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@Ali and GailOn the toll roads you can rack up the miles however can get a bit boring. The main roads or equivalent to our A and B roads are not all that fast. Factor in 3 fuel stops on a 300 mile section plus getting a bite to eat and that alone will add at least 1 hour plus to the day. If you get rain on the day that will make 300 miles a right pain. The 3 week trip to Italy and back through Switzerland Germany France in Aug this year averaged out in the 100 to 150 with a 250 thrown in for good measure. The 250 was a long day through sunshine rain and traffic jams and from memory took 8 hours. Don't get me wrong i enjoyed it but it was pushing the wifes patience a bit. We also factored in 2 and 3 day stop overs along the route to break it up and some 1 day stops to get a few miles done. On the 2 or 3 day stop overs we could recharge our batterys in the bars and restaurants or have a drive out and do some mountain twisty roads. The weather can differ quite a lot depending on which side of the alps your on. Sunshine on 1 side raining on the other. If your going over the alp tops it can get a bit chilly as well, you may see some ground snow. Plan your route and look at the roads you travelling on with Google maps or something. Check what type of roads they are, single or double track. Single roads will be very slow to travel along and don't realy recommend them. Enjoy you trip, driving through Europe on a holiday in a Westy has to be done. Done it every year for the past 5 years.

This looks like a very cool trip... very tempted to tag along

I will be there (hopefully the rain keeps off).

Don’t forget the Westfield Build Manual Parrot, who only says one thing, the thing it’s heard every owner say repeatedly during a build while trying to read and understand the build manual:

I know this has been covered a thousand times before but I thought I would add a couple of items that were not mentioned when I asked/searched : 7/16 UNF tap - This is for the belt mounts I needed one of these for all 8 of mine as these were thick with powdercoat. Dremel or equivalent - I would also recommend a flexible extension (Mine came from Amazon for less than £10) and loads of various size drum sanders (again I bought loads in a box from amazon. 22mm spanner - I mention this as a std tool kit will normally not go up to 22mm in the spanners and you need one for the front camber adjustment. A decent sealant gun - I bust a few of the std guns when I left sealant for a few days and forgot to put screws in. This gun is brilliant - powerful and smooth and well worth the extra few £'s https://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-heavy-duty-applicator-gun-300ml/28862. 8mm spanner- Whilst I appreciate nearly everyone has one of this in their toolbox, I personally didn't have one that would fit the brake bleed nipples I had a couple of ratchet ones and some thicker ones but this fitted perfect https://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/tools/spanners-wrenches/halfords-advanced-combination-spanner. A decent metric tap and drill set - Used mine loads during the build. If your buying carbon to fit anywhere and need to trim and finish it then you should really consider using this: http://www.easycomposites.co.uk/#!/tools-equipment-and-supplies/perma-grit-tools/32mm-rotary-disc-with-arbor.html it is also very useful for cutting the fiberglass as well and this for finishing http://www.easycomposites.co.uk/#!/tools-equipment-and-supplies/perma-grit-tools/small-sanding-block.html. I really hope this helps someone plan a build and cost up properly. Mark

What sort of carpets do you turn out?

Here is my strap configuration on half hood, i've taken the straps down though the boot lid gap works pretty good and all is hidden when not used. Also in this pic is my 'extra' rear zip on back I had a go at making which does work a treat once fitted but to be honest the half hood and full doors keep you 99% dry so I've not used that much

I am!

Indeed! Going FW rear.

@IanK (Bagpuss) I have a special photo op for you lol

Having done some of the Autoroute/toll roads in France last year, to Le Mans, it's actually not horrendous when you're doing the big mile munching stints between cities. Don't get me wrong, its not like doing the fun twisties, but we found lots of lovely quiet sweeping motorway through some beautiful countryside. Not your first choice on a tour, but fun in its own way, and not the chore it would be in the UK.

