Back to the dealers (again)

[maui2512]

So last week involved 2 trips in order to get my locked seatbelt sorted (which they did, without having to replace it in the end), but while we were away this week our Climabox stopped working :-(
It worked fine the whole of the first night as I could hear it switching on and off with the thermostat but in the morning I looked and the light was off...tried unplugging, emptying, moving to another socket but with no joy I presume either a fuse has blown or the cable is faulty perhaps, so another trip back to the dealers to ask for a replacement I think :-/ plus they need to replace the trim around the door which seems to have come loose since they replaced the blind that was damaged on delivery...at least they have wifi so I can do some work while I'm there and I don't have to lose a whole morning...
Hey ho...hopefully these teething issues will be sorted soon (she says hopefully!)


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[James]

So last week involved 2 trips in order to get my locked seatbelt sorted (which they did, without having to replace it in the end), but while we were away this week our Climabox stopped working :-(
It worked fine the whole of the first night as I could hear it switching on and off with the thermostat but in the morning I looked and the light was off...tried unplugging, emptying, moving to another socket but with no joy I presume either a fuse has blown or the cable is faulty perhaps, so another trip back to the dealers to ask for a replacement I think :-/ plus they need to replace the trim around the door which seems to have come loose since they replaced the blind that was damaged on delivery...at least they have wifi so I can do some work while I'm there and I don't have to lose a whole morning...
Hey ho...hopefully these teething issues will be sorted soon (she says hopefully!)


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The Climabox doesn't stay on for long, sorry if I am pointing out the obvious but the VW Clumabox will stop after a while. If you're simply relaying on the leisure battery, as a precaution it will stop, I don't think I've seen it on much more than a few hours after I've been driving.

Once it's stopped you will need to drive to renew its charge, the other option is to be an adaptor so if you're on hook up you can plug it on and it's on all the time and not reliant on the leisure battery.

James

 

[Pollychops]

Did they confirm what was causing your seatbelt to lock? It may be good to know for future problems with anyone on here.
Thanks

 

[maui2512]

Doh! Aha no, it definitely wasn't obvious to me...thanks James! I got that it wasn't a full fridge, but still thought it would work off the leisure battery for a limited number of days. Good that I find out now before we head off on a longer trip! So, and I know this has been covered elsewhere but I still fail to understand it, without a proper hook up fitted in the van what exactly do we need if we want to get some hook up power? For example we're going to be in Scotland for 10 days in the summer and it might be tricky finding places to get cool boxes re-frozen etc. as we're only going to be on a basic site. I've read about cables, transformers, inverters etc and I have to be honest I'm a bit lost on anything electrical :-/ presumably one of those long orange hook up cables which we trail in through a window but then do you just need an inverter on the end if that and then you can plug in the Climabox (with appropriate cable)? Sorry, as you can see this isn't a strong point of mine!!


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[maui2512]

Hi Pollychops. The only thing they could guess at was that the seatbelt was locked before I put the seat down and that just stretched it even further so that there was no slack at all with which to release it. They had to unscrew the bolt at the bottom of the belt anchor and this released the tension and then it was fine. The mechanic said he tugged it loads of times to try to get it to lock again but it didn't so was a bit of a freak occurrence (I hope). I put a peg over the belt to stop it fully retracting while we were away just in case it happened again and before I put the bed down always checked that it was loose. They had ordered a new belt and we're going to fit it but it was going to take the rest of the day and I couldn't hang around so decided just to go with it as it was.


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[James]

Doh! Aha no, it definitely wasn't obvious to me...thanks James! I got that it wasn't a full fridge, but still thought it would work off the leisure battery for a limited number of days. Good that I find out now before we head off on a longer trip! So, and I know this has been covered elsewhere but I still fail to understand it, without a proper hook up fitted in the van what exactly do we need if we want to get some hook up power? For example we're going to be in Scotland for 10 days in the summer and it might be tricky finding places to get cool boxes re-frozen etc. as we're only going to be on a basic site. I've read about cables, transformers, inverters etc and I have to be honest I'm a bit lost on anything electrical :-/ presumably one of those long orange hook up cables which we trail in through a window but then do you just need an inverter on the end if that and then you can plug in the Climabox (with appropriate cable)? Sorry, as you can see this isn't a strong point of mine!!


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If you want a full fridge - there are better options. The Climabox is not designed for the Cali, it's a VW product they offer on their Multivans, so really its purposes is more 'days out' then a 'week away'. It's suit us, but the more serious camper should be looking at other options.

VW have offered with the Beach because it gives the impression of being a camping accessory, technically it doesn't even fit in the two seater Beach.

We generally only camp with hookup, so yes, we've got a cable with a 4 gang socket on the end which we trail through the window. We've got a converter for the clumabox and we just leave it plugged in, like that, it's a great fridge but you are reliant on hook up.

I can get some links for bits if you want


James

 

[Meoncoast]

Re seat belt locking Some years ago l had a Balingo van the seat belt locked if you folded the seat forward and the fix was simple you had to unbolt the bottom seat belt mount to make it slacken off
To stop it if you pulled the belt fully out before folding seat gave enough stack to stop the belt tightening up and preventing thee seat going back up I am not sure if this may a issue with the beach seat.

 

[Pollychops]

Thanks for letting us know, I thought that may have been the cause. Will need to look out for that when folding the bed down.
Thanks

 

[maui2512]

Re seat belt locking Some years ago l had a Balingo van the seat belt locked if you folded the seat forward and the fix was simple you had to unbolt the bottom seat belt mount to make it slacken off
To stop it if you pulled the belt fully out before folding seat gave enough stack to stop the belt tightening up and preventing thee seat going back up I am not sure if this may a issue with the beach seat.

Yes, it sounds like this is actually the issue was with our bench seat, and it sounds as though the mechanic did exactly that...i think they originally thought that there was a fault with the actual locking mechanism, but in reality it just had no slack. So, definitely, I'll be making sure there is some slack in it before folding the seat forward in the future as it meant 2 days in which i couldn't take the kids anywhere in the van!

 

[maui2512]

James, if were able to post some links for me that would be very much appreciated as I'm not exactly clear on what is needed and keen to not to buy the wrong bits and pieces! But don't want to put you to too much trouble...

 

[James]

James, if were able to post some links for me that would be very much appreciated as I'm not exactly clear on what is needed and keen to not to buy the wrong bits and pieces! But don't want to put you to too much trouble...

No trouble at all

This is a transformer for your cool box, means you can also use it at home, this is a great buy, it was pointed out by another remember here, wish i'd bought it sooner.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Coleman-Camping ... W20K4RY200

And for hook up, we have something like this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/camping-electric-hook-up

We are considering having Electric Hook Up installed on the van, but this hook up lead have served us well, in fact I have had mine since my last VW Vanagon Multivan.

Hope that helps

James

 

[Custardtart]

I used a CTEK battery charger to keep my leisure battery topped up whilst using the coolbox for a week. So battery charger on the campsite mains and plugged into a 12v socket in the van.

It worked fine but the charger did get a bit warm.

Transformer sounds better though. The charger got pretty warm.

 

[maui2512]

Thanks so much for your help James...just ordered them!!

now I guess I just need a different cable to run from the climabox to the transformer? it has a cigarette lighter type end to it..i'll take a look when the transformer arrives and see what is needed...!