jonesberries » Maggie the Motorhome

Installing a pop-up roof on Maggie

Andrew — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:40:06 +0000

We have been waiting until we got to Africa to open up our roof so that we can sleep on top. Its been a little cramped with 9 people living in this truck and the roof top area will greatly increase the square footage by about two thirds. And not having air conditioning means that any ventilation we can find will make life much more comfortable in hot climates.

And the fully collapsible roof space will give us plenty more space for everyone to sleep. We are putting some rails on the roof so people dont fall off. We can also tie some spare wheels and stuff on the roof if we need to..

We are also getting some rust removed from the truck and some things that fell off are getting wielded back on. While the work is being done, the mechanic is letting us stay in this little shanty, along with some other travellers and young hippies who are camping out with us. It doesn’t leak very much at all – just in a few places but nothing that some strategically positioned saucepans dont take care of. The place is buzzing with people. New travellers turn up each day. Yesterday a group of Lithuanians walking across Africa turned up and we all ate together. Very cool.

Happy 2010! Here’s to a bog free year and olive oil

Debbie — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 11:41:36 +0000

Had a great New Years eve celebration at Paulo and Edna’s house. We have taken our minds off the difficulties of the last week. We had no vehicle for days as Serge’s car broke, days later Paulo and Edna’s van broke, days later we arrived in our truck and after picking up Petr from the Airport got our dear Maggie stuck. Yes, I know, our overlander truck. Yes, our 4×4 truck. Add to this the fact that our truck is leaking and Paulo and Edna’s house is leaking. As a matter of fact we were thinking we would celebrate New Years by candlelight because the water is leaking into the walls and making it unwise to use electricity in parts of the house.

On the last day of the year Paulo and Edna’s van got fixed! They rushed off to the grocery store.

We had spent several days doing various “teambuilding exercises” that some people would pay dear money for.

We dug trenches, with our small foldable shovel, and made small roads for each wheel with buckets and buckets of stones we collected from around the land. We all carefully watched the wheels while andrew figured out the “locking differential” system. The sun had come out briefly and we were feeling determined to not go into the new year with a bogged truck. Slowly she climbed out of the mirey clay.

Just a half an hour later we took “Maggie” out to take Sam and Donald to the train station so they could go to a party in Lagos with Eddie and Rubin (from Conscious Earth). We also used this opportunity to go grocery shopping. Get the idea there wasnt much food in the house.

We had a great New Years eve and were collectively relaxed enough to miss the New Years countdown for Moscow (9:00), Turkey (10:00) and Germany (11:00) despite the presence of a funcional german in our midst. We were able to make up our own countdown for Portugal, only 4 minutes late, and most of us were able to take an ice plunge into the pool. I know what you are thinking, “Ice plunge? You are in the Algarve.” Well I gotta tell you it was cold.

Before, notice the ripples in the water from checking the water temperature.

And in. The sensible German guy, Petr, in the red shorts was the smart one. He calculated the dive needed to propel him to the quickest exit.

And seconds later almost everyone is out of the pool. Edna, being a great combination of extreme and relaxed is still in the pool – doing laps? Dang.

Anyhow, here’s to a bog free year full of taking lots of icy plunge opportunities, lots of friends, lots of sharing life and (at the risk of sounding too hippy) lots of love. What do you say. Lets hang together and be nice and loving and look out for each other. We want to try to be more selfless and look out for more opportunities to see the best and bring out the best in each other. We want us to be mother and father and sister and brother to others. You know, we think there is just too much fighting in our world and the God we believe in seems to think Unity is a pretty cool thing. We coined our own little saying this year, while we were picking olives, “Make olive oil not war”.

One of the many great honours this year was finally hanging out with Al and Tina. They would say “we just wanna love on people”. Hey, lets all do some of that, O.K.

A little family motorhome history

admin — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:10:05 +0000

Reminiscing this morning. Here is a little of our bizarre family motorhome history. Sorry no old pictures to give you, only the ones you will create in your mind.

1 – 1985 – Me and Andrew met on a ship going around Central and South America. We were 2 people among 130 from 30+ countries.

(1991 – Put all our earthly belongings in a few backpacks and trunks and moved to Australia with one 6 month old child, Sam.)

