Our 10th campervan: The Bling Thing Living the Van life dream

The Bling Thing is our 10th camper. We bought our first motorhome in 2002, a 27ft American RV. 5 motorhomes and 3 campervans later we bought The Bling Thing!

The Bling Thing started life as a fully-loaded, Limited, crew-van. Its transformation started in Essex when made to look like an M Sport. The 170ps engine with auto box does not embarrass when challenged to a standing start.

The day-van conversion equipment comprised of a compressor fridge and dropdown dvd player only. Both were powered from the Stop-Start engine battery, you can stop but there's no guarantee of starting again 😒

We have purchased our campers for the job in hand. Our Hymer 654 was sold in 2004 having clocked up 27,000 miles touring Europe. 6 months later we bought Mazda Bongo to find where to live. We got jobs in Hereford and lived in a touring caravan. 6 motorhomes later we sold our 6.5m Wildax during Covid. It was stood idle and the business needed the cash. The Bling Thing was purchased once we had enough capital and savings to travel again. Having saved a little more we had the essentials added to make it a campervan; water, power, gas, heating.

Campervans are the Swiss Army version. Our must have is a king sized bed.

Ignoring the RV, our longest motorhomes have been 6.5m. The Bling Thing is 5.4m with a 2m long bed. A Thetford PortaPotti takes pride of place behind the passenger seat. It doubles up as a seat and a wash basin when the Fiamma bidet is added. 

The Bling Thing came with the compressor fridge. The compressor is located behind the water canister along with a tiny 904 size of campingaz bottle because a 907 is too tall. 

Anyone for a glass of Campingaz?

Our knowledge grows with every camper. The Bling Thing taught us that Campingaz is more expensive than Champagne. All of our previous campers had gas cylinder storage; we used LPG refillables. We were spoilt by the Wildax with its under-slung LPG gas tank.

Van Life v Motorhoming

You may have noticed the additional storage in the photos, and that is probably the greatest compromise between a campervan and motorhome. The Bling Thing does not have easily accessible cupboards, so we l have a boot full boxes containing the day to day necessities. But that is fine because we get a good nights sleep.

Could our next van be a motorhome, of course. Lets see what the next adventure is....