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cliffo wrote:Is there any kind of 'economical' heating for a van interior, apart from electric/mains?
I reckon that using a propane/butane gas system would probably be prohibitive both on Carbon Monoxide issues and also the fire risk if left on during sleeping
Diesel heaters. Pay big money on an Eberspacher or start looking at the cheap copy's made in china. The are getting great reviews
Like the look of these, however the 12v current consumption to run the fan is an issue
Awning installed...
picutres in album...
https://photos.app.goo.gl/RPYgRbNdKBSg9ZSG7
next step is to firmly wash it, and then wrap it in silver vinyl!
and new ending covers are ordered...
Great idea putting the awning on the roof rack
Hi All
Can anyone post a pic of the In car and under the bonnet fuses diagram to tell me what each fuse is for. Normally there is a lovely printed pic on the box cover explaining what each fuse is for.
Not on My 2005 Scudo SX JTDAny help appreciated
Cheers Derek
Might be easier if you posted up a pic of your fuses to compare.
tee_cee wrote:Casper wrote:You have a ferry only 75 miles south from you. Get yer finger oot
Great weekend coming up in Holland first weekend of October if you like Motorbikes, Rock music and lots of beer
Good advice?
Worked for me. My first Euro trip was a long weekend in Germany (Kassel) what was just a fast as possible bike ride to destination and back to ferry. It was enough to make me decide i enjoy the organising as much as driving/riding in Europe so started to look at longer trips and do some sight seeing. Now i go to Euroland and for the sightseeing and now visiting more due to meeting new friends. I still finish up with a weekend at a bike rally.
May not be your bag but is mine
Sorry, hit the ? mark instead of !. Too many beers I guess
luthier wrote:What a fantastic trip
I'm in awe of you lol, and ever so slightly jealous hahaha
You have a ferry only 75 miles south from you. Get yer finger oot
Great weekend coming up in Holland first weekend of October if you like Motorbikes, Rock music and lots of beer
Good advice?
tee_cee wrote:This time went P&O to Dublin which was about £120 but it's a very basic boat, mainly freight, with little comfort in the small lounges. Took a cabin for £17.50 and all was well.
£120 - is that one way or return?
One way - even off peak will be close to £200 return for longer trips.
For Strasboug non comercial drivers don't need a sticker just yer, but better safe than sorry. Just fitted my class 4 today for the trip back next week
These screw type self adjusters are not great engineering. They will not take up if there is a lot of adjustment needed. If you are dexterous , you can adjust the little wheel through one of the wheelnut holes. You need a small screwdriver and a small torch ( pen torch) to see down the wheelnut hole. From memory the nut needs to move down to tighten it, after a while it will start to come back into range. It's better to do this than drop the drums off as there is usually a ridge caused by the shoes wearing the drum, which stops you getting the drum off easily. All in all it's a pain to do.
Took the drums off and turned the wheels until the drums would not go back on. I think the adjuster was working on one side, even though the other side looked exactly the same. Handbrake now back to normal - but interesting that such a small adjustment can stop my seat swiveling.
Took my Dispatch 1.9D camper on my family's holiday in Southern Germany near Offenburg. My girlfriend had said before she'd love to see the Alps and Italian Lakes, and considering it was only a few hours away, I thought it'd be rude not to.
One camper conversion, 2300 miles, 9 countries, and for the Alpine trip, free accommodation. Pretty consistent 37MPG going a steady 60ish mph, where gradients allowed (or didn't).
https://i.imgur.com/HvHJXkg.png
Obviously had to take it for a blast on a level, straight bit of Autobahn, reached an eye watering 85mph! Other times I struggled to maintain 50mph, thank god for crawler lanes =/.
Went through France, Belgium (dodging them French tolls), Luxembourg (stocking up on cheap diesel), Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, nip into Austria just because, and Italy.
And it didn't miss a beat. Even going up the steep windy Alpine back roads, where I feared for my clutch, and even more watching the temperature gauge climb. But it pulled through.
And you know what? It was the only vehicle on the holiday to have a flawless trip. My mum's 9 year old Volvo had an ABS fault, and my brother's Galaxy blew its turbo, and all the engine oil with it.
https://i.imgur.com/dP2HLAz.jpg
A few highlights from the trip:
https://i.imgur.com/iyNowWn.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/7qMN82N.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/aBHVXxh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/1RRT36a.jpg
Just curious if you drove through the middle of Freiburg. It's almost unavoidable and you are actually not allowed there with Euro3 vans.