(1994 – We put all our earthly belongings in the same backpacks, without the trunks, and moved back to USA with 2 kids. Lizzy was a year old.)

2 – 1994 – We lived in a small 1969 ford motorhome, with snoopy flying on his doghouse painted on the side, for a year in Pasadena, California. This was for cheap accomodation while Andrew went to graduate school. We had 2 small children, Sam and Lizzy. We looked for a suitable parking lot, asked permission to park and worked for them as payment for parking. Our most momentous adventure was to drive to the rose parade a couple of days early and enjoy front row seats on top of our home.

3 – 1998 – We put all our earthly belongings into a cargo van and a tent with 4 children for 6 months. Hannah was only 6 weeks old at the time.

4 – 1998 – We were given a 10 year old, 33 foot, Winnebago Motorhome. It had dusty pink carpet, need we say more. We did 25000 miles in 2 years crisscrossing america several times. We killed this vehicle. Why? We now think that “normal” motorhomes are typically not built to haul a family around full-time. Too much weight and too many miles. A van engine and van brakes and van shocks with too big of a box on the back.

(2000 – We put all our earthly belongings in a few suitcases and moved to Scotland with 4 kids.)

(2002 – We put all our earthly belongings in an old volvo sedan and moved to Prague with 4 kids.)

5 – 2003 – We took off in a 20 year old Avia motorhome from Prague. This vehicle was built by a czech airplane company as a cargo truck, converted into a motorhome by an employee after the “Prague Spring” to take his wife and 2 sons over the newly opened border and explore the continent. We did not bring all our earthly belongings with us this time as we were only gone for a few months. We had 5 kids at the time (TJ was born in Prague) and an adopted family member (Jessica). The engine of our little Avia motorhome blew up on the motorway in Italy and had to be left for dead. We were rescued by a series of friends, another story.

(2006 – We put all our earthly belongings in a van and moved back to U.K. with 5 kids.)

6 – 2009 – We bought our overlander, Maggie, for GBP 3500 and made her into a motorhome from November on. We took her on the road just a few months later on March 11 even though we continue to work on her on the road. We chose Maggie because she is strong. She can handle the weight. She has air brakes. She has a non computerized system so we might be able to fix her ourselves or she can be repaired in poorer countries. She is air-cooled (no radiator). We think she is beautiful.

getting ready for Morocco

admin — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:53:55 +0000

So, here we are, still in the Algarve and still loving it. In the space around getting ready for Rock on Christmas we are getting ready for Morocco. We will leave days after Rock on Christmas. So, we started thinking. It seems like it is possible that the roads could be a little worse in Africa. At least the fun roads might be not quite smooth. What if there is an opportunity to go thru a river. Are we ready? What if Andrew starts getting inspired by “Lawrence of Arabia” and starts driving Maggie over sand dunes into some far off destination over the horizon. I mean we must be prepared. SO, we have determined that these things are necessary. 1. Plug up any gaps to let less sand in. 2. stop things from flying off shelves. 3. Make sure breakdown stuff is accessible and working and, well, actually, there in the first place. 4. Make space for extra food and drinking water. 5. Figure out the water situation. I mean, can we get drinking water at all. To what extent do we need to purify the water. I mean I know we need to fear ice cubes or anything from a tap but can we purify water we get there. Also, are we going to need to soak our fruit and veg in chlorine or something. So, what is great is there are people who have been there so we are doing alot of working and listening.

I hear you, you are probably saying, ” Uh, hello, you have been on the road for quite a while now. Shouldn’t you have done this stuff already?” Well yeah, but after being on the road we need to take time out every once and a while. Also, We havent really gone to many totally new countries yet. We have been in Western and Central Europe for a while and well, we have never been to Africa yet (Andrew flew into South Africa once for a week and hung out in a conference center, not sure if that counts). We are facing the unknown here so, well, I want to try to be prepared. I am not worried, really, we are all really excited but we dont want to take unnecessary chances and all.

