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Top Pitch Thanks for the ’van
I was extremely sad to read in MMM, almost an aside in a news item (April, p26) about Pilote dealers, that Hayes Leisure of Darlaston has closed.
Ever since my first Scout camp at Syke Farm in Buttermere in 1960 we always camped in a tent, never bigger that a Vango Force Ten. We camped on the ground for many years, but eventually upgraded to a lilo. The lilo developed a few leaks, which I repaired, but, in the end, it came to the crunch: a new lilo or a campervan? No contest! After all, we had always dreamed of having a campervan.
In 2001, we went to the Caravan, Camping and Motorhome Show at the NEC, just to look at what was available and to see the different layouts, so we could then look for a secondhand ’van. At the Auto-Sleepers stand we saw what we thought, and still think, is the ideal design for a campervan, the Symbol.
High-top with plenty of headroom, a Peugot Boxer, so wide enough to sleep across the ’van with no additional cushions, the most comfortable bed we’ve ever slept in, even at home, toilet, shower, fridge, cooker and oven that’s better than the one at home, heating, hot water, vast storage, massive payload, and all this in a compact vehicle just 5.2m long, which will fit easily in a normal supermarket parking space.
We met Bill Hayes and we talked. We explained we were thinking of buying used and that there was no way we could afford a new ’van. He said, “I think you might be surprised,” and wrote down a price on his card.
We couldn’t believe it. It was more than we had been budgeting for, but not that much. Apparently, Auto-Sleepers had a special offer on the Symbol that year.
We went home, looked at our savings, took out everything from every savings account we had, and bought our first ’van. I always said I would rather see my money on the drive than in the bank.
Hayes had the view that if it sold us our first ’van and looked after us, we would come back when we wanted another. And so it was.
After three years of living and travelling in the ’van we had lots of ideas about how it could be modified and improved, so we asked Auto-Sleepers if it could incorporate my ideas into a new ’van. This it did, at very reasonable cost, and we bought it from Hayes.
I wrote an article about this for MMM with photos of my modifications: an extra run of lockers on the offside instead of the high-level window, a fold-up worktop across the back doors, a booze cup