I assume you had vignettes for Austria & Switzerland - or did you wing it?
Ricko wrote:So jealous!!
I so want to take mine abroad.
I might try a sneaky trip to Ireland at some point.
But travelling around continental Europe looks great.I'd love to take mine to Ireland, but have you seen the ferry prices?! Much cheaper to go across the Channel
In Ireland at the moment and ferry prices are expensive compared to the channel, where I usually pay ~£50 each way the day before travel. The shortest route via Stranraer/Carnryan is oddly the most expensive. Usually go from Liverpool day crossing with Stena to Belfast, which is very comfortable. This time went P&O to Dublin which was about £120 but it's a very basic boat, mainly freight, with little comfort in the small lounges. Took a cabin for £17.50 and all was well. For whatever reason they chucked in free brekky & dinner for the price.
Heading back to France & that's a killer @ £275, but its similar to cost of going back to Liverpool/Dover/Calais.
Prices do drop a bit later on, and October can be just as good as the summer (we had a fire going in Donegal last week)
I've also had clunking, but from the off side, mostly after driving down very bumpy roads. On one occasion after driving a mile down a dirt road to a campsite in the Czech republic, the clunk was that bad that I got towed the local garage.
The guys looked at it, found nothing, and the noise had gone (charged noting for the work!)
In my case I think that it's related to the suspension strut top bush sticking, and the spring readjusting itself. After the ns spring broke and both were replaced, the noise rarely happens (and I've been on some very bad roads since)
Loads on ebay
Search for 286 dash
or 286 led
Unfortunately my handbrake does not drop. Anyway the self adjusters don't appear to be working. So looks like I'll have to take the drums off and manually adjust them back again. Think I'm getting to the point where I can't be bothered with the hastle too.
Igor wrote:Upper part of the central "console", the armrest box is removable and fit the gap between seats. The mileage is very low, around 48.000 miles. Hard to believe but the van was a spare vehicle at care home and was left into bushes for a long time. Good points: low mileage, bad points: rotten exhaust, rotten subframe and a lot of other parts. Rear seats were originally as a second row of seats in Mazda Bongo.
Nice van
I've always wondered about these wheelchair vans with the lowered rear floor
where do you get an exhaust for them ? I have thought about buying one but was unsure about the exhaust ...
WAV exhausts are expensive - I was getting quotes for £750 for middle & rear box. Went for a 'boy racer' stainless steel custom job with lifetime warranty for £300. tbh suits me better to pay upfront and not have to worry about getting it fixed on the road.
Have replaced the brake shoes and let the adjusters back out enough to get the drums back on.
However the handbrake needs to be pulled all the wayy up to hold. So this means that theres not enough clearance to turn the drivers seat.
Reading about self adjusters, it can either be by handbrake use, or braking in reverse. Does anyone knowwhich it is?
Take the electronics back out and inspect the solder joints on the 2 micro switches.
New sticker arrived today, 1 week after I applied!
If you look at what happened in Germany, they introduced the stickers - and then tightened up the restrictions every year. So now Euro3 cars are no longer allowed in any of major cities. I'd expect the same to happen in the french permanent zones.
The freedom of movement legislated by the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, seems to be under constantly under attack, making it more and more difficult to stay legal.
The speed limit change is not well liked, judging by the number of 80km signs that I've seen, that were bent over to obscure the limit. In general people follow the speed limit, but I see a lot of bad driving & overtaking. The biggest problem that I can see, is that the speed for trucks is unchanged at 80km, which will lead to more reckless overtaking.
I'm fine with 80km for day to day driving, but I think for longer journeys, I'm forced to take the autoroute.
Where do you order a crit air sticker from?
Cheers
There are a few sites that look like they are official but this is the real one
https://certificat-air.gouv.fr/en/
Comes out at €4.21 delivered.
In typically French fashion delivery times are up to 6 weeks, and there is no over the counter service. However they do issue an invoice after 48hr which shows the classification with barcode - which they tell me you can show to the police if you are stopped.
In addition to the 4 permanent city zones, 16 departments have legislation that allows them to impose temporary restrictions when pollution levels are high. They can then increase restrictions on a daily basis to exclude different classes. The first day would more than likely be to exclude older vehicles that do not have a category AND those that do not have sticker. They can also restrict this to commercial vehicles if they wish.
