Ford Transit Mk1 _ Westfalia Camper Van _ Full Review & Road Test

Hi everybody today .

It's finally time to refuel my Camper van .

It's a 1978 Ford Transit Mark one .

So it's one of the very last Mark one produced because in 1978 already , the new Mark Two arrived .

This is an original Valia conversion .

So VSA is a company that probably most of you know , because of their Volkswagen based camp events , but Vasal also produced camp events based on other models like this for transit , but only a handful have been produced and I don't have the exact production figures .

I would be very interested to know these details .

So if anyone of you can provide them , please let me know in the comments below .

According to some old vest brushes , you could choose from different layouts , short wheelbase or long wheel base , high roof or pop up roof and different layouts for the furniture .

But let's start with a walk around the car .

The color is called Nevada beige and it is one of 11 colors that you could choose from .

In 1978 .

I think it fits very well for the camp event .

I really like the front of the mach one with its vintage style headlights .

It looks much older than 1978 which is not really surprising because the Transit Mark One had its debut already in 1965 .

My version was called , I have the short wheel base F T 100 chassis with the big pop up roof and the was intended for couples , not families .

So you have just one decent size bed and you just have the front doors and the big door at the back side .

So there are no side doors to enter the interior , which is sometimes not absolutely convenient .

I love all the stickers on the roof , which are like a history file of the van .

I bought it first hand from an old couple and they had traveled all around Europe with this camper van .

And luckily they documented every trip with such a sticker .

Of course , we decided to continue with that tradition .

So all the stickers on the right hand side are from our journeys in the last two years and we traveled to Italy for two times and also to Switzerland to France , to Austria and in Germany along the river Rhine , let's first have a look inside .

So you get the first impression what the interior looks like and that's what it looks from inside .

The best feature of the van is , of course , the pop up roof .

So I wanna show you how it works .

You have to unscrew four locks here , one , two and on the other side .

After that , you push it up with two hands , a super easy procedure .

And now you have a height of 1 90 or six ft three inch and that's really plenty of head room without having to duck the head .

There is a little bit of storage area on the top of the cabin .

But as soon as you lower the roof , there is not much space left .

So there is just a couple of centimeters and not so much space up there .

Very clever are the two windows in the cameras .

You can open them with a zip and they provide a very good ventilation and yet they are nearly invisible from outside .

Ok .

What kind of camping equipment did Westphalia include ?

Here on the left hand side , we have a wardrobe with the big mirror and under this cover , there are the gas bottles here on the right hand side at the bottom is a fridge which is operated by either gas or 12 volt or 220 volt volt electric .

Above it is a drawer for the dish and hidden on top of it is a wash basin and a gas cooker which I will show you now how to open that .

Just open two security clips .

This one here and this one here and it's ready to fold open .

The wash basin has an electric pump and the fresh water tank is just here behind the passenger seat and the waste water just drains through a pipe below the car and gas cooker is still fully functional , but we never use it because I think we would just spoil the seats and the interior .

So we have bought a mobile camping cooker which we just use outside .

I think that's a much better solution .

And down here is the original traumatic gas heater .

The main storage areas are here below the seats .

On the left hand side , we have our bedding stuff and the outdoor furniture .

And on the right hand side , we have uh pots and camping cooker and other stuff .

As the van is the short wheel base , there is no space for an equally long seat .

On the right hand side , you just couldn't open the fridge anymore .

You see here .

So that's why Westphalia invented this box .

We use it to store food .

And if you want to open the fridge , you have to move this box and then you can open the fridge .

That's not really the most convenient solution .

But in fact , you get used to it .

The van can comfortably seat four person and the table can be adjusted with these two fastening screws .

Like one version for sleeping is not so complicated , but you have to be a little bit articulate .

So first you have to dismantle the table and fix the table top in this position .

Here , the food storage box goes back in line with the seats and then you fill the space , these two boards here , a small one and a bigger one and then all that's left to do is fold down the back rest of hold the and you have a bed size 1 60 by 1 80 or five ft three by six ft .

That's it not so complicated for privacy .

Every window has yellow curtains and there are also curtains behind the seats .

The van is also equipped with 3 12 volt lamps like this here , another one here and here and one of them is also operated with 220 volts .

So when you are at a camping site and you have the possibility to plug into 220 volts , you can use that as well .

The cockpit has a quite basic equipment , but luckily , it is still in a completely original and very good condition .

So even the cloth seeds have never been restored .

We have just added these aftermarket headrests because we had a little bit of concerns about our safety .

There is just one big instrument that's the speedometer and there is a fuel gauge and a gauge for the water temperature .

Then here are a few randomly placed switches and buttons .

This is the light switch .

This one is the windscreen wiper .

Ok .

Let's take it on a test drive .

There is no power steering .

So maneuvering at low speed is hard work .

The transit has a four speed manual gearbox .

It's easy to shift .

But on the motorway , you really miss 1/5 gear to reduce the noise and to reduce the rafts .

My transit has a 1.7 liter petrol V four engine with 65 horsepower .

That may sound a little bit underpowered for a camper van .

But in reality , for everyday traffic , it is enough and even on mountain roads , I never had a situation that it failed to climb up a hill .

Official top speed is 110 kilometers per hour or 68 MPH .

But a healthy speed to travel is 90 kilometers per hour or 55 MPH .

Then it is not too loud and it doesn't feel stressed .

There are no 0 to 60 times available .

So I would say let's try to find out now without killing the engine or killing the transmission .

My assumption would be something around 30 seconds maybe and start 14 , same 70 80 my 100 .

Ok .

That was now 40 seconds , 10 seconds slower than what I have expected , but maybe it just feels much faster than it really is .

In reality .

I mean , not so bad , fuel consumption is very moderate .

We always need 10.8 liters per 100 kilometers when we are on a long journey .

That's about 22 MPG us or 26 miles per imperial gallon .

And that's really not much for a 40 year old camper van with a petrol engine .

The seats are very comfortable even on long journeys .

And so is the suspension , I mean , it's very soft .

Of course , you cannot expect the handling like in a sports car .

But in fact , it corners more precisely than probably most people would think .

And it's even fun to drive on twisted roads as long as you have stored your camping equipment .

Well enough in the backside .

Ok .

That was the review about my transit Valia Camper van .

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