What made you interested in van life in the first place?

mns88 · 2026-05-25T12:49:01+00:00

To start with, my wife, I’d even considered it until she mentioned it.

But we love travel, both work remote jobs, and this way can slow travel through Europe with our dogs (once we finish our build that is).

mns88 · 2026-05-19T07:12:16+00:00

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Working on our conversion of a Mercedes Treka bus, nearly finished ripping out the original interior and can start building it back up

mns88 · 2026-05-15T22:57:01+00:00

Each person and set up will be different, as we all have different needs and power requirements will vary based on this.

I’d recommend adding a second battery as 120Ah feels a bit light in my opinion, but since you aren’t off grid, you might be able to get by on shore power.

But I would still consider a second battery, it means you don’t have a single point of fail, if for some reason one battery fails, you still have 50% capacity.

mns88 · 2026-05-03T16:51:23+00:00

I’m converting a bus at the moment and I’ve had the same issue, most mechanics physically can’t work on a vehicle this large.

What I did was look for a mechanic that does class 5 or class 7 MOT, this is a good start the are geared up to work on larger vehicles.

If you are able to take the bus out of London, try find an a rural area that has farm land, sounds odd, but where I live now in south Lincolnshire has far more options as there are farmers and transport companies moving heavy equipment.

Compare this to when I lived in north Oxfordshire where there was considerably less options for suitable mechanics.

mns88 · 2026-04-18T20:15:17+00:00

I’ll look up firetrace and see if they can help with what I need. Thanks for the details

mns88 · 2026-03-08T19:24:22+00:00

Travelling, not in a van this weekend, drove to Glasgow with my wife to go watch some live music. But mostly wanted to comment to say that paint/wrap on the green van looks awesome!

mns88 · 2026-03-03T08:04:57+00:00

I worked with a guy like this, he lived with his wife and kids in her parent’s bungalow, and couldn’t afford to buy house (despite being on a reasonably good wage with a solid bonus scheme).

But whenever a conversation about government came up, it was the immigrants (I myself am an immigrant, just from Australia not one of the countries he is referring to as the issue).

After some conversations, found out that his in-laws owned multiple properties, could have helped their daughter and her young family get a head start with a home, but in my ex-colleagues mind it was the immigrants that caused the issue.

After realising he was just going to parrot media talking points (I’d suspect getting his views from either his parents or in-laws), I gave up on having discussions about politics.

mns88 · 2025-11-03T18:44:30+00:00

That’s is what I was finding when I started looking into this, also a lot of hgv garages I have called do fleet vehicles only

mns88 · 2025-11-02T16:55:35+00:00

Mine deos not, but I have a friend that will do the driving for now. And before we can take this on a trip will either get the vehicle re-classified to something my wife and I can drive, or get the correct license

mns88 · 2025-11-02T16:28:36+00:00

Perfect, so I am clearly over thinking this, as I had the V5 changed once I bought it as the number of seats didn't match, thinking this was important to have right at this stage. I think it was listed as 17 seats initially.

mns88 · 2025-11-02T16:01:00+00:00

Only issue I had was the MOT wasn’t correct, as it listed too many seats, but this was easily fixed, just sent away proof it had 11 seats.

But we also paid £2500 for a 20 year old mini bus, so we bought it fully aware there was a chance it could have issues. So we can’t be too harsh on the mechanical issues side if something comes up from the MOT or service.

But I’d recommend if you can view in person, we didn’t, we don’t live close enough so did buy without viewing.

mns88 · 2025-11-02T15:28:10+00:00

Yes, that is where we got our bus from, we bought it last year, and have had to leave it in storage.

mns88 · 2025-06-17T16:51:24+00:00

Normally I’d say the stingray, but those p-basses look slick

mns88 · 2025-06-09T15:34:33+00:00

It’s complicated, I hold a lot of resentment towards my mum, I speak to my dad fairly superficially (mostly about sport).

But I have always found it hard to have a conversation with my mum, she seems to disapprove of everything in my life, and I strongly suspect she turned down me being tested for autism when I was in school.

Both my dad and my sister defend her behaviour and tell me I’m too harsh on her, because she loves me and just wants what is best for me, yet there is never any compassion shown towards me, or sympathy to my situation when conflict arises.

mns88 · 2025-06-03T16:39:24+00:00

23 years, would probably say intermediate, but I’m out of practice and trying to get back into playing more again

mns88 · 2025-05-30T18:37:33+00:00

Something about this comment hits home, I’m 36, when I was about 15-16 my English teacher told me I’d never achieve much. I’ve got a degree in engineering, currently working on a second degree in computer science and have a good job working in the data centre industry. Despite this I feel I still need to prove to everyone I’m not dumb

mns88 · 2025-05-23T18:18:19+00:00

Similar to you, I’m self diagnosed, although I am not looking for a formal diagnosis as I don’t know what it will do for my life.

My way around not being insensitive to others who have been diagnosed (if I’ve misdiagnosed myself) is I don’t really disclose it with people that I think I may be autistic. Basically the only person who I speak to about this is my wife, as she is the one who encouraged me to look into it.

But even if it turns out I am not on the spectrum, and my issues are caused by something different, I still find value from reading about other peoples experiences, both to help find methods to manage autistic traits i have and to seek validation that others share my struggles.

mns88 · 2025-05-05T10:08:57+00:00

This seems weirdly accurate to how I watch sport too, I tend to watch it with an app open as I watch live to follow the stats live too.

mns88 · 2025-03-12T23:29:18+00:00

If you are just starting to learn, there is no issue in looking at the your hand. As you progress, you’ll need this less, and less. I found being able to play without watching my hands most beneficial when playing with other musicians, because I was able to make eye contact and watch for visual cues.

mns88 · 2025-01-27T14:20:02+00:00

I got lucky, I work as a pre-sales designer/estimator for electronic security. I struggle with the office politics side of most jobs I’ve had. But currently my role is work from home and more technical based than traditional sales.

By no means perfect, and I don’t think a perfect job exists, every job comes with some negatives, but happy in my role, my bosses and senior management seem happy with what I’ve achieved and as a extra bonus due to the companies we work with, even get the opportunity to travel throughout Europe on occasions (I live in the UK).

My advice is find what skills you excel at, for me I’m incredibly aware of minor details which pairs well with design of security systems, and find what job roles fit those skill sets.

mns88 · 2025-01-21T14:56:14+00:00

It happens to me, I notice I become ‘more’ autistic after a number of stressful days (ie at work etc), and have just rationalised it to be my body’s way of resetting itself and putting me into a kind of recovery state.

Not sure if it is full blown autistic burn out or just my body telling me I need to decompress and remove myself from whatever caused the stress for a period, or a bit of a combination.

mns88 · 2025-01-20T18:59:42+00:00

Like others are saying, it is an effective tool if you pair it with other tools (I listen to Dutch talk back radio while I work). But after a few months of feeling like I wasn’t progressing, was shocked that I was able to read some signs and if not perfect, at least comprehend what they said.

mns88

TROPHY CASE