First time overnight - my experience

[Lott]

Drawer under the seat
I am not quite sure if it is only me, but why is the lever on the left side? To open the drawer one always has to go into the van or stretch... Wouldn't it be more convenient to have the lever to open the drawer on the right and the lever to move the bench on the left?


Bicycle holder
On Monday I used it the first time. My wife has a normal street bike, which we brought to repair and collected her new eBike.
I am 1.75m so not the tallest person, but by gosh it is difficult to get a heavy bike (yes I removed the battery from the eBike) placed on the holder and fix it securely.

Just had our 2nd camping trip in our T5, but had a T4 previously.
Was thinking the same thing about the seat drawer, why didn’t they put the handle the other side? Only a small niggle though.

I also think the bikerack is a little too tall for me, it was lower down on our T4. This also makes the handlebars much higher than the roof, I will need to remember that. I’m guessing they did it so the number plate is clearly visible?
Fortunately we always carry a small folding step which makes it accessible.

 

[Amarillo]

Shoes! Arghh! On a recent 4 night trip away I was forever picking up loose shoes from the kids or other half. I only took one pair, they all seemed to have at least 3 pairs, even the 1yr old!

Crocs, approach shoes and wellies - all I needed for a year on tour in the van. Boys: crocs, sandals and Timberlands. SWMBO: flip flops, sandals and walking boots.


Follow my blog: www.au-revoir.eu

 

[Romans]

The best and cheapest thing for the price of a piece of ply I have got for my beach is the shelf above the front seats easily made and takes everything from the rear parcel shelf once the roof is up.The shelf is made of 10 mm ply and measures 120cmx48 cm.We don’t use the top bed but if you do make the shelf narrower.Credit for the idea to previous threads on here.Couple of poor photos but hopefully you get the idea.

 

[SimonB]

Duvets, pillows, sleeping bags, etc are better when constrained. We keep ours in the blue Ikea zip top bags and keep them like stuff sacks. Duvets take up so much space when not compressed.
The front seat drivers side. We have all fought with these and have little marks on the runners, etc. California Chris made this handy video that I put on another thread recently.

It made it straightforward for me after watching it. Loosen off the steering wheel, put the arms down so they go under the steering wheel, tilt the back of the seat forwards.

 

[Velma's Dad]

As there are just two of us in the van, we almost never swivel the driver's seat, only the passenger one. So, only half the faff, and the forward facing driver's seat then makes it a doddle to get upstairs to bed (using the seat shoulder as a handy step).

 

[T6 CFO]

As there are just two of us in the van, we almost never swivel the driver's seat, only the passenger one. So, only half the faff, and the forward facing driver's seat then makes it a doddle to get upstairs to bed (using the seat shoulder as a handy step).

Do the same. Also enables better use of the brandrup pockets on the drivers seat and iPad mount on the headrest for the occasional viewing.

Mike

 

[GrannyJen]

Swivelling the driver front seat, which I prefer to the passenger one, I find easy.

Steering wheel in and up. Armrests down. Seat back folded at least half way down. Pull the lever and if it looks like seat recliner knob is going to foul the side then just nudge the seat forward a bit.

I don't have brandrup bags, I have an old fold-away shoulder bag draped around the driver's seat headrest, as I'm swivelling the seat so that get's rotated from front to back.

 

[Verity]

Not only you. I totally agree.

Me too. And the internal blinds on the front windscreen. They are the devil itself, and I prefer an outside screen. As we normally arrive at our destination in daylight and don't want to drawer the screens across until nighttime, the seats are usually rear facing by this point. I found on my recent trip away that it is easier to stand in the middle between the chairs to pull the screens across than to try and reach in with the front doors open. Either way it's a PITA and the external screen is easier. Downside to that is that my husband doesn't like the outside screen because it is either wet or damp in the morning when we are packing up. Hmm.

 

[Bellcrew]

Hello,

Even though we had the van since end of November last year, because of work and family reason we only managed to get out for a 2-day overnight stay last weekend.

I was reading a lot about the California, how to use various options of the van, saw many YouTube videos and heard that people take many month to get use to the camper. But the reality at the weekend hit me a bit, so I thought I put my thoughts together of what I have learned and what I will take away from the first overnight stay. More for myself let me break down the various topics to review my experience:

Driving
To drive the VW California is a wonderful experience. My wife and I feel that the seats are very comfortable, the noise level is very low (at least on good roads).
What have I learned? = VW California Ocean is a very good travel vehicle

Camp site
For the first overnight stay we decided to go for a good camp site, so we chose a site in NI not so far away from Kilkeel. With a 5-star rating I thought we have a bit of space around us and so a bit more of privacy. I was looking for this because there is so much we are not familiar with that I didn't fancy a lot of spectators watching me.
This was not the case. The camp site was very clean, facilities ok, but very cramped. There was barely any room between the different spaces.
What have I learned? = To put more research into choosing a camp site (my mistake)