Cyclops is ready, I fitted one bulb so you can compare them. Wiring not melted yet.......it is Chinese so who knows how its wired

Ok folks planning is well under way so as hotels go really quickly I thought I would put the details up here for anyone interested , company is fine but this IS a tour so will be using normal and rural roads to SEE the countryside and views The Itinery is as follows there are some blanks for the south coast and will update as we go forward also will add the route maps as well Friday 24/05/19; travelling down from Dufftown to Wooler, accommodaton ; st Cuthberts Retreat, Wooler. Saturday 25/05/19; Wooler down to Rawdon, Yorkshire, accommodation ; Peacehill House, Rawdon. Sunday 26/05/19 Rawdon to south coast .. will be a bit of a slog, sorry. Accommodation ; the Royal Norfolk Hotel, Folkestone. Monday 27/05/19; early eurotunnel train remembering its +1 hour when we disembark. Monday 27/05/19; Calais Eurotunnel to Sainte-Maure, via Thriepval Memorial to pay respect to the fallen, accommodation ; la Residene De Moulin, Sainte-Maure and Ali and Gail are at ; Domaine de Vermoise, Sainte-Maure Tuesday 28/05/19; Sainte-Maure to Stuhlingen , accommodation ; Landgasthof Hotel Rebstock, Stuhlingden. Wednesday 29/05/19; Stuhlingen to Guarda, via the Rhine falls and the northern border of Switzerland and the western border of Austria, accommodation ; Guarda Lodge, Guarda 7545 (2 nights). Thursday 30/05/19; classic passes and mountain lakes day southern Swiss border and northern Italy. Friday 31/05/19; Guarda to Obergesteln, accommodation ; Hotel Grimsel, Obergesteln, 3988 (2 nights). Saturday 01/06/19; sightseeing day to include, waterfalls, and cable cars up to mountain restaurant / waving area. Sunday 02/06/19; Obergesteln to Leysin, via suspenion bridge walk, car transporter train through tunnel and summer Luge at Kandersteg, accommodation ; Hotel de la Grand Chalet, Leysin, 1854. Monday 03/06/19 Leysin to Le Bourg, Le Puley, accommodation ; Chambers au Logis des Acacias, le Bourg, Le Puley, 71460. And Ali and Gail are at ; Kyriad Montchanin le Creusot, Montchanin. Tuesday 04/06/19; Le Bourg to grosrouvre, accommodation ; Quixote, Grosrouvre, 78490 (2 nights). Wednesday 05/06/19; metro into Paris , sightseeing. Thursday 06/06/19; Grosrouvre to Calais Eurotunnel to Holiday Inn, Chatham ME5 9SF. Friday 07/06/19; Chatham to Harrogate, accommodation ; Innkeeper's lodge, Harrogate. Saturday 08/06/19 .......... HOME !!!!!! Will add the routes as I finalise the maps, I have tried to keep under 300 miles a day some are well less , but there are a couple of " long days in the saddle" but were on holiday so breaks as and when we need them there is no rush

I might have to treat myself before my build gets any further.

I have a Clarke CL250 which is basically an Axminster C1 in a yellow frock. No complaints from me and its a competent little lathe. Being so small it works best on soft metals but is ok on steel too and I can quite easily work to tollerances of +/- 0.1mm without any effort.

fast ones no doubt!

No photos to show (only a drawing) but knowing I was going to be having a day off work today I thought I'd take the opportunity to get the chassis for the Carburol Special booked in at the fabricators for the missing body mounts and a few other ancillary brackets to be welded on. These I'd all had laser cut during my last order and were folded up so an easy job to weld into place. With all this completed by luchtime it was loaded back into the trailer for it's next journey which was to the powdercoaters Due to the surface rust I've gone for the full pre-treatment of shot blasting, zinc priming and then powdercoating so it'll be a couple of week wait now before I get to see the finished result. Then the final assembly will begin

Hi Terry have a read through the thread to get a feel for it , but it is a holiday not a flat out blat, just want folks to know up front the hotels are listed on the first page along with a couple of alternative ones that Ali and Gail have booked, but rooms are going fast any questions just ask or call Gary

Was a little shocked until i scrolled down.....

