Christmas Presents

Merry Christmas everyone!

This year I had pretty much nothing but Van goodies on the Christmas list and I was very lucky. My wife bought me a charger for my leisure battery. My brother and sister in law bought me a mains hook up cable with 2 x 240v sockets on it. My mum bought me a 12v to 240v converter so we can plug 240v appliances into the battery if we wish to.



My mother and father in law bought me a 28 litre Campingaz cooler which is switchable from a cooler to a food warmer - capable of heating up to 65 degrees which will be very handy!





Alpha Batteries also agreed to swap my (unused) acid leisure battery for a gel based one which means it can be charged without needing venting and can also be installed on its side - which I'm hoping will help with the next phase where I come to install the battery and all these accessories into the van. It's due to turn up early in the New Year as it was delayed getting here due to the snow. Pics of the new battery when it turns up.

Venting the Battery

After reading about charging my battery it became clear you definitely need to properly vent them when charging them, as they give off poisonous gasses. So I emailed Alpha Batteries who sold me the battery, with some questions about venting. They came back with a reply almost straight away. I'm posting them here to help anyone else as clueless as me. My questions are in italics, their answers in bold.

Where are the vent holes for this battery? I see no vent holes, unless the two half cm sized holes up near the top, one on each side, could be them?
The two small 0.5cm holes in the top of the battery are the vents.

The battery came with no pipe to connect up to any vent holes. Do I need to buy one? Fashion one myself?
You need to connect a pipe up to them to vent them. When fitted inside a van, these should be vented to the outside.

In what sort of environment can I safely charge this battery without special venting? Can I leave it in my kitchen or will that poison us? Does it need to be charged outside?
The battery should not be charged indoors, unless perhaps with a window open.
Best place to charge it is a garage or shed.

Alpha Batteries are sending me a spare bit of piping free of charge just as part of their after sales care. Good service I'd say. They got the battery to me next day and have just said that the pipes will be with me tomorrow. I would recommend them.

Leisure Battery - Phase One Complete

I've just got the parts for Phase One of my Leisure Battery installation.

I picked up a 113AH Platinum Leisure Plus battery from Alpha Batteries.


To connect to the top terminals I bought some of these quick release terminals which are very secure once fitted, safe and will allow multiple sockets to the attached to them. Then to enable my 12v appliances to be plugged I bought these water proof 12v double sockets. They have an inline fuse built in and simply attach to the battery via the terminals. All that gives me a standalone leisure battery which I can plug two appliances into safely.

In order to make sure the battery can be recharged I bought this ring smart charger which enables me to charge the leisure battery by connecting it up to the battery with jumper leads (and with something more permanent later) and then simply plugging it into the mains.

At the moment I'll recharge the battery at home and take it away when needed to power some camping utilities. Although as it stands I don't have that many to charge! So I need to think about picking up a 12v to 240v inverter soon enough so my wife can run her hair dryer!

More Deambering

Finally managed to get the side repeaters changed over to new smoked versions from T5s R Us this lunchtime. I don't know about others but this was a right pain for me. I broke one (old) credit card trying to prise the old repeaters out and to be honest don't think that will ever work.

How they used to look:


So in the end my pal Marshy and me spent our lunchtime unscrewing the underside of the front wheel arches and prying the old repeaters out from the inside. It was a very messy and time consuming job!

Once out it was a simple case of swapping in the new repeaters and then pushing them into place, click. Easy.

How they look now:

Pimp My Ride

Just had two new windows added to the rear barn doors of the van and those new windows, plus the two side windows limo-tinted. The job was done by Gareth of AutoGlaze and I'm really pleased with the job he's done. He was a very friendly and helpful chap and really did a great job.


Before:


During:


After:



The side windows were already privacy glass so adding full limo tint to them has really darkened them up. I also notice that I have gained a load of visibility out the back when reversing - I can still rely on my parking sensors for precise parking but at least I can swing the van around a bit more easily now. Gonna have to take a trip to the local scrap yard and find a rear view mirror now!

Rear windows added to the barn doors, complete with rear filament cost me £163 due to a misunderstanding in quotes - they let me have two windows done for the price of one, so it should have cost twice that amount! The limo tinting was £115 all in for four windows. Total cost today £278.

As if my black van didn't look enough like a pimp mobile before I added limo tints...

