What did you do to your van today?

Murky’s mot is due soon, so did the annual bottom inspection last week and found a naughty power steering pipe leaking. Today Anita machined me a bend mandrel, as Mercedes only supply them unbent. So this afternoon I removed said leaking pipe to use as a pattern to make a new one. It doesn’t quite take the original route but it did fit. The old pipe split on the side of a bend, I was expecting corrosion to be the culprit. Just have the brake inspection to do now.

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That's a seriously impressive pipe bending tool you had made.
The job would have been next to impossible without it.
 
We packed Val the Van (previous van was Mr K2) ready to head off for the West Country tomorrow for 3 weeks - can’t wait. Wetsuit and body board packed...
 
Fitted a new Split-Charge solution to Clarence ready for the VW Busfest and Southern Roadtrip :)

The CTEK D250SA + Smartpass is £600 for a 20A Smart Charger + 100A Relay which is a bit pricey so I went for my Homebrew "HR30/120" system instead ....
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30A Smart B2B Charger + 120A Victron Cyrix-CT Battery Combiner with auto-switching based on Battery State of Charge :geek:
 
I weighed my van a few weeks ago and found that my front axle with full fuel & water tanks and mich of our usual load but no people-dog was 1660 kg against plate of 1850. So with us that would be over 1900 add in some bedding in the luton and clothes etc pretty well guaranteed to be over.
So today I had Dave Newell put in heavy duty springs which should take the plate up to 2000kg. He insists on new dampers and upper spring seats which is probably sound advice but does push the price up quite a bit - but we do now have a new front end and many years of life there.
Van sits a bit higher I think but i forgot to measure it!
Ride quality/noise s hard to judge because so far I've been on some choppy local roads in Irongorge.

My rear axle was only 40kg under plate and I'd got no booze or food etc on board - so I'm going to AS on Friday for air assist on rear axle such should add another 250kg of capacity and raise rear rude to match the front.

A lot if cash but if we go to Switzerland then we shouldn't get stopped and told to dump most of our gear!
 
Fitted Bluetooth gas sensors to my gas bottles got them from gas it but you can buy them elsewhere. I got the two bottle monitor that fits inside the van but can’t download the app as they are having problems with it but a nice neat piece of kit. https://mopeka.com/
 
I suspected that the 240v heating elements in my Truma 4e combi had failed. This has proved to be the case so the van is now away awaiting the spares and fitting, not cheap!
It’s surprising because most of the time it’s on gas. I suppose it is 8 years old though.
 
I've got one of the old barrel type of Truma water heater with the external belt mains heater - it still works but at £250 it won't be replaced if it does pack up.
You can buy a lot of gas for that sort of money!
 
Looking for a new home for around 250 Arachnids that have been made homeless after washing my Camperbus ready for my roadtrip tomorrow. (no point in washing it much before I go as the spiders just move back in and cover the exterior with webs),
 
Last Friday’s mot never happened :( Thursday evening whilst removing the wheels to check and clean the brakes I thought it would be a good idea to bleed them to remove any collected water. So much easier with a good vacuum, so best start the engine. No key, and so the hunt begins! Not in the tumble dryer or washing machine. Not at home. But I had it a few days earlier to bleed the power steering. Friday an early start at work to rip the place apart. Still no key and mot cancelled at 9.00hrs. Enquiring with our local Mercedes parts department for a new lock barrel and key Anita was informed that a replacement key should be possible from our vin number. Saturday morning a new key was delivered and it worked. Thank you North side Mercedes. 29 years old and they still had the key records. Monday a new key will be ordered along with booking the mot again.
 
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