Leisure Battery

Working our way through the very very original list - a leisure battery.

This was one of those jobs that I umm'd and ahh'd over for a good month or so wondering whether this was a job I could undertake myself or not.  Not being the most savvy electrician around and car electrics usually causing me a good few head scratches before understanding it (sort of), I really wasn't feeling that confident that I would be able to pull this off without completely fusing the entire car and doing a whole load more damage than good.

As ever, Dave was on hand (text) to provide opinion and expertise...   ... this is how I kinda figured out what went where.

Easy right?  All I have to do know is replace the bit of paper with the actual van and away we go.  To be fair, I bought the leisure battery and split charge system from TravelVolts (www.travelvolts.co.uk) and the instructions that came with it were excellent - Martin was even answering a few questions via email despite being on a 2 week shutdown - Thanks Martin. 

 - Lower dashboard panels off again - with flashbacks to doing the electric windows
 - Under the bonnet, take the windscreen wipers off,
 - Remove the plastic trim underneath the wipers that keeps everything looking neat.
 - Remove two torx screws and then lift out the metal plenum out from behind the battery.
 - Now poke the very thick red cable through the grommet in the bulkhead and feed it down behind the gear lever column.

The most popular location for the leisure battery seems to be under the drivers seat.  There's a channel in the bodywork from the base of the gear lever column to underneath the seats for wiring already so just need to reach under the cab matting and feed it through.  That bit was actually a lot easier than I had expected, even with having to remove the drivers seat  Don't be too hasty here though as there's a very small thin wire connected to the seat that you could easily rip out if you don't know it's there - disconnect it first by reaching under the seat.  The other trick here for me was removing the drivers side step to get better access under the cab mat.

It does all get a bit snug under there but it does all fit.  I installed a 6 way fuse box at the front of the battery that can be accessed from the front of the drivers seat.  Just a simple eBay job but it does have little LED's indicators for each fuse which is a handy feature.

I'll need to tidy up the cabling at some point but it's in.  

Having got this far, the most nervous bit was actually connecting all of this to the main battery.  Everything crossed again as I really could do without fusing the whole van.  Installed the final fuse into the carrier just by the main battery and then connected it all up.

At this point, I assume it's working.  The van starts OK and there isn't any blown fuses that I can see.  All seems to be as it was intended.

Actually feeling quite proud of myself. 

No time to waste, now to connect stuff to it.  To begin with, I'll start with the USB sockets for the rear passengers and the 12v socket at the tailgate.  At least then things can be charged at campsites without fear of draining the main battery and not being able to start the van. 

This is where I'd like to think I'd been a little bit smart.  I'd already run all the wiring for the sockets into the roof and coiled up some wire up there ready for doing this job when I was doing the insulation and carpeting.  So for this job, the only panels that needed removing were the B-pillar covers and a few studs from the roof to retrieve the wires.

Connected the two USB sockets to one fuse.  The sockets are positioned in the end of the bed frame on either side so should be nice and handy for the rear passengers (mainly the boys).

That seems to be working fine.

12v socket connected to it's own fuse and actually has an in-line fuse too as part of the kit I bought on eBay.  That's working too.  This will come in very handy for blowing up airbeds when we all go away and take the tent too.

Actually feeling very proud of myself at this point.  Time to tidy up and have a brew.

Speaker Replacement Pt 1

OK, quick confession.  I haven't posted here for ages but need to put up the info for the stuff I did last year.  This job was actually done last July so I'm putting the original dates on the posts.  Sorry it's taken so long.

I'm the type of guy that would put music on to drive to the supermarket.  I love having music on while I'm driving.  I'd been tolerating the VW speakers but the whole time thinking that replacing the factory speakers with something a bit more meaty might need to be escalated up the list a bit.

The majority of forum users seem to highly recommend the Pioneer speakers. Unfortunately at the time Absolute Audio in Wiltshire didn't have any of these in stock and wasn't sure when he could get some more.  After a relatively short conversation, settled on a set of Hertz speakers for the front which are a similar spec to the Pioneers and a set of Pioneer 3-way speakers for the back.  Also bought the required speaker collars for mounting onto the inner door skin (MDF jobbies supplied by Absolute Audio) and some DynaMat sound proofing on recommendation to stop the door cards rattling and to deaden the inner skin.  Final thing needed were some converters from Amazon that convert the VW speaker connectors - nice tip off from Dave.