Wind Deflectors

I bought a pair of Wind Deflectors from T5s R US and they are a 30 second job to install. Basically wind the window down, slide the deflector in place (you have to slightly flex it to get it into place which is why it stays in place), wind the window back up and Robert is your mother's brother.

Before:





After:





As you can see they are really low profile and hardly noticable. They provide about three quarters of an inch overlap so you can open the window and not get weather inside.

De-ambering

One of the usual style modifications that seem to get made to the T5 is to swap out the amber indicator bulbs for clear ones. To that end I've bought myself a pair of chrome replacement bulbs from T5s R Us for the front indicators and a pair of dark smoked repeaters for the sides. For anyone wondering how easy these are to replace, the front ones are dead easy: just pop the bonnet up and you can reach in and unscrew the drivers side one. The passenger side one requires a little plastic blanking plate to be removed first but this is a 30 second job and it's only screwed in with a screw which you can open with the driving key. Simples.

Gratuitous before shots:





And the same pics of how it looks 2 minutes later. Note that the side repeaters are still amber at this time.

Insulating the Van

This weekend I took the plunge and insulated the van. I had 6 large panels and 2 tiny ones to work on. I decided to do the job a panel at a time in case I ran out of any material so I could finish one panel and leave the job for a while if required.

I started with the tiny panels which hold the rear seat belts in place and although this was nice and small to get a feel for things it was actually quite a tricky panel to do simply because it was small and it had the seat belt fitting inside it. If I were starting again I'd start with the panel opposite the sliding side door - and this is the one I did second and the one I photographed.

To do the job I had bought flashband, for sound deadening the metal panels, some polythene sheeting for waterproofing and all weather tape for sticking the polythene sheeting on. In this photo there is also a tack lever and the ubiquitous cuppa. Apologies for the slight blur - that's my camera phone for you.



I began by taking the plastic rivets out. This is really simple with a tack lever which you can get from B&Q for £1.98p. Once the 3mm plywood panel was removed the interior of the wall is reavealed.



I then cut strips of flashband, using a stanley knife and spare chopping board, and stuck them all over the exposed metalwork in this section of the van. The purpose here is to deaden road noise so you really can go to town.



Flashband applied, the next task was to get out the celotex. This came in a massive sheet of 2.4m x 1.2m and 25mm thick. I couldn't have got it in the car but anyway took the van to Wickes to pick it up so it fitted fine. One sheet of that size just about did enough to finish the van although I would have been able to fit more in had there been anymore.



I stuck 2 layers of the 25mm stuff in most places but I think this thickness was perfect as it allowed much easier access to the nooks and crannies of the space I was filling. Celotex is literally carvable with a kitchen knife, and that's exactly what I used to cut mine into suitable chunks. This did cause a fair bit of mess so if you're worried about such things a mask is a good idea.



With the celotex cut up and jammed in, the next layer is the thermal insulation foil. An 8mx600mm roll did the job with some to spare, but I might consider going back and adding more of this to the back of the panels, which I've not done yet and I'm not sure that this roll will be enough to complete the job. This foil is simply pushed into place covering the celotex. In places I used small bits of tape to hold it in place. The bubblewrap side goes on the outside and the foil side on the inside, keeping the warmth inside.



With the foil in place the next layer was polythene sheeting, kept tidy and sealed with all weather tape. Again this was just cut to size and then stuck on using the tape. Should I need access to behind the panel I'll have to remove this layer but this layer was very easy and cheap to fit so I don't think that's an issue.



The last thing to do then was to pop the panel back in place. This is very easy as the plastic rivets go back in a lot easier than they come out. And then you end up with a panel which looks like it did before you started.



The whole job took me an entire weekend, including two 30 mile round trips to Wickes as I misjudged the amount of flashband I'd need. Had the day been longer - doing it in summer for example - or if I had access to garage, then I could have got it done in a day. Time spent actually working on the job and not driving around picking up the bits was about 8 hours or so.

I used 1 x Celotex insulation board @ £17.49 (£17.49) , 2 x 10m Flashing Tape @ £8.48 (£16.96), 1 x Thermal Insulation Foil @ £13.19 (£13.19), 1 x water proof tape @ £3.91 (£3.91), and 1 x polythene sheet sized 3mx4m @ £5.98 (£5.98), making a total cost of £57.53.

We have just got back from taking the van for a quick test run to the supermarket and back and even the missus agrees it sounds quieter as a result of the hard work I've put in. No idea if the van would be warmer yet as I've never slept in it but I can only assume that for all that hard work it will be!

