Splitting a holiday in three

Hello there! Long-time-no-blog. Thought I'd put down a handy tip for touring around a holiday destination without racking up too many miles. You see, in previous years of visiting our beloved southwest, we've stayed in the one location (Trewan Hall campsite) and then dragged ourselves up and down the A30 and A39 visiting our favourite spots.
This year we're trying something a little different; a holiday of three parts, each location spaced far enough apart to give us a different part of Cornwall without the need to use the van quite as much.

Our first stop will be Dove Meadows at Marazion, ideal for St. Michael's Mount, Penzance, St. Ives, Sennen and all that the very tip of the county has to offer.
Then a short hop to Menehay Farm on the outskirts of Falmouth for a couple of nights where we're hoping to sample some of the pubs and restaurants in town.
Finally, after stocking up on some provisions in Truro, we'll head up to Trewan Hall for the classic North Cornwall beaches, Padstow, Newquay, Perranporth etc.

Seems a really simple idea and one we've discussed on previous breaks - now to put it in to practice!

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:

Winter update

Here goes yet another post where I start by apologising for the huge gaps between posts; Winter is never the best season for getting out and about in the van or for just getting outside and doing all those little jobs and modifications that I'm wanting to do - it's been too cold.

So as we near the start of the 2015 show season I thought I'd jot down a little update whilst we all look forward to some warmer days and nights ahead.

I've had VWt Magazine chasing me again, asking if the van is ready for a feature yet. And again I've had to decline. The main reason still being that I don't feel the van is 'finished' enough yet - I'd be going against my 'no compromise' ethos by saying yes to a feature when there's still quite a few changes I'd like to make. So try and focus a little (and attempt to wrangle the savings and budgets in to shape) I've set myself a tentative deadline of Busfest 2016 to get everything done.

It sounds a long way off but I don't have the funds to do all the changes I'd like in one go - all the time I'm becoming conscious of newcomers to the T5-scene jumping in with big budget vans making all the mods I'd like to make... am I being left behind? Will my van still be show-worthy?

There's no way I'm stopping though, this is my van built the way I want, not for anyone else. Plus I'm banking on the final result being pretty unique - there's a few changes and additions in the pipeline that I don't think anyone else has tried yet.

There will be more info on some of those modifications soon, and a return to more regular blogging as the year gets going. See you out there...

More storage

As any fellow campervan'ers will know, it's all about the storage - especially us small-van'ers. They say every inch counts when it comes to hiding/storing all those little bits and bobs you seem to acquire over the years and then carry around with you.

One area of the van I felt could be improved upon is the sliding door; two large cavities that have been panelled over with no frills by Volkswagen on all but the top of the range Caravelles and Californias. Scouring the internet for good used door panels from these models and you're quickly well in to three figures - and with no guarantee of secondhand quality (and a few dubious sources) and I'm left looking elsewhere...

Here's the sliding door from inside as it has been since carpeting the van back in March 2009:

Fairly plain and boring, not living up to it's full potential, just adding to a sea of grey carpet.

Then a couple of weeks ago whilst browsing the T5 forum, I found a few other owners that had bought a new product from Kiravans that fits the brief. It's still in a pre-production test phase at the moment but this replacement panel complete with three storage compartments is going some way to maximise every useable space in the van:

It looks a little 'plain' at the moment, still in factory grey, but once trimmed along with the front door cards and refitted with blind clips to hide those standard clips it should feel much more at home. The top pocket is ideal for things like a few bungee cords or tent pegs, the middle pocket would take a few folded newspapers or magazines, the lower pocket is ideal for a full size umbrella which neatly clips in at either end.

Great service from Kiravans too; emails promptly answered, ordered Thursday afternoon and it was delivered at 9am Friday morning. Fitting takes around 10 minutes - a little longer depending on what you may have fitted to your door already.

Release the Hounds(tooth)!

After what seems like a relatively quick two weeks the van is back on the drive after it's trip to the trimmers. Our initial pre-pick up nerves soon diminished on seeing the finished results which far exceeded our expectations. As you'll know from previous posts we had given MJ a fairly tight brief - to the point that I had even photoshopped a T5 seat to explain where the fabric/leather meeting points should be (I've seen a few styles that I don't like and didn't want in my van) - I think we found the right point somewhere between 'client from hell' and 'knowing what you want'.

We also threw in a couple of last minute requests just before dropping the van off. One of which was to change the colour of all the seat plastics. Having seen a few retrims on the recent Busfest visit it was clear that good quality nappa leather meeting commercial van-grade light grey plastics wasn't going to look right. To achieve the no-compromise, factory OEM look, we had to change the colour of the plastics to the darker Caravelle-spec anthracite.

And that's quite a lot of plastic for two captain's seats:

This had obviously added to the initial one-week turnaround time, not a problem - we've waited five years for this moment! Going back to the previous posts you'll have seen my teaser as to the finish and materials chosen, a part of the brief that didn't change. Here's a few taster pics:

The front seats are pretty much perfect. Exactly the result I was hoping for - enough of a difference to make them stand out, yet not too far to look out of place - if that make sense? I'm not trying to make a 'luxury' vehicle with diamond stitching and fancy embroidery, just a quality finish that looks like something Volkswagen might have done with a bigger budget.

The rear seat trimmed to match has started the process of tying the two areas of the van together:

The bed frame might get a coat of darker paint just to help it blend in a little more. We had some fresh foam cut in the firmest grade possible (we both like a firm bed). The front edge roll makes for a really comfy seat and helps the otherwise 'square' foam look a little more rear-seat like. Another pair of headrest may also be added at a later date.

There's some exceptional attention to detail from MJ Interiors - I hardly need to say that they come highly recommended!

Another last-minute request was a pair of map pockets in the front seats:

A good shot showing the darker plastics:

A wider shot of the front seats, well worth the wait...

So that's it. Stage two will be dashboard, steering wheel, doorcards, A and B pillars, headlining, and a few other tweaks. Now to start saving up again, it won't be another five years I can assure you!