Hi everyone,

I've been registered to this forum ages ago. Since there's new travels on the horizon, I'd like to get some opinions from you guys. So here's the deal: We (that is me, my partner and our currently 2.5 year old daughther) are considering a half year to year long trip in 2018. So there's still some time left for planning and of course accumulating money for the trip. Our initial idea is to go east from Germany through SE Europe, Iran, the Stans (we backpacked through Kyrgyzstan in 2009, loved it), maybe even all the way to Mongolia, but that plan might change a lot since we can't predict how the political situation in tose countries is going to develop. We already have some experience in long-term traveling as a family: We spent half a year traveling NZ with our baby in a campervan in 2013/14.

So, my question right now is on the choice of vehicle, i.e. keeping our current one or going for something else. We own a 1987 VW T3 Westfalia (water cooled petrol) in a, well, improvable state: Everything works, but there's a bit of rust and the engine has done over 190k kms, which seems to be close to the life expectancy on this type of engine (I've never seen an un-rebuilt one with >200k kms on the clock). Given our experience in NZ we're pretty sure that size wise it would work. So I'm thinking back and forth whether we should start to invest substantial work and money into our current van or get something more reliable.

One thing that draws me towards keeping the VW is, there is a HUGE scene of knowlegeable enthusiasts who are happy to share their knowledge. And parts are relatively cheap and easy to come by. Also, it seems that given the simplicity, it shoud be relatively easy for me (non-mechanic) to familiarize myself with the mechanics of the vehicle, given some guidance. And did I mention that I've yet to see a camper with a similarly thought-out interior?

But nevertheless, there are definitely more reliable options out there. (e.g. Mercedes campers of the same era tend to be cheaper, bigger and have a really good reputation, except for the usual rust).

What are your thoughts?

Johannes