec the vehicle up you end up with rubbish headlights, and I’m really surprised for that money that you don’t have the ‘Comfort Dash ‘ fitted which is far better quality with lockable parts.

The forum is extremely helpful and no sniping at all on there, have a look.

All the very best

KT

[Spuffington]

So – a bit of an update on the Kepler.

In all, we’re loving it. We had our second trip away in it last week. Thursday evening we packed the fridge full of breakfast stuff plus beer & pre-mixed G&T (the essentials!) and set off for a little village called Dausenau which is on the River Lahne. We decided being Easter that it was better to go for a short trip given the likelihood of mass getaway on the Autobahn and the potential for being stuck. And although we’d also first thought of Koblenz, we decided peace and quiet was the order of the day since both myself and my girlfriend spend so much time flying here and there. A quick 1.5hr journey NNW from Frankfurt had us arriving at our site around 19:00 – a pretty little place with a pitch directly on the river bank. After filling with water, priming the boiler, filling the toilet flush tank, plugging in, popping the roof and covering up the screen with the Silver Screens, we were ready for the night. A few drinks and a big bowl of pasta and it was early to bed. Just 2 degs C overnight but with the insulation kit in the roof canvas and the big duvet, we were nice & toasty and both slept like a log.

Dausenau by Duncan Gibson, on Flickr
Dausenau by Duncan Gibson, on Flickr

We woke up to a very warm morning (well, nearly lunchtime!) – sun beating down on the van meant we rolled up the insulation matting and opened a window. With just a few metres between the van and the river and no one else around, it was very relaxing and even a bit bold to have the window open; exposing ourselves to the fresh morning air but with a beautiful view over the hills and river. It was so warm that we ended up getting out a picnic rug and having brunch outside. The day was spent relaxing watching the boats go by on the river, playing table tennis and having a lovely meal in Dauseanau before heading back to the van and slowly drinking beer, chatting and becoming slightly envious about our neighbours’ awnings as the sun went down and it got chilly. A few beers inside us, the fingers ended up tapping away at Amazon.de and eventually pressing “Kaufen” on a Vango Airbeam Kelar IV driveaway awning. Slowly, the van is becoming kitted out! Just need to buy some table and chairs now! 

Dausenau by Duncan Gibson, on Flickr
Dausenau by Duncan Gibson, on Flickr
Dausenau by Duncan Gibson, on Flickr
Dausenau by Duncan Gibson, on Flickr
Dausenau by Duncan Gibson, on Flickr


Otherwise the following day was spent doing much the same as Good Friday, only we had to pack up at 5pm and drive back to Frankfurt Airport to allow me to head back to the UK to pick up my daughter on Easter Sunday for the remainder of the long weekend. A shame to have to break the weekend short in Germany, but so lovely to have had a really relaxing couple of days away from it all, doing nothing.

Obviously whilst things are going exceptionally well personally, something has to go wrong and that has mostly been the with the Kepler itself!  Setting off on Thursday, the roof tie-down strap which we’d already reported to the dealer as having been torn, finally snapped! GGgrrr. This then had to be botched to tie down the roof for the trip and I’ve written a pretty stern email to the dealer to chase up on the new part. My girlfriend also noted that whilst I was reversing onto the pitch, one of the reversing lights is out. And then over the weekend, whilst I was explaining everything under the bonnet, I noticed mayonnaise in the oil filler cap. Ordinarily I wouldn’t have thought this was anything other than condensation build-up from a new vehicle being shunted around the forecourt in the 12km before we got it, but given I have had my concerns it was running a bit rough and “pinking”, it was another thing to note and book it in for. The final straw was on Tuesday when my girlfriend went to move it in front of the flat and the drivers seatbelt (which had previously failed to return to its resting position) was completely stuck and wouldn’t let itself be moved at all. Given it was illegal (and dangerous) to drive without a drivers seatbelt, VW Notdienst was called and the van was towed off to the local VW dealership within the hour. The good thing is, with all our business, it has saved us the job of taking it there ourselves and having the other niggles seen to. But it comes at a time where we’re supposed to be setting off for St. Anton in Tirol tomorrow for a weekend of snowboarding and we really need it back. Fingers crossed we here from the dealership tonight and can pick it up!

