Kyham Awning

We had a wake up call when we tried to buy an awning at the end of last year.  We went cheap and what a mistake it was.  The awning we bought was actually from a company that has a respected name in the motorhome conversion market but their product was seriously bad.

We decide to ’practise’ in the back garden first.  The day was dry with just the lightest hint of a breeze.  It took two of us to slide the poles into the sleeves and then try to put up the tent.  Sometime during this process the whole tent overturned,  apparently pushed by the breeze, and bent one of the longest poles beyond use!  Trying to put it up with two people was incredibly difficult.  And, we broke it!  Eventually we managed to send that awning back, arguing that it was not fit for purpose!

We did not want to make the same mistake again so, with a little more research, we settled on the Kyham Motordome Classic.  This cost a little more but at £275 from Outdoor Megastore (still very cheap compared to caravan awnings), it was money well spent.

The awning can be erected easily by just one person.  The poles are permanently fitted into the tent and it’s simply a process of unfolding them and clicking into place.  It’s really just a question of walking three times round the tent, pulling the poles into place as you go.

Khyam make a range of awnings to suit different heights of van.  Click Me!  Ours is the ‘Classic’, which suits our ‘High Top’ perfectly.  They do a taller model for Coach Builts and a new lower model for ‘normal’ roofed vans.  All three are essentially the same design with the main difference being height.  The ‘Tourer’ is a little smaller.

Having used the awning a couple of times already this year, I will point out the only fault I’ve found.  The design would obviously suit a LHD camper better than our RHD.  On the picture above, the opening facing the camera is a mesh screen.  This opens from the outside because it would be behind that optional bedroom compartment.  To the right is a large opening that can form a sun porch with the included poles.  Finally, a ‘J’ door faces away from the camera.  There are ‘windows’ in the big door facing right and on the ‘wall’ facing away from us. 

My only complaint (and it’s only a small one), is that the awning is designed for the continent and their left hand drive vehicles.  It would be slightly better if the ‘J’ door faced the front.

Connecting to the van can be done in a few different ways.  There were three strips included in the bag.  These are shaped like two C’s back to back or, a figure of eight with an open top and bottom.  These slide onto the rope edging on the tent.  On a van with a gutter, this would simply slot on.  We had an ordinary caravan awning rail attached to the side of our high top and slot it into this instead.  The final option is to pass a pole through the sleeve along the edge and then use suction clamps on the side of the vehicle.  All of these are easy when you see it!!  (pics will follow).

We think it was money well spent and we could well purchase some of the accessories that go along with it.  These include: a bedroom compartment that attaches inside, a new heat insulator that fits over the centre of the top of the tent and a ‘tent tidy’, which also attaches inside.  I’m also interested in their wind breaks!

Don’t buy from Kyham direct.  Other places are cheaper!!

Security LED

The original radio had a red LED that flashed when the ignition was switched off.  This gave the impression an alarm was fitted and tends to appear in some form on all modern vehicles.  Of course, when we removed the radio, we no longer had this LED in the van.

I thought that the LED may be more conspicuous by it’s absence and therefore worried that the lack of an LED may attract unwanted attention to the van.  Fortunately, this could be fixed very easily!

Maplins sell a single red LED at a very reasonable price.  Clicky.  It was also very easy to install!  The instructions said to wire direct to the battery, so we had to find a way through the dash into the engine bay (we had already done this to wire in the Amateur Radio), but that was the hardest part!

To try and make it look as though the light was an original fitting, we used one of the blank switches in the dash to mount the light.  This was done by simply drilling through the plastic and it fitted perfectly.  Job done!

Almost……….

On our first camping trip, we realised that the flasher could not be turned off!  This was a little annoying in the middle of the night, in a dark van!

Therefore with a little ingenuity, we fitted a switch.  The fitting part was easy (mounted into another blank switch), but finding the switch was a bit of a pain.  Anyway, ebay came to the rescue and all was sorted.

Then……….

When we parked the van in the middle of Edinburgh a couple of weeks later, we removed the facia from the new radio we had installed (as a security precaution).  Low and behold, under the facia was a security LED quite happily flashing away!!!

Picture to follow.

Central Locking

After doing a little research, I found that you can buy retro-fit central locking kits. These are available from VW, Maplins or off the internet. I plumped for the safest option and headed straight for ebay!

To be honest, I took some advice from the guys on the T4 Forum. The consensus here seemed to be that the VW kit was the best but the others would work. I opted for a remote kit from a company called Hawk (on ebay).

This is not a job I would have attempted alone but with a mates help, it actually worked out OK. Some of the T4 Guys said you needed to lengthen the rods that came with the kit but we didn’t need to do this. Anyway, after a long afternoons work, we managed to get the front two doors hooked up and working. The only problem I was left with was how to protect the wire when it passed out of the van body before going back into the door. The rubber bits that cover the electrics were quite expensive from VW so I opted for a piece of hose pipe!

I needed to buy a sliding door contact separately. This was easily found on ebay. Now I just need to find some time to give the sliding door the same treatment. Watch this space!!!

Stereo Head Unit

Since the van came with it’s original ‘factory fit’ radio cassette, we had to make fairly quick changes! I can’t remember how long it is since I last listened to a tape. Since the van only has the two speaker in the front, I didn’t want to spend a fortune. However, Argos were advertising a Wharfdale head unit that had a USB port. Something I thought would be very useful.

The unit was purchased and taken home. We fitted it that afternoon, only to find that the reset button had to be pressed after we had turned off the ignition. Thinking there was a fault, we took it back and asked for a replacement. This was given to us and we tried it again (this time in the car park, before going home). The same happened again, so we returned it and this time swapped to another unit (Acoustic Solutions). This seemed to work OK so off we went home.

On the way home, we played with it and set up all the functions, radio memories etc. Only to find that when we took out the ignition key, it lost all it’s settings! This time we checked out the problem fully and found it was a wiring issue with the van. Not the head unit!!

Once this was discovered (the permanent power was swapped with the switched power), it was easily sorted (actually, we bridged the two so that the radio works without the ignition being on). Unfortunately, the performance of the CD player has not been particularly good and seems to be getting worse. It tends to skip without real reason, so we intend to return this one too!

Headlights

After driving home in the dark, it became immediately apparent that we would have to do something to the headlights. Fortunately, the van takes the same H4 bulbs used by the Jeep we previously owned. Unfortunately, the upgraded bulbs that had been of benefit in the Jeep did very little to the van!

There was an article in the Sunday Times talking about HID upgrade kits. In particular, it mentioned HIDs 4 U as a supplier of such kits. I also wondered about adding extra driving lights to the front of the vehicle, so I took advice.

It turned out that there wasn’t anywhere to attach extra driving lights so I went down the conversion kit route. I’m certainly glad I did!! Easy to fit, I jut had to find somewhere to mount the control boxes, then the lights connected to the existing wiring and the difference is like night and day! Well worth the effort (and the cost)!

Dewar’s World of Whisky

This is a tourist attraction put together by Dewar’s. It includes a fabulous display area with it’s own cinema, a taste of some of the whisky made by the company and a distillery tour.

Well worth a visit for anyone, whisky drinker or not, the visitors centre is just outside the town of Aberfeldy. The distillery makes the Aberfeldy malt which is sold as a single malt and included in the Dewar’s blends. The centre offers a discount to disabled visitors but, be warned, much of the distillery tour was not accessible to myself in my wheelchair and they only knocked £1 off the £7 entry fee!

Having said that, the display and film sections of the centre were worth the visit.