SKANDIX News: Travelogues from the world of Volvos and Saabs

A Volvo named Ulysee

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0200

Passionate of vintage cars, Claudio Gregolin drive it in every situation and he doesn't keep it in the garage. At 18 years old, he started to drive an ex military land rover and then he moved to an old BMW, Triumph, Mini, 2CV, Renault 4, Saab 900 turbo, Lancia, Range Rover classic...

In 2008, as Claudio lived in Canada, he made a 20.000 kms road trip during 3 months with an BMW 325 from 1985. Crossing Alaska to Prudhoe Bay, the North of the USA. Today Claudio is 40 years old, married and he has two children. They share the love to travel.

How did he come to the car Volvo 240 for his trips?
In 2016, Claudio had the bad idea to buy a Land Rover Discovery 3. So many issues.... On the road, he saw an old Volvo 240 wagon outside a volvo specialist garage close to Brussels. He bought it as a "transit car" to use it for a few months. He has never changed car since this time. Perhaps his parents infected him with the Volvo virus 'cause they drove a Volvo 144 in the past.

Now the car has around 349,000 km and it is full original. Claudio just fitted a variomatic rear suspension from a Volvo 744 for his family roadtrip. Together with his family and the Volvo 240 they started their big road trip, 4 month and 15,000 kms. They started in Brussels than off to France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaidjan, Ukraine, Poland, Germany.

In the following Claudio tells us about his big trip together with his family.

Our expedition car is ready—time for a last check on the roof rack. Our Volvo 240 seems to be from another world among the urban cars in Brussels. The car is heavy, and we have some doubts about the rear suspension. Let’s go! It’s too late to change our plans. Direction: Tehran in Iran.
Our friends and family are a bit worried about our trip. Some of them think we are crazy to go with our two boys (8 and 4 years old) in this old car to Iran. We are confident, though.

We quickly crossed France and Germany to reach Italy. Our first step is to visit our family and to enjoy delicious Italian food. No issues with our Volvo so far. But driving through the Alps was sportive. With our higher tires and very soft suspension, it is difficult to manage the car.

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We left Rimini by night boat to reach the meteors in Greece. It was our first opportunity to test our car off-road to reach some monasteries. Thanks to our reinforced tires, the gravel and stones made for an easy playground. After two weeks of cultural visits through Greece, we reached Athens. We planned to visit friends on Paros Island. The sea route to reach all the Greek islands is like a big Tetris. As we would like to reach south of Turkey, it becomes more difficult to find the best sea road. No boat is reaching Bodrum. Perhaps a Turkish company? No more info.

To leave the island (and the European Union) I spent one hour in a 40-degree custom container in the harbor. There was a misunderstanding about my license plate, and I was told that the car was stolen in Germany. Of course, sir; I love to steal cars with my family! Especially old cars with no value!

We were allowed to embark our car in the boat. It’s not a ferry. It’s a small boat with a four-car capacity and a 2-meter high limit. We are lucky not to have a big Land Rover Defender.

Bodrum here we come! It’s almost 7:00 p.m. and it’s still very hot outside. We are tired. We’ll spend one more hour at customs. They are very curious about our black boxes on the roof rack. These are only expedition boxes as you see on some 4x4s. But, I think it doesn’t fit on a Volvo.
After three days in Bodrum, we started to travel the Turkish south coast to Antalya. One day, we got lost trying to reach a beautiful beach. The path was destroyed by the rain. We passed some 4x4s whose inhabitants looked at us as if we were aliens. That was our first hard off-road experience. And the car worked great. Original Volvos have high clearance. Thanks to our tires and clearance, our car can go almost everywhere. The car has only 120 horsepower but a lot of torque.

After weeks of sea leisure, we headed in the direction of Cappadocia, an amazing place. But it was too crowded for us. New direction: Tatvan, in the far east of Turkey, with no tourists at all.

The road to the east is marked by many huge police checkpoints. The Syrian border is 100 kilometres to the south. English is not spoken in this part of the country. Travel is becoming really funny. After a four-day stop in Tatvan, we crossed the Iranian border at the end of the day through a small checkpoint. A few containers in the middle of nowhere, and voilà, you have a customs office!

No signs, no administrative info. The place is overcrowded, and we are lost. A customs officer invited us to take a seat in his office. He served us tea and juice for the children. Welcome to Iran, he said. And he apologized in advance for the procedure which would take time. What a welcome. This country was so amazing that we spent one month there. We drove 2,500 miles through this country, crossing mountain ranges at more than 3,500 meters high, crossing rivers, sleeping in a tent in the middle of nowhere, passing the paying roads for free near Tehran because we are tourists, were hosted by families for a meal, visiting places with incredible historical wealth, speaking quietly with people about local politics, meeting smugglers at the Iraqi border to survive the blockade on Iran, refusing the many invitations to share a meal, and sharing daily life in a village.

As in many countries, the government is not always representative of a country and the kindness of its people. It was in Iran that the radiator of our beloved Volvo began to disintegrate, forcing us to turn on the hot ventilation (to cool the engine) on the climbs when it was over 100°F.

Our entrance to Armenia was a return to the Soviet era and a real shock after so much human warmth in Iran. After three hours of unnecessary procedures with lots of forms and requests for bribes, we were free to visit Armenia. I was impressed by the great patience of my children at the borders and when we drive.