So, in conclusion, we’re loving it. In a lot of ways I wish I’d have done it years ago and bought myself a camper instead of my first hot hatch at 22. But given time cannot be rewound and it is as much enjoyable due to the company and shared experience, I’m over the moon it’s part of my life now. The fact that we can both spend days in the same confined space together without even so much as a crossed word and a telepathic ability to both get on with the tasks in hand without so much as uttering a word, proves to me that we are a team. We feel that in whatever we do outside of camping, but this firmly reinforces it.

[anonymous-user]

Good update, living the dream.

Don't worry about the mayonnaise, 'they all do that sir'.

https://www.t6forum.com/threads/deposit-under-oil-...

[Chicken Chaser]

Nice one Spuff, lovely vehicle. If I had £63k tucked down the back of the sofa, that looks like an ideal layout for a factory job. Is it 4 travelling seats? Will you be looking to take Spuff Jr with you?

[Spuffington]

Thanks Coin Slot - in some ways good to hear. Waiting to hear back from VW - they didn't get back to us yesterday and it's now getting rather critical as we're off to Austria this evening and have no vehicle currently. At the very least we're pushing them for a courtesy car if the van isn't back by tonight.

@Chicken Chaser - it sure is a great layout and I honestly don't think any of the other VW conversions would've worked for us. The inclusion of the toilet is the thing which sealed it (for both of us) as it just removes that trog across a campsite in the dead of night for a loo stop. Also gives ultimate flexibility when wilding. Our favourite Feature is the L-shaped Lounge and the fact there is a footstool built in which pulls out and enables both of you to cuddle up on the sofa with your legs out.

We'll probably take Spuff Jnr along at some point but would be a bit cramped. I've seen how people do it with VW and Kids but not sure I'm blessed with enough patience! Would rather stick to the 21m2 I have in the Concorde for parenting duties!

[Ranger 6]

Might be a bit of a trek for you from Koblenz, but we found the Harz Mountains to be a lovely place to spend a weekend. Good for skiing in the winter and the sailing/climbing in the summer.

I would qualify that by saying it was the late 70s and we lived in Hildesheim.

[BOBTEE]

I love Bitburger!! (available in the UK at Booths, go get some!)



You can visit the brewery in Bitburg. They do tours, we didn't time but the shop is nice, they even do 'bitte ein Bit' stickers

Trier which is nearby is lovely too.

[Kneetrembler]

Hi Spuff,
So glad that you are enjoying your new van.

Look at the T6 forum with regards Mayonnaise on the inside of the oil dip stick & filler cap & the problems with ad blue.

That’s one of the reasons why I bought Petrol 😲

My van is in for Conversion at this moment in time, should get it back about the 11th May 🤞

[custardkid]

video review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QGVWx7w-0s

Edited by custardkid on Tuesday 17th April 22:16

[Spuffington]

Thanks for all the comments.

@Ranger6 - thanks for the heads up. We're in Frankfurt so the Hartz Mountains are a bit of a schlepp, but they were already on our radar and will definitely get ticked off the list at some point over the summer.

@BOBTEE - love Bitburger, but it's not the only great Pils in Germany. It's difficult to go wrong unless going for Binding or Astra. Count those two out and I've seldom had a bad pint (apart from the last one on a big night out! )

@KT - thanks for the heads up. I need to get my backside into gear and get onto the T6 site. Just don't seem to have much time for forums These days what with constant travel backwards and forwards.

Good luck with your conversion. If we'd have had the choice, we'd have gone petrol too, but given the waiting list, it wasn't really a luxury we could afford (time-wise).

@CustardKid - afraid the link doesn't work.

So a brief update - the van was towed away last week and VW fixed the seatbelt issue. Allegedly something had fallend down into the aperture and got it all stuck. All fine now.

We were also told about the mayonnaise "they all do that!" And the noise was also a characteristic of the engine.

We picked it up and then drove 550km down to St. Anton for a ski weekend and back four days later. Had the van up to a comfortable 150kmh on the cruise control although then realised once we'd stopped that we needed to check the Speed Rating on the winter tyres before pulling that stunt again! ops:

Westfalia have delivered the replacement "WESTFALIA" sticker for the roof and the new tie-down strap for the roof. I'll be installing the latter at the weekend, but the sticker will have to wait until I can get up close and personal with a hair drier, polish and some isopropyl alcohol. Weather is lovely in Frankfurt this weekend so hoped to have a weekend away in the van, but a load of parties are on instead. Probably a good thing since we've put nearly 3000km on SallyB since collecting her a little over 6wks ago!

