Hi from sunny Malaga

[Ann AR]

Hi,
we've been reading your website with interest over the last couple of weeks. Myself and my husband have been here near Malaga for nearly 14 years now. We've had an old Ducato campervan for a couple of years and enjoy single nights, weekends and trips further afield in Spain in it. We now have an 18 month old Ford Ranger (double cab) which we'd like to use with a demountable as a replacement for the campervan which we intend to sell in the Spring.
Spain has some quite strict regulations for vehicles so our first project is to fit air suspension, get it certified and through a technical inspection (MOT). Options are 1. pay the Ford garage to do everything, 2.Buy the kit in UK or Spain and get a local garage to fit it, pay for certification and MOT or 3. Buy the kit in UK or Spain, fit it ourselves, pay for certification and MOT.
Luckily as the demountable is classed as a "load" it's only any alterations to the pick up that need inspections.
We're hoping to buy something in the next 12 months (won't be new unless we have a lottery win!) and are looking throughout southern Europe and the UK.
Your website has been really useful for working out what might be suitable (must go on double cab and have a toilet).
Last year we drove over to Portugal to see Gary Warr of SBS Adventure Campers and a demountable they were touring with. This trip was really useful for seeing how much space there is in a demountable and what a lottery win might buy us

We'd be interested if anyone has any hints for buying / fitting the air suspension and of course any good priced campers on the market.
cheers
Ann

[zildjian]

Hello both of you and welcome pretty sure you're getting better weather than us right now.
By 'certification' I'm guessing at registration in that country, as far as alterations go you need both black & grey electrics (ideally) and as you say airbags these don't in themselves increase your pickups weight carrying ability just correct the couple of inches the rear will drop by on steel springs
(& point your headlights back down onto the road where the beam should be)

certainly here in UK our advice as always is to contact your insurer before spending any money and make sure they'll insure this alteration and your camper (prepare to expect some dead air down the phone line as they try and work out what sort of caravan you're buying)!

If you'd insure in UK: http://www.campton.co.uk/ these guys know everything about us
but as you are Spain can I suggest contacting that countries Northstar dealership for advice;
http://www.milanuncios.com/autocaravana ... 824431.htm

[Alexd]

Good evening Ann & (husband) welcome to the group they are a friendly bunch and lots of help if you need them quick

[keeflester]

Welcome Ann, and husband of Ann. Airbags are quite easy to fit yourself if you are reasonably competent. When you buy a kit, be careful you specify the vehicle because not all kits will fit. I fitted a drive-rite kit to a ranger Supercab. Your vehicle may not be the same, since mine was a 2003 model, and I know there have been changes since then. One of our advertisers, Marcie Leisure, would be worth a call as they advertise a full range of kits. From experience, there is no need to invest in remote control or a cab-mounted compressor and gauges unless you expect to go serious off-reading. A double cab would not be the ideal vehicle in this instance anyway. I carried a compressor and adjusted mine manually when the gear had all been loaded to get a level stance. I never found it necessary to re-adjust even on a three week trip, but carried the compressor anyway as a general back-up.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Kind regards, K33F

[Toshbins]

Hi and welcome.
I fitted VB air suspension to my Amarok myself, including on-board compressor. Relatively straightforward - the compressor was the tricky bit as I had to convert some brackets to fit RHD.

[Ann AR]

Hi,
thanks for the info and tips. I now realise that the cab gauges are maybe "boy toys" and an added expense we can do without. Fitting the kit ourselves won't be a problem as we are both experienced aviation fitters.
We've still got a bit of research to do as we are back in the UK at Christmas which, depending on prices, might be the ideal time to pick up a kit.
The regulations here are quite strict when it comes to motor vehicles so any change from the manufacturer's standard needs inspection, certification and then MOT at a government run centre (this includes tow hooks and snorkels etc) so we need to talk with an inspection company and our local garage as doing it ourselves might not be the cheapest option!
I think we still need to look at more demountables as I'm not sure my husband is totally convinced yet. He thinks he'll miss being able to walk from the cab into the back and to swivel a front seat around. For me I like the better use of space and not having to pay for a third amount of car insurance.
So if anyone's joining the several hundred snowbirds we get down here for the winter (many camp sites are completely full from December to April!) then we'd really like to see meet you. Don't want to rub it in but its still T shirt weather here in the day time and there's not a cloud in the sky
cheers

[zildjian]

Thanks for rubbing it in all the same

Given what you mention on regulations I'd be inclined to have your garage bolt them on so you can produce a paper trail from supplier through installation
as far as reasons go you are on a well established path with insurance>MOT>Storage being well documented around here

Captains chairs are a good point I see that like Ron, but permanently made up bed regardless what you've been doing is a positive we all enjoy here

[derestrictor]

Welcome to the site, its raining here by the way so you're in the best place right now


Got any particular camper in mind

[Ann AR]

Welcome to the site, its raining here by the way so you're in the best place right now


Got any particular camper in mind

Hi,
no particular favourite at the moment as long it has a toilet and fits on a double cab Ranger. If it sticks out behind too far then getting it up to the house may be a bit of a problem as we live more than 1/2 mile off road up a steep and bumpy track (plug connection for the tow hook had to repositioned as it got bashed going up the hill).

[zildjian]

Well if you had a mind to buy new there is a Northstar outlet in Spain,
obviously UK sales there are both new and used and if you had any UK time planned in coming months we could probably find you a selection of campers amongst our membership you could both drop by and look around depending on where you were