Interior tweaks

With one week to go before our annual road-trip to the Volksworld Show and a day out in London, it was time to make some little upgrades that had be mulling around in my head for a while...

One was to get the leisure battery changed for a fresh one. I'd known for a while that the old one had been struggling to get back up to full capacity so a quick trip to Go Outdoors and a fresh 100aH Numax battery was bought and replaced.

Whilst the battery was out I decided to change the old 12v DC socket that sat next to the control panel for a 5v USB socket. Reason being that we only ever seem to use that socket for charging phones so instead of an adapter why not swap the socket internals - dead easy to do with the interchangeable CBE system.

Whilst on the subject of electrics you may recall we had the van in at The Campershak recently for repairs and a few tweaks - one of these adjustments was an opening hatch in the base of the clothes cupboard to give better access to the fuse box and distribution box for the CBE system. Here it is:

As usual, great attention to detail and finish by the guys at The Campershak matching the wood grain across the doors perfectly. You can just see the fusebox in the lower pic - no more 'potholing' through the rear hatch (complete with headtorch!) just to swap a fuse - now it's a breeze!

And that's it for now - we're ready for the 2014 show season. Can't wait to get to Volksworld next weekend with two nights at the Chertsey C&CC site to wind-down afterwards... see you there!

An Afternoon with the Californias

It was with some trepidation that we rolled in to a car park full of T5s that were all very different from ours. All with owners that on first appearance seemed very different to us...

The natural preconception is that your average California owner isn't necessarily into the 'scene' but have bought themselves a slice of ready-made-cool without the usual rights of passage associated with working your way through some of Volkswagen's earlier models.

How would they view our van?

Kindly organised by my father, owner of an early T4 California, the club meet was one of several taking place up and down the country; an opportunity for like-minded owners to get together and share hints and tips on California ownership.

So after a morning of cleaning and detailing, we pulled up and aired-out:

On the whole I think most Cali owners liked it - a chance for them to see something different from their own (almost identical) vans. There were some funny comments, 'its on them modified springs' being the best, and it was great to see people's reactions when you tell them the van started life as an empty panel van, 'you'd never know' was the comment from one owner that made me smile.

On closer inspection you could see some variations in the Californias in attendance; variations in model year, headlight upgrades, interior accessories etc. One van that did stand out was a California that had more individuality than others - blacked out badges, awning and bike rack made this van stand apart from the others:

We hung around for around an hour and half, chatting away about our interior, camping trips and van life in general - it turns out that most California owners are cut from pretty-much the same cloth; they all crave the same spirit of getting-away in their vans...

Would I go to another? Probably. There's talk of a camp-out later in the year - chance for a longer natter over a beer with fellow campers...

If you're interested in a VW California or the California Owners Club, follow the link to their forum here.