Advocate I
Hi all,
I’ve recently relocated to the south of France from Australia via California, and am having hard time finding affordable suppliers of various materials to start work on building out the interior of our LWB 2004 Mitsubishi Pajero. This is in part because I’m unfamiliar with the manufacturers and resellers, and partly because I’m unclear on some of the non-English language equivalents. Having spent the better part of the last six years in California (and prior to that most of my life in Australia) I have been spoiled by product availability online, and equally spoiled by the wide variety of materials available in the likes of Home Depot. And don‘t even get me started on the overwhelming volume of secondhand options available on the likes of Craigslist.
Since there isn’t a Europe wide forum, I’m posting this here in the hopes that other members can help me begin to figure out the most cost effective route for buying materials including:
- Thinsulate or the equivalent (we need to insulate our truck for the variety of temperatures we can experience within a days drive from here)
- 80/20 (there seem to be affordable suppliers around, but i’m not having the easiest time finding a recommended supplier who will cut to length and ship to a small village)
- auxiliary power systems and all of their components (including solar panels)
- recovery gear
- fridges
I know this may seem like an odd request, but after dozens of hours searching, I either can’t find the materials I’m looking for, don’t find brands I’m familiar with, or find materials that need to be shipped here from China, the US or Australia at egregious transport costs, which negates the point of buying them in the first place. France is not a cheap place to buy materials, as others will attest. Fortunately I’m only a couple of hours drive to Spain where I know goods are generally cheaper. And online is typically cheaper than most. Also, because I live in a small village, driving anywhere to buy the types of things I need isn‘t as easy as ducking into a Home Depot ‘on the way home’. I have to make a deliberate trip, and the closest reasonably sized hardware store is a 90 min round trip, with the nearest full size store taking twice as long. So research is fundamental if I don’t want to waste days driving around ‘just checking things out’.
If anyone has experience in this regard, or is willing to opine on their prefer suppliers and manufacturers in Europe it would be greatly appreciated.
I’ve recently relocated to the south of France from Australia via California, and am having hard time finding affordable suppliers of various materials to start work on building out the interior of our LWB 2004 Mitsubishi Pajero. This is in part because I’m unfamiliar with the manufacturers and resellers, and partly because I’m unclear on some of the non-English language equivalents. Having spent the better part of the last six years in California (and prior to that most of my life in Australia) I have been spoiled by product availability online, and equally spoiled by the wide variety of materials available in the likes of Home Depot. And don‘t even get me started on the overwhelming volume of secondhand options available on the likes of Craigslist.
Since there isn’t a Europe wide forum, I’m posting this here in the hopes that other members can help me begin to figure out the most cost effective route for buying materials including:
- Thinsulate or the equivalent (we need to insulate our truck for the variety of temperatures we can experience within a days drive from here)
- 80/20 (there seem to be affordable suppliers around, but i’m not having the easiest time finding a recommended supplier who will cut to length and ship to a small village)
- auxiliary power systems and all of their components (including solar panels)
- recovery gear
- fridges
I know this may seem like an odd request, but after dozens of hours searching, I either can’t find the materials I’m looking for, don’t find brands I’m familiar with, or find materials that need to be shipped here from China, the US or Australia at egregious transport costs, which negates the point of buying them in the first place. France is not a cheap place to buy materials, as others will attest. Fortunately I’m only a couple of hours drive to Spain where I know goods are generally cheaper. And online is typically cheaper than most. Also, because I live in a small village, driving anywhere to buy the types of things I need isn‘t as easy as ducking into a Home Depot ‘on the way home’. I have to make a deliberate trip, and the closest reasonably sized hardware store is a 90 min round trip, with the nearest full size store taking twice as long. So research is fundamental if I don’t want to waste days driving around ‘just checking things out’.
If anyone has experience in this regard, or is willing to opine on their prefer suppliers and manufacturers in Europe it would be greatly appreciated.