Setting up camp
In general this is done quickly. Connect to power, put up the roof, get the chairs and table out. What I disliked was to swivel the drivers seat. That should be easier.
What have I learned? = I need to practise more to swivel the drivers seat (more practise)

Prepare for the night
Here came the real shock. Everybody has their own way to organize the storage, but I feel there are different storage areas with different usage:

• Boot = storage for cloth and personal belongings
• Above the boot = storage for the cushions, blankets, mattress protection etc.
• Shelf beside the boot = bits and pieces (general)
• Shelf beside the fridge = Wardrobe
• Cupboard = food, dishes and cutlery

We decided to sleep downstairs. To make the bed means that the only storage area for our belongings is in the boot. To get at these things is cumbersome. This really bother me. It is inconvenient. I must admit that I was a bit unhappy about this part of the usage of the camper.
What have I learned? =

• To be more organized. I need to save money to get the boot drawer, which will help to get access to this area
• Take less. Think more of what is needed and take that minimum. Less is more
• Not to go shopping during the trip. We had no time to go shopping so we did it in Newry. So on top of everything we had the shopping bags in the boot too

The downstairs bed is not that bad, but a bit too small for my wife and me. So my wife decided to sleep upstairs. Because she is not very tall, she struggles a bit to climb up.
What have I learned? = get some arrangements to help her to climb up.

Day tours
Preparing for day tours meaning to put everything back. This is no problem if the organization is well done. We suffered a wee bit for this.
What have I learned? = Be more organized

Was the 2-day trip an overall positive experience? No it wasn't. We need to organize ourselves better and do more research of camp sites. The van itself was brilliant to drive, just a pleasure. Set-up camp was easy, set-up for night was frustrating (I don't know what I expected). Prepare the van to move on, was OK but can take about half an hour (if the downstairs bed were used).

These are just my experience over our June bank holiday weekend. So there is a good bit to learn and to improve. Never the less I thought that would be interesting for people using the camper the first time (of course well knowing that everybody is different).

Regards,
Eberhard

I understand that some people do not use the roof bed for a number of reasons but IMHO it is the comfortable 2 m roof bed that makes the Cali the special vehicle it is. The effective internal floor space of the vehicle is nearly doubled once the "first floor" accommodation is factored in. Fit an Isotop liner and the comfort level increases without any further effort once it is fitted.

 

[Verity]

Swivelling the driver front seat, which I prefer to the passenger one, I find easy.

Steering wheel in and up. Armrests down. Seat back folded at least half way down. Pull the lever and if it looks like seat recliner knob is going to foul the side then just nudge the seat forward a bit.

I don't have brandrup bags, I have an old fold-away shoulder bag draped around the driver's seat headrest, as I'm swivelling the seat so that get's rotated from front to back.

How do you do the steering wheel move?

 

[GrannyJen]

How do you do the steering wheel move?

The lever underneath, LHS. Adjusts the position of the steering wheel in two planes, up and down, backwards and forwards. No rocket science, just release the steering wheel, push it back and up as far as it will go. Only small movement but gives you those vital millimetres.

I must be a freak, I find my seating position is perfect for allowing the seat to swivel without adjusting it's position providing seat back is forward, arms down and steering wheel moved out of the way. Takes me seconds.

 

[Meoncoast]

Rating for above post.
Agree is that

1. finding seating position is perfect
2. Granny Jen is a freak

 

[GrannyJen]

Rating for above post.
Agree is that

1. finding seating position is perfect
2. Granny Jen is a freak

 

[motacyclist]

Re the windscreen blinds, they are absolute bliss after the PITA of our first Cali where you had to stretch a piece of material over bendy rods and then try to get the whole assembly over the steering wheel! Our second Cali wasn’t a lot better, the material was hung on the sun visors and just sagged onto the dashboard below completely removing it as a useful storage area.

You young Cali owners have never had it so good!

 

[GrannyJen]

I find those front blinds amazingly effective but sadly for someone with advanced incompetence of all things mechanical I find them difficult.

The half hour of getting them into place is riven with the sounds of them crashing back against the pillars, a noise occasionally drowned out by me shrieking expletives. I then find the sun visors don't clear the seat headrests so a period of seat unswivelling, blinds crashing back, rear view mirror being tossed on to the pile of useless and recently detached accessories, the dash cam seeing nothing but recording every expletive, finally I can go to bed!

 

[Hotel California]

Also can't understand why you would hate the rolling front blinds .
Takes me 20seconds to put up sitting in the front seat .
Only let them shoot out of my hand once , they rolled in with a bang , lucky it did not break the plastic handle/clip .
I do always put a strap on top of it to prevent them to shoot out once fitted

 

[Bellcrew]

I find those front blinds amazingly effective but sadly for someone with advanced incompetence of all things mechanical I find them difficult.

