Solar Sucess

Its been a while since I posted on here, but there has been some progress recently

I have finished fitting the dual charge system into Katy and have left her over Christmas and the new year without the intelligent battery charger running during which time I would have expected the alarm etc. to have drawn down the battery enough to make the starting at least a little sluggish

However the new split charge system seems to have done its's work well and she started on first turnover

This is the next phase of the system I described installing in the post do-land-rovers-dream-of-electric-sheep and consists of an intelligent device between the main and leisure battery

 Admittedly the wiring looks a little untidy at the moment, its out of sight, but will be sorted finally once I am 100% sure that the new system is working fully as I want. in the mean time all I need to do is pull the passenger seat forwards to get at all of this...

 Another addition has been the installation of a bluetooth controller monitoring system so I can see the state of the system on my phone. It was a very easy install.. plug it in, connect via bluetooth, Change Default Password! and use it.

I put that bit in bold because it's a key step that anyone installing any form of computer equipment should do. its got a bit too much cable and I need to find a tidier way to deal with that, but it is all working 

This is what I see on my phone, the state of the voltages at any point in time and what mode the charger is using (in this case float because the batteries are full

And I can look at the last 30 days to see what it did.. not much because there has not been much drawn from the batteries, but useful when we get going and use the system for real

There is an option in the system where you can connect both batteries to help start in an emergency. I have not as yet put this in because if both are fully charged why would I need it? Time will tell if that is the correct decision

Cold Beer - Second attempt

Back in 2012 I reported on the work I had done to install a 3 way fridge, and then I briefly reported on the issues we had had with smelling gas fumes whilst sleeping in her. This made me decide that I would never use a gas powered fridge and we removed the 3 way fridge 

Since then we have been using an electric cool box, but that has limitations and the performance is not very good and I have been wanting to get a decent front opening fridge installed for a while. Part of the project needed to be upgraded power and key to that was the new solar panel reported in the last posting

The issue is cost. Strangely the decent over landing type fridges are hugely expensive and it's taken a while to find one at a decent price. I finally tracked down a new Vitrifrigo c39i 12/24 and 240v capable unit at about half price with a minor cosmetic defect that would not even be seen once it was installed. 

You can just about see the minor damage on the panel at the bottom left of this picture. I checked that it was not touching any components on the inside and all was fine.

The first phase was to clear out the space and feed some wires from the 12v feed from the leisure battery 

Then I installed the 240v - 24v automatic converter

Finally, being a yorkshireman and tight with money, and because of the position inside a cupboard, instead of purchasing some expensive kit to fasten it in I used a couple of brackets fastened into the lower door fittings which were unused from another project

And added another couple of brackets fastened to a screw in the frame on the top of the fridge  to ensure that it is 100% firm in place

And we are good to go. I've tested it on the 240v/24v feed and from the 12v feed and all seems well.

The initial testing proved that the Danfoss compressor is as quiet as I had hoped. The final phase of this will be to add the split charge system, but in the mean time it's ready and it's time for some cold beer!

Do Land Rovers Dream of Electric Sheep Part II?

Maybe not, but I was dreaming of a better solar panel setup than the one that she arrived with which was a 10 watt panel installed in 2001 and probably not very efficient at all any more

The first thing to do was remove the old panel I have to admit that she looks a lot better without the panel on the top, but it will be coming back as you will see later

What we have purchased is an 80W flexible panel which fits exactly over the rigid panel that the old 10W panel was made into.  I would have like to go for a 100-150W panel, but this makes refitting an awful lot easier

I also bought a new Victron MPPT controller which feeds the leisure battery. This is more effciient than the old controller and being modern technology also has the capability of being linked to a smartphone app via bluetooth to give me some details on the charge profile of the battery. That's going to be a later addition when I find the bluetooth dongle at a reasonable price probably second hand.

I also bought a heavy duty cable with fuse to go from the controller to the leisure battery  and some solar panel cable to connect from the panel to the controller – I bought the shortest cable because all I really wanted was the connections because I was connecting this into the grey cable which was already in place through the roof.

The previous owner had run a cable with two black cores which was not clear once I had disconnected the old panel so Rhian helped me test with the circuit tester. The one I bought is designed to be cut in ½ so you need twice the length that you have between the panel connections and the controller. It was the same for me with the battery cable – I only needed  a couple of feet, but the spare will come in useful some time.

