My New Beach

VanBlancLives · Mar 1, 2023

Perfectos said:
Note: You may need to purge that new fuel line of air, before firing the new heater heater up.

Yup. I use a spare length of tube long enough to see it coming and suck fuel up to pump. The pump won’t let you suck through it but it picked up straight away. The aux heater line had some air where I disconnected it but once I primed the heater line that would have been no more than an air bubble.

VanBlancLives · Mar 5, 2023

Solar panel - that's the last major upgrade done.

I used a 100w panel and dual charger from @Roger Donoghue. As always his kits are always made easy although between us we did find the latest VW revision to the undersea gear.

I did deviate a little from his instruction to bury the cables in the n/s trim paneling, yes it was a pain but doable.Take the seat out (don't forget to disconnect the starter battery first) and unbolt the base, unbolt the harness and prize the lower B pillar trim off a bit. Then flexi rods from the back and garden wire at the front with a bit of fishing and the jobs done.

VanBlancLives · Mar 6, 2023

Fred's Space. Found this really good seat cover from Covers&All for under £30 made and shipped from India in 10 days! The carpets are from Campervan Carpets and work really well.

VanBlancLives · Mar 9, 2023

Yesterday a lady pulled out in front of us and I pressed the horn for the first time !!

OMG I had better on my pedal car when I was a wee lad.

Today I have ordered 500/600 PIAAs ;=)

chockswahay · Mar 9, 2023

VanBlancLives said:
Yesterday a lady pulled out in front of us and I pressed the horn for the first time !!

OMG I had better on my pedal car when I was a wee lad.

Today I have ordered 400/500 PIAAs ;=)

I had to Google that! Yes, the VW horn is a bit…. Meh

chockswahay · Mar 9, 2023

Mind you, I have accidentally touched the horn when wild camping …… need to avoid that with those bad boys!

VanBlancLives · Mar 10, 2023

It's taken me all day but it sounds like a big van now and not a pedal car.

I expected the under tray to come off but it is part of the behind the bumper assembly and doesn't so the access is through the bottom of the front inner wing with the wheel off.

There isn't enough room to get a spline key into the socket bolt so small moles are required.

Cut and crimp the wires and then extra support with some cloth tape.

There was no way that the horns were going in on the flat even if I could have got the bolt in. The metal tangs are wider than the bracket guides and in any case they won't fit without fouling wheel arch cover. This may be a product of the plastic behind the bumper construction that houses the fog lights. So a small bracket was called for which also has the benefit of mounting the horns vertically so they will drain if they get soaked.

And then they sound sooo much better. It almost makes me want to drive back to Aberfeldy and see if I can find the lady who pulled out again ;=)

soulstyledevon · Mar 10, 2023

@VanBlancLives great work buddy.
I’m sure like many would love to hear comparisons between using the Beach and the Crafter.

VanBlancLives · Mar 10, 2023

soulstyledevon said:
@VanBlancLives great work buddy.
I’m sure like many would love to hear comparisons between using the Beach and the Crafter.

They are chalk and cheese.

We built the Crafter in the hope that we could spend months in Europe but with 2 dogs and loss of FoM put paid to that. The few times we got away It was spacious and very comfortable all year round. Not long after we built it we moved to Scotland and had hoped to use it for short trips. We did a few out of season short trips but in the summer the roads are just too busy for a 7m 3.5T van and parking it was always a pain. So in the end it was sitting on the drive doing very little. The guy who bought it from us is besotted with it so we must have done something right.

We hadn't intended buying another van and booked a few cottages this year and a motorhome for next but soon found we couldn't live without. It all started with a "day van" that quickly morphed into "let's go touring again". Bearing in mind we camped off the back of a motorcycle for many years and this is our 4th van in 11 years we have a fair idea of what we want from it. We didn't have the time or inclination (age is not on our side) to do another conversion and we wanted more space than a standard kitchen offers. We never park up for more than a couple of nights so the Beach with the awning and some side screens suits us fine with loads of room for travelling and sleeping, we can cook inside and out and we have heating. We can park anywhere including multistories and get under barriers. So the motorhome has been cancelled and we are planning to go back to the Nordkapp for a month next June. We have had a few days out in it and our first camp out in a couple of weeks. In May it is going to Orkney and Westray that was cottages and is now a mix of cottage and campervan.