When you've made a mistake, 'fess up and do something about it.
So we did, and it's bye bye Smiler and hello Billy Burstner.
As panel vans go, Smiler served us well. Morocco, France and overland to Greece all in 11 months, but she was too small for us Senior ladies who like our comfort.
Making a bed morning and night, can you imagine the mayhem after too much vino!! Constantly squeezing past one another, or being shouted at to sit down or go outside, so a job could be completed. A shower that was never used because the space was so small that the cold, wet shower curtain stuck to your skin. A huge sliding door that woke the world every time it was closed and a constant stoop so as not to clatter ones head when moving around the cab.
But ........ Smiler was cheaper to run than Delfin, more mpg and lower costs on the ferries, easier to park and she drove like a car, but we began to miss the extra inches that you get in a motorhome because it's more of a box on wheels, whereas a panel van is wider at the bottom and narrower at the top.
What to do? Find something longer than Smiler but shorter and lighter than Delfin. But if we limit ourselves to six and a half metres, what chance have we got of getting fixed single beds again?
Let the search begin.
Hours were spent scouring dealers websites, finding out which layouts were available, in which makes and models. We checked out weights and payloads, rear lounges and dinettes, storage, transverse beds and and even considered buying from abroad, when out of the blue, came the Burstner Travel Van t620.
It's a mini Delfin, everything we wanted in 6.50 metres. Ok so she's 2008 but there's only 15,000 miles on the clock, in mint condition and it has a garage!! For the uninitiated, that's a huge storage space that runs the width of the van, beneath the beds. It was love at first sight and even better, it was for sale at Brownhills, which is our favourite local dealer. Guess what, they were even prepared to keep her until we returned from Greece, because we were due to go the day after we found her.
Having done the exchange earlier this month,the van is on the drive and being made ready for our autumn trip to France in a little over four weeks. But we are off for a shake down jaunt to Buxton in the Peak District, with hook up, and then Malvern Show to use her just on leisure batteries and solar panel. Huh that's a laugh, as rainwater runs down the kitchen window and the skies are grey!
Finally, here are the three girls
Delfin took us to Scotland , then Morocco, also, France, Spain and Portugal, Italy and Greece.
Then came Smiler. You can see how much smaller a panel van conversion is, compared with a coach built motorhome, which is why we thought that this was the future for us. Despite her drawbacks we still managed to put 11,450 miles on the clock in fifteen months!! We had plenty of adventures in her. Remember that frightening mountain pass in Morocco, when we were so high, that we shared the sky with planes!!
Meet Billie Burstner, female Billie, she's perfect for us. For a start she's lighter and shorter than Delfin, so when I hit 70 ( aghh ) I won't have to go through medicals and a mountain of paperwork to carry on driving.Despite being older, there are fewer miles on the clock,than Smiler had when we sold her!!
Here they are, side by side on swap over day. The MH is taller, a few inches wider and sixty centimetres longer, but the benefits for our comfort are huge.
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In the next post, I'll take you inside for a look around
Strong, retractable step and doorway into the dinette. Fly screen attached to the door to keep the mossies out!!
Here we 
There is a further
This is the garage which runs the width of the van. So much storage space.
