VW Transporter T4 Syncro Camper Conversion

Sachs Heavy Duty Shock Absorbers

2010-03-16T13:56:00.003Z

My shocks have been feeling a little bouncy lately on my VW T4. I decided to fit a set of Sachs Super Touring Heavy Duty shock absorbers onto the T4. These had been recommended to me for the T4 Syncro by someone I know. They were not easy to find / buy like the normal Sachs shocks and I had to email ZF the UK distributor to obtain a list of retailers. They also cost around double the price of the standard Sachs Super Touring shocks.

The new Sachs shocks are more heavily built and thicker than the standard T4 shocks. The first picture is of the Orignal VW T4 Sachs / Boge Front Shock next to the Heavy Duty Sachs shock and the second picture is of one of the rear Sachs heavy duty shock absorber next to a standard VW T4 Sachs / Boge rear shock.

The shock absorbers were not difficult to change and it took about 2 hours to change all four. You will however need some axle stands to safely support the vehicle and a bottle or trolley jack for lifting the suspension arm while you release and reattach the shock. Some of the nuts can also be quite seized if they haven't been removed for a while and I soaked mine in Plus Gas before undoing. Luckily everything came off easily.

To remove the rear shock lower mount you will more than likely need something to hold the shock absorber body while you undo the lower mount nut. I didn't have a large enough spanner but I managed to hold the body using a plumbers wrench.

After removing the old shocks, the were still hard to compress so I wondered if they were really had it. When I drove my T4 the ride is now much better with the Sachs heavy duty shocks and the van and it no longer bouncies over speed bumps so my old shocks were definately tired. The Sachs shocks have also firmed the ride up quite a bit on my T4 and it definately handles much better.

Steering Tie Rods

2010-03-15T13:35:00.002Z

I've noticed a bit of knocking noise from the steering / suspension lately and found there was some play in the track rod ends and the rubber boots were looking perished. Rather than just change the track rod ends I decided to replace the complete tie rod which come supplied with new track rod ends. The make I bought was Meyle as these are supposed to be very good quality and come with a 2 year guarantee.

It was not a difficult job at all but you need a 34mm spanner or a suitable adjustable to unscrew the tie rod from the steering rack. You also need a ball joint splitter to release the track rod end taper, I actually just used a hammer as I was throwing away the track rod ends. After replacing the tie rods you must get the tracking reset.

Most of the knock has now gone but there is still a slight knock under certain conditions. :o( I think this is probably the anti rollbar droplink bushes as they looked very worn. I will tackle these soon.

Wiring Diagram

2009-08-31T17:02:00.004Z

I'm planning to add some more detailed information on wiring soon and I thought I'd start by adding a diagram of how my van is currently wired up. I've not included the switches for items which require them such as lights but these items are all switched on the ground (negative) wire.

Fuel Consumption

2009-07-27T15:02:00.007Z

I've been keeping track of the fuel consumption in my VW Transporter Syncro over the last 5 months and in that time I've covered 6217 miles and used 758 litres of fuel (167 Gallons). I've also had the roof box fitted during the whole time.
Please see the table below.

	Imperial MPG	US MPG	Litres Per 100 KM
Average Consumption	37.29	31.05	7.58
Worst Consumption	32.85	27.36	8.60
Best Consumption	41.68	34.71	6.78

BF Goodrich All Terrain Tyres

2009-07-27T14:45:00.004Z

I fitted some BF Goodrich All Terrain tyres to my syncro the other day, the size was 225/75 16" and I think they are pretty much the maximum size that will fit. It was not all plane sailing however as they were catching on the the rear wheel arches where they join the sills and the plastic rear bumper (not for long as it soon wears away). I ended up grinding off the edge and dressing back the lip on the wheel arches slightly. They were also rubbing on the front wheel arches occasionally depending on steering input etc. this was where they join the sill so I also dressed back this very slightly with a hammer.

Dielectric Silicon Grease on the MAF Plug AKA Cage Mod

2009-05-13T15:02:00.007Z

I purchased some RE90X silicon grease from Maplins the other day to perform what is called the 'Cage Mod' on the tdiclub forum. (Cage was the forum name of the guy who tried it first) It is supposed to help make a TDI engined Volkswagen Audi or Skoda run smoother by ensuring that the signals from each pin are fully isolated. I'm a bit skeptical but I thought I'd give it a go.

