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.
The California Beach
Thursday 12 November 2009
Tuesday 10 November 2009
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!
Thursday 5 November 2009
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:
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:
Wednesday 4 November 2009
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!
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...
Monday 2 November 2009
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.
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.
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.
Sunday 1 November 2009
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 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!
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