Stop... Spanner Time!

Regular readers will know that I'm not the most mechanically-minded T5 owner. I will turn my hand to some jobs as you may have already read, but others I prefer to leave in the hands of the professionals. So what happens when a small job presents itself but there isn't enough information available for me to tackle the job?

Time to break out the Haynes manual! Used by car-hobbyists worldwide, the Haynes manual can really help in that gap between user-knowledge and bothering a mechanic with something quite trivial. And here it is, just released:

It says something about the popularity of the T5 for Haynes to go ahead and create a workshop manual, maybe it's release goes hand-in-hand with the launch of the new T6 Transporter?

Should you fancy getting your hands on the workshop manual, here's a handy link:

Connected camping

With the availability of campsite wi-fi ever increasing, and better 3G and 4G coverage nationwide, it was only a matter of time before some tech made it in to the van. I've already discussed watching TV in the van quite successfully with the laptop, but sometimes that can seem quite cumbersome and a bit of a chore to setup.

So with the recent purchase of an ipad mini my mind started working on how this could be integrated in to the van with the minimum amount of fuss and remaining as descreet as possible. I'm still saving up for the popular dash conversion for ipad but in the meantime here's how it works in the back of the van - perfect for those wet weekends and lazy mornings in bed.

Here's the bracket fixed to the centre of the roof section above the head of the bed:

Nice and simple, uncomplicated and quite descreet (even moreso when I paint the screw heads black). And here's the ipad holder - note that the ipad stays in it's case for ease of use:

The holder simply slides and clips in to the bracket and can be easily operated at arms-length whilst lying in bed (as demonstrated by Mrs. Stone174 whilst in bed):

And now the flexibility of everything the ipad has to offer is available; television, films and radio, weather, news, email, facebook, an alarm clock, tide times, the list is endless...

There's loads of different types of holder out there. This one was bought on ebay for around £10. Just make sure it will hold an ipad completely upside down and not just at 90 degrees.
Here's the link to the one I went for: