The end of another year

So it's the end of another great year of T5 ownership - it feels like we've come along way this year; the van was all but empty this time last year.

The definite high-point was having the interior built and fitted: link here.

The low-point was the inconvenience of stripping a driveshaft (a right of passage for most 174 owners): link here.

Thanks again for reading and to those that have commented - here's to a great 2011. See you all in the new year with more upgrades and hopefully more camping trips, Richard.

Snow fun!

 

There's nothing else to do at the moment except enjoy the weather!

And the T5 is proving to be a great vehicle to do it in; sure-footed and steady going, there hasn't been much to stop the van in it's tracks.

The recent camping trip to York was great, minus two degrees outside and plus twenty-three inside! That's warmer than we have the central heating on at home...

Having said all that, I am looking forward to Spring, a clean van, and some sunshine... roll on 2011.

10,000 hits

Just a quick thank you to everyone that has read, bookmarked, linked or commented on the Stone174 blog.

Cheers,
Richard

Saturday Swap Shop

With the onset of snow and copious amounts of grit on the roads, this is the weekend for getting the BBS removed. So it's off with the grimy, salty alloys (ready for a thorough cleaning):

...and on with the steels:

Thanks must again go to JC at JC Motors for his handy-work with a trolley jack.

One thing we did notice when taking the BBS off was the tyre-wear; strangely there seems to be more wear on the rears than the fronts - is this normal? Tyre pressures? Van-load? Any insight as to why this might have happened would be most grateful.

Winter wheel progress

The wheels are back from the painters:

The Audi Nimbus Grey is looking pretty good, the wheels were shot-blasted before paint which has made for a great finish - I'm not after perfection, just something tidy to get through Winter.

I'm still unsure as to whether to put the black plastic centres back in when the wheels are fitted - the bolts are looking a little untidy and I'm running out of time to get them sorted out. Tyres will be refitted this week and the BBS are due to come off next Saturday morning - as usual; watch this space!

More tweaks

One final job on our latest visit to The Campershak was the fitting of a 12v socket just inside the tailgate:

This will be used for a number of items; as a keen mountainbiker who often ends up filthy after a long winter ride, I'm hoping to invest in a mobile power washer - something like the ones from Mobi:

 

The socket will also be ideal for an air compressor or inspection lamp should they be required.

The washer will be great for keeping the van wheels spotless in Summer too - is that going too far?! ;)

Interior tweaking

When we first picked the van up from The Campershak having just had the interior fitted their parting comments were 'live with it for a bit, if there's anything that needs some adjustment, just let us know'.
So we did.
One thing we have found frustrating was access to the gas bottle - this was done through the storage flap in the worktop, then through another flap in the cupboard floor, then down again to van-floor level - as you can imagine that is already the length of my arm!!!

So to make life easier we discussed the fitting of an access door - reached by opening the driver's side sliding door - straight to the gas bottle. The door is just large enough to get two hands in and turn the gas on or off and to undo the regulator when it comes to changing the bottle.

Obviously the bottle will still leave the cupboard from above but the addition of this little door has made life loads easier - we can now use the cupboard area above the bottle more effectively without requiring access every time we switch the gas on or off. Perfect.

I'm really happy with the Campershak's attention to detail - they even spent time looking for a piece of board where the wood grain matched as closely as possible - my kind of perfection.

Boxed-in clever

So here's how the heater outlet has been looking for the past two weeks; not pretty, but strangely ideal for grabbing the end of the hose and directing hot air straight into the cab - quite a luxury!

And here's how the outlet looks now after another trip back to The Campershak:

 

All looking pretty neat I think you'll agree. The centre piece of the outlet is directional and therefore we can direct the heat either slightly left, right, up or down. The top of the boxed section ends just out of sight leaving a large enough gap for the heater unit to be serviced or removed if necessary.

Post Nº100: A trip to the lakes

We took the opportunity of a free weekend to make the most of this Autumn's colours with a trip into the Lake District. The National Park is only 90 minutes from Skipton along busy but steady A-roads and pretty quickly we're treated to quite a spectacle of colour.

