Of interest to anyone

Wow 545cc 2 cilinder. Wonder how it drives with the romahome. Wouldn't want to cross the alps.

I have had a number of Honda Acty Romahomes. The first Romahome I bought was an A reg. (1983), one owner from new and she - Joyce, covered 49,000 miles from new in 19 years. I was working at Romahome and she was buying a new one. I asked her what she was doing with the Honda and she said that the local scrapyard were going to take it away - after she took delivery of the new Romahome Duo. What!!?? Oh, would you like it then?? Yes please!! How much? You can have it. Well as a Manager for Romahome I can't do that. I will have to pay you for it. Alright then give me £50. So that was the deal done on my very first Romahome and indeed my first foray into Micro Trucks.

She lived in Bournemouth at Barton-on-Sea, and I went over to her house and bought it for £50. I spent £600 on fitting mains electricity, a microwave, a water tank and 12volt electric pump, stereo system inside and totally restored the fibre glass to like new.

I kept it for a couple of years and covered 5,000 miles in it. I had 70mph out of it going UP the A30 Okehampton bypass and coming home from Bude got 82mph DOWN the Okehampton Bypass, a road that Buttonedup is probably very familiar with.

On the level the Acty would regularly pull 70mph. It would climb up the side of a house in second gear. Incredible low down grunt.
I have some pictures of it including the two taken at Joyce's in Barton-on-Sea, Bournemouth.

I sold it to an English chap who had been living in France for 20 years. I sent him lots of photos and asked £4,000 for it. We agreed on £3,750 and he flew up from the South of France and met me at the Isle of Wight Ferry. We went to the bank in Portsmouth town centre where he had pre-arranged to withdraw the money. He handed over £3,750, I parted with the log book and the Honda with both of us very happy, and he drove it to the Portsmouth Continental Ferry Port and all the way down to the South of France and it never missed a beat. He and his wife absolutely adored it. That's what I called a stonking deal.

Will post a few pictures later tonight or tomorrow.

Well I have found the original photos taken at Joyce's in 2002.

The restoration photos are on my Laptop so I will have to download them. They were taken with a Disposable Camera which came out surprisingly well.

hey Woodie,
that was a great story.
I am indeed familiar with that stretch of road though haven't been down that way for a few years.
A formal introduction will be heading the way of this forum before to long of me and my "lemon"

Ha, I stand corrected. Nice story! And the first time I see your face as well.

P.S. I laughed @ this:

At least my sense of humor has never changed. A lot more than I can say for the rest me, especially with the ongoing events of last year.

At least my sense of humor has never changed. A lot more than I can say for the rest me, especially with the ongoing  events of last year.

Been trawling through my laptop last night and found a few pictures of pictures of the Romahome. Somewhere I have all the original pictures of it in a folder of photos.

.


This was my Avatar a couple of years ago. The engine is a complete 1600 Daihatsu lump.

He was already grey when people were still using film in camera's! DANG!

So true. I used to worry about it, but by the time I got to 40 I didn't give a monkey's about it. It's just damn cold in the winter without a hat.

Knowing how much you Dutch lads like your 970 cc Bedford Rascal's, I have downloaded over 40 pictures of a 1986 Isle of Wight registered Rascal Romahome I rescued from a 5year abandonment in a field in Hertfordshire. It had belonged to a mate of mines Uncle who had gone on a long holiday to America and died out there. It was offered to me for £250 and I was sent 4 photos of it and it looked disgusting. 4 rotten tyres and filthy dirty. I offered £150 and we met in the middle at £200.

My son and I drove up to Hoddesdon with 4 spare wheels, a new alternator belt, and a new battery and a gallon of fresh petrol. It was worse than disgusting. Inside the Roma body there were at least a thousand dead flies and 6 Hornets.
We changed all the aforementioned parts over, topped the water up and tried to start it. Within 3 seconds it burst into life and the clutch wasn't even stuck to the flywheel. So off we set for the Isle of Wight and trundled along at 70mph virtually all the way. It drove beautifully. Just gutless and very thirsty compared to the Hi-Jet.