So, anyway, about things flying off shelves. Well, you try one thing and then another but off-roading is completely different than freeway with an occasional curb. We did some real, uhh…. how do you say… not quite off-roading but very bad roads in rural northern Portugal and …. well…. dang… there wasnt much left on the shelves. And poor Liz, anything that falls off a shelf seems to fall on her. I dont care if she is on the other side of the truck, it finds her. I was afraid she was going to start being afraid of books or something. So, we have gone to work. Andrew went to work on gaps and insulation in the deep storage and did some painting.

Sam and Donald went to work on the stove cabinet.

Me, Liz and Abi went to work on keeping things from flying off shelves as we are not wanting to spend alot of money, and we enjoy the challenge of using found objects, and… well… to be honest… we are a bit broke… hmmmm.

So, we used found old wood from an outdoor screen and covered it with newspaper and branches and are actually feeling quite pleased with the result. I have to say, I Like the look. So anyways, back to work tomorrow. Maggie is sure enjoying being pampered like this. Next the guys will do some checks with the safety equipment. Abi is working on an inventory for the emergency food and water supply and Liz will head up the “orderly…??” re-entry of our treasures into our home.

Preparing for Rock on Christmas

admin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:49:20 +0000

We arrived in south Portugal and are preparing for a rock festival to be held here in a month’ s time .It will be called Rock on Christmas and it will rock. I will be the VJ. Unfortunately, we don’t have a location just yet but Denny Hurst, the festival organizer, is working hard on it.

This is me this morning, standing in front of Maggie, our 4×4 truck that is home to our family of 7 and sometimes others who join us. We will be turning this land into a makeshift campsite for festival goers over the next month. Lots of work but it should be fun.

Beautiful Homes and Gardens

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:24:26 +0000

I found myself at an english magazine stand. A rare opportunity in my life. I had the urge to pour myself into a bit of brain dead entertainment. I went from section to section with no satisfaction. I found myself in the home improvement section. I used to like this bit but now they have no attraction.

Why? I still like pretty things. Finding that unloved chair and making it into something beautiful. I used to love this stuff. How have I changed. I think the change started years ago when I got fed up with the talk about decorating according to a theme. Being of a rebellious nature I decided to simply strive to fill our family space with things that we loved and wanted to look at. A series of photos of good friends and times stuck to the wall with blutac, a mural of angels, an astroturf wall, a giant blow up bumblebee, you get the idea. So, now we live in a truck, not as much room. We still have a flying chicken clock, a sparkly “chandelier”, a 1940s kitchenette and old “gypsy” wallpaper. Why? because it makes us happy – not because it is cool.

Lately, I have been going even deeper into my weirdness. We have been in many, many homes. I have seen some perfect homes that are really nice to look at but leave me dry. I have seen other homes that are absolutely beautiful and make my heart dance. Right now we are in the beautiful home of Edna and Paulo in Portugal. Their home is stunning. Why? some of my favourite things would have to be the long table made of plastic patio tables, the pile of mattresses in the corner of the living room, The overflowing bowl of soaking beans in the kitchen and eager generosity with every movement. It has nothing to do with money or perfection. It has everything to do with love and humanity. I think about other homes I have been in that would fall into my category of “beautiful homes”, being with the Simsons in Germany, the Carters in U.K., The Hursts in Lisbon last week. I think the main reason is not because we are recipients of such selfless hospitality but because we are witnesses to their overflowing hearts. Homes should be extensions of ourselves, be it a house, a flat, a yurt, a truck or a tent. People should be able to see our hearts. We shouldnt be trying to make them perfect but true as an expression of our hearts, our passions, our lives. Lets stop hiding behind bricks and mortar, canvas or fibreglass. A beautiful home is one that lets us see truth in each others lives. To bear witness to lives, the dancing and the crying. Thank you to all who have allowed us to be in your beautiful homes and lives.

Inside photos of Maggie

admin — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:39:04 +0000

Did a good Saturday morning clean this morning and thought she looked so pretty I would take some photos of her.

Fixing up Maggie, getting up to date

admin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:59:20 +0000

Finally putting together some of our photos of fixing up Maggie. Here’s some that start from when we bought Maggie in November,2008. We think she has come a long way to become our home on wheels.

We found her at a farm a couple of islands over from ours in Orkney. Doug went with his son to pick up the truck so he could take the family on an adventure to Nepal. His wife said no. He kept the truck for a year waiting for her to change her mind. We bought it a year later.