Driving in Armenia is just as dangerous as in Iran but more aggressive. It’s like in the Mad Max movie: no rules, and everything is allowed on these destroyed roads.

We visited some beautiful churches in this country, the cradle of Christianity. We rested for 12 days in a camp with a swimming pool, a meeting point for overlanders. The opportunity to share their stories and benefit from recommendations was helpful. The time also allowed me to do maintenance on the car. Our little Volvo was lost in the parking lot with fully equipped 4×4, VW T3 Syncros, and other overlander trucks. But we attracted a lot of curiosity and admiration.

After a little detour in Karabakh, we reached Georgia. The capital allowed us to taste a little luxury again. It is a perfect country for wild camping with a rich and incredible nature. The people are very welcoming and everyone makes their own wine. We finished crossing this country by a long unpaved road, mixing with 4x4s. The kind of road where you think your car will lose something.

After enjoying the joys of the sea in Batumi, we embarked for three days of journeying to Odessa in Ukraine. The return to civilization is more striking. No more unpaved roads, and modernity is more and more present. It smells like the end of the journey. We visited Kiev and its wonders before staying with a family near the Polish border — a nice meeting with the opportunity to learn a lot about the country. I threw myself one last challenge. Reach Brussels without a night stopover for the last 1,000 miles. After 19 hours of driving, I collapsed in my home bed.

Four months, 10,000 miles, a defective bulb, a capricious radiator, but no major issues later, the Volvo saw us home. All in all perfect as it's a family car. His family felt in love with the car. He can't sell it otherwise it could be a case of divorce with his wife. The nickname given by the kids is: Ulysse! The car is unstoppable and strong.

He'll keep it for many more years. Before Covid, his plan was to put the car into a container to Montreal in Canada to spent family holidays to cross Canada. Then to put the car into a container from the west coast to Vladivostok to come back alone to Belgium.

Doesn't matter where, we can be very excited of his next trip together with Ulysee.

Volvo "Mini Camper" Conversion

Mon, 02 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0200

Whether at a crystal-clear mountain lake, at the edge of a forest or on a green meadow, camping holidays are becoming more and more popular and the equipment is also becoming more and more creative. Especially in recent years, there are more and more camping enthusiasts. When the Corona wave hit at the beginning of 2020 and caused flights to be cancelled and hotel doors to be closed all over the world, the demand for campers increased significantly. Caravans quickly became a true rarity and of course this was also reflected in the prices, which increased noticeably.

Sometimes, however, it doesn't have to be a motorhome or caravan at all, often the suitable vehicle is just a stone's throw away from your own front door! If you don't fancy the classic camper van or simply don't want to spend that much money on it, you can try one of the following DIY variants. Volvos stand for a lot of space and driving fun, so why not go on a trip in a self-built mini camper? Sweden, in particular, is a real paradise for people with an appetite for the outdoors, where the "allemansrätt" (everyman's right) applies, which allows wild camping and fishing in any place. In Sweden, you can experience pure nature in the midst of breathtaking natural landscapes. Those who make the journey there can look forward to relaxing days full of peace and quiet and cosy evenings around the campfire.

But before you can set off, you first have to find a campervan. Nothing is better suited for a trip to Scandinavia than the spacious station wagons made of Swedish steel, as they offer a flat sleeping surface once the back seat has been folded down. So all you have to do is throw the mattress in the car and off you go! But other station wagons can also be quickly converted into a micro camper with a little effort. To ensure that you can sleep comfortably on the mattresses and, above all, with a straight back, a substructure should be made to level out the lying surface. This construction can be screwed together from a few wooden boards and can at the same time serve as storage space for e.g. camping cooker, sleeping bags or provisions.

In this video, Philipp and Nikolai show how they converted a Volvo into a camper van for Philipp's musician travels in just one day.

To avoid waking up to the first rays of sunlight every morning, it is important to install a suitable sun and privacy screen on the windows. Whether you opt for a cosy curtain or dark adhesive film is purely a matter of taste. Depending on how much time and money you ultimately want to invest in your small camper van, the extension measures are almost unlimited. If you want extra luxury, you can also get a car roof tent to use the space inside for a small kitchenette, for example.

Here a proud dad shows us how he travels together with his little daughter in the adventure mobile, he even has a solar system that allows him to work from his laptop!

In this video, Nils shows how much space he still has in the interior to store other things thanks to his roof tent.

But if you like it easier and faster, you can easily do the conversion in just one weekend. For the dyslexic, there are also ready-made systems that can be bought ready-made and simply placed in the boot. One of the biggest advantages of a mini camper is that you are completely independent. You can leave whenever you want, stop wherever you like and even spontaneously stay an extra night without worrying about hotel reservations.

Here is a short insight into the 4-week journey of a young couple who drove a 1967 Volvo Amazon Kombi from Belgium to Trondheim (Norway) and back again.

This video shows how a cosy overnight accommodation can be created quickly and easily, even without any conversion.

Hint:
Planning is good but don't overdo it. With the multitude of videos and reports on the internet, you can occupy yourself longer than with the actual journey itself. Camping also thrives on improvisation. By the time of your next trip at the latest, you will know what you can do even better. Enclosed are a few conversion inspirations and then just go for it!

Pictures of the Volvo 740 courtesy of Christoph Werner.