Sommaire pour Issue 127 de VWt

BRING IT ON... Hello and welcome to issue 127 of VWt magazine. It doesn’t seem that long ago we were ushering in 2022, filled with hope and optimism that the last few years were just a bad dream. No more being separated from loved ones, wearing face masks, and having to anti-bac everything within an inch of its life. Wow, 2022 take a bow! I think it’s fair to say you were a belter, especially for us in the Transporter scene. The shows were back in full force, we had a great summer season (mainly) and the level of Transporter builds were off the scale. However, boy oh boy is it giving us a headache at VWt Towers when it comes to choosing feature vans, let alone cover vans. Some…

NAME THAT WHEEL Hi VWt, first off, cracking job on issue 126 with the Performance Chef T6.1 on cover, what a build! Love the bike garage in the back and that coffee machine and interior, wow! Secondly, in your excellent Busfest report on page 59 there was a small picture of a Swamper wheel, what is it? I fancy a set for my T6, but for the love of God can’t work out what they are! Matt Donelly via Instagram VWt: Hey Matt, that’s a 17” Black Rhino York on a 225/65/17 BF Goodrich All-Terrain T/A. If you get some, make sure you send us a photo when they’re fitted, they’re a proper tough wheel! YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED Hello VWt, I’ve been trying to get a calendar with modern…

SHOWS Sadly, we all know someone who has suffered with cancer, and I am no different, as recently my Auntie was diagnosed with Bowl Cancer. Luckily, she is well on the road to recovery now, but it got me thinking that I’d like to do my bit and raise some money for the excellent Macmillan Cancer Support Charity. So, I thought why not organise a Macmillan Coffee Morning at work, which just so happens to be Transporter HQ. It started off as just a little cake sale at work with my fellow colleagues, but our boss Andy suggested opening it up to the van community to raise even more money. Then, it kind of snowballed from there. After all, who doesn’t love looking at vans whilst eating cake and drinking…

SEND US YOURS: Ever dreamed about seeing your van appear in the pages of VWt? Make that dream a reality! Simply e-mail a selection of good quality high-res images of your van to glenn.rowswell@kelsey.co.uk along with a full spec list and add the subject title ‘Your Vans’. But please remember, if you didn’t take the photos, you MUST have permission from the photographer to use the images in the magazine, and all images should be free from watermarks. By submitting an image you assume responsibility for any copyright infringement. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s see those project builds! JEFF & PAULA SNODIN’S 2004 T5, LANCASHIRE Hi VWt, we thought we would submit some words and pictures of our van to go in the Your Vans section. Our van…

HOT VANS One of the best things about the car scene is migration from one brand to another. It keeps things fresh. Of course, there will always be the ‘one brand’ die-hard fan base for every conceivable car maker out there who wouldn’t dream of driving anything but their favoured marque. At some point in any true petrol head’s life though, they are likely to have held the keys to something Italian, something Japanese and without question, something German. The owner of this face-lifted T5, James Drye from Newton Abbot in Devon drops firmly into the latter category. “I’ve always been on the car scene, mainly with Japanese imports,” he says. “But since having two amazing little girls with my wife it was time to change and get into the…

I feel like I’m a pretty resourceful human and that I’ll turn my hand to pretty much anything and my usual response when I see something I’d like that’s expensive to buy is: “I could make that”. Life is much more interesting that way too and you definitely get more of a sense of fulfilment from owning things that you’ve put a bit of yourself into, even if that bit of you was blood. Skinned knuckles are all part of the game. I get the feeling that Andy Buckett – founder of Buckettz Dubz has the same mindset. This is a man who can turn his hand to all kind of disciplines and chooses to keep pushing himself, rather than to stay in a small box. Let’s face it, a…

COOL FLOW OUTLAW TRUCKER CAP Get the tropical Bus vibe with this two-tone Aloha trucker cap from Cool Flo. Designed in collaboration with Nowaii, it features a Cool Flo loop tag to the side and snap-tab size adjuster at the rear. Price £25 www.coolflo.co.uk AQUA MARINA VIBRANT PADDLEBOARD Get yourself into a new activity for 2023 with this brilliant inflatable paddleboard kit from Aqua Marina. The awesome kit here includes the board, paddle, pump, fin, backpack and leash. Priced from £269 www.sup.co.uk G-SHOCK MUDMASTER WATCH Those that love the outdoor life will love the tough as nails G-Shock Mudmaster (GG-B100-1A9ER) with its retina blasting orange resin strap, carbon Core Guard case and easy to read dial. It’s packed with features, including a triple sensor and accelerometer. The three sensors detect…

HOT VANS Now, I’ve only dealt with a handful of mortgage advisors and administrators in my time, but none of them were like James Neal. My last Mortgage Advisor is a very lovely woman whom we’ve now struck up a friendship with, but her house and vehicle choices are pretty mainstream, even if the car is a bit on the flashy side. But my – tongue firmly in cheek – start of this feature only serves to prove one thing about people who work in the mortgage field… Just like any human being, they can’t be put into a category, even though humans are great at categorising and judging things. Case in point is anyone who works in the financial sphere and crunches numbers all day; if you’ve met one…

There’s no two ways about it, Navis have taken the Transporter scene by storm and the mighty MAC-AT - their first all-terrain wheel - was a bona fide classic right out of the box. Well, Navis are back with the tricky follow up album to their debut AT wheel hit and it seems they’ve got another number 1 hit on their hands. Just take a look, how can anything look so tough, yet so beautiful at the same time?! Navis told us: “With the popularity of the Navis MAC-AT, we knew it was time for another rugged all-terrain wheel to be added to the Navis brand. The design inspiration came from wanting to produce a wheel that could go anywhere and do anything, or to be the ultimate winter wheel…

If a camper van really is a reflection of the owner, then John George Randell is smooth to look at, but with a very colourful personality. His 2010 T5.1 has been given a complete transformation, quite the change from the panel van he bought from some dude in Bristol! More commonly known as just Randell (a bit like one of those fancy Brazilian footballers), the 48-year-old Company Director from Northampton has put together a pretty special van, but the journey wasn’t as smooth as the end result. The van itself was in excellent condition when he collected it just over seven years ago. “To be honest, I didn’t really want black,” he says. “The thing is, it had everything else we wanted and was a really high spec, so we…

Perched on an outcrop overlooking the Northumberland Coast, Bamburgh Castle started life as an Anglo-Saxon citadel and has a rich and varied history. The mighty keep dates back to just after the Norman invasion, while it acted as a royal palace for numerous kings in the centuries that followed. Bamburgh holds the distinguished title of being the first castle in the world to fall to gunpowder, having been attacked during the War of the Roses, while a delightful array of artefacts and heirlooms reveal more about its past. Today it stands as the family home of the Armstrong family, descendants of Victorian engineer William Armstrong, who purchased the castle to return it to its former glory. Purchasing pre-booked advance tickets online is recommended see www.bamburghcastle.com for more info. Where: Bamburgh…

There was a very clear list of modifications and a plan for my, well, my better half Jenny’s Caddy that I also use. Now, whilst the plan is still in place, the order of modifications is not going to plan. I just cannot figure out what size steels and tyres to go for. We want the biggest and chunkiest tyres possible, but categorically cannot have any rubbing. If it was just for looks then I think we could probably get away with a tyre that was a little close to the body of the van, but seeing as the Caddy will be going off-road the wheels need room to move freely. What’s the point of all this info you may be asking? Well, the good guys over at Stitches +…