It was great to see plenty of other T5s knocking around and being put to use for various weekend activities; mountainbiking, walking and kayaking.

The route was a bit of an 'out and back' affair; driving through Windermere and Ambleside before our first stop at Keswick. A bite to eat and a mooch around town, we also went to check out the two Camping & Caravanning Club sites; The Oval and Keswick, the latter being closed due to flooding. Needless to say we'll be back next year for a couple of nights.

Then down to Ambleside down the spectacular road past Thirlmere and Grasmere - the Lakes scenery could have given New England a run for it's money on a day like today. A quick walk around town and a lust over a few bikes in Biketreks before our final stop at Windermere and Bowness just in time for a quick coffee before heading home.

As the title of this post says, this is number 100 - a small milestone in the van's history and ongoing transformation. Thanks for reading and sticking with it this far.

A warm welcome

Today was the first cool day of Autumn - a perfect opportunity to give the heating a blast. Here's the system showing +8ºC external temperature:

And showing +16ºC internal temperature:

I'm still looking forward to a night's camping where we're getting closer to zero degrees - if not below! We're hopefully off to York for a spot of Christmas shopping the second weekend in December, fingers-crossed for some frosty evenings...

Blog update...

Just a quick post to let you know I've updated the blog layout slightly - hopefully you'll find it easier to read - the keen-eyed amongst you may have noticed a few new features down the right-hand-side; there's a tally of the most popular blog posts and a new section called 'inspirations'. This is a handful of links that I find inspiring: car culture, photography, surfing etc.

If you're a fellow blogging 'van-converter' feel free to comment below this post and I'll add a link under that section.

Thanks for reading,
Richard

The heat is on...

At last, no more cold nights and chilly mornings - the Eberspacher heater is fitted:

Above is the view from the driver's footwell showing the air-inlet end of the Airtronic unit.

And here's the view from the rear of the seat base showing the hot air ducting exiting the unit. The benefits of mounting the unit here are threefold; it is inside the cab away from the elements, the amount of ducting required is reduced and therefore the unit is more efficient, and the unit can be flat-mounted as oppose to side-mounted under the van - this increases efficiency and reduces the chances of failure.

Here's a shot of the 'extra' ducting they've supplied:

We're back at Campershak in two weeks to have this reduced and tidied-up to look something more like this:

Here's where the magic happens:

We went for the seven-day timer due to our early starts five days a week - there's nothing more depressing than spending 20 minutes warming a van up in the cold and scraping ice off the windscreen just to go to work! So far we've worked out the thermostat control and set the clock - next is working out the programmable days and on/off times - reading the manual everything seems fairly straightforward.

Initial reports are that the unit is very quiet after it's initial start-up period, quiet enough to sleep through. And on full-power the air is very warm! Probably too warm!!! But its good to know we can get a good amount of warmth quickly after being out in the elements walking or biking.

Speaking of noise, we also went for the extra silencer, this sits above the plastic undertray - again, away from the elements. Here's a shot of the exhaust:

It should be quiet enough not to bother any neighboring campers - I'm now looking forward to the temperature dropping to put the Eber to the test!

The end of Summer...

Just a quick update post as I haven't really done anything with the van throughout October. The van has been used for ferrying mountainbikes around, getting musicians to gigs (the van makes quite a small but well-equipped tour-bus) and for the primary intention of a spot of weekend camping.

We spent last weekend at a small 12-pitch campsite on the outskirts of York run by The Lysander Arms, a small pub to the north of York, not far from the Clifton Moor Tesco and within easy reach of the Park & Ride into the city centre - ideal for exploring, shopping, drinking and eating.

The steel wheels are currently being shot-blasted before painting and refitting for the Winter months. The Eberspacher diesel heater is being fitted a the end of this week - report to follow soon - I'm still looking forward to a spot of mid-winter camping!