I spent around a month off and on cleaning it up. I was amazed how good the Paintwork was. The chassis was virtually spotless and inside the cab I compounded the paint everywhere I could reach. I spent almost a week compounding the Fibreglass with a Rotary Sponge Mop. As you can see it came up like a Diamond..
After disposal of the flies I polished all of the fibreglass inside the body too and put carpet in the bunks as well. It was a real treat to go out and about in it. Everywhere I went people would crowd round it and take pictures. We were up on Culver Down near Sandown one Sunday afternoon having a coffee and a read of the paper, and somebody came to the back door and asked if I would sell it. Caught me a bit by surprise so I said I would be prepared to let it go for £2,500.

He didn't flinch and asked for my number. He phoned me that night and offered me £2,250 which I happily agreed on and he bought it a couple of days later. I was sorry to see it go and even sorrier later when I used to see it about. He hadn't looked after it at all. Still I made some reasonable money out of it and it had brought in a couple of refurbishment jobs from other Romahome owners on the Island.

I will post a few more pictures if anyone else is interested in Your Pictures. Make the right noises and I will dig some more pictures out of the Rascal and Including about 6 Honda Acty's I had in the yard at one time.

Lex_Michdebus wrote:He was already grey when people were still using film in camera's! DANG!

Cheers Logi. Thanks for the support. And I don't mean a walking stick either.

In Ventnor aged 30. More than half a lifetime ago.

Woodie wrote:I will post a few more pictures if anyone else is interested in  Your Pictures.  Make the right noises and I will dig some more pictures out  of the Rascal and  Including about 6 Honda Acty's  I had in the yard at one time.

realy love the storys/pictures about the rascal and actys.
what is your opinion when you compare them woodie?
driving them and technique/reliability ?

i am thinking about getting a rascal or acty for my daily drives.
i keep on seeing realy cheap vans and pickups for sale over there
thinking about importing one from over there

Good story about the Romahome. Nearly bought one about two years ago, and then I found out I had to fold myself to be able to drive a hijet pickup. Reckon the bedford won't be any more spacious.

@scotia: and then drive around with the steering wheel on the wrong side?!

The Acty's are truly amazing with what they will carry or pull a car even. It's hard to comprehend how such a small two cylinder engine can develop such torque.

I loved them, but getting spares now is very difficult. Although I have a set of almost new unused pick up sides and 4or5 second hand sets left and a few spares but dumped most of them 3 years ago.
The Rascal has more power but they have notoriously poor fuel consumption. A friend of mine is a genius with the Rascal and he tuned (Serviced properly) my one to perfection and it improved the performance and fuel consumption considerably.

For the sake of spares you really have to go for the Rascal.

The Bedford Bambi I bought made me a fortune in spare parts. The fridge and cooker were immaculate. I got £100 for the fridge and sent it to Edinburgh. Cooker made £75 locally. The Propex LPG Heater was unbelievable. I put it on Ebay and it just kept climbing and climbing eventually making a staggering £280!!

Engine, gearbox, Propshaft, axle, springs, Bull bar. Absolutely everything sold. One of the best breakers I have had apart from 3 Fiat Strada Arbath's over a couple of years, each of which I paid £200 and one of them yielded £1320 in spares. Motoring News magazine was the medium to sell that sort of spares. The engine made £650 and the ZF Gearbox £250. Happy memories.

ok cool
thanx for the tip

the rascal would be my first choice to because it has a lot of parts in common with my carry.

Woodie wrote:In Ventnor aged 30. More than half a lifetime ago.

And here's the reverse angle.........

LOL

Good job you are in Amsterdam you young Whippersnapper,  as Logi called me after my first post on 2/2/ 2003. Four years ago. Unbelievable.
2,472 posts since then.