Recent Purchases

I've spent some money. I've ordered the following bits for the van, some of which have turned up and some of which are on the way:

• Thermal windscreen covers from JustKampers.
  These should hopefully block out the light, give some privacy, and keep us warm when camping. They look great and stick up easily, blocking the light into the van well. We've not tried them out overnight yet so I'll report back when I have used them in anger.
• 2 chrome indicator bulbs for the front indicators from T5s R Us.
• 2 crystal smoked side repeaters, again from T5s R Us.
• Side wind deflectors, also from T5s R Us.

Hoping these last three are going to turn up this weekend and I can get on and fit them.

Planning to Carpet the Van

Speaking to a few people on Brickyard and also having a long conversation with Mark from Mega Van Mats, I am beginning to think I can handle most of this job myself. I'm certainly thinking I'll be able to get the panels carpeted without professional help and maybe I'll even consider tackling the metal work.

Basically this appears to be a two stage process. The first is to remove and carpet the panels. The second is to carpet the remaining exposed metalwork.

Phase One
I'm currently trying to decide on an exact type of carpet and on the colour I want. I'm thinking something almost black as it will look great in the black van, but equally I have to balance this with making sure it doesn't show every mark and dirt patch. Anthracite is my current colour of choice. I think I'm going to get automotive carpet, stuff designed to do the specific job, rather than just any old carpet cut off from Carpet Right. Not quite decided where I'm going to source it from yet.

The plan is to remove each panel by removing each of the plastic rivets, carpet one side (the inside!) and then replace the plastic rivets with a replacement rivet-thingy Mark is going to send me an example of. I'll post a picture when I get it. This should allow me to simply clip the panels back into the metalwork easily. I'll need to order about 4m sq. to do this job which should come in at about £40 or so.

Phase Two
If phase one goes well I will consider taking on phase two myself. This involves carpeting the remaining exposed metalwork. Basically the process here is to take all the panels off, then very carefully carpet directly onto the metalwork aruond the panels, going into the recesses that the panels sit over, so that when the panels are refitted they sit snugly against the newly carpeted metalwork again, leaving no edges visible. That's the idea anyway. I think the main issue might be trying to get around all the edges and corners and folds and curves without making a total cock up of it all. I guess we'll see how I feel about this when I get to this stage!

Planning to Insulate the Van

I have a plan to insulate the van. I'm shamelessly copying Stone174's blog about how to do this (thanks Stone!!!!). This is my plan:

Clearly the default interior of a kombi is not all that comfortable. It has plywood panels riveted onto large metal panels with no sound proofing in between and with no comfortable interior finish. One stage towards making the van more comfortable to live/camp in is to change all this.

It's basically two separate jobs typically done at the same time. One is to add a layer of insulation between the metal and wooden panels, both for purposes of cutting down road noise when travelling plus outside noise when sleeping in the van, and for the purposes of making it warmer to sleep inside. The second job is to carpet the interior walls and wooden panels, making for an more attractive and comfortable interior. This entry is only looking at the insulation job.

Insulating the van involves these distinct phases:

• Removing the wooden panels from the back of the van.
• Sticking large amounts of Flashing Tape onto the metal panels. This changes the resonant frequency of the side panels which stops them vibrating around so much, generally dampening driving noise and also stopping these panels vibraring with the sounds of things like the stereo. This is cheap and simple and very effective at reducing road noise. It will not be at all effective at stopping noise passing in or out of the van however.
• Adding a layer of Celotex insulation board. The choice of insulation has to be made carefully as it's important to get a version which wont absorb moisture easily - as moisture in this place will simply rust the outside metal panels and will also rot the interior wooden panels. Celotex board becomes a barrier between cold external air and the warmer internal air to cut down condensation. The 'wool' type loft insulation, over time, hangs on to moisture. Celotex actively repels moisture, is fully fire retardant, and is easier to work with than the 'wool' type insulation materials. Hence this is my insulation of choice.
• A layer of Thermal Insulation Foil. This is essentially a foil-lined bubble-wrap material that acts as another layer of air between interior and exterior. Again, it's fully fire retardant. This 'layering-up' process is just like clothing in winter, more layers rather than one thick layer seems to work best.
• Adding a polythene sheet water proof lining over the top of the insulation. This will keep the insulation dry and stop dampness from the inside of the van reaching the insulation.
• Stick this down with water proof tape.
• Replacing the wooden panels in the back of the van.