Driveshaft update

All repaired and back on the road. A mere £609 lighter - which is mainly for the parts (driver's side driveshaft and stubshaft, both stripped), labour came in at straight two hours which I'm quite happy with. The guys at Aire Valley Workshop also noticed a broken clip on the pipe that meets the airbox so I'm back in a day or so to fit a fresh one.

Fingers are still firmly crossed that we'll get a big chunk (£475) of the repair bill back after claiming on our AA Parts Insurance Policy which is like a mini-warranty of sorts; as long as your vehicle is serviced at a VAT registered garage (to keep it legit) the first £500 (less £25 excess) can be claimed on non-consumable repair parts. Something we've had for a number of years but this is the first time we've made a claim. Watch this space...

10th October UPDATE: The cheque's in the post! Thanks AA :)

15th October UPDATE: Cheque received and in the bank!

Back in the Loop...

The recent driveshaft failure has made us think about not using the van as a daily driver, raiding the savings account and bringing-forth the purchase of a cheap and economical daily driver...

Due to a work relocation, my journey to work has changed from 'steady-going country roads' to 'stop-start urban-annoyance' - you know the type; being cut-up at roundabouts by people* that won't wait in a queue but would rather pass in the other lane and then cut-in at the last minute. I will attribute some of the driveshaft abuse to this change in driving style - and having had a little one litre Lupo from Aire Valley Workshop for the last few days, I can safely say that I'd rather be commuting in the Lupo than in the van (something I never thought I'd say). After-all... who's rushing to get to work?!

Plus we're adding miles to the van at a fair rate, roughly 20,000 a year, if this continues the van will have 200K on the clock by the time we put a pop-up roof in!!! Time for a second vehicle again...

Our old Lupo GTi was by-far the best vehicle we've ever had; it had all the zing of a Mk1 Golf GTi (we had one of those too!) combined with the exclusivity of their being less than a 1,000 right-hand-drive GTi's imported for UK roads - it is rumoured there's only 600 left! The Lupo GTi always felt a bit special even on the most mundane of journeys.

Whilst I'd love another GTi, I don't think we can make ends meet when it comes to insurance and fuel costs. And all my fantasies of beasting around the Yorkshire Dales in a Land Rover Defender (or similar) just won't become a reality on my salary.

So the hunt is on (thankfully with no great rush) to find the perfect little Lupo. No more than £1,500, 1.0 or 1.4, petrol or diesel, preferably not yellow but I'm not fussy, don't mind a high-miler as long as there's history with it, not over-modified either but would be nice if already lowered (sorry, can't help myself!).

*Salesmen in BMWs, Fatcats in Audis, Wannabes in Range Rovers, School-run-mum's Picassos, Girls in New-Minis still doing their makeup on the way to work, the list is endless...

Place your bets...

When you see a T5 on the back of a recovery truck, there's only ever going to be one thing wrong:

Yep, that's right - there's goes a driveshaft!

It went whilst pulling out of works' car-park with the usual enthusiasm for getting away after an average day at work. Probably at around 4, maybe 4 and half thousand revs, bang...

No drive.

I knew almost straight away that's what it would be, quite a common occurrence on the 174s - hence why I'm probably fairly philosophical about it.

The guys from the AA were great; it seemed odd at first when two guys got out of the cab - the driver was on his first night(!) with an experienced mate along to offer tips and advice. I probably didn't help by saying 'please be careful, that's my pride-and-joy', but they both took great care in getting the van onto the low loader using extra chocks due to the lowering and being extra-careful with the straps around the alloys.

Amusingly, Mr First-timer wasn't really up to witty banter during the journey from Leeds back to Skipton, but his mate chipped in and we were soon chatting about the v-dub scene, scooters, mods, bad weather and the bloke that called the AA out asking them to clear his driveway of snow so he could get to work!

Right, I'm off to bed before anything else bad can happen today - will update with a full diagnosis from Aire Valley Workshop in due course.

