Hi everyone,

[mac and molly]

Newbies here, Sue and James, we are the proud owners of a California Beach. We have been out in the van for two days and nights and are still learning. We have two chocolate labs called Mac and molly, who we did not take with us, but would like to know what advice you would give on how to keep them safe at night. We have thought of a) taking their crate with us, b) if it gets too cold to keep them inside with us!
Also bit nervous about putting the roof up, especially if its windy. The campsite we stayed at, there were several VW vans, one who did put their roof up, but soon took it down!

 

[Hotel California]

Hi and welcome ,
Lots to learn , plenty to find on the forum !
Check out the dog section for tips on how to travel with your beloved hairy friends..
We always take our Vizsla with us , if she can't go allong ...i stay rater stay at home !
Never leave her behind.

Don't worry about the roof it can take pretty strong winds ( up to 100km/h) but sleeping in the roof with heavy winds is not easy , lots of flapping noises!

Read thru the forum and you will soon find rest and peace in your trips...

 

[RedCali]

Hello and welcome!
We have two lovely Labradors - Dante chocolate and Orla black. We sleep upstairs even when it is very wild outside. Dante sleeps on the sofa and Orla on the parcel shelf.
As Hotel Cali says there is lots about dogs on the forum and loads of lovely photos too.

 

[GrannyJen]

Hello Mac and Molly from Max and Bella ..

Welcome to a very friendly and helpful place

 

[Maud]

Hi and welcome from another Cali owner and her dogs! I always have two of my girls (Border Collies) in the Cali with me. I sleep upstairs and the girls share the downstairs 'sofa' and the turned passenger seat with fleecy covers. If the weather is VERY windy I leave the roof down and sleep downstairs with both girls on the bed with me or sometimes one on the passenger seat. Plenty of room for everyone

 

[SlidePods]

Hi Mac and Molly and welcome to the forum. We have a chocolate Lab called Buster He sleeps in the passenger footwell when I have the wife and kids in our beach with me. If its just me and him though I sleep in the pop top and he sleeps on the triple bench seat.

 

[MattBW]

We've only been away in ours once so far with the pooches but as others have said the dogs slept downstairs and we slept upstairs.

 

[Otzie]

Hello from the Netherlands,

Me and my girlfriend bought recently a 2011 T5-GP transporter van with windows in the color White, and we would like to convert it to a california.

We live in The Netherlands and we went last summer on holiday with our old T4 "cali-style" to scotland,
we liked it so much that we sold the "old T4 campervan" and we want to convert our T5

Otzie

 

[calikev]

Hi otzie welcome. Keep us updated of your progress

 

[Otzie]

Hello Calikev, (and many others)

We already bought from a german damaged california almost all the parts, including the electric roof,
kitchenette, side panels, chairs etc etc,, we are still looking for double glazed windows,
the interior style is the "indian summer" (picture below)

 

[Blue-T4]

Pretty good shape for a "damaged" California. You are aware of how many Californias get stolen over here in Germany ?

 

[calikev]

You have alot of serious diy to do lol. Good luck

 

[Otzie]

+ blue-T4: I know that there is a lot of theft from cars/camper-vans also here in holland, i bought the interior with the vin number, from a german company on ebay that sells vw-parts , we are missing also quite some parts, what i heard is that the cars in germany after an serious accident can not go on the road again, here in holland things are a bit different..

-otzie

 

[Borris]

Newbies here, Sue and James, we are the proud owners of a California Beach. We have been out in the van for two days and nights and are still learning. We have two chocolate labs called Mac and molly, who we did not take with us, but would like to know what advice you would give on how to keep them safe at night. We have thought of a) taking their crate with us, b) if it gets too cold to keep them inside with us!
Also bit nervous about putting the roof up, especially if its windy. The campsite we stayed at, there were several VW vans, one who did put their roof up, but soon took it down!

Welcome. Have fun and enjoy. They are lovely vehicles.

Hello Calikev, (and many others)

We already bought from a german damaged california almost all the parts, including the electric roof,
kitchenette, side panels, chairs etc etc,, we are still looking for double glazed windows,
the interior style is the "indian summer" (picture below)

View attachment 11031 View attachment 11030

That looks like a big project. Very interesting though. Please post photos of your progress and your finnished van.