My plan is to get up early Saturday morning, drive to Wickes (the nearest one being some way away from me!) and grab the bits I still dont have, and then start taking this job on. I've also taken Stone's advice and bought a couple of tack removers from B&Q. They are like flat headed screw drivers with a 'V' cut into the blade. I tried popping one of the default VW plastic rivets off the planels with them and it's dead easy. A vital tool for the job I suspect.

Run to the Clouds

This October we headed off for Cornwall and our annual Run to the Clouds event. We took the van, back seats removed, as we knew we'd need to shift a lot of surf boards about that weekend. The long board even fits in the van once the rear seats are out, although it has to slide in between the front two seats alongside the handbrake.

We had a great run, getting to Bude in about 4 hours which is close to a record. Again this shows the van totally happy to blast along at 80 mph or so and the run wasn't even tiring - we simply didn't stop the whole way there. On the way I was struck with the thought that for years and years and years I'd wanted a van to go surfing and finally I'd got around to doing it. And this was my first ever surf trip with the van. It was ace.



12 people decided to go surfing so we had to pick up ten extra boards from Zuma Jays surf shop and transport them to the beach and back to the hostel. The van was the perfect solution and God only knows how we'd have managed without it!



Given the evil conditions of Sunday, blowing a hooly and raining horizontally (Saturday was shorts and t-shirts weather) being able to jump in the back of the van, shut the doors and change in relative comfort was great. Although once again it showed that having a raising roof would have been perfect as hunching over to change wasn't as comfortable as it could have been. Still it was much better than being outside!

Planning a Leisure Battery - Phase Three

So by this stage I will have a leisure battery wired into my electrical system. It powers all required accessories and will not drain the driving battery when it runs out of juice. It can be charged by driving or by plugging into the onboard charger. At the moment getting mains power into the van entails running a power cord in through the window. Cheap, not very tidy and not great when it rains. The next step is to sort out a mains hookup.

I need to look further into this when the time comes but in a nutshell it seems you get a socket attached to the body of the van - preferably under the van so as to not cut into the paintwork. The outside mains plugs into this. This gets passed into some safety circuitry and then connected into the internal wiring of the van. In this way you can power everything and charge everything simply by plugging the van itself into the mains.

At this stage it would probably become sensible to put a ZIG panel into the mix. This is an LCD readout showing the state of all the electrics in the van. It would be built into the side panels somewhere.

A HUGE thanks to the members of the Brick yard forum for their help figuring all this out, especially EnergySolutions, McGuyver, T5-KTM, ECB and Acijai!

Planning a Leisure Battery - Phase Two

The next phase is to build all the phase one stuff into the electrical system of the van. This will need a professional outfit to do and will require that I pick a location for the battery and charger to live permanently inside the van. Picking that location will be key as it needs to be as efficient as possible in location.

In order to make sure that the appliances which are plugged into the leisure battery don't drain the driving battery you need a split circuit relay. This stops the main battery from being used to power your fridge and stuff and costs about £30. This gets added in when the leisure battery gets wired into the main wiring system.

So now when driving the alternator charges both batteries but when stopped the leisure battery disconnects from the rest of the system and powers all the accessories connected into it. The charger is still only connected to the leisure battery and only charges that battery, but the main battery is charged when driving as it always was. When the charger is hooked up all the accessories running off the leisure battery run effectively off the mains power.

At this stage I'll need to decide exactly how many 12v sockets I want and where I want them and have them wired in place in the back of the van. I'd also like the light circuits to be connected to the leisure battery so that I can leave them on for long periods of time without risking the driving battery. Same applies to the stereo so this can be left on for hours whilst parked up without affecting starting the van. Again this is stuff the pros will have to do.

This phase will cost about £30 in parts for the split charge relay and then I expect fairly large costs for a professional to wire everything up. I'll also no doubt need to pay a bit for the housing to hold the battery and charger in a permanent place inside the van. Some thought needs to be given to exactly where this is going to go.

Once this phase is complete I'll have not much more than at the end of phase one apart from the fact that everything will be built into the van and neatly tidied up and invisible, plus the leisure battery will also automatically be charged when driving but will still have a mains charger available built into the van.