7th October UPDATE: Initial diagnosis is gearbox and not driveshafts/stubshafts. This is now beginning to sound expensive; the 'box is coming out and being shipped over to a specialists in Leeds for further investigation. Will let you know the outcome in a day or two...

7th October UPDATE Nº2: Looks like we're back to it being the driveshaft/stubshaft splines that have stripped under acceleration. After a phone-call with Mr. Gearbox Specialist (who immediately said 'Driveshaft' the minute he heard the numbers 174!) we're thankfully back to it being a less-expensive and hopefully less time-consuming job. He pointed the guys at Aire Valley in the direction of the problem and my initial prognosis was correct.
Further updates to follow...

The chosen Winter wheel

After much deliberation and photoshop-ery, I've decided to go with a straight Audi Numbus Grey (or similar) for the steel wheels:

Pretty soon I'll be handing the wheels over to JC at JC Motors to arrange the tyre removal, shot blasting, prep and paint, and tyre refitting. Thankfully he's got loads of local contacts and the whole job shouldn't cost the earth.

I'm hoping the wheel colour will give the van a tough look and get us through the worst of the Winter extremities without looking too rough come next Spring.

Reclassfied

Back in June I discussed the subject of having the van reclassified on the V5 from 'Panel Van' to 'Motor-Caravan'. The main advantage being that we can now legitimately travel at the the indicated speed limit for any given road, rather than having to reduce by 10mph - as explained here on the Department for Transport site.

So after writing a short letter to our local DVLA office in Leeds, along with some 'before, during and after' pictures of the conversion, we were then called to pay a visit to the local VOSA inspection site...

Thankfully this was merely a formality; a quick check to make sure the vehicle in the photographs was the same vehicle - they checked the chassis number, took one look at the rear seat:
"so that folds into a bed does it?"
"yes, do you want to see?"
"nah, it's okay..."
He took a quick look at the hob and sink, asked where the gas bottle was located, shuffled about a bit and said the paperwork will be through in a few weeks, no problems.

One further upshot is that we may be able to get cheaper insurance and will certainly be shopping around some specialist 'Motor Caravan' insurers when the time comes.

Which Winter Wheel?

It seems as soon as I finally get the BBS wheels fitted, its nearly time to take them off again. Here in North Yorkshire the council likes nothing more than to cover the roads in grit salt at the slightest mention of the word frost! And there's no way I'm letting that ruin my rims, so after the last couple of shows; Viking Fest in Northallerton and my local Bradford & District Show & Shine, the original steel wheels will be bolted back on.

But they need a bit of a tidy-up. So should I take the opportunity to do something a little different?

Here's the options:

Option 1: Standard wheels - repainted in silver

Option 2: Repainted in gloss Audi Nimbus grey

Option 3: Repainted in gloss Audi Nimbus grey with silver rim

Option 4: Go for a wildcard such as satin black with orange rim

So, it is over to you, what do think? Leave a comment and your option choice below.

Time to warm things up

As regular readers will know, I'm a big advocate for being as comfortable as possible whilst camping. Years of camping under canvas in the rain have taught me to keep things as dry and warm as possible - once you start to feel cold and damp it's already too late!

Camping in the depths of winter in the UK comes with some great perks -  the campsites are generally quieter, the scenery is as equally stunning as Summertime, Christmas shopping trips are cheaper than finding city hotels and, most importantly; it fights-off that 'hibernation' feeling when only camping from April to October.

So to complement the insulation work (one of the first jobs done on the van), time has come to think about comfortably camping in the van all-year-round.

After a few phone-calls, we made our first visit yesterday to Ribblesdale Auto Electrics in Preston to discuss the fitting of an Eberspacher Airtronic D2 kit.

The Airtronic seems to be the tried-and-tested route for heat in many motorhomes. Excellent quality, reliability, warranty, after-sales and service make this unit the obvious choice. Having seen a few of these already fitted to T5s we knew it could be done.

