What did you do to your van today?

SimonM said:
I've started the ball rolling to uprate from 3500 to 4100. It’s an easy, paper only exercise, and I hope to receive my new weight plate in a few days. The RFL rate reduction from 265 to 165 will pay for the plate in 2 years.
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If it's just a paper exercise to go up to 4100kg then it sounds like someone had downrated the van in the past - perhaps no C1 licence or over 70?
I wouldn't wonder that it was heavier than the plate before so you may not be getting an extra 600kg of payload but it will now be legal.
Those 4 big leisure batteries will be eating into payload as well.

I'm amazed at the number of brand new vans that probably aren't legal with even just the passengers - think of a 6 berth van with two adults [150kg] and 4 youngsters [150kg] let alone gas, food, bedding and clothes.
 
No, it was definitely 3500 before I started to do the replating. Fully loaded (2 adults, 2 dogs, full water, food, clothing, fuel etc.) it was always around 3450 and so we were always on the edge of illegal. Then adding extras, spare wheel, Gaslow, sat dish, batteries, solar panels etc.etc. soon let it creep over. Going to 4100 means no more worries as I’ll still have 300/400kg useable.
 
Cleaned the nearside (RHD) windows to get rid of the scratches we get travelling through the narrow country lanes with lorries/ busses coming the other way, now very good and shiny, I used Farecla G3 with their special waffle pads, very easy and very good, the other side tomorrow
 
SimonM said:
No, it was definitely 3500 before I started to do the replating. Fully loaded (2 adults, 2 dogs, full water, food, clothing, fuel etc.) it was always around 3450 and so we were always on the edge of illegal. Then adding extras, spare wheel, Gaslow, sat dish, batteries, solar panels etc.etc. soon let it creep over. Going to 4100 means no more worries as I’ll still have 300/400kg useable.
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That's good to hear - things soon creep up on you though.
Mine was fitted with a long awning which I reckon is 50kg, which we don't use much so I'm tempted to take it off.
Aircon on the roof, another 30kg or so we do use it when on EHU but without adding another 100kg of batteries not much use off grid.
 
Took our new van down to have the immobiliser sorted out and get the handbrake adjusted.


I have a list of jobs ready to do, Solar, LBs, Rev Cam, nowhere flat enough to do it until our new drive is finished.
 
Jeff & I went to Fleetwood for the weekend we arrived Friday afternoon, on Saturday Morning he said is that Maggie's (The Griffos) van over there, which it was, only last year we decided to go to Arnside for the August Bank Holiday weekend, it was lovely weather so we were sat out, then all of a sudden this motor drove past and Jeff say's is that not Maggie, which it was do we spent the time together

The moral of the story is GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE
 
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Washed the van ,de streaked the body,buffed all woodwork interior,hoovered and made up drop down bed ,tyre dandy all the tyres so she is looking tidy .im knackered
 
Taxed van. £26bloody5 ! Still, I will get some of that back in November when I Sorn it again...

All ready for the off tomorrow morning.

Just watch the weather turn arctic again now :rolleyes:

Yeehaaaaa!

K ;)
 
Took delivery of these beauties. Then in dismantling the old ones, honest it fell off in my hand guv! Oops, it’s been like that for well over 3 years since I made it. Now corrected. Thursday I’ll take the old batteries down to the scrappy for a nice chunk back to help pay for them.

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Vanterrier said:
I have been putting it off since I bought the van in November but today decided that the towbar just HAD to come off. I will never tow with the van and have no intention of adding a bike rack, so... Off it came!
Was not a bad job and the bolts and nuts all unscrewed easily. I have left the 7 pin connector still wired up and tucked away behind the bumper for now. I might keep the towbar as it might be of interest to a prospective buyer at some point in the future? But I might offer it for sale on the bay...
The whole lot came to around 32kg which is a useful addition to my available payload.

So, what did YOU do to your van today?

K ;)
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Fitted a used self seeking satellite kit over several days which proved hassle free.Total cost just under £500 (bought off eBay)after buying a new mounting plate and some adhesive and a few screws. Then took the opportunity to fix the non-working 12 volt socket on the kitchen side. Used a live feed from a bit not installed - Eura Mobil seem to install all the wiring for all the upgrades so you can easily add stuff later. Means that there is a lot of extra wiring but rather than find where the feed to the socket came from, I simply wired into somewhere else that only becomes live when the habitation electrics is turned on - the wiring is for a heavy current so not going to be an issue later.
 
Back from Dornoch today so filled the waters emptied the loo and started to get everything ready for Moffat this weekend.
 
Finally got around to replacing the radio in my Romahome. Nice Pioneer DAB / CD player. Also, drilled a hole in the Lution top to take a decent DAB/FM antenna. Even though I included a ground plane made of #12 copper wires and earthed the base to the chassis, FM reception is pants. DAB is not too bad, though not as a good as my Golf was.
 
Fitted new leisure battery.
Ordered late Tuesday from Alpha Batteries (got the discount) and arrived early Thursday.
 
I forgot to ask for the discount... 7.5% on £229 ?
 
I Replaced both the air filter and cabin air filter. I was surprised how dirty the cabin filter had become in a little under 3 years and 16000 miles. Thankfully on the X250 Ducato both jobs are under 10 minutes each
 
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