The new connections were all made in a waterproof housing which had grommets where the cable came through

But for "belt and braces" the whole connection box was sealed with flexible sealant as well

I would have liked to have virtually no loose wires, but that would have meant cutting the connections off the solar panel so I arranged them on the rear. it will mean there is spare cable if I need to adjust things so maybe not a bad thing

From this last picture you can see the old frame which was bolted to the roof-rack and to the blue light bracket on the roof. Once it was connected I took the cardboard I had temporarily put over the cells and things worked first time. I now have more reliable power and a basis of a modern system with reliable wiring which I need for the next 2 projects

Here she is sporting the new panel at the Welsh Festival of Land Rovers

Be Positive

On the recent trip to Anglesey, and afterwards as well Katy suffered from a slew of electrical issues 

I chased loads and loads of symptoms 

All the advice I got was "check your earth". 

Well I did and it wasn't a problem, but what eventually was identified as being the problem thanks to a mate in the SWLRC was in the positive connection.. so here is a shiny new one and all is well with the world (well Katy's electrics anyway) 

Up Up and Away...

2:00 pm CD doesn't work...
2:30 pm It does ...

not me ... good customer service so I'll happily give them a plug

2016 Round Up

2016 was a fun if slow year with Katy the Land Rover. I can't entirely call it quiet as you will read. below

At the start of the year there was definitely a need  for some sort outs which I needed some help for. I was working out of the country a lot in january and February so it was not until March when i got started

The first was some electrics which I definitely needed my friend Dave's help with over the course of a couple of excellent days we got the lights and the reversing camera working, but we did have an unexpected result with the lights as you can see in the video

After that it was off to Newport caravans in May for a new skylight and then some work I did myself getting the Radio to work properly and we attended our first show of the year with the SWLRC

Then a real mystery came in when a Geoff Fletcher author of British Military Land Rovers sent me an interesting picture

Katy then became a regular commuter as Rhian's Mini was in for some work in June and July and she definitely got some attention in the BGS car park and in Cheddar gorge

I eventually tracked down that picture and Rhian and I were made welcome by the Scots Guards at the Bourlon Barracks at Catterick camp in August after a trip to Scarborough

Then it was off to Margam with the SWLRC again in September before a year end put away in November because I knew I would be working away a lot again in the run up to the end of the year. This  year I invested in an intelligent charger and so far the investment has been worthwhile as it's been very good to have it on and the battery looked after

The final Land Rover event of the year was our trip with the SWLRC to the Land Rover Reborn tour at Solihull

The final event for 2016 came in as a complete surprise when we were listed on getoffroad.com as one of the best Land Rover blogs to read. I need to add that I have not used them as a supplier, but as they have been so nice I am happy to give them a link back

All in all not a bad year for being so busy doing other things, but I do hope to be out and about more often and doing a few more upgrades in 2017

Katy's Winter Put Away

November is a cold time of year, it's not a good time for workong on vehicles outdoors and there are no car shows to visit either so its the time of year for putting things away and making things ready for winter.

In Katy's case this means taking out the soft furnishings and anything else that can be damaged if it gets damp through any water ingress or simply condensation build up. It means making sure she goes for a run now and again to charge the battery and if I can't manage that plugging in the intelligent battery charger I bought.

These next generation battery charging devices are becoming more common and from the reviews I have read do a much better job than the old ones.

From initial use on both Katy and our classic mini the initial summary is that the device is a lot more informative about the state of the battery, the state of the charge and the status of the recharge. There are multiple devices in this market place. The one I purchased has won a "best buy" award from a Land Rover magazine, but to be honest it was the one available in our local auto spares shop when I went in so little more thinking than that

I've not used all the features, but so far so good and I hope to have a more reliable start whenever I need a vehicle this winter, andI don't want to rely on my previous best buy in this area the "Instant start charger".

It gets you going, but with the mains start it means you have not been looking after your battery and it's a sledgehammer approach to this problem. Hopefully  by the spring my review will be as positive as others I have seen. I will also be using it on the leisure battery as I do not think that the Solar panel we have is effective at keeping that charged. it was fitted in 2001 so there have been a lot of developments in that area and it is one I will need to investigate across the winter looking at a possible upgrade

This is the BBC calling...

Whoever fitted the centre console cubby box did me no favours.

The radio aerial wasn't connected and the bolt holding it down were underneath part of the box frame

After about an hour cutting and felting I was able to plug it in..

Now after all those years the BBC can be heard

(in terms of impartiality I should point out that other radio stations are available)

"Blue Light" Adventures

My friend Dave helped me again with some work on the electrics today

It was quite a successful day before it stated getting cold so we decided to halt and do a test of the new features. The reversing camera cables were run underneath the vehicle and in through an existing gromit in the battery bx and then up to the plate I had fitted to hold the screen. A switch was added as we used a feed from the leisure battery rather than messing with wiring to the ignition

The reversing camera works just as expected ..