The half hour of getting them into place is riven with the sounds of them crashing back against the pillars, a noise occasionally drowned out by me shrieking expletives. I then find the sun visors don't clear the seat headrests so a period of seat unswivelling, blinds crashing back, rear view mirror being tossed on to the pile of useless and recently detached accessories, the dash cam seeing nothing but recording every expletive, finally I can go to bed!

Just lose the headrests, all obstructions to the run of the blinds disappear, easy peasy.

 

[GrannyJen]

Just lose the headrests, all obstructions to the run of the blinds disappear, easy peasy.

Young man,

It takes all that I have to remember the head rests!

As for losing them, I lose the whole bloody car often enough!

 

[Verity]

The lever underneath, LHS. Adjusts the position of the steering wheel in two planes, up and down, backwards and forwards. No rocket science, just release the steering wheel, push it back and up as far as it will go. Only small movement but gives you those vital millimetres.

I must be a freak, I find my seating position is perfect for allowing the seat to swivel without adjusting it's position providing seat back is forward, arms down and steering wheel moved out of the way. Takes me seconds.

Thanks! I'll try this. Could cause ructions if I can't get it back into its preferred location though ...

 

[Eber123]

Good morning,

It takes me a while to find the best seating position - I need a harmony of correct seat position, steering wheel position, inner and outer mirror position (ok, I am pushing it, but there is a bit of truth in it). At least I don't have to find the right hight. Moving everything out of the way to swivel the seat is a bit of a (small) pain.

I saw the video from Chris too. It looked so easy. I will watch it again and see if it is possible for me to swivel the driver seat so elegant as Chris did.

Regards,
Eberhard

 

[DaNish]

Although I admit the front blinds needs a bit of diligence and practice I find they work well. So I would never bother with anything external, just practice a bit and don't rush

 

[GillianC]

Although I admit the front blinds needs a bit of diligence and practice I find they work well. So I would never bother with anything external, just practice a bit and don't rush

My first time using the front blinds last weekend and I also liked them. Much better than the curtain in my last van which I never used. I would probably use silver screens in the colder weather but these are fine and mean that you can also open the front doors when they are drawn across! Much easier to push the A pillar alarm de-activator and see what colour it is...the silver screens were a pain for that.
The other thing I find much improved is the rear blind which can actually be activated easily from the inside due to the handle. Much more sensible.

 

[Eber123]

Good morning,

I agree, the rear blind, actually all other blinds, in the van working very well. Also I think that the lights are good and sufficient. The fridge is big enough to hold food for several days. I just wanted to be fair to point out the good things in the van as well, not only the ones that I struggle with.

At the moment I save to get the drawer for the boot:

https://shop.vwcamper.de/heckauszuege/264/calidrawer-ocean-heckauszug

By the way, there are only a few (mostly even more expensive) drawers on the market. Beside the CaliCap and CamperX are you aware of any other manufacturers?

I hope I will manage to organize delivery before end of July to have it ready if we go up the Wild Atlantic Way (can't wait ).

Regards,
Eberhard

 

[ejmoore]

We always sleep up top - why would you not? It's very comfortable, the bed is made up & you don't have to shift stuff. While travelling we keep the duvet & pillows in the wardrobe, and our clothes in Ikea folding boxes on the back shelf. Shoes are in an ikea bag in the middle box.

Getting up onto the top bed is easy if you only turn the passenger seat - then you can put one foot on the seat, step up onto the shoulder of the driver's seat & sit onto the bed.

But recently we have started swivelling the driver's seat too - still no problem climbing up, just slightly different route - but I've never thought of moving the steering wheel. We just wind the seat-back forwards, drop the right arm-rest, slide the seat into the right position, take the handbrake off & it turns. The only problem is if you are up on the levelling blocks, when letting off the handbrake is a problem even with the van in gear - had to chock it with a mallet last time.

 

[Alfiesbuddy]

You will get to know your van and since October I’ve managed to get a great routeine and I have changed my storage preferences too.

I am learning to slim down what I take and the garage holds things and if it’s a short trip, then it’s a small awning and a larger one for huge week plus stay awning.

I love my van but I’ll be honest I hate the automatic drive and not a fan of the DSL gear stick either . Having been a happy Audi estate 3.2 owner, I now feel I drive a slig.

I knew what I was giving up to have ‘Bertie’ and it’s the best thing I’ve done.

Now I’ve used many campsites (previous tent owner and caravan ) but I’m starting g to sense they’re noisy and cramped and now I’m looking more for tiny farms, vineyards etc

Try searching for wild camp pitches, your battery will give you all you need for power and you get a wind breaker for privacy

Keep practicing and have fun!