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As a family of two adults and 3 children aged 9, 7 and 6 we had for many years planned and saved to take our family on a major holiday around our wonderful country. We had a multitude of possible choices but a camper trailer, caravan or a motorhome were our preferred options. We did considerable research into choosing but we must admit that our budget was a major factor with our eventual choice. A caravan was our first serious possibility but when we found a van that we were happy with we then realised we had to purchase a large car or a four wheel drive to tow it. We decided that towing a caravan also meant the children sitting in the small confines of the car for long periods. Upon looking at motorhomes the children had more room and if set up correctly could watch a movie, play video games, read, draw or play the computer whilst traveling. It was this point that turned us to the idea of traveling by motorhome.
Once we had decided to purchase a motorhome we looked at quite a few but none were set up with children in mind or were easily modified to suit. Whilst looking at converted buses we were told about the CMCA which we joined as associate members. The information gained from their website and magazines gave us the confidence to buy our own bus and attempt the conversion ourselves. This was a big decision as we had seen a number of partially completed buses and had heard some horror stories with taking this path.
Now the research started about which type of bus should we buy. Initially I started by looking at what other people had used and at the for sale section of the Wanderer magazine. I then explained my case to some local bus companies and asked them to make three suggestions. There were a number of buses mentioned and even such vehicles as a particular Mercedes with a certain chassis, a particular differential and gearbox. The interesting thing was that with four bus companies asked as well as an RTA heavy vehicle inspector the Nissan UD was mentioned the most. This was why we looked for the UD and must say in hindsight has been a very good decision. Naturally any purchase of a secondhand vehicle has its risks especially when buses will often have one million kilometres or more on their clock.
The rest of this website looks at how we went about our conversion as well as some of our adventures.