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ernst · (This post was last modified: 02-11-2014 20:00 by ernst.)

Today I ran across this forum when I was browsing the web... It looked so promising I decided to join.
I am Ernst and I live with Sylvia and our white shepherd in Northern Germany. The three of us were born in Holland. Sylvia and I have worked - apart from The Netherlands - in different places, she mainly in Russia and Ukraine, I in the Czech Republic and the US. Before we moved to Germany in January 2013, we've lived in Belgium for 10 years.

We own a 1998 TCFE4000 which seems to be identical to the TCFE2000, but with larger windows. We converted it to a quite comfortable RV and we have been making nice trips through various European countries.
On this page and the following ones I've published some pictures of our (and some other) Skoolie(s). I'm still translating the remaining text.

Our BB has some specific American properties for which there is hardly any knowledge in Europe. I am looking forward to learning more about these specific issues on this forum.
FYI Our Skoolie was manufactured for use by the US military in Germany and seems to be completely metric. But maybe they all are...?

The picture shows Motek, our navigator annex guard dog

davidbrady · 02-11-2014, 20:09

Hi Ernst,

That's a wonderful website you put together. Here's a link I made recently which can help guide you to some of the features we have here on the Wanderlodge Gurus forum.

Now you'll have to excuse me, I need to get back to reading your website! Smile

***patticake*** · 02-11-2014, 20:58

Welcome, and that is a beautiful dog you have.

***Arcticdude*** · 02-12-2014, 02:07

Guten tag u privet Ernst! You guys have travelled some pretty countryside. By 98, most American vehicles were using primarily metric fasteners. Good looking conversion there.

ernst · 02-12-2014, 06:53

Thanks for the welcome and the compliments about the website! I'll try to add English translations within the next month. But first I have to prepare the bus for the annual inspection, which is quite strict in Germany. Last year they told me to replace the headlights and to remove all rust from the brake air tanks before the next test (April '14).

@Arcticdude
Thanks. I didn't realise that. It makes life a bit easier for me. I have some Imperial wrenches and sockets, because long ago I used to ride a 1943 BSA.... But the odd sizes I only have in metric. I don't believe in adjustable tools, if not strictly necessary.

***Arcticdude*** · 02-12-2014, 17:14

The inspection folks are sticklers there! I was there with US tags, so I didn't have to worry about that aspect. Spent most of my time in Bavaria, but got into France, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. I couldn't go east much, but my brother had fun doing so. He came over for a week or so. Took my car one day and headed towards the E German border. As he gets nearer, he's seeing LOTS of signs "No Military Personnel". Since he wasn't military and is an attorney, he drove right up to the border, got out and walked across the bridge and started chatting with the E German border guards!! They chatted for a bit and he walks BACK across the bridge, where NOW the hidden Americans decide to arrest him! I had to have a friend drive me up to the border to get him out of jail. He was really peeved, because he'd walked right past the morons who arrested him, when they didn't stop him from going over in the first place.

Ah, fun times!

***patticake*** · 02-12-2014, 20:10

Have any Whitworth wrenches? I thought all British vehicles used them, or if you need some, I have many from my youth working on them.

ernst · 02-13-2014, 06:03

@Arcticdude
Those were the days! I remember I once drove - a tourist from Holland - to (West) Berlin. Upon entering the GDR I had to stand on a little platform in bright floodlight so that they could compare my face with my passport photograph Angry

At the same time the inspected the underside of the car with mirrors and poked a stick in the fuel tank. As if anyone would want to be smuggled INTO the GDR!
Glad there is no more Iron Curtain. Many countries that used to be member of the Warsaw Pact are now in the EU and even in Schengen, which means you even don't have to show any document when crossing their border. Actually, in general there are no more visual borders at all, you just drive on, like between most American states. But we're still a long way removed from a Federal Europe Sad

But this development gives us a lot more interesting holiday destinations.

@Patticake
Thanks for the offer. As I wrote above, I have some, but don't need them on the bus, because it's all metric.