We chatted with Graham, a friendly and knowledgeable chap at Ribblesdale, who suggested the unit be fitted internally under the driver's seat - the advantages being that there is less ducting of hot air, therefore more efficient heat and the unit is sat 'upright' as oppose to on it's side when fitted under the vehicle (the unit can be side-mounted but again, doesn't run as efficiently), internally-mounted also has the advantage of keeping the heater itself clean and dry, away from the elements - potentially increasing the lifespan and lengthening service intervals.

So, we're booked in. For the end of October - they've said one full day for fitting and testing, but to be on the safe-side we're letting them have the van for two days. We've gone for the full package which includes a 7-day timer (just like your central heating at home) and an extra silencer so as not to annoy any neighbouring campers.

I'm so looking forward to reporting back after a toasty night away in the depths of Winter!

When is Stone Blue not Stone Blue?

I consider myself quite lucky to have found a secondhand van at the right spec and the right price in a colour that you don't see too often. Stone Blue (or SteinBlau to be Germanically precise) was an optional extra. It seems a little odd that the initial purchaser chose this option over quite a few, more practical offerings, such as electric windows or air-con for example.

I'm always happy when I see another Stone Blue T5 on the road (we've even waved at quite a few - with mixed reactions) so it was a great opportunity whilst in the car park at Vanfest to scout around for some fellow 'Stoners'.

It became immediately apparent that Volkswagen must have had a tough time when it came to mixing up a batch of Stone Blue paint as none of them seem to match. Ours seems quite 'grey' in comparison to others that seem to be a touch warmer - please tell me my (slightly colourblind) eyes don't deceive me and you too can spot the difference in the colours above...

Let me know if you're a fellow 'Stoner', maybe we should have a meet-up at a future show to see how much this colour fluctuates!

Cornwall in September

We're just back from a refreshing break in Cornwall. I love heading down there at the end of the school-holidays when there are fewer kids around, the roads are quieter and you can feel more like a local than a dreaded 'tourist'.

Staying on my all-time favourite campsite, Trewan Hall, we pretty much had the place to ourselves with it being the last week before they close for Winter.

Shortly after arrival we had some pretty grim weather; constant rain throughout the day, high winds at night, so the decision was made not to put the Kyham awning up and just live out of the van instead - something we would never have contemplated without the interior fitted!

We coped pretty well. Although having said that, we probably ate out more than we did cook in the van. Thankfully the weather cheered up for the remainder of the week and some proper chilling-out ensued. You can check out some of my snaps here on Flickr.

Get in, dine out...

What better way to liven-up a boring Wednesday - rather than drive straight home from work and become hypnotised by Celebrity Masterchef, why not find a local beauty-spot, cook some food, eat and chill-out:

The meal consisted of fresh gnocchi, a tangy tomato sauce, bread and salad. With a cheeky chocolate mousse for pud. For those that haven't spotted the location its the Cow & Calf above Ilkley.

I can see this becoming a regular occurrence...

Show report: VW Festival 2010

There's nothing like a bit of sunshine to make a show just a little bit special. Good cars, good friends and a healthy dose of sunshine all combined to make 2010's VW Festival at Harewood House probably the best one yet. Rumours are abound that next year's show will feature camping from Friday evening (the standard UK show format). Nothing is confirmed yet but it would make for a fantastic weekend away.

I was lucky enough to perch the van on the end of a friend's trade plot and seemed to have a regular stream of admirers and enquirers all day long. I took a few pics (not many) and uploaded them to Flickr here.

Stereo install - stage two

After finally stringing two clear weekends together I've managed to finish the wiring install to the rest of the stereo setup. The old T3 was all about big bass and very little in the way of refined listening pleasure (so much bass that Mrs. Stone174 used to feel a bit queezy), so the new install had to be a little different.

Everything has been toned down to quite mild levels and as such, the sound quality is massively improved. The system consists of the head unit; a Kenwood DDX-5024, as explained in this previous post. Hooked up to the standard VW front speakers and tweeters, then linked though the back to a Kenwood KAC-8404 600w amplifier.

