The Southport brothers who built a camper van for less than a grand

TWO brothers from Southport have used their technical know-how to write a book on their bid to build a camper van on a budget.

Matthew and Stuart Ball, of Fylde Road said this week that they have used their technical skills to convert an LDV van into a camper van for less than £1,000, and detailed how they did it in a book which has just been launched by publishing firm Veloce.

Co-author Matthew Ball said: “Weve always dreamed of having our own camper. We love being able to go anywhere at the drop of a hat, and being able to afford it. The Lakes, The Cotswolds, Scotland, Cornwall - heck, the whole world is there waiting for you!

"We used to think that one day, once wed got enough money together, wed get our dream machine, but we never seemed to have the money and thats the problem - dream machines seem to cost so much. Isnt the idea of a camper van to get away, anytime you want, cheaply. That was certainly our plan anyway."

The pair, having been put off by both the prices of brand new campervans and the quality of secondhand machines available, decided to use Matts experience as a resistant materials tutor to convert a secondhand van into a campervan to keep costs down, and have chronicled the project in a book to help spur others on to follow suit.

The project, which took place over ten weeks last summer, saw the brothers convert the van into a fully-functioned camper van for a total of £996, including the cost of buying the van itself. It also marks their debut into the publishing world, with the finished title being their first book.

Stuart Ball said: "Inspiration came from Ron Champions book, Build a Sports Car for Less Than £250. I knew through converting another van into a camper that costs can easily run out of control, so a great deal of thought and preparation was required to achieve such a low cost.

“We have also developed a basic website showing pictures which didnt make it into the book, and a gallery page for fellow camper van enthusiasts to upload their camper van builds.”

The book, entitled Build Your Own Dream Camper Van For Less Than £1,000 is available to buy now both in bookstores and online, costing £19.99. For more information visit the brothers website.

Pictures courtesy of Matthew and Stuart Ball

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2012 Hyundai Tucson Owners Manual

2012 Hyundai Tucson Owners Manual – What do you know about 2012 Hyundai Tucson. Are you going here to find a free download for 2012 Hyundai Tucson owners manual? Yes, you came to the right place. Here you can download its owners manual for free.

For 2012, the Hyundai Tucson gets small changes designed to help boost fuel economy, including low-rolling-resistance tires and a new Active Eco system that modifies engine and transmission response.
2012 Hyundai Tucson Owners Manual – You need to know about this information guys. The 2012 Hyundai Tucson is a five-passenger compact crossover SUV that is offered in three trim levels: GL, GLS and Limited. The GL base model comes standard with 17-inch steel wheels, privacy glass, keyless entry, air-conditioning, cloth upholstery, a height-adjustable driver seat, tilt-only steering wheel, a 60/40-split-folding rear seat, full power accessories, a trip computer and a six-speaker sound system with a CD player, satellite radio, an auxiliary audio jack and an iPod/USB interface.

Download 2012 Hyundai Tucson Owners Manual here

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Spring Event 2013 Coverage!

Our Spring Event for 2013 was a huge success, we had a great showing of vehicles! Our parking lot was packed by mid-morning and around 12:00pm it became extremely busy! We wanted to thank our customers and guests for attending and also to Gordon from Effspot Photography for the photographs. 

Please visit our Facebook page to see 50+ photographs from the event!

Click here to see more photos

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Turbo or NA Which Way Would You Go

So whats going to be for you if you were to choose just between the two. But first let me explain in detail about these two routes that you can go when youre upgrading your car for drifting.

You see most of the Formula D car these days have turbos. If you dont know what a turbo is let me explain. Its a compressor that is used to force more air unto the engine to increase the horsepower. In short its a force induction, if you want to learn more about turbo check this site. Once the turbo is installed in a car, the original power output of the car will increase dramatically. So how does a turbo benefit you when drifting? Well, you can have a faster entry and youll have a much easier time drifting. When you drift and suddenly the car understeer a bit, then you can cure the understeer with a dab of throttle and a quick steer.

Normally Aspirated car which is NA for short is the norm when you first start off getting into drifting. Not unless you purchased a car that came equipped a turbocharger. NA cars are relatively inexpensive and you can buy one for as low as $4000. NA is all motor power and such cars have a high revolution per minute. Some of the highly tune NAs are capable of reaching 10,000 RPM (revolution per minute) and is a good contender when it comes to drifting. The NA wont be as fast as the turbos but the NAs are more responsive and agile through the corners. So when you drift your highly tuned NA car; you can easily control the drift angle and speed.

The downside to both of these two are chiefly the price you pay for upgrading both of them. When it comes to boost like a turbo charger, the price for it is already astronomical, and to have it install by a professional would cost you more. Same with going to NA, if you want a high powered NA. Then you would have to fork out tuning the engine and replacing a lot of parts for your engine.

If you are upgrading for a turbo, then I suggest that you replace a lot of internal components of your engine to ensure it will handle the power of the turbo. And second know a specialist whom you can turn to and help you with the installation process. Or if youre sticking with NA, then you might as well do an engine swap to lessen the process you deal with upgrading the engine. Pick an engine that is high powered NA to start with so you all you have to worry about is the installation of the new NA engine. Just like the installing a turbo changer, youll want to find an engine swap shop specialist to help you install the engine.

Whichever way you go is up your budget, and Im not here to make you waste your money if you dont have it. Just spend some to upgrade your car to make it a little faster, the main investment that you are going to make is in tires and suspension. Ill cover this later but for right now just plan out what you want power boost youre going to with

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Hard to understand how a truck gets to the end of its brake lights both sides and instead of replacing them goes for non working tow lights

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Picture This

 IRM is a museum that never sleeps.  Even in the middle of winter, theres always somebody around, and on weekends there are usually lots of people working on various projects.  The car shop/wood shop is a beehive of activity, but there were also people working in the steam shop, the office, the silver train, B&G, working on the trucks for the dome car, and I presume over in the Diesel shop.  I could start naming names but Id surely leave several people out inadvertently.  And who needs more enemies?

Nonetheless, theres always room for more, and we could easily put several more people to work on productive activities.  It beats sitting at home watching TV!

I spent most of the day prepping and painting various parts of the ceiling in the 319, as usual. Its going well. 

In the shop, I also put a second coat of red on the outside of the 36s end window, followed by first blue on the inside. 

And I looked at the train door with Bob Kutella and Victor Humphreys.  We talked about how to patch in the new wood, and Victor picked out some spare pieces of poplar left over from the snowplow project.  Since the pieces we needed are fairly small, I was confident that wed have some stock already available.  Thanks, Victor!

Bob and I are probably both in the market for new digital cameras.  Im still using an antique (= 10 years old) Nikon model which works OK.  Bobs no longer focuses properly, so he ordered a newer model on line.  It has all sorts of problems, and he was telling us about his phone conversation with the sales rep.  The funniest part was that he complained that if youre shooting near the sun, you cant see anything in the display to help you frame the picture.  So the rep suggested that he just turn around.  Turn around?  Now how am I supposed to take a picture of what I want?  Anyhow, wed appreciate any positive recommendations from real people who have bought cameras recently for railfan purposes.  In particular, its important to download easily to a computer for blogging.  So let us know what you recommend.  Thanks!

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BMW i3 Autobahn Video

Car Acceleration TV posted a YouTube video of an i3 cruising along the Autobahn and at one point it was traveling at the i3s electronically-governed top speed of 93mph. Its only a minute and a half, but hey thats all we get for now! One thing thats clear is the car has an open sunroof so if anyone was wondering if that will be an available option, heres your answer. Enjoy!

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