In order to fit these I was going to use the VW cabling but would still need to run cables through the door hinges for the crossovers and run the cabling for the tweeters that would replace the factory tweeters at the back of the dashboard.

Door cards come off quite easily, now that I have a set of car trim removal tools and the fact that I've done it before and know about the pesky VW clips that require "resetting" before you can put them back on.

Next job was to drill out the factory speakers as these are riveted into the door skins - easy enough.

The MDF collars then screw into the aperture left by the factory speakers and the speakers mount onto the collars.

Click, click with the converters.  A bit of cable crimping to fit connectors onto the crossovers.  That to there, that to there and that to there.  Done.  Sound coming from all the speakers so time to put everything back together.


Quick note here...   ...be careful to allow enough cable so that when the window is wound down the cables don't pull out!!  I know this now - I thought I'd allowed enough but clearly hadn't. 

Not particularly exciting photographs for the van jobs at the moment but here's a couple of pics before the door cards went back on.

I guess it goes without saying but I'm going to say it anyway - massive improvement over the standard VW speakers.  Will hopefully sound even better with the rear speakers fitted.

CamperJam '15

Both Nicole and I spent at least half of last week really looking forward to a weekend away in the van.  We'd be meeting up with Dave (and his van) at Weston Park for this years' CamperJam.

I hadn't been to a VW enthusiast events since my Beetle owning days but that didn't matter, format was pretty much unchanged.  Scale was possibly larger.

So, a slog up the M1 (with its ridiculously long set of roadworks) and the M6.  Getting closer to the event and the rendezvous point, it was all getting very exciting seeing so many pretty vans approaching the venue.  I knew this wasn't even scratching the surface but I must admit I was very pleasantly surprised by the setup, organisation and so so many pretty buses and vans.  They were everywhere you turned.  With the sun beating down for the vast majority of the weekend, the weekend was spent lusting over every possible denomination and a plethora of possible mods acting as inspiration.  The phrase of the weekend very quickly became "oh wow, look at that!".

There was even enough room for some non bus VDubs

Managed to pick up a few things for small mods to the van - some small storage nets for the rear passengers and a few LED bulbs.  The traders market is a great place to pick up those slightly harder to find pieces.  I had it on my list to replace the rear plastic kick plate that goes across the inside of the tailgate as it covered in glue from the last owners attempts at modifications.  From browsing around, I managed to find a shiny version that'll look really cool with the chrome rear bumper kick plate.

Conclusion is that it was fantastic weekend and most definitely on the agenda for next year.

Oh, and the sleeping experience was much better than earlier in the year.  The difference made by the addition of insulation was very noticeable from a noise and warmth perspective and the bed covered in a layer of foam and then carpeted was significantly more comfortable.

CamperJam Reveal

Boom!!

Doesn't it look so much better with a big set of 19's on?

Not without a few jittery moments wondering if my research had been thorough enough - obvioulsy keen to avoid having another set of wheels that I couldn't use.

1.  The wheels started off with 255/50/19 tyres which I know would have thrown the speedo out but was prepared to maybe drive around on them for a short while as they were. 

2.  Having attempts to put the wheels on to see if there was any rub, I discovered that the rear wheels were rubbing against the wing liner. So, spacers needed. 

3.  Needed to source the Range Rover to T5 conversion bolts. There seems to be so many different designs of Range Rover wheels and a little bit of confusion about whether or not the wheel bolts are all the same so I had my fingers well and truly crossed that I had sourced the correct ones. 

4.  Which size tyre would keep the speedo as close to correct as possible?  Not just that but are they load rated?  What are my axle ratings?  The super friendly Harry at Budget Tyres in Hertford found a set of 245/45/19's. Actually fitted without spacers (in the end!)  They tried them with the spacers first but weren't happy with the about of thread going into the hub so took them off again. Thankfully the clearance was fine with the rear wing liner. 

All in all, whacking a new set of alloys on a T5 is not as simple as it might sound.  Having read an article on load rated wheels and tyres - and the horror story of cracked rims from going through a pothole - I'd say the big things to focus would be getting the right load ratings for your rims and tyres. 

The bed has gone back in. Not completely finished but certainly a lot better than it looked before. You'll probably notice strategic bits of carpeting to make it all a bit more co-ordinated.  The filing cabinet drawers need the runners who fitting and the second set need sanding down but love the battered bare metal look. Oodles of storage in the van. Love it!!!