Easter Trip

We have just had a great Easter trip to Wales!!

We spent 4 days travelling around about Cardigan Bay (we went to see the dolphins but did not see any!!)

There were so many camper vans out there , Splitties, Late Bays, Early Bays. Unfortunately we only saw one other Brazil Bay and i think that they had broken down! He was getting help from a type 3 driver though i did feel guilty that we were not able to stop as well. I drove past again later on and they had gone.

We had lots of waves, beeping of horns and flashing of lights from other Camper drivers, but also had lots from other VW group drivers including an amazing 70's Green Beetle, a rather smart Audi Coupe and a new Golf Softtop!!

We had lots of questions aimed at us while we were parked up, people were very curious about the history of our camper.

Can't believe how friendly folks can be (dont get this while driving my Vauxhall Meriva), now looking forward to the next big trip!!

Dave

That's good news Dave. I've just got back tonight from a trip to North Devon - where again there were lots of waves and flashes from fellow VW van owners of all years. It's a great community to be part of. What I wasn't happy about though was the failure of my leisure battery circuit while we were away. More of that later .....

Hope that the Battery problem did not spoil the fun for your trip.

The Leisure battery circuit is so useful in a camper, I can only imagine how difficult it could be if there are problems with it.

Hope that you got it sorted quickly

Dave

It didn't as fortunately it reared its ugly head on the last day but it does get on my nerves sometimes that there's always something that needs sorting.

Now I know what my days off next week are going to be dedicated to sorting!

Only popped down to my local beach for a surf session on Thursday, was quite shocked by the amount of waves I was getting, again from all types of VW vans. Saw 2 bays as well. Am loving this camper thing now, hope the sun stays shining as i'm going to be going everywhere in it now.

Happy Dayz :O)

TimV wrote:

It didn't as fortunately it reared its ugly head on the last day but it does get on my nerves sometimes that there's always something that needs sorting.

Now I know what my days off next week are going to be dedicated to sorting!

Ho Tim, sorry to hear that - be interested to know what went wrong. The guy in Devon who fitted my hydrogen assit kit was shocked at the poor fitting of the leisure relay by our friends in Bristol. Needless to say, he refitted the earth on the relay which was hanging by a thread...literally!

Well at present I've got the leisure battery fuse box showing 2 of it's positive connections as being connected to earth - which ain't good. It'll have to wait to Monday now as I'm working the weekend. I'm hoping that when I get to the bottom of this it'll also solve the continually blowing split charge fuses.

TimV wrote:

Well at present I've got the leisure battery fuse box showing 2 of it's positive connections as being connected to earth - which ain't good. It'll have to wait to Monday now as I'm working the weekend. I'm hoping that when I get to the bottom of this it'll also solve the continually blowing split charge fuses.

The earth from the relay from the leisure battery was simply done by a small self tapping screw into a bulkhead off the rear wheel arch. The guy who showed me pointed out how shoddy the workmanship was. It was barely earthing as it was working its way lose. So he re-did it. This is the second person who has looked at my bus and exhaled at some of the poor standards of fitting on the UK electrics - the Brazilians are not to blame...the poor quality is sadly closer to home!

Some shots of our trip this week ......

So far this Easter we have not had chance to camp - however because we are moving - daphne was called into service to move some stuff from Belgium to the UK so did - 1200 k in three days and since then have been down to the Ardenne and then up to the Delta islands in Zelande so probably added another 600k in 2 days

So not bad except that I have just discovered that our spilt charge is not coming in charging the leisure battery


oh well its all part of the fun

Mmmm .... when I've got my leisure battery electrics up and running again then I'll agree it's part of the fun! Am dedicating today to sorting it out so fingers crossed.

I have a feeling the relay hasn't been kicking in properly for about 2 years. We normally use hook up on every site we go to, its the joy of europe, and Daphne is usually toped up at home as well as she sleeps in a garage so it is only by chance that the leisure has had the opp to charge down -also I am not 100% sure if the starter/alt on the brazilians actually push electrons through with enough vigour to switch the relay, needs about 13.5V. But my Bl***dy multimeter is at work so I can't actually check.

Anyway - when I change this it will be the last bit of electrics fitted by someone else. We have had a nightmare with what was fitted when we got Daphne (btw she was not fitted out by danbury so it is not their fault) - shorting in light fittings - cable routings being to short so terminals pulling out, insulation tape shielding rather than shrink wrap - wrong inline fuses in both the leisure and main circuit.

If it does seem that the Brazilian doesn't kick the electrons hard enough then I may well end up fitting a diode charge system

dartmoor wrote:

The earth from the relay from the leisure battery was simply done by a small self tapping screw into a bulkhead off the rear wheel arch. The guy who showed me pointed out how shoddy the workmanship was. It was barely earthing as it was working its way lose. So he re-did it. This is the second person who has looked at my bus and exhaled at some of the poor standards of fitting on the UK electrics - the Brazilians are not to blame...the poor quality is sadly closer to home!

Well guess what - it was the same earthing strap that has caused the failure of my leisure battery circuit. The earth to the leisure battery - as you describe to the side of the rear nearside wheel arch - had worked its way loose and hence the loss of all electrics on that circuit. I've now earthed the battery to a flat location - as opposed to curved and stippled - by using one of the engine tinware bolts. Now nice and firm. Normal service resumed.

I highly recommend anyone whose leisure battery is earthed in the same location to check it for tightness and if possible move it to a flatter surface so you don't suffer the same inconvenience I did camping this week.

I have just replaced a relay and hey presto - a split charge which is now tripping in properly.

admittedly I took the chance to totally re-wrie the split charge at the same time. adding inline fuses to both the alt feed and the leisure feed as these were not originally fitted.

I am not sure what the danburys are like but Daphne arrived with a load of electrical problems which given we are in belgium I had no redress for.

Basically ended up re-wiring every accesory which was fitted (luckily there were not many) and needed to to do the same with the mains hook up.

But finally everything is now done

Good effort. I'm halfway through wiring in a VDO voltmeter at the moment which is going to constantly show me the state of the leisure battery.