Vanagon RV prepared for winter

I don't use the vanagon during winter time, as I own a second car that's much more reliable. Because of that I needed to drive the RV (camper) to a parking place where it would be safe, where I wouldn't risk that something will get stolen.

Did I mention that someone stole my CB antenna, one of the mirrors and the plastic cap that ends the front bumper?

So I started the vanagon, drove it to the parking place, poured all the water stored in all tanks out (both the water in freshwater tank and all the potable water that I carry as well). And it finished my winter preparations.

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The thermometer I soldered doesn't work

Yesterday I bought a second soldering iron, as well as solder and rosin flux.

I spent two hours soldering all the parts onto the circuit board. The most time it took me to solder the connectors that are used for temperature sensors and power supply.

The set was high quality do it yourself, but required also a high level experience in soldering. Many parts needed to be soldered on both sides of circuit board. I thought it was enough to use much flux so than the solder would cover the metal legs of the parts on the both sides of the board. I was wrong.

Anyway, I had two hours of great time (I love doing such stuff), but in the end the termometer didn't work as it's supposed to. Something did work but also something didn't, as you can see on the photo below:

So I ordered another thermometer, electronic one as well, but this time a completed device, not a diy kit. ;)

New tires

Since I bought my camper in 2006, I never bought any tires. Last year I bought four wheels (winter tires and rims). Since then they spent 6 months in storage, and two of them were installed on the rear of my camper last fall, when I had to replace one broken summer tire.

Two weeks ago I ordered two new tires, Barum Vanis, that will be installed on that rear axis.

I need to replace them before the next weekend. May the third is one of polish national hollidays, so it will be a three-day weekend. It's too cold for any camper trip without internal heating source, but we're going to my parent's cottage. I don't want to drive there on winter tires.

Today we visited my parents-in-law in their summer home, because I wanted to tidy the camper a bit for the season. Last week I removed most of the garbage from inside and ordered all the equipment that I carry with me in the proper places. But I have much more to do.

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New alternator installed in august

In august, just couple days after we came back from the first part of our camping holidays, I had to replace the alternator. The summary of this camping trip is still waiting to be translated, along with first part of more detailed description. I also didn't write about this alternator change, this text also is waiting to be translated... I am sure at some moment I will be update this blog with those posts.

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Heater core replaced

I spent over an hour to find out how this small radiator installed inside the automobile, used for heating the interior is called. ;)

Yesterday it took me almost 8 hours to replace the heater core in my camper, with a bit of help from Tomek, the guy I mentioned here a lot. The old heater core needed to be replaced, because I believed it was leaking cooling liquid. Because of that, the fan blew some steam to the inside of the camper when the heating was turned on, and the liquid dripped to the interior, as shown on this photo...

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Solar power 1

This is an english translation of an article that was posted originally on the polish version of this blog on june 22nd.

With a bit of help from my father-in-law I managed to work on my solar power system couple days ago. Today I finally managed to write a post about it with some photos and schemes. I want to describe the current status of the solar power system, and to write a bit about the future of the system.

According to our plans, we're going on the first part of our summer holiday on july 6th, the next monday. I don't have much time to finish the work with supplying all the electrical devices with electricity from the solar panels.

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

The first thing I did was to put two gel batteries in one of the cupboards of the camper. I wanted to fit them under the driver's seat, but there's no enough space there. I connected the batteries (parallely) to the solar charge controller, unfortunatelly using cable with cross-section much smaller than suggested by the controller's manual. The controller can be seen on the right hand side of the photo -- it's the black plastic thing hanging on the white wire.



On the second solar panel my father in law soldered two connectors -- male and female, one will be used to supply power to the charge controller and the second to connect the two panels together (parallely).



Here you can see the cable from the panel connected to the one from charge controller.



The solar panels aren't attached to the roof yet. In order to use them, I'll have to manually put them in sunny place...



...and connect together. This was the best I could do. Until they're permanently fixed to the roof, I won't connect them permanently to the charge controller.

To be honest, I have two independent solar power systems. Two sets of batteries, two charge controllers, two sets of solar panels. The scheme of all this looks the following:



On the left hand side of the drawing you can see the new solar power system: two solar panels, 40 W each, and two gel batteries, 38 Ah capacity each. On the right hand side, the old solar power system, the old solar panel (10 W), old charge controller and old battery. At the moment, all the appliances (shown as an icon of electrical bulb) are connected to the old battery, using quadruple cigarette lighter socket.

"reg.ład." is a short for regulator ładowania -- solar charge controller.

I want to add a couple of extra parts to the system and make it look the following:



The most important part of this system is the set of two gel batteries, charged with the two solar panels. To this solar charge controller I will connect all the camping appliances: radio, lights, fridge, water pump. The older part of the system will work as emergency energy source, will be connected manually to the rest of the system.