Had one for at least 6 years now, gets used almost daily, been brilliant for the money. Expect plenty of backlash in the controls and a slightly wonky chuck, but it does the job and is easy to use.

Oh yes! its in the winter upgrades thread, to avoid pulling this one off topic. (Any more )

intrigued as there appears to be some winter work ahead

Hi all, first i want to thank everyone for their input, however I don't think I was either grammatically correct or explained myself properly at the outset. So to hopefully clarify a few points, (we can live in hope) When I origionally plucked up the courage to make some definite plans instead of dreams about taking our westy abroad, I sat down and drew on my experiences of travelling from way up here back and forth across various parts of europe for work and pleasure, and as mentioned earlier we don't mind early starts and long days , we are used to it living away up here, its part of life and we accept and enjoy it even when we are on holiday as we want to be out and about seeing the area were in, I realise this isn't everyones cup of tea but i will return to this point The planning took place and I decided that even for us i would put a limit on the distance in any one day so i plucked 300 miles out as a maximum (certainly not 300 every day), based on that we regularly do that up and down scotland to area events, the car show at Boness was @ 320 miles round trip plus the show. The route maps that we picked are OUR "ideal" touring days , but, knowing some people like a later start or an earlier finish , or as was pointed out earlier bad weather, road works, whatever, means that there IS ALWAYS an alternative route to either detour or shorten the day, so the routes are planned to take in a variety of roads but prominently their A roads, the wee windy's are on the whole saved for evenings and stopovers. With this in mind its not a problem if someone wants to catch up at a certain point or cut short and head to the hotel, so anyone can tailor the days to their own requirements and indeed Ali phoned to discuss this very point and i reassured him it is everyones holiday and you adapt to what suits your own particular needs and indeed there are many days that are a lot shorter than the "300" above all its flexible the sightseeing/ passes days , i took advice from a good friend who lives and owns the distillery at the northern end of the umbrail pass and yes this is one of our visits, it would be rude not to, and he will give us a local update on high level conditions as we get closer to leaving. The key to planning a trip like this is to talk and listen to and remain flexible and sympathetic to your travelling companions needs and the local wether/ road conditions, NONE of the routes are set in stone only the start and finish points as thats where we are staying and they're booked now. Hopefully this helps clear up some points but probably creates a few more..... if anyone fancies the trip but wants to discuss, either pop it on here, message me or be old fashioned and give me a call on 07715554020 now to get the upgraditus finished on the car ..... Gary

No worries Jon, I guess I don’t need to bring this for Mark, tonight then, (been left in the hall to remind me!) ...wasn’t room to write “gear”!

+1 Dave, when you have the ability to do them well it's surprising how often the rivnut is the right decision

I'm still pre-op @Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary

+1 for the SBFS 1/2 hood with the zips and bag, worth every penny and have to say GREAT quality

Great! We're ready for you!

I’m gonna pop by with lots of pre build questions.

I know what you mean, have to be careful not to turn things back into work! The other thing with Westfield touring is that unless you have inter-vehicle headsets, it can be relatively un-social for all those hours at the wheel. So while it's great when you can get together as a group at the stops, it's also great to get together for the Craic come evenings, breakfasts etc. Flasks filled at the hotels is a great idea, too.

You've got up, had your breakfast, been for a walk, a drive before I've even woke up before

It it all depend what people want out of a holiday. For me a hotel is only somewhere to sleep and I am not interested in drinking or sitting in bars. Me personally, I like to get the earliest breakfast I can and then be gone. When we get to the hotel on a night, I just like to book in and be back out. This is everyone’s holiday and we will just all do what we want and still have a great time together..... as we always have done.

