Collecting a Mercedes T1 310 4x4 from Romania. I have no time for a breakdown.

1900 Miles in 4 days in a 1989 Mercedes T1 Bremer allrad. Covering Romania, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and France. I had to return to the UK for a hospital visit, so the pressure was on to get home in 1 piece.
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Facebook Page here: / chefcampers
Secret stuff coming soon to our website
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[@stephenrogers9664]

Your smile says it all 😃

[@chainedaddiction]

This is the kind of solo adventure I go for!

[@ringonotts]

Lovey lovely lovely stuff! The van looks epic. So cool man. But best of all you are on the mend. Take it easy and get well soon! Ringo

[@ChefCampers]

cheers Ringo. I'm on the mend now and can't wait to get stuck into this new van, I love it.

[@gurgeh]

Great video, thanks! Brought back memories of bringing my own van back from Hamburg about 15 years ago, having the day before arrived in London after 6 months in SE Asia where I'd arranged it all from internet cafes late at night in Malaysia. No smart phone to help back then, it was text messages and a big map of Europe :) Sometimes you've just got to go for these things. And nice wheel change with jack and brick and borrowed wrench :) wishing you a speedy recovery

[@ChefCampers]

What a great story John! I bet that was stressful but exciting. Life sure has got easier with travel with all the tech. I remember driving Europe as a kid with my Grandad and it was just maps and knowledge, a different league of travel if you ask me. Thanks for the kind words, I plan to get some work done on the Mercedes this weekend, so i will film a little tour of how it is now and get some ideas for our plans.

[@RustyRoseAdventures]

Great video and lovely to see that it all went well!!

[@ChefCampers]

Cheers! I was definitely relieved to be parked up at the end!

[@blairwilliams136]

I have worked for MB here in Canada for the past 8 years and only recently became aware of these lovely vans , they have so much character and I hope to import one one day. Lovely example you have their sir , cheers!

[@ChefCampers]

Thanks! They are great vans and they are becoming iconic now. They sold over 970,000 2WD variants, but they did suffer terribly from rust. They seem to be everywhere In Morocco, but it’s rare to see one in Europe now. The vario variant is much more popular! Cheers!

[@CampervanCulture.com-Official]

Nice work mate. Jed

[@ChefCampers]

Cheers! I hope you captured your recent trip!

[@robhatton8584]

That’s was such a good vid, thanks for sharing…..the ups and the downs…..and don’t those ups make the downs a doddle 😁

[@ChefCampers]

I am going to just share stuff as it happens now, I won't overthink what we post or how good the content is. It will just capture our story as it happens. The wheel change was unfortunate, but it felt good getting it sorted!

[@robhatton8584]

Living van life in the raw…well not literally! 😆. Looking forward to the next instalment. But first of all, keep enjoying the cake and get well first 🎂💪

[@CoopzOutdoors]

Quite a challenge. Well done getting her back safely 👏 👏👏

[@ChefCampers]

Thanks! I didn't get to capture as much as I wished, but hopefully I will get better at that as I carry on filming again! I was solo and trying not to crash :D

[@uniwerksdesign]

Your smile throughout this video is so great Mike! Nice one. :-)

[@ChefCampers]

I challenge anyone to drive own one and not smile constantly 😁🚒

[@Velociraptor1066]

The fire engine 😄

[@mattjames4608]

Next time your passing on the highway Nr Sibiu, pop in for a brew :)

[@ChefCampers]

Thanks Matt, I drove near Sibiu and read up about the place, it looks beautiful!

[@chainedaddiction]

Hi, I’ll be in Bulgaria Oct 5-19. Looking for a T1 in decent shape to convert for vanlife. Is Romania a good place to purchase in general? Just looking for 2wd, man trans, non turbo diesel.

[@ChefCampers]

I think some of the best examples are still in Germany due to ex fire service. But a good example can be found anywhere. You get a lot more for you money for 2wd, so you should be able to find a decent one. Try mobile.de

[@chainedaddiction]

@@ChefCampers I didn’t see much for T1s browsing the site you recommended. Have you had any difficulty finding repair guides in English? I know a little German but would rather concentrate my efforts on learning Bulgarian. I agree, I see a lot of Fire service T1s and am interested in them. Just trying to figure out the red tape I need to go through to purchase one and registering will be a challenge until I have Bulgarian residency permit in hand as I am a U.S. citizen and not EU citizen.

[@tompettitt5550]

Hi, Is it easy enough to bring a van from outside the UK to the UK? I'm looking at doing the same thing and I want the same type of van, however, they seem to be exclusively in Germany, or other European countries ( NL and Belgium) and they're very expensive £10,000-£20,000, I know they also have a lot in Morocco which I imagine would be a lot cheaper. How did you manage to find this van in Romania? I'm very interested. Can i ask how much did you pay? I think I heard in the video 9000. How does it work with law and bringing the car from outside the UK in to the UK? Any help greatly appreciated, Thanks, Tom

[@ChefCampers]

Hi Tom, I paid €19,000. If the vehicle is within the EU things are easier. If they are over 30 years old, it’s 5% duty. I found the vehicle via the internet, it’s a lot of effort if I’m honest. You have to check local groups, forums, Facebook, German vehicle sale sites etc. I can’t offer solid legal advice, but for me, the import was made easier due to Adi (the seller). There are online services that offer door to door import, my advice would be to turn to those and expect a 3-5k charge for it. This is a special vehicle that couldn’t be sourced in the UK, so I just had to jump at the chance. You have to do a lot of research and take the odd risk too! I hope that helps, Michael

[@tompettitt5550]

@@ChefCampers Brilliant thank you! 19,000 doesn't seem bad at all when you consider some vans are coming in at that price without any work done whatsoever. You got a good deal there!! Do you have any videos or photos of your van inside? I did check your IG and couldn't see any! I'm very curious! Do you plan to do some more work on it, what's your plan? Tom

[@ChefCampers]

@@tompettitt5550 I'm going to make my next video on a tour of what we have today and go over the total import cost, to see how much it actually cost to have on our drive. I think we are going to removed the extra seats and fit a shower, we then might make alterations to the roof and add a bigger kitchen. There's a good chance we will replace most things to suit our needs. Expect a tour video next week. If you are following our instagram or facebook, you will see we are working on a special fire banquet this weekend and we have also had issues with MOT's due to the import! So it certainly hasn't been straightforward!

[@tompettitt5550]

@@ChefCampers great! Looking forward to seeing it and hearing about your plans!

[@Velociraptor1066]

I can’t thank you enough for subscribing

[@mdybos]

Hiw much did you pay?

[@ChefCampers]

I eventually paid around €23500 to have the vehicle registered and legal in the UK. I got a very good deal. I don’t think you could get one for less than €30,000 and a pop top petrol with the same allrad set up recently sold for $100,000 in the states.

[@mdybos]

@@ChefCampers but sometimes you can buy a car without 4x4 and and front Axel from G class..plug and play

[@ChefCampers]

@@mdybos there’s a bit more to it than that. But there are people converting them, most notably @icebusbaby on Instagram.

[@ChefCampers]

@@mdybos the front axle is taken from a g wagon, but then needs to be extended as the t1 is wider