Bringing maggie home through scapa flow.

Trying to source some windows from a local wreckers.

Maggie was a shell. She came with the metal framework and some fibreglass on the outside. The framework for the back benches was there. The floor is just junk pieces of wood laying on the framework. You see, the box used to be on a Bedford cab. The Bedford cab broke an axle because of carrying a heavy load on bad roads in Africa. The box was taken off the broken Bedford and put on the Iveco / Magirus Deutz cab. When the truck was shipped back to Germany the box was stripped and reshaped to fit the new cab better. To be honest I was a bit scared. It was hard to find a place to step without falling through the floor. In the gale force winds at the farm. The truck seemed to be breathing. The fibreglass flapping in and out with every wind. I wasnt sure I could ever trust her. She did not seem safe. However, Andrew was smitten by Maggie and there was no turning back.

The cab needs a little tlc.

Doug had new fenders made but hadn’t had the chance to apply them. Here we have Andrew applying the new fenders on a very cold and windy day in Orkney. No, he did not just gain a bunch of weight. That is cold Northern winds filling up his boiler suit.

TJ found a good place to do her exercises while we were working.

We are showing off our new window. Now with one window and a few other simple changes she can be licensed and insured as a motorhome.

Starting to put in insulation and the floor. Being in the middle of the winter we were quite motivated to spend good money on getting the best insulation. We chose 40mm “kingspan” insulation. We didnt realize at the time what a good choice this insulation was. It not only keeps things warm in the winter but cool in the summer. We also used it to give stability to the fibreglass. We cut the fibreglass to fit around the metal frame and glued the insulation to the fibreglass with “sticks like sh*t”. Later we would glue the insulation to some large sheets of 3.5 mm ply and screwed the ply into the metal frame with self-tapping screws. This creates what we called an “insulation sandwich” and added alot of stability to the walls.

Andrew loves his new grinder. After grinding off everything that even hinted of a rough edge he was looking for more to grind. I took this manly picture of him through the open floor.

Bjorn the Orkney welder took off TJs exercise bar to put the spare tire under the back of the truck. Sorry TJ.

Bjorn using his grinder. I think it is bigger than Andrew’s grinder. Hmmmm, No Andrew we do not need a bigger grinder!

We had no parking at our flat so we got permission to work on Maggie in a parking lot a 5 minute walk from our flat. We got permission to use electricity from the shed next to us. He didnt charge us any money but we gave him a bottle of good whisky to say thank you at the end. Whisky as a preferred currency in Orkney.

Remember the corner with the insulation up above. Oh yeah, we’ve been working. The wood is now up. We have a solid floor and Samuel has started putting in his bed which is just behind the cab and will work as a bench while driving. A note on the floor. It was put in by Samuels friend, Ross. He is 16 and has completed school to be a joiner. This floor is his first paid joiner job. He did a fantastic job. There is a solid layer of 1×3s with sheets of 18mm ply on top. I am SOOOOOO happy.

The ceiling is finished. The insulation is in. Ooooh look a window in the back. Isnt it pretty! Oh yeah we are a real motorhome we have a window. Well almost a real motorhome.

The beginnings of the girls bed. Chris Rowell found some nice strong pieces of mahogony hardwood that were perfect for the framework of the girls bunk. Notice the old mattress foam filling the gap between the cab and the cabin. We keep in working on this gap. The big problem is it must be flexible because the cab and cabin can move independently on rough roads.

Samuel working on his bed. Behind him is pieces of a kitchen unit from a van. We were going to use the whole unit in our truck but opted for just the sink with the foot pedal pump mounted into an old table top.

We decided to use the old kitchenette from our flat. I am happy. I love this kitchenette. The kids are scared. Hmmmm.

Andrew is pleased too and attaches it to the wall and framework with metal l joints.

A photo taken of the family with Maggie. We think she is looking beautiful but we are still getting kicked out of campgrounds at this stage. They say we look like gypsys and our Maggie looks like a furniture truck. Clearly we have more work to do on the outside. We might even need more than one window.

