Hello from another Dorset Alphardian!

[Rivieralad]

Hello all!

 

Been lurking on the forum for a couple of weeks, so thought I had better say hello from down here in sunny (well at least for today) Dorset.

 

Sold our motorhome as we wanted to downsize to a campervan which we can use as an every day car, as a day van and for slightly longer camping trips.

 

Looked at the obligatory VeeDubs, to keep "the boss" happy, but no surprise that they were over priced and over rated. Also the owners seemed to think they could just advertise and sell them without any effort on their part and not bothering to check everything was working and not even showing the van a cleaning sponge, let alone actually clean them, eugh!

 

Went to see a very local Alphard at a small high-end dealer. Liked the conversion and loved the van but there were a few problems that needed sorting.

Off to see another Alphard down in deepest, darkest Dorset (Weymouth actually), which we ended up buying, yipee!

Lovely chap the previous owner, local Dorset man, happy to help and answer any questions.

 

The conversion is by Imperial Leisure Vehicles in Poole, so a strong Dorset theme is developing here!

 

Driving home it struck me that the actual base vehicle put every other motorhome, campervan or car we have ever owned to shame.

 

It's only done 44k miles, 31k in Japan and the rest over here since it was imported in 2018.

 

Sorted out the radio reception, DAB and FM, by throwing out the cheap USB adapter plugged into the cigarette lighter socket and the cheap, poor quality, dash cam will be following very soon. Pioneer head unit now works perfectly, even if it is a little basic, but as long as we have music we're happy and it does sound quite good.

 

Fitted a "proper" rear fog light switch, that matches the rest of the switches.

 

Retrieved the switch lock button from under the carpet (fell out while trying to figure out the radio reception problems) and found two more hiding there, so we now have 3!!!

 

Bought a JPNZ english language owners handbook off Amazon, just in time as it looks like they are now sold out.

 

New dash cam arrives later today, Wolfbox 900 Pro, mirror with built in front dash camera and a separate rear camera which will help as you can't see much out of the back with the rib bed in seating position, although this will make the current Toyota front and rear cameras redundant (no problem as front not connected and rear isn't that great a picture).

 

Looking forward to getting out and about in our Alphie.

 

Cheers all.

 

Chris

 

[Chris.ac]

Well done. 

The rear fog cheapo switch triggers me everyone i see one, so glad you prioritised that 😂