Directly to the batteries I will also connect:

• inverter, shown as 12-230, that will supply 230V AC power to my laptop computer and TV tuner,


• gel battery charger, shown as 230-12, that will charge the batteries whenever I will have the 230V power supplied to the camper from external source,


• additional battery charge controller, SLA40, that will start charging the gel batteries when the alternator makes enough electricity.

Most of the appliances must be connected via charge controller, that will disconnect them when the voltage in the battery drops below safe level. The inverter has this security measure built-in, so it might be connected to the batteries directly.

I already have the inverter, the 230V charger and new wire to connect it all (4mm² cross-section area - 12 gauge!).

First night in camper this season

At first I wanted to give this post a title "First night in camper this summer", but ten I realized we still have spring in Poland -- the summer will start in next week. The weather shows also we don't have summer yet.

On the last (long) weekend we planned to spend a night in the camper, on my piece of land. The idea was to go there on the friday afternoon and stay there till sunday evening. On thursday I finished connecting solar panels and gel batteries (I'll write it in detail in a couple of days, at the moment you can only check the photos in the gallery) to have more electricity.

The weather on friday was nice. It rained a bit in the evening, just for a couple of minutes, and the sunset was almost cloud-free.

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

We didn't have any specific plans for that evening, so after we ate supper (shown on the photo), we went to sleep.

The night was chilly, but we were prepared. As we expected a temperature drop to 12°C (54°F), we prepared warm clothes for night.

At 4 AM it started to rain. It didn't stop until 11 AM. After we woke up we decided to take all the stuff back and leave -- we did so soon after eating breakfast.

It wasn't the best time to start the season. But hey, every other weekend from now on has to be better, right?

Preparing solar panels

As I mentioned here already, I plan to power all my camping electric needs with solar power. That's why I bought two 40 W solar panels with solar charge controller in february. Since we plan to spend three days living in camper during this weekend (starting on friday), I need to put everything together. Even if it all will be only temporary.

On monday I bought two gel batteries, 38 Ah capacity each. They look just like ordinary car batteries, only the connectors are different. Even the weight is similar -- those weigh 13 kg (29 lbs) each.

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

Today I spent about an hour soldering the cables together. The most important task was to solder the cable to the second solar battery (the first is already in the camper). I am not good at soldering, you can easily tell after a look at the photo below.



A bit about the cables I used here. The solar charge controller's manual recommends using a cable that has area of cross section of 4 mm² (AWG 12), but I only had 2x0,75 mm² cable for loudspeakers. So I used two pairs of this cable, removed the isolation from the ends and twisted the wires together. When I buy the proper cable, I'll connect it to the small parts of the cables I soldered now.

To the end of the cable from the solar panel I soldered a male connector used in RC toys and airsoft replicas. The connector is supposed to withstand the current of even 30 A, a lot more than I plan to put through it. 30 A with 12 V voltage is over 3 kW, and my solar panels give only 90 W (2x40 W and a small 10 W panel).



The female connector I soldered to the cable from the solar charge controller. I bought this cable yesterday, not the one I would like to have, but I had simply no choice. When I buy the proper cable, I'll simply replace it.



The same cable will be used to connect the charge controller to the batteries. I connected two pairs of wires to the controller as the batteries will be connected paralelly.



I left two things to do tomorrow in the camper:

• solder the connectors to the cables attached to the solar panel I have in camper,
  
• find a place for the batteries,
  
• connect the controller with the batteries.

I wonder if the soldering iron will work with the 12/230 V AC/DC converter I have in the camper and the battery that's used there now.

I am buying a third vanagon

If everything goes right, soon I will have three Vanagons. This one will make my dreams come true. :)

From the very first time I started to like vans, I always preferred the ones that had two rows of seats and open cargo space. In Volkswgagen Transporter language -- the Dokas. About a year ago I wrote here, that if I was to buy VW T3 then, it'd be a doka. And we are buying one now. :)

It was found, as usual, by Tomek. Together we'll have four Volkswagens. The frequency of new purchases increases in time, the last one was bought about a month ago while the second -- about two years ago.

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

As you can see, it has aircooled ("fan") gasoline engine. And it's supposed to have the longest four-speed gearbox there is. It will be used by my wife's company, and I plan to use it to install wood gas generator on it. The camper is not suitable, 'cause it has diesel engine and no space to install the generator.

Some things need to be fixed, but I didn't expect anything less.

I washed the camper

To be more specific -- I paid for car wash. ;) I have a car wash close to the place I park my camper, so having a day off today I drove my camper there to have it washed.