The connections to the leisure battery and camera were all tidied up ..

The Fog lights work  just as expected ..

The Spotlights however have been wired into a spare switch on the dashboard and when we turned them on this was the result (Click the picture or the link below)

"Blue" Lights on my Land Rover Ambulance

That will be great for car shows, but we will need to make an adjustment before they are useful at other times. 

Do Land Rovers Dream of Electric Sheep Part 1

It was a bright sunny morning today which was excellent news because I had taken up a friends offer of help. Last year at the Margam car show Dave Kilburn kindly offered to help me sort out the electrics I wanted to do on Katy.

Dave had been an Auto Electrics instructor in the RAF so was the absolutely perfect person to help with this sort out.

To set the scene Katy has three sets of Electrics

1. Normal Land Rover Electrics
2. Military Electrics
3. Camper Electrics

The problem is that some were disconnected when she came out of service and some were cross linked when she was converted to a camper. back when we first had her the lights were so unreliable I had to spend quite a bit to get the basic Land Rover lighting sorted out 

Since then we decided in the Alps that we needed more lights as a backup as one failed on us but then was working again - spots and fogs are not strictly needed at the speed we go, but are valuable backup to the main lights. The trouble was which switch works which ? 

there were cables at the front from previously fitted lamps, but no power in the wires so Dave and I started our investigations and quickly identified that without power to the military fuse box none of the yellow (military) wires worked

Once we did it we were able to take a close look at the switches and identify what switch worked which wires

Soon they were labelled up and ready to go

Then whilst I drilled and ran a proper cable to that fuse box, Dave made a start sorting out the mess behind the passenger seat put in as a prior project and removes about half of the rats nest in the following picture 

And all of this mess

One downside - it seems the large Solar Panel is not working which needs to be investigated as the leisure battery will run down as it's not connected to the main battery any more 

So we decided to end the day on a high and Dave kindly wired up one of the spots and one of the fogs whilst I drilled some holes and prepared cables with spiral wrap and he connected them up and we were able to finish with 2 working new lights 

A really successful day and I could not have done it without his expertise 

BTW the power to the Military box has one very non subtle addition... Nee Naww,, Nee Naw.. strictly for use at shows only of course

Thanks Dave !

Raptors

For those who don't know the unofficial National bird of Wales is the Red Kite. It is of course a Raptor

What has that got to do with land Rovers  I can hear you saying.

Well recently we had a Red Kite fly over our house and it reminded me I had a  job to do .. So out with the old and in with the new

When we went to the Malvern Show this year we stopped by the Raptor Engineering stand we purchased one of their binnacle mounts and binnacles to replace the tatty and rattly one we had. We opted for both the binnacle and the mount in metal as the standard Land Rover parts are famous for breaking

The instructions from Raptor had been fairly simple - look for the multiconnectors and undo them.

That seemed simple enough so we started with the instrument lights unit which were held in with 2 screws and it was easy to reach in and disconnect the 2 white connectors

Then we undid the screws on the side of the binnacle (only one was actually holding it in) and we could pull it carefully and see the wires.

At this point we could disconnect the speedo cable. It was a simple job to press both sides of the connector cable and pull the cable backwards

We had been told not to connect these from the back of the speedo/fuel gauge and temperature gauge bit to go behind them and find another multiconnector, which is the black one in the picture below. It was really stiff, but once freed, the units would have come out had not a previous owner had an alarm fitted which was spliced in in places, but with a modicum of labelling of wires carefully and a set of photographs taken at each stage it wasn't too bad a job.

The only problem was the cable to the pre-heat button which was attached to the gauge wiring the wrong side of the connector and the screw that held it in was rusted solid. After quite some deliberation I decided to cut that one and fit a new connection in so it would be simple if I ever needed to take it out again

After that it was the removal of the bolts holding the binnacle mount to the dashboard and then slowly and methodically a case of refitting every bolt and screw where it came from (except where new ones had come with the Kit of course).  Small hands were an asset with this so Rhian helped doing the hard work

The Speedo cable plugged in as easy as it came out so that was easy and we upgraded the bulbs to new LED's as well, and the result. .. clean instruments that work and do not rattle around when you are driving and I can see at night

All in about three hours for us. I am sure someone more experienced could do it faster, but it's done and hopefully something we never need to worry about again

Caving Conference

Sometimes Katy is just a camper van

Sometimes she misbehaves, sometimes I make bad decisions

I have excepted this from a letter I had published in Decent Magazine 

Hidden Earth was quite an adventure this year which started well in Cardiff, but a faulty headlight caused us to stop in the services and then the Landy failed to start again so we had to sort out the electrics (good old British Engineering) and  arrived really late just as the Bar closed L

Having found somewhere quiet to park (more later) we had a wonderful restful night and were up early to start enjoying the event properly and how enjoyable a conference it was this year. 