Planning a Leisure Battery - Phase One

Something I like about campers is the ability to run lights and fridges and laptops and such all without the chance to drain the driving battery. I've been looking into this. It seems there is a lot to consider here. You need a secondary battery which is not the same type as the main driving battery. This leisure battery is designed to cope well with slowly being used up and going comepletely flat and then being recharged. It is very different to the starter battery in cars which deliver huge power for a very short time and then like to be recharged straight away by the alternator. The Leisure battery will cost about £95 including delivery.

In order to safely connect 12v appliances to the battery you need some addons: I'm going for some Quick release terminals which are very secure once fitted, safe and will allow multiple sockets to the attached to them. These are about £7 for the pair. And then to enable my 12v appliances to be plugged in I'm going for these water proof 12v double sockets. They have an inline fuse built in and simply attach to the battery via the terminals. They are about £10 each including delivery.

All that gives me a standalone leisure battery which I can plug two appliances into safely. However after a few hours this battery will eventually run out of steam. So I need a way to charge it. As a first step I'm not going to plug the leisure battery into the van's electrical system, it will be standalone. So it won't get charged by the alternator. I'll need a separate charger for it. I'm going for this ring smart charger which will enable me to charge the leisure battery by connecting it up to the battery with jumper leads (and with something more permanent later) and then simply plugging it into the mains. With the help of a mains hook up cable (see Accessories) I will be able to charge the leisure battery and power all the 12v accessories I connect to it from the mains when on a campsite. The charger is about £59 including delivery.

Once this phase is complete I'll have a leisure battery which can be charged from the mains, is totally independent of the driving electrics, is safe and which has 2 x 12v safely fused sockets attached. And I can leave that all at home when driving around and pop it into the back of the van when going camping, along with the 12v coolbox and other accessories on the list.

Total cost of this initial outlay would be about £95 + £7 + £10 + £59 = £171 parts. There is no labour charge as nothing is being done by anyone save me.

The trouble I'm having here is trying to source the specific leisure battery I have my eye on. It always seems to be out of stock. So I'm now looking around the net to find a suitable replacement to this battery.

Camping in Pevensey

This August we took the van to Pevensey for the bank holiday weekend. We decided that as there were no sleeping facilities in the van we would take the small 2 man tent and sleep in it but use the van for living in - when we weren't outside.

We arrived at the campsite to be told we couldn't bring a van onto the site. Quelle Disaster! But after chatting to the landlady for a while it dawned on her that we had a Kombi, not a panel van, and suddenly all was well with the world. We booked into a lovely campsite and found our way to a pitch overlooking the duck pond. As you can imagine, it being August bank holiday it was very crowded.

We pulled up, threw the tent up, chucked the blow up matress and duvet inside it and were set within about 2 minutes flat. Got to love that Kyam tent with the built in poles that virtually puts itself up! We took the table and chairs out and arranged them so that they overlooked the pond and the nice view and then took the bikes out of the back and tied them to the fence next to us. That left the van mostly empty on the inside. But we still had a bike box and a couple of camping boxes and a bag with our clothes in strewn about the back of the van. This led us to realise that a box rack which we would slot our bike/camping/surfing boxes into when we needed them would be very handy. I need to get on to Terry and see about making one.

The captain chairs in the front were swivelled and with the rear doors opened they also afforded a view over the duck pond. This was when it was apparent that rear windows would be a good idea. However at £330 plus an extra £60 for tinting they weren't cheap!

We spent most of the evenings either sat outside cooking, or sat in the captains chairs inside. The table was easy to move in or out and it was simple to eat at it when it was inside which was a bonus. Our camping light lit up the inside nicely and the Blue Cat heater took the chill off when it got cold.

It was quickly apparent that a raising roof would have been a real bonus. Forget sleeping in it, just being able to stand would have made a huge difference. Also, we missed curtains, for cosyness and privacy both. And a rack to tidy the back of the van from boxes and bags would have been useful. In fact, I think had we such a rack it would have been easy to throw the blow up matress in the back and sleep in there once all the bits were off the floor out of the way.

The one thing which was quickly apparent would have been most welcome when camping was a Leisure Battery. It would have been nice to have been able to have the van lights on, although our camping light was handy, and it might have been nice to have the radio on at times. Also, I had to unplug the side door light to stop that draining the battery when the door was open - which was often.

All in all our first camping trip with the van was a great success and it showed us exactly which things we needed to get for the van to make it more comfortable.