It remains to be seen if they will actually use these powers, but many of the departments will have the option to ban class 4 (Euro3) cars, which could include through motorways. Personally I can't see them doing this, the locals would not stand for it.
If you are thinking of a trip through France, a couple of new laws are in force.
1. Speed limits have been reduced from 90 to 80 kmh on all 2 lane roads without a central reservation.
2. Loads of polution control zones have been set up, where you will need a 'crit air' sticker to indicate your emission rating. Stickers need to be ordered online before you travel.
When I had the same problem with the solenoid, a couple of tanks with injector cleaner sorted it out.
re the staring issue , do a search on the forum for Stop Solenoid
@kenbw2 Tried cleaning the belt which removed the noise for a few days. But the noise has got rather loud so I think I'll replace the belt, for now. I'm on the road at the moment so hopefully the job is simple.
The pulley you pointed out does push back, so I'm assuming that I just need to peg it back and slip the belt off. From what I can see the current belt is 1438 rather than 1437 in the diag above. I'm assuming that the extra mm is of no consequence.
Hi all,
I am the proud owner of a new to me 2005 fiat scudo! YAY!!
Planning to convert it in to tiny camper and so far have managed to remove the rear seats and build and put in a pull out bench/bed.
As of a couple of days ago the sliding doors are not opening anymore?
It has central locking and the other doors all work fine, I have tried to open them with the remote and with the key manually.
it seems to lock and unlock with the central locking as I can hear them lock/unlock I think? but when I try the door handles neither
outside nor inside seems to open them anymore?PLEASE help me!!
Thank you in advance!
Regards,
Fabs
There's a plastic linkage inside the door that breaks. A bit of epoxy putty will sort it out. Tale the top cover off and all be revealed.
Casper wrote:Bare in mine i have a 17 seat minibus. This was 500 quid last year. Changed to camper and it went down to 200 with one years NCB. My tax went up though. Minibus tax was 165 there about where the camper is taxed the same as a van what is around 230 quid.
If you go to euroland you will notice a saving. Get a quote from DFDS or P&O as commercial then pick the same days as a camper. Lots cheaper. Saying that when i took my expert over i booked as camper even though it was still classed as commercial. I understand some toll roads are cheaper also and some sites wont let you in if you look like a van
Swings a Roundabouts I suppose............. I booked the Dispatch on ferry as a MPV/CAR and DFDS sugested it when I was on phone to them.......As I described it as a window van/Camper based on a MPV/Wheelchair bus and they asked does it have seats in back as well as windows all round "You can Go as a Car 2.2M high X 5M long IIRC and nobody said/asked a Dicky in Port....... got charged as a car also when we did use peage.............
I digress................... I believe you can get a sort of intermediate insurance during your conversion but I think there's may also time constrants for it no longer being a van and becoming a Camper?...............
May be worth asking a question or 3 .............
It's all to easy to get caught out without even trying
Just to add that I've sucessfully booked as a car/MPV with P&O (England-France) , Stena (to Ireland) & Irish Ferrys (France-Ireland)
The more I look the more confusing it gets!
Summer, winter, all season, M&S, 3PSF. and now the Crossclimates which claims to be a summer tyre that matches all season tyres in winter conditions!!! Then of course there are "Camper" tyres.
What I am looking for is an all season which offers a bit of improved grip on wet grass without sacrificing too much in milage, consumption and noise.
Looks like M&S would be the way to go but wondering if M&S with 3PSF would be worthwhile.
btw tee_cee the regs in Germany now mean it's not just in "wintery conditions" that winter tyres are required, but they are now compulsory from October to Easter.
Thinking about it again it's the 3PSF symbol which is now required in Germany - M+S isn't enough anymore.
Oct to Easter is the accepted norm, but the law does not impose any date range.
I was looking for the same thing as yourself and got equally frustrated with the amount of information, and read endless reviews which all looked the same.
In the end I gave up and went for a reasonably priced M+S which turned out to be 3PSF also. I came to the conclusion that doing something was probably better than doing nothing, and moved on to something else.
Last set of Vredstein Quatrac 3 (195/70/14) were really good, but they don't make them any more. This year I'd like to have got some Michelin crossclimates, but couldn't get the right size either 14 or 15in.
Ended up with Hankook Optimo 4S which are marked M&S and seem ok for now. Worth noting that Germany have passed new laws requiring M&S marking when driving in wintery conditions.
Anyway, not necessarily a recommendation but some ideas for you.