I paid 25 PLN ($7.33) for 40 minutes of two guys' work. The camper looked that great two years ago, just after the paint job. ;)

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

The removed all the dirt, but they also removed some paint from the place where the two sheets of metal are connected on the left part of the camper's body.


I now am wondering what to do to protect this spot from instantaneus rusting.

Tomek's T3 Syncro

Last sunday we went with Tomek to Alwernia to buy a T3 (Vanagon) Syncro bus for him. The decision was made briefly, on previous evening. He then called the guy who posted an ad on the internet and they decided to meet on sunday. On sunday evening the red T3 Syncro was bought.

Yesterday Tomek and his fiancee Magda visited us with their bus. It was the first time the two T3's stood near, so we made their first photo together.

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

At the first glance you can see that the red Vanagon is a Syncro, one that has 4 Wheel Drive. It's suspension is higher and the space between the front wheel and the body is significantly larger.



Besides the 4WD and 5 speed gearbox (4 standard gears from 1 to 4 plus G gear -- something similar to very short first gear) in the same setup I have in my gearbox (my 1st gear is his G, my 2nd is his 1st and so on) the van has a couple of cool things.

First of all, the grill with rectangular headlights, taken from my red multivan I bought two years ago for the engine and gearbox. It also has:

• meter with clock (broken),
• sun roof,
• foldable triangular windows,
• heated driver's seat!

On the same evening we went to a place where Tomek could use his 4 wheel drive. Magda made some photos, I recorded a couple of videos, they'll be posted here in future.

Solar panels for my camper

I wrote here several times that I have solar panel and solar charge controller connected to second battery in my camper. They all are parts of my solar camping set. But solar photovoltaic panel able to give only 10 W peak power is not enough to fuel all my electrical needs in the camper.

So I bought two additional solar panels, 40 W power each. And another solar charge controller, as the one I have would not be able to manage the current from those panels.

They were brought here on thursday, wrapped in bubble wrap, cardboard box and black plastic. When I cut throught all the layers I saw the following:

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

Those panels will not give me very much power, only about 300 Wh daily.

I got stuck in the snow

Nothing what I wouldn't expect. I still have summer tires (or are they year-round? I'm not sure) and there was snow everywhere.

I took my wife Ania to visit my piece of land. It's got very peculiar shape -- 17 meters (56 ft) wide, 430 meters (1/4 mile) long. The camping place is in the middle of the estate. Every time we go there, we drive to that camping place and camp there. This was the idea today, as well -- to go there and do the usual stuff, i.e. check if everything is in the right place. Everything = trees, bush, etc. ;) I was going to turn around there as I do usually.

But I couldn't do it this time. The camping place is not perfectly flat, and I had some trouble with tires losing their grip on the wet grass. This time it was even worse.

Luckilly I had a shovel in the camper (I always carry a folded one, but this time I had an ordinary shovel as well), I managed to free the camper from that place.

Here's a photo of the mess I left. Of course I had to drive back the 200 meters using only mirrors. :(

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

So far it does drive

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

As you can see on the picture above, the camper handles winter well. I mean... it does work! A real winter will come to Poland in just a couple of days, today it was just a couple degrees below zero centigrade and a bit of snow.

I remember the first winter when I owned this van. I remember being worried if the car will start the next morning. You can see this anxiety in some of my previous posts, like this one: Was it too cold for my old diesel?? Now, since the camper has a new engine, it does start in such conditions. Soon after it's started it coughs a little (I don't push the throttle as I know that it takes some time for oil to lubricate every part of the engine after it's started and I don't want to add any extra wear).

I think I won't be using the Vanagon for the next couple of weeks. And it's not the frost I am worried. I just don't want the salt^* to rust every possible part of my van's chassis.

^* Salt is being used in Poland to help cleaning the snow off the streets. It literally melts it, but also helps the rust to eat our cars.

Vanagon Factory Repair Manual

I bought "VW Vanagon - Factory Repair Manual, 1980/1981". The front page looks the following:

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

It's supposed to be the complete (idiot's) guide to:

• maintaining Vanagon,
  
• replacing parts,
  
• diagnosing problems,
  
• repair like a pro

, as it's fully illustrated.

Inside one can find A LOT OF exploded views, which show what goes where and when. Such views are important for inexperienced mechanics like myself. Here's an example of page from the book:

Where did I buy this book

In Hawaii. And to be more precise -- on eBay from a guy living there. I paid for the book $19.99 and extra $34.95 for p&p. A lot of money, but I think the book is worth every penny I paid!

Solar battery charging

Everyone knows what happens to car batteries if the temperature is below freezing (0°C, 32°F). They don't give any power to the starter. From the scientific point of view their capacity drops a lot when it gets colder. For the driver it means one -- he can't start his engine and has to walk in the cold. It is especially difficult for diesel engines as they need to be warmed by glowplugs before they can be started and need a lot of torque in the starter (as they have high compression ratio).