Mountain Biking in Wales

The same day I picked the van up from Bilbo's I took it home, packed it full of mountain bikes, surfboards and kit and headed off to Wales to visit some friends. It was a great way to really find out if the van would do what I bought it for. And the answer was emphatically yes.

It was a sinch to stack the bikes and boards in the back. No need to take any wheels off, just slide the bikes in, turn the front wheels sideways and they just fit. A quick hook up to the rear loading lash and to the rear seat headrests using bungees and the bikes were secure and didn't move around during the whole ride. I can see I'll need to have a think about how to secure them if we're away and have taken the rear seats out however!

The first long drive of the van was an absolute pleasure. The driving position, especially with the arm rests, is like being in an armchair and being sat up that high makes it all less stressful as you can see what is going on ahead much easier. I definitely missed cruise control however and that upgrade has moved much higher up the list of future modifications as a result!

We arrived at the Severn Bridge toll faster and much more refreshed than expected and joined the queue. As we moved up to the barrier the man punched us in as a class 2 vehicle - with a toll of £10. He then spotted the seats in the back and dropped the toll back down to £5. Result. Remember to leave the seats in when taking the van to Wales whenever possible!

The next day three of us loaded our bikes and gear into the van and set off for Afan bike park. We had a very wet ride around the hills and forests and then came back to the carpark. The van proved its use again as we were able to clamber into the back to get changed in some privacy and out of the rain. We then loaded up the bikes and got into the front. Swivelling the front seats around we had a sociable lunch with the three of us all sat together facing each other, rather than all looking the same way. Small touch but a nice one.

Upon getting home we cleaned out the van. It was dead easy with the floor being rubber and simple to sweep out. Also my seats are currently covered with vinyl which makes them a little sticky to sit on but they cleaned up in seconds from all the dirt on them from biking. Very handy!

Overall the first voyage was a great success. We spent more cash on diesel than we would have done in our car, of course, but it was the little touches which made a difference - being able to shelter and change inside, being able to just throw the bikes inside without sticking a bike rack on, being able to swivel the seats for a more sociable lunch. These were all good things.

The next big test will be when we take it camping! Hopefully the end of the month...

Insuring The Van

Blimey. This was harder than I thought. If you own a car you go to about three different web pages, stick your name, address, occupation and the car registration into the web page and you get your quote. Simples. However with a T5 it appears it's not that simple. No web page knew of the van's registration. And when you try and tell it what T5 you have there are a bazillion different options for a T5 SWB T30 window van/kombi. Add to that the fact that it's a tiptronic gear box and it seems that half the web sites don't believe such a van exists.

In the end a call to Direct Line managed to get things sorted, including all the exterior bodywork modifications for what seems like a very good price. I hope they don't put their prices up too much next year as I deffo just want to renew my policy and not go through that hell again.

Whilst I was at it I picked up gold standard breakdown cover from IC Breakdown - recommended off www.moneysupermarket.com. That covers me for just about everything you could hope, home and abroad for the tiny figure of £68 a year.

Buying the Van

Bilbos is not far from where I live so I tend to keep a half eye on their web page. About this time a Black Kombi came up which looked perfect - until I spotted it was an automatic gearbox. I've never liked the idea of driving an automatic so I just dismissed it. Then one night, searching the web looking for Black Kombis I thought of it and so I posted on the Brick-Yard about the tiptronic gear box and what people thought about it. I did some research on the net and found to my surprise everyone had nothing but good things to say about it. So I had another look on the web site and the van was still there. It looked great and just what I was after. I phoned Bilbos to see if it was still available and it was so I went for a test drive.



The van looked amazing and the test drive went great. I was seriously interested so I was cheeky and asked the salesman if I could take it home for the evening. A quick form signing, hand over some assurances (plus my car) and I was off home! That gave me the chance to drive it for a good few hours and really get used to it. I was able to take it to Andy's house for him to have a look over and comment on. I was able to take it home, show it to Lou and also to prove I could get bikes and surfboards straight in the back. Lou and I went for a spin as the sun was setting and agreed it was a shame we weren't off camping for the weekend! I was sold. So I went back to Bilbos the next morning and paid a deposit for the van. Did some haggling and managed to convince them to reupholster the two front seats in leather, and fit swivel bases to them both. They're also sticking a safe under the passenger side seat.



I pick the van up on Friday 14th August 2009 and am taking it off to Wales that same day for a mountain biking weekend. Can't wait.

More Research

A little bit of research later and I came across the Sportline Kombi.