This four channel amp then drives two KFC-X693 6x9 3-way speakers through two dedicated channels and runs the slimline KFC-WPS1000F subwoofer bridged across the other two channels.

All these items (except the head unit) were purchased from JustKenwood.co.uk

Using the sound balance provided through the head unit it is possible to fill both the cab and rear of the van with sound at just the right level - there's loads of top-end coming from the VW tweeters in the dash which is now balanced out with just enough punchy bass from the sub.

Because the wiring sits in and around the under-seat storage, I have used electrical trunking cut to length to route the cabling - this minimises the risk of unplugging something whilst lifting items in and out:

It may not be the wildest stereo setup in the world but it is more than capable of drowning out hours of motorway noise on long journeys. As well as plenty of entertainment when parked up at shows and campsites.

Happy Flapping!

Another small detail on the list of must-haves were a set of mudflaps:

Click pic for bigger version

On a practical level they're handy for keeping some dirt and road tar off the sides of the van and (hopefully) will keep some of the dirt from accumulating on the rear screen (no rear wiper).
On a visual level they have seem to lower the body lines slightly giving the van a more 'squat' appearance.

They're direct from Volkswagen and quality feels good in both the mudflap and the brackets. Ideal for the wet summer we seem to be having!

Just a warning...

I think the van might be trying to tell us something - on Friday it didn't want to go to Ikea after work - result!

It did this by flashing the glow plug warning light at us.

A quick glance in the handbook shows that this warning code suggests we should proceed directly to our nearest qualified VW technician. No good when they're all closed!

So instead of a trip to the Swedish flat-pack emporium, we cruised carefully home fearing the worst. In this case 'the worst' could be anything from a faulty brake-light switch to a dying turbo. So that's anywhere between a £5 part and £1,000 repair bill.

First thing Saturday morning saw a quick trip to Aire Valley Workshop, our local independent VW specialist, who quickly diagnosed the fault - brake-light switch - phew! But you should never ignore your warning lights...

So we've got one on order and will be fitting it next weekend. Along with a replacement for the faulty rear number plate lamp and a full set of VW mudflaps.

And we made it to Ikea on Sunday morning - joy!

Two wheels meet four...

One thing that got used a lot on the old van was the bike rack:

So it was only a matter of time before a newer version would be required for the T5. Thanks to family and friends for their birthday donations I have been able to fund a new Fiamma CarryBike:

There was no way I could stretch to the costs of a genuine Volkswagen rack and if I'm being honest, I prefer the look of the Fiamma version - it seems a little less complicated and sits a little lower meaning car park barriers won't be a problem (without a bike on board).

The Fiamma model is simple to put together and equally child's-play to remove and refit to the van when required. The tailgate still functions perfectly and none of the lights or number plate are obscured.
Compared to the T3 version I was surprised at how 'low profile' the T5 version is - the old one seemed to stick out quite a way from the van but this one seems relatively close:

All this makes regular jaunts up into my local forest a whole lot easier. See you out on the trails soon!

The wheels are on!

After another productive weekend, another milestone in the conversion has been reached; the ongoing wheel saga is at an end - here are the results:

Although lowered 40mm all 'round, visually the van looks to be sitting a little high at the front but the body is perfectly level to the ground - I guess it looks a touch different with driver and passenger on board! Maybe the front needs to drop another 10 or 20mm? This will have to wait a while though as funds are running on empty at the moment.

Regular readers will be aware of the difficulties in getting the wheels to this stage, if not, you can read about the wheel dilemma here.

To date there seems to be no discernible difference in ride quality with the lower profile tyres, the steering has weighted-up a touch at low speed but is fine when on the move and there's no 'tram-lining' associated with bigger tyre widths.

Overall rolling diameter is exactly the same as the old 16" steelies so no change to the speedo riding either. These things were all factored in when deciding to go with 19" instead of 20".

I'm really happy with the looks, its true what they say; 'the wheels maketh the car', and I've already had a few glances from the GTi boys and some envious stares from the Transit brigade!