Bike Rack

When we purchased the ‘Van, we had a tow ball added because we have a tow ball mounted bike rack. The rack carries three bikes and tilts back to allow access to the boot. This was fine on the car we had at the time but unfortunately, it is no use on the van because the larger tailgate comes into contact with the tilted rack and will not open.

The solution? The Fiamma Carry Bike for T4. This was purchased from Agent Fiamma on-line and arrived, as promised, the day after ordering.

As standard, the rack carries two bikes but can be extended to carry three or four. So, we purchased the necessary extension to carry our three bikes.

The rack was very easy to fit and stays on the van as a permanent fixture. The actual rack folds up when not in use, so the whole unit lies almost flush against the rear door.

The plan now is to adapt the old rack.

This fits onto the tow ball and has lights and a number plate since the bikes on it would obscure the back of the van. Once in place, there is a horizontal section that the bikes sit on and a vertical U bar. With the use of a clamp, the cross bar of the bike is fixed to this U bar.

If the U bar is removed, the boot door can be opened! So, we now have a tow ball attached rack that can be used for pretty much anything! At the moment the plan is to come up with some sort of protective bag that the awning can be placed into. Then we can secure the awning to this ‘lower rack’ and save a lot of space inside whilst travelling.

I know this last bit is a little difficult to get your head round. When we know what we’re doing, we will load up both racks and publish some pics.

Cruise Control

After seeing an ad on EBay offering Cruise Control fitting within the M25, I wondered at the possibility of getting it fitted a little closer to home.

Researching the subject, I found someone willing to fit the kit in Glasgow for around £150. This didn’t seem too bad, but Glasgow is still quite a distance. A few people on the T4 Forum suggested always checking with the dealer because their prices can occasionally be a nice surprise. An email to the VW Van Centre in Edinburgh produced a quote of £140. Not bad and a lot nearer to home!

Fitted on Wednesday, the unit works a treat. The indicator stalk was removed an changed to one with the Cruise Control controls. Absolutely no sign of any retro fitting!

BTW, when quoting prices, the centre did give the option of fitting the unit myself and returning to have the van coded (so it knew it had Cruise Control). Prices for this were about £60 for the unit and £7.50 for the coding.

Long Long Wait

FIVE WEEKS without the van. It’s amazing how you rely on things without really realising it!!

The Air Conditioning wasn’t working when we first got the van.  Thing is, it was October, so it was quite difficult to be absolutely sure.  We took it back to Mill Garage for a re-charge, got a phone call mid morning the next day to say it was done, so went down to collect it in the afternoon.  Unfortunately, it appeared that all the new gas had leaked out before we got down there.  Wasted trip.

Following week, took it back down on the Tuesday evening.  They phoned on the Wednesday to say it needed a part so wouldn’t be ready ’till the weekend.  The part arrived and was fitted but didn’t solve the problem.  New seals were ordered, fitted, didn’t solve the problem!  One week without the van.

They decided to use some sort of testing gas but it was a holiday weekend so this took another week.  Then another part was needed.  Apparently it couldn’t be sourced in the UK so it was ordered from Finland.  This took a week to arrive but turned out to be for a left hand drive van.  Three week – no van!

VW uk said they could only supply the bit we needed as part of the whole assembly.  This was because our van didn’t come with Air Con, it must have been a special order.  This took two weeks to arrive but, was fitted promptly and worked!!  Van back – Five weeks!!

All credit to Mill Garage.  They did keep us informed and we could have gone back for the van but, it seemed a bit daft when it had taken them three hours to take the thing to bits.  We argued that we thought we had bought a van with Air Con but it wasn’t covered by the warranty.  In the end the bill was horrendous! But, would have been a hell of a lot more if we’d gone elsewhere.  Now I’ve got icicles hanging off my nose and I’m happy!!!

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)!