Thanks for the advice all, we did over 9000 miles in the Westy last year touring the UK and like both of you said 150 miles a day is a comfy distance. When we tour we look to keep it somewhere between 125 and 150 miles which is about 6 hours a day in the seat giving plenty of time for fuel stops and sightseeing. We like to have a lazy breakfast and be on the road by 9/9.30 and be at our next over night stop no later than 6pm giving plenty of time to shower and go for dinner. It will be horrible using the tolls to cover ground quickly but for us the main thing is the Alps and the passes so the sacrifice of boring roads we must do to keep the driving time shorter. I even hate the motorways in the UK. I used to live in Berlin when I was in the RAF and would drive back to see family in either Oxford or Bristol and do it in about 12 hours, boring as hell but needs must back then. On motorways I can get around 180 miles from a tank but that drops to 110/120 when driving the "pretty bits" so 2/3 fuel stops a day as you say. We tend not to eat lunch as we eat as much as we can for breakfast and that sees us through till dinner and we always get we're we are staying to fill our flask in the morning and that sees us through. We are certainly going to be wearing thermals and layering up on occasions and we're are used to the odd spot of rain or 2. Indeed one road trip in Scotland can only be described as "Biblical". We start singing normally to keep moral up then just start laughing questioning how mad we are but we love it. We always try and avoid single track roads, backing up when theres a bl**** big tractor in front of you can be bit of a pain particularly when the cars loaded and visibility is worse. We have got three 2 night stop overs of the 10 days we are on foreign land so will be able to unpack! and take it easier. If you think of anything else please let us know.

should make this if I can find it ?????

Good advice from Terry; in 2016 we (4 Westfields from the Dorset Area) did Bilboa, Andorra, Millau, St Tropez, Monaco, 3 days of Alpine passes and then the Loire Valley back to Cherbourg, 3,000 miles in 10 days. https://forum.wscc.co.uk/forum/topic/120171-dorset-wsccers-do-europe/?tab=comments#comment-1262944 and http://2js-westfield-build.blogspot.com/2016/07/euro-tour-2016.html The original plan was all A/B roads but to get to the over night stops we routinely had to divert to motorways and we ended up with lots of early starts and late finishes. It was an epic trip and we're planning to do something similar in 2020 but adding 4 extras days/over night stops and deleting some of the diversions, on A/B roads we found averaging 25 mph hard work once traffic, fuel and food stops are factored in so we'll be planning on 150 miles/day.

Having worked in retail many many years ago I hated November. That was when the specially chosen set of tapes were ceremoniously installed into the machine to play on continuous loop until Christmas. Day after day listening to a compilation of classics sung by nobodies, much cheaper that way, murdering their way through every genre from folk to heavy rock versions of away in a manger and many others, was enough to turn the most sane person into wanting to hack the next person who wished you a merry Christmas to death with whatever was to hand.

Thanks Stuart, I never cease to live and learn!

The answer is obvious. More tax, isn't this the answer to everything? On a related note, just think how annoying it would be if they wasted this money they take from us!

Christmas???

Here is one of @ainsworth from yesterday.

Just a quick note on this post for clarity. We (the moderators) often get faced with a decision to hide/lock/edit a post. This is because our forum is pretty popular and some people view it as an easy way to get free "social media" advertising. It happens pretty regularly and if we didn't pounce on it, the forum would be full of people offering Viagra, easy ways to earn $10,000 a week and links to dodgy porn sites. So, we often spot a post and have to make a decision if it is something that is considered to be a "benefit to members" - after all, this forum is paid for by our members. Bearing that in mind, members have privileges and we are obliged to protect them. One of these is advertising items for sale, hence this post received our attention. After a backroom discussion, we thought this particular post was treated a little harshly and gave the wrong impression to a potential new member. It has therefore been "unlocked" and we hope everyone understands our reasoning behind the decisions.

Sorry can't make tonight. On the hospital, theme, have a post op wife who is groggy from sedation and not suited to look after dirty little infant.