Hi, I just joined so wished to say hello!

I live, with my wife Hilary, just outside a small village to the north of Pontivy in the Morbihan department of Brittany in France. We have lived here since the beginning of 2008 and love the peace and solitude.

Having started Motor Caravanning when we moved to France by buying a Hymer from eBay (it was our home whilst we searched for a house to buy), we have discovered that Camping Cars, as they are called in France, are welcomed virtually everywhere in France (unlike England, as we discovered on our trips back with the Hymer! ). It is possible to park virtually anywhere that it is not specifically prohibited, making "wild" camping a real pleasure. So many people own camping cars that they are accepted by other motorists without complaint. The Aires provided by communes and the central government are usually wonderful places to park and/or spend a night. Many are by the sea. Virtually all are free.

I look forward to being a regular on this site.

Hi David and welcome to the site!

Nice motorhome you have there, one of my favourites - how long have you had it?

Sounds like you live in a very nice part of the world. You're right that France, and a lot of Europe in general, are a lot more motorhome-friendly than the UK, which is a shame as we have some lovely touring locations on offer over here.

Cheers,

Mark.

Hi Mark

This is my second Camping Car. The first was a 1994 Hymer Camp C Class, bought to be our travelling home whilst we searched for a home in France. Foolishly, after buying the house, we sold the Hymer as we thought that we would be better off with the money in the bank!

So, 18 months later (in September 2009), I bought the latest, a 1992 Hymer 564 A Class with the 1.9 Turbo diesel. This was bought in England, but is, of course, a left hand drive German import.

The price was quite low to take account of a number of things that needed sorting out. (And we cannot afford very much! ) So I have become quite familiar with a number of the ins and outs of the vehicle.

In registering it in France a few minor mods had to be made because safety regs in France are rather more rigorous than in the UK.

A real annoyance was that the large roof vent didn't work. The winder handle wouldn't turn as the spindle was completely seized in the bore of the body - due to corrosion and lack of lubrication. Amazingly, the spindle is steel and is fitted in a steel bore with no means of lubricating it. A very poor design. But I removed the large plastic skylight and then removed the offending metalwork from the roof. I managed to separate the parts (the local engineer helped with his oxy-acetylene torch!) and clean them all up. Some re-manufacturing was necessary, but now I have a roof light that opens and closes perfectly! And many hundreds of pounds saved on a replacement.

I will now have to have the clutch (or gearbox) worked on because of a rather nasty noise emanating from that region!! More expense. Still. The classic Hymer is much admired here in Brittany as it looks different from the look-alike modern Camping Cars!

Best of luck with the forum. Membership should grow - especially as some others now insist on making it a money making venture rather than a hobby and are charging membership fees.

Hi David

Sounds like fun and games, good job you are handy with the nuts and bolts stuff!

How do you find getting parts for the slightly older Hymer? A few people tell me that they are very hard to come by unless you want to pay a fortune for them directly from Hymer.

Cheers for the support with the forum, as you know its very hard to get things going in the early stages, hopefully we will get there though! And no, we have no plans whatsoever to start charging members!

Cheers,

Mark.

I haven't had to buy any Hymer-specific parts yet. The skylight would have been one, though, and I have no doubt for that piece of poor engineering they would have charged a lot!

I think it is disgraceful that manufacturers wish to charge so much for parts for very old vehicles. Inevitably the parts are unsold and simply take up space in their warehouses. I remember owning a Daimler Double-Six many years ago. I took it to the Jaguar dealers for a major service and asked them to replace all six (!) shock absorbers. They said they would supply pattern parts as genuine Jag parts were very expensive. I instructed them to use genuine parts because I knew that Jaguar had made a policy decision to reduce their stocks of older parts by cutting 40% across the board on those parts. So the genuine shockers turned out to be cheaper than the pattern parts. Much to the dealer's surprise! I would say that that was good for Jaguar customer relations - and their bottom line.

Thats something I can relate to, as a serial owner of Series 3 Jags and various other classic cars. Nowadays you can often find "new old stock" parts for classic cars on sites like ebay, but I guess its a lot more difficult for coachbuilt motorhomes as they're so much more obscure, therefore you end up being had over a barrel by the manufacturers!