...

Regarding unfortunate turns of events we found that our quiet parking place on Friday was next to the Stomp on Saturday, so no point in going early to bed and we were “forced” to hang around in the bar until closing time. 

Still best regards to the BEC who got a “BEC get everywhere” sticker right on the top whilst we were sleeping (I think). Just one thing I plan a re-spray, so can someone send me another to put back when I’ve done that.

...

And finally I’d like to thank all who worked on conference to give us such a nice weekend and also to those who had to get out of the way when we left and had to watch my 3 point turn in a large Land Rover ambulance in a cramped car park. 

We’d decided to head off in the daylight given the fun on the way up and I know caused quite some entertainment 

Some time to work on her

It's been really slow here recently. pressure of work and frequent trips away have meant that I've had little or no time to work on Katy or even to enjoy driving her

Some work that is needed for use this year is to replace the awing rail, the one I fitted was damaged going under s tree (it was on a bracket on the roof rack) and I need to do it properly so we can use the awing this year.

Also I got around to removing the 3 way fridge I had fitted in Katy today and I discovered one of the problems in that the flue was never sealed by the "supposedly professional" camper van maintenance company that did the fitting - hence the fume smell that we had that meant I had to turn it off all the time we were in it, especially overnight

BTW the company mentioned above was the ones who fitted an electrical system that drained the battery nearly leading me to missing the road run last year, I'm not going to post their name here, but if you are in South Wales and want to get in touch please do and I'll not recommend any aspect of their work

Lights, Camera, Action

By the end of our Alps Trip we had identified a number of upgrades that were needed

1. A CB had been useful and fun travelling in convoy
2. We'd had headlights problems and spots/fogs would be useful extra's
3. We wanted more charging points in the front and back and had learned about differences in USB performance
4. The fridge fitting had caused some problems with lights and battery discharge, and we were not happy with it's performance

All of this means a good sort out of the electrics so I made an arrangement to get an Auto Electrician to give me some advice and I've now been on a shopping spree and I've now got a whole bunch of new parts in the front room ready to fit.
 

I would put some pictures of all of that, but we went away for the weekend and we were "spotted" by an artist friend of ours so I thought I would give you his quick rendition of us parked up and enjoying ourselves instead

I think his scribbly style of his field sketches fits the dilapidated state of Katy's paintwork very well

THANKS PETE !

Lastly the South Wales Land Rover club was featured in Land Rover Owner this month. We even got a mention which is not entirely surprising as I wrote the article

Cardiff to Langorse for the Air Ambulance

Getting Katy was about many things and fun was high on the list 

This event was all about that, and making money for charity too. It was a road run from Cardiff to Langorse for the Air Ambulance charity

The team from SWLRC gathered at the start, minus us at first because Katy would not start with a flat battery so I am now the proud owner of a new Ring battery charger purchased from our Local Halfords (thank goodness they had it on stock) with instant charge so you can start your vehicle from the mains - wonderful gadget so I have no worries recommending it 

picture from Halfords web page - used as fair use, get in touch if you disagree and I'll take a picture of my unit

We did make it in time for the group picture. Rhian and Misty at the front there on the left

With all the vehicles at the side of the road we looked a wonderful sight. Stratstone have never had so many excellent vehicles on show

Including Chris's excellent ex-military Land Rover fully decked out and ready for action

There was of course plenty of opportunity for people to admire the new offerings from Land Rover, no-one succumbed, but I think Martyn was tempted

But we were soon off on the run which you can watch highlights of here

Another stop at Likes of Brecon where some of the team took on the off-rad course to get their tyres dirty including Wayne and Amanda's "Wobble" still looking good after the photo shoot at Blaenavon they did for Classic Land Rover Magazine

And then to the fun and games at the lake including the Knobbly knees competition

Here we have our Chairman Edwin and Noel Harper our guest for the day and Chairman of the Land Rover Enthusiasts club from Dunedin, Otago  (in the black T Shirt) comparing. Neither won!

Many people admiring Peter's wonderful Series 1 and he even let people do things in the engine bay whilst we were there (Brave man)

And just to prove we were still enjoying ourselves as the sun went down