Classic Volvo Surf Bus
A little while ago, in the peak of summer, we took a trip over to Latitude family member Jake’s to check out his set-up after he told us he’d been putting his surfboard on top of his roof tent.
We’ve had a few questions come in regarding this point, so went over there to get some shots and have a catch-up. It just so happened that the vehicle the roof tent & surfboard were going on top of was a super cool 1960s Volvo!
So let's start with the car itself as it’s pretty hard to miss! a Volvo P210 straight out of 1968 and still going strong, with two seats in the front and plenty of space in the back for all your road trip essentials. It’s safe to say it’s seen some adventures in its time. The more eagle-eyed viewer will have noticed it's a left-hand drive, so didn’t start life in the UK, although now it's here it gets pulled out over summer to be enjoyed.
The faded purple paint and rustic patina give great character, and little features such as the windscreen sun visor, chrome trim and steel roof rack are lovely.
How is the surfboard mounted to the roof tent then? Well, Jake told us what he does is essentially pad out any voids with some towels or something similar, so that the board has a fairly flat surface to sit on. then slides it on top of the tent, making sure it all looks centralised and points forwards.
To hold the board down when travelling a couple of ratchet straps are then used, wrapped around the roof tent, or hooked onto the roof cage and then over the surfboard and tightened down and checked over. It only took a few minutes to have the surfboard placed on top of the roof tent and securely strapped down. Just like when opening and closing your roof tent Jake said the more you do it the quicker it takes. Now, depending on your roof bar or roof cage set-up, it might be that you will need to secure it down using a slightly different manner. It’s also worth mentioning to monitor your speed if you have a surfboard on top! the old Volvo wasn’t built for speed so hasn't encountered any issues so far though.
Hopefully this may have given some inspiration to your travel ideas. If you have any questions though please get in touch, or if this is something you’ve done before or are going to try then let us know! We’d love to know how it goes and see your travels.