Wow. I love the look of this van! So I went around to my local dealer and arranged a test drive. Now this was my first ever time driving a van and it was a bit of a shock. The van looked gorgeous from the outside but on the inside even the Sportline was quite basic. It had leather seats but a plastic steering wheel and plastic trim. The back of the van was exactly as I expected - a rubber floor and very practical, with a 3 seater leather bench which you can easily remove.

At 174 BHP this thing rips along too. It really does. But I found myself a little disappointed at the general feel of the thing. The ride position up high was lovely but something just didn't feel right. It was very different to driving a car! I went back the next day and had another go and it felt a lot better, so I set the salesman to finding me a Sportline Kombi, although in all honesty it was probably beyond my budget. These things are like hens teeth though, especially at my budget so he wasn't able to find one straight off. That meant I had time to do more research. With superb help from my friend Andy I began my delve into the murky world of VW Transporters. He pointed me at the awesome Brick-Yard forum and I read and read and read. And joined up and posted question after question. And I discovered the wonderful Caravelle.

This van has an amazingly simple but clever rail system meaning you can slide the back seats back and forth giving huge flexibility - the ability to have a rear row bench pushed forward for driving and have space in the boot for bikes, or push the rear bench back and, if you get front swivelling seats, you have a nice "lounge" area in the middle of the van, complete with a built in table. You can also fold all the seats flat to end up with a big bed on the inside!

So I went to see one in my local show room. There I discovered that the driving experience of the Caravelle is lovely. Leather steering wheel and plush cabin make you feel like you're in a quality car as opposed to a commercial van like the Sportline Kombi's interior. And the rear was luxury all over compared to the Kombi. However this Caravelle was also very expensive and so I test drove the Shuttle they had. This was a cross between then two and the trouble was it was basically just a big taxi. No matter how I tried to convince myself I should buy it, I kept coming back to the same thought: it looks like a taxi. I think it's to do with the windows all the way around and then the fact it has three rows of seats. Okay, so I would have removed (and possibly sold) the back row of seats but it still just looks like a taxi. Spot any Shuttle on the road and that's what they look like. And the more I looked at them the more I realised that the Caravelle was the same - only to me it looked like a plush taxi. I didn't want that. I had a brief flirt looking at a Caravelle Startline which is a cheaper Caravelle with less flash interior, with the really cool rail system and with the practical kombi floor. Trouble is, from the outside it still looked like a taxi. So I ended up back with the Kombi.

Choosing the Van

I started seriously looking at vans in June 2009 after wanting one since I was a student. I've always loved the idea of a campervan and everytime I go camping I look in envy at the various vans around the place. My favourite has always been the VW and since the T5 model came out that's been the van I've wanted. So when I decided it was time to actually buy a van and I started to do serious research this was the van I looked at. I also knew without doubt that I wanted a short wheel base as I wanted the van to be as small as possible on the outside - as easy to drive and as easy to park as could be. It had to be the standard sized roof too as I needed it to fit into the usual multistorey car parks and under the usual height restriction barriers. I wanted the van to be a place to sleep and sit in when camping, plus something I could just throw my mountain bikes and surfboards in when I wanted without having to stick them on roof bars or bike racks.

I live fairly close to Bilbos, the world renowned campervan conversion people so it was inevitable that I first went there looking for a camper. I immediately knew I loved general traditional layout of the Celex and Komba rather than the split seats of the Nexa. I was actually really tempted to buy a camper from Bilbos but as usual my girlfriend Lou put her sensible head on and pointed out that this was all very well but I'd be driving the kitchen sink to work and back every day, which was not very efficient, and I'd also be unable to just throw the bikes in the back as there was no room, and anyway they'd destroy the upholstery, floor and cupboards if thrown into the camper. Of course I could buy a bike rack for the outside but then why not just get a car? Also, we already own all manner of camping gear like cookers and tables and so on which would be wasted if we bought a full blown campervan.

I went away and tried to come up with a solution to my problems. Maybe I could buy a base van and partially convert it? Looking on the net it was clear this was defintely a possible option. I've always loved the look of the Kombi from the outside - half panel van, half window van, with seats in the back and loads of space inside. So I started looking at them. My friend Andy happened to have recently bought a LWB T5 Kombi and is a HUGE fan of them so I had a look at his. It did look like it would do the job for me, although I was still convinced I wanted to get a short wheel base.