Portugal was great for Maggie. She got lots of tlc from Nuno’s friend and mechanic and a great welder that just came over from Africa. After spending 3 weeks in our Tipi at a campground we get her back. Look more windows. Barbara had given us 2 old bus windows that the mechanics put in. They made a ladder on the back and mounted the sandmats behind it. We had the sandmats mounted underneath before but figure they are normally visible and shown off because they are a signature of an overlander. They spray painted her and…

gave her 4 beautiful boxes. 2 on each side. They spray painted everything black underneath. We even found a spray painted bungy cord later on. They did a GREAT job. We think she is really looking like an overlander now.

Oooh look there is our third window. We are wild camping in Spain for the night.

Andrew thinks the wheels need to be red. He thought red might be too crazy until me and the kids came up with the idea of painting the wheels to look like kiwi fruit that would look like they were rolling when we drove. He decided red wheels was the tamer of the options we wanted.

The wood on the benches in the back broke. Hmmmmm, well, I never said I was a carpenter! While visiting Wolfgang in Germany he employs the services of a real German carpenter to remake the benches. Check out the corduroy shorts. He did a great job.

Did you notice we now have more bikes. They don’t fit on our bike rack anymore so we get a second bike rack to go on top.

the Jones village set up at the derilect monastery for the slot festival, an arts festival, in Poland. You see our HUGE tipi looking quite small next to maggie. We got a small army of quechua tents because alot of friends are coming with no tents. We love quechua and their 2 second tents. Dont we look like a quechua advert, especially since the tarps are also quechua and Andrew’s shoes, and….hmmmm.

TJ has found a new favourite place to hang out.

Oh yeah. This is what maggie likes to do. WIld camping on some old dirt path in the mountains at the border of Czech Republic.

The inside is looking a bit better. At the top is CD racks put on their side with some round storage things from the IKEA kids area and a bungy cord to keep them from falling on our heads while we drive. The wallpaper on the walls we bought a couple of years ago at a charity shop. We think it really is from the 70s complete with gold specs. Yes that is fake leopard fur on those cushions. So, I like colour. Now maybe Andrew is getting scared. Oh yeah, you see that thing that looks like Abi has a halo. That is my chandelier. A work in progress. Frame and broken lights from IKEA. Glass flowers from France. Dragonfly lights from Portugal and lots of big dangly earings securely attached to the ceiling with 3 hooks.

Time to put up the awning I sewed up in Germany

Isnt it beautiful. We now have some shade.

We found a printing shop around the corner from our stellplatz in Berlin that makes Auto Foils for 35 euros for 1 metre of print. After some quick design work by Andrew we are looking more legit. It says Jonesberries.com, the intrepid journey of the Jones family.

Our outdoor kitchen set up for feeding up to 70 people.

Our old kitchen cabinet is showing some signs of wear. Another german carpenter giving it some tlc. He doesnt have corduroy shorts, He has black suede ones and a very cool hat. I bet you have never had such a well dressed carpenter. Actually he is part of a special ancient travelling carpenter tradition in Germany. That is for another story.

The inside of the back of the truck. The bungy cords that hold in the round storage things also makes a great clothes line. Note we now have 2 more bookshelves in the back. The kids are doing their studies.

The front of the truck at bedtime. Girls bunk up top accessed by a climbing wall that abi made. Liz is on Samuel’s bed, he is out walking the Camino de Santiago for a month with Donald. She is geting ready to read from “the Princess Bride” for our bedtime story. I think she is annoyed we havent let her start yet.

Our temporary toilet for wild camping. Also makes a great changing room. How do you like the boogie board backrest. Hey, we be stylin now.

Table review

admin — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:51:46 +0000

This is our table. It is old We got it from an auction in Orkney for GBP10.00. We had a few small new camping tables. They are long gone. Couldnt handle the lifestyle. This table is brilliant. When we put it away inside the truck it becomes a wall. Sometimes it is a prep table but most of the time we surround it with chairs and eat around it. Take my advice dont buy cheap tables. If you are doing this as a lifestyle. Find a sturdy old table that collapses (or you can make into a collapsing table). We have some people that are happy with the expensive ones you buy from caravan shops but dont buy one of the cheap camping tables unless you plan to replace it in less than a month!