[TartanPaint]

What a beauty!

Mrs TartanPaint and I toured and lived in a T5 California for 6 months, and it's definitely the perfect size of van for travelling around. You can get places as fast as the rest of the traffic, so you can go further. You can get into cities and towns without stressing about parking on the outskirts or worrying about narrow streets and parking spaces. There was not one moment we felt like we wished we were in a bigger white box.

I wish you both the absolute happiest of times in that stunning van!

[Spuffington]

Thanks TartanPaint - yes, we love it and continue to do so. Talk has even turned to whether we'd take SallyB on an a longer expedition over the Concorde and I suspect, if it were just the two of us, yes we'd certainly go for it. It has definite advantages over the Concorde, but then equally, the Concorde also has its own plus points too. They're such different vehicles, we feel really spoilt having the two of them and the choice as to how we holiday and use them.

• *******

Another quick adventure write-up from a couple of weekends ago.....

Although we had spent a long weekend in the Concorde, with my daughter (which descended into chaos when we both got the Norovirus! ), the idea upon returning to Frankfurt of spending another weekend couped up in a van was pretty unappealing, by the Thursday we had started to feel better and were closely eyeing the weather forecast, which was absolutely stunning. Although the new Mrs Spuff was more reserved about going away than I was, she was easily talked around after a glass of wine :lol: , so late on Thurs night I popped down to the van, turned on the fridge and loaded with our new fancy Vango Airbeam awning, new table and chairs and a few other bits lying around. Upon returning to the flat, young lady had packed a hold-all and popped out to buy some food and drink and we were ready to go. We then both left work around 4:30pm, dashed back to the flat and were on the road by 5:30pm and heading into the traffic jams on the A66 around Wiesbaden!!

Wiesbaden aside, the road up the Rhein valley North of Rüdesheim is pretty easy going and by 7pm we were on a little car Ferry to the western bank of the river (EUR 5) and a few minutes later at the campsite I had chosen earlier in the day: Campingplatz Schönenburg - Oberwesel. We checked in, had a quick chin-wag with the owners and shown to our pitch, as requested, right on the river bank. Beautiful. We had a bit of a struggle putting up the awning for the first time - made a few mistakes, but within an hour we were settled into our seats with a beer, G&T and some dinner behind the flyscreen of the awning, marvelling at sunset and later, much much later, at the stars..............until somehow climbing into the roofbed at 2am, completely battered!

Oberwesel am Rhein by Duncan Gibson, on Flickr
Oberwesel am Rhein by Duncan Gibson, on Flickr
Untitled by Duncan Gibson, on Flickr

The following day, with a bit of a hangover and the sun beating down on the roof and canvas sides to the "bedroom", we dragged ourselves out into the beautiful sunshine and had breakfast by the river, watching the boats cruise past and then having a Little explore of the campsite. It was only a thin trip of land about 300m long, but occupied such a lovely part of the river, with great views to the Castle above on the hill and the vineyards in the distance. A little beach at far end of the site had us paddling and promising ourselves a swim later in the day.

Oberwesel am Rhein by Duncan Gibson, on Flickr
Oberwesel am Rhein by Duncan Gibson, on Flickr

We then had a bit of a walk around the beautiful town of Oberwesel (stunning) and then a hike up the hill to the old Schönenburg Castle, which now has a fabulous hotel built inside the old fortress. Although a stunning five-star hotel, they thankfully overlooked the two badly-dressed, sweaty messes who arrived at their courtyard and relieved us of EUR 15 for a couple of cold beers. Well worth it!

Oberwesel am Rhein by Duncan Gibson, on Flickr
Oberwesel am Rhein by Duncan Gibson, on Flickr

A more subdued evening followed. We got back to the campsite where they had a lovely little beergarden under some trees, where we gently supped a few cold Hefeweizen before retiring to the van for van-cooked fillet steak and salad!