Since I have my camping solar set, I wanted it to charge the battery that's used to start the engine.

My solar set consists of the solar photovoltaic panel, auxillary battery (under the passenger's seat) and a charge controller. This controller has three sets of connectors: source of power (to charge the battery), the battery and the devices to be powered from the battery. If the voltage in the battery is high enough, it allows the devices to use electricity. If not, the devices are disconnected.

I used the third set of connectors and attached a plug that's compatible with cigarette lighter sockets. If sun is shining, it charges the auxillary battery along with the standard one.

That's why when I leave my camper on the guarded parking near my apartment, I leave the solar panel under the windscreen. And why I chose a parking space with a lot of free sunlight.

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

Gettin ready for X-mas

The Christmas is on it's way, so I decided to add some christmas spirit to my VW T3.

I used the camping battery, the DC/AC inverter and a timeswitch. Ans a set of 50 lightbulbs. I connected the inverter to the battery and turned it on. Then I plugged the timeswitch and the lights to the switch. I set the switch to turn the lights on for half an hour between 8 PM and 8.30 PM. I set the whole thing at 1 PM.

I came back to the camper later, around 8 PM, to make a photo of the christmas decoration. But it wasn't lit. Why? Because the inverter drained the battery by just powering the time switch. So I connected the solar charge controller to the engine battery (just like the camping battery was charged by solar panel) and turned the lights on.

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

The quest for the lost motorway

I live in Żyrardów -- a town located about 25 miles west from Warsaw. Near my town one can find small parts of an old (lost) motorway -- Olimpijka. It was supposed to be built for 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow and to connect Moscow and Berlin. But only small part was finished, only about 50 km, now a part of the A2 highway. The rest of this highway at the moment consists of some bridges, partially built overpasses and 250 yards of tarmac. I always liked such places, so we tried to find as many as possible.

We started over a year ago, in april/may 2007. The first thing we found was that tarmac, followed with mud road cut in a forest and a overpass.



The road in the forest doesn't look spectacular.



I also made a movie of the tarmac. Here it is:



We found two more interesting spots on last sunday. I should probably say that we found them earlier on satellite photos and simply drove there using the GPS coordinates.

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

This was supposed to be an overpass of the highway above planned railway track. Eventually the highway was not built, nor was the track.

We also visited a concrete bridge built over a small creak. Nothing very spectacular.



You can find more photos in my picasa web album.

If you'd like to visit those places, I can provide you with the GPS coordinates. Just write a comment here. :)

New camping battery? Not right now...

I thought I need to buy new camping battery. The one I have installed in my camping solar system works poorly. It discharges itself very fast... I thought it was couple of years old and it reached it's lifetime. I wanted to buy a new battery.

Since we have to pay some deposit when I purchase new battery (it's refunded when I leave the old battery in the shop), I took the old battery from the camper and wanted to buy a new one. In one of our local shops the new 12 V 45 Ah battery was sold for 150 PLN (less than $60). But one small detail grabbed my attention and saved me the money.

A small plastic envelope is glued to the battery. Inside that envelope is a piece of paper with warranty and user manual. And the warranty has the purchase date written on that paper. When I read that date I was very surprised. I found out that the battery was purchased last year, on august 10th! So the battery is not old, it might only be broken. Or... just needs to be charged fully and will start working.

So instead taking the battery to the shop, I carried it to my apartment along with rectifier.

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

The battery was almost completely discharged. I am afraid the lead plates inside the battery are covered with sulphur and the battery will not work properly. But if it's broken, I'll try to get a refund or new battery from the manufacturer as the warranty is valid for another year.



The photo shows the rectifier does work. I hope it'll charge the battery within a day or two...

New front turn signals

Some time ago I found on one of polish internet auction sites a set of white front turn signals, coupled with position lamps. They were prices as high as PLN 200 ($82, but closer to $70 then) and I thought that someone must be insane to sell them at such price.

Three or four weeks ago I was scrolling through Ebay and I found so called VW Vanagon T3 80-92 clear corner light lenses and bought two sets. One clear, one dimmed (smoked). I wasn't sure which will suit my camper best.

They arrived on thursday. I just came home after installing a set. Would you guess which one I installed?

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

Lenses as taken from the boxes.



The clear lens, mounted on the right side.



The smoked lens, mounted on the left side.



Both lenses while hazard flasher is on.

The white looked very nice, as large part of my camper is white.
The smoked also looked nice, as some parts in front of the camper (grilles, bumper) are black).

And the winner is:

The clear, of course!

I will sell the smoked lenses to someone here. :)