The following morning was a bit of a calamity. Overnight the toilet cassette showed its little red light of fullness, so upon rising, I quickly set about removing the cassette from the van for emptying. The cassette in SallyB is far longer and narrower than that in the Concorde and sits nicely on wheels. This turned out to be a bad thing, in spite of the thing weighing c. 20kg, as I found out by putting it down on its end to wheel away - leaving it for a second to grab something in the van. At this point I noticed my girlfriends face grimmace and before she could get any words out, I worked out why she grimmaced as the weight of the toilet cassette fell squarely on my flip-flopped foot! I've seldom felt pain like it and in spite of both Nurofen, Paracetamol and even a last ditch attempt at further analgaesia in the shape of beer, the pain was just about bearable. Icepacks and compression bandages got me back to Frankfurt, but not before the glass cover for the hob had exploded due to the steam from the kettle being too much for it!!!!! A fun day, the Sunday certainly was not.

This was my foot immediately post being cleaned up:

Oberwesel am Rhein by Duncan Gibson, on Flickr

This was my foot after a trip to A&E in Frankfurt the following day (x-ray confirmed no breaks but Dr confirmed bruised bone and lots of soft tissue damage):

Oberwesel am Rhein by Duncan Gibson, on Flickr

And this is my foot a little over a week later:

Oberwesel am Rhein by Duncan Gibson, on Flickr

All of that bad stuff aside, we had a ball. The campsite was just stunning and although lacking the table Tennis of the last one and the facilities being a bit pokey (but clean), the Location, the beer garden and the friendly atmosphere means it will be a place we go back to. Being only 90mins or so from Frankfurt is an absolute winner. As is the awning - it adds so much space and also the ability to spend much longer outdoors than we would do otherwise of an evening. We worked out that with an electric fan heater blowing into it, we could stay outside until well into the night. We would never take it away for just one night - far too time consuming to put up and take down, but for a couple of days - invaluable.

It's fair to say that our love for SallyB is growing with each trip.

I haven't any photos but four days after returning from the Rhein, we met my Uncle in his Morello up in the Taunus mountains outside Frankfurt and decided to try a Stellplatz (like a French Aire). This meant we would have to use the onboard toilet for number two's for the first time! As much as that was initially unpalatable, we just developed a Routine of one of us going for a walk whilst the other went about their Business and ensure the van was well "aired" before inviting the other back in! It worked and we felt entirely comfortable with being self-sufficient in the van - silly things like doing washing up in the van, which we don't normally do on a campsite was both a logistical challenge but also a team challenge - one, like many of the others we've had, we rose to as a couple and enjoyed it immensely.

I can now see us doing a mixture of two nights on campsite in picturesque locations and the odd single night visit to a pretty town or something just to take in a town, do some exploring and have a casual dinner and few drinks before retiring to a Stellplatz. A cost efficient way of exploring the local area for just EUR 10 a night.

In short - loving it!

Edited by Spuffington on Tuesday 15th May 15:49

[Kev_Mk3]

Love the van and adventures. I plan on doing more touring around Germany & hopefully settling in the country when we retire.

[troika]

Kneetrembler said:

Hi Spuff,
So glad that you are enjoying your new van.

Look at the T6 forum with regards Mayonnaise on the inside of the oil dip stick & filler cap & the problems with ad blue.

That’s one of the reasons why I bought Petrol ??

My van is in for Conversion at this moment in time, should get it back about the 11th May ??

Is the conversion done? Your petrol T6 will be a rare beast indeed. On the Calis, petrol engine no longer available to order for MY2019.

[chopper602]

Spuffington said:

Wiesbaden aside, the road up the Rhein valley North of Rüdesheim is pretty easy going and by 7pm we were on a little car Ferry to the western bank of the river (EUR 5) and a few minutes later at the campsite I had chosen earlier in the day: Campingplatz Schönenburg - Oberwesel. We checked in, had a quick chin-wag with the owners and shown to our pitch, as requested, right on the river bank. Beautiful.

We'll be taking that very ferry, again, in August as we make our way to the site at Rudesheim - I'm sure you're aware it's there, but found it very pleasant last time we were there and want to have a go on the cable car in town, as it was broken last time.

(although taking a quick look at the map, we might be taking the ferry when we leave Rudesheim, on the way to Freiburg, rather than on the way there this time)