Firstly you need to locate the MAF sensor connector, in the VW Transporter T4 it is located on the left hand side of the engine bay just after the air filter and can be seen in the picture just above the blue lid of the washer bottle.

You then need to remove the MAF connector plug. To do this grip the connector, push down very slightly then press the tab and then pull the connector gently upwards.

Have a look and see what condition the pins are in, even though mine were clean I gave them a clean with contact cleaner which I also purchased from Maplins. The product code is N61AN.

I then connected the plug and removed it a couple of times which should be all you need to do with or without contact cleaner to remove any crud on the connectors.

I filled up the socket with the silicon dielectric grease and refitted the plug. I then removed the plug and filled up the socket again and refitted the plug.

I fired up the engine and went for a drive, I instantly noticed that the engine seemed slightly smoother between gear changes. As the van arrived at normal operating temperature I also noticed that one particular quirk of my van had disappeared. Normally if I rev my van as it returns to idle it sometimes stutters for a few seconds and then sorts its self out and idles smoothly. Now I can rev the van and it instantly returns to a smooth idle, it also seems a bit smoother in general. In my opinion adding the grease has definately made an improvement. This seems to concur with other peoples experience who have tried this on the Skoda and Tdiclub forums.

One thing this mod won't do is cure a MAF which has failed.

VW T4 Clutch Replacement

2009-05-06T21:03:00.009Z

The other week I broke down with a loud squealing noise when I pressed the clutch pedal and some smoke under the van. Luckily I had some tools with me so I dropped the belly pan and was dismayed when I found some ball bearings in there but guessed the clutch release bearing must have disintegrated.

I phoned up a few VW specialists, two out of the three wouldn't repair the clutch as they told me you need a special jig and the other would do the job but couldn't fit me in for a few weeks. I decided to do the job myself even though I'd heard it was a bit of pig. I bought a new dual mass flywheel, clutch, pressure plate and hydraulic release bearing made by LUK. I then made a start, it soon dawned on me that it was going to be quite a big job as you have to do the following before you can remove the gearbox:

Release the torsion bars (Mine had seized solid so I did it another way )
Remove shock absorbers / lower balljoints (Balljoint nuts were very tight)
Remove the driveshafts
Remove the starter motor
Disconnect the exhaust
Remove some coolant pipes
Drain gearbox, Remove transfer box and disconnect prop shaft (Syncro Only)
Disconnect gearbox linkage, mounts etc.

Once you have everything removed it is still quite difficult to remove the gearbox as you have to tilt the engine forward so the gearbox can clear the subframe. It took me about a day and half before I had the gearbox out. I then struggled for a while to fit the new flywheel until I released that a couple of the bolts are offset so it will only bolt back on one way!!!

It then took another day and half to refit everything. Unfortunately I'd disconnected the exhaust by removing the spring clips on the downpipe and these were impossible to refit without the special VW wedges or another special tool. I borrowed.

I hope I NEVER have to do this job again!!!

This is the offending hydraulic release bearing which had disintegrated

Van Computer

2008-09-02T20:52:00.016Z

My apologies as I've not posted for a long time and I thought it was about time I did some work to the T4. I finally got around to fitting my PC system properly the other day.

My PC system consists of the following items:

VoomPC automotive enclosure
Via EPIA VB6002 Mini ITX Pentium M motherboard with Socket 479
ITuner M2-ATX Intelligent Car Power Supply
1.5 Ghz Pentium M 715 CPU
1 GB DDR2 Ram
160GB Sata 2.5" Harddrive
Keysonic 2.4GHZ Wireless Keyboard with Integrated Touchpad
Windows XP Professional
Compaq 1520 15" TFT Monitor

I drilled an 18mm hole in the back of the drivers seat base so I could fit a power switch. Since my PC is only for use when I'm in the back of the van mainly for watching films and surfing this is ideal. It is however easy to wire up using the ignition switch if you are planning to use the PC in motion. The M2-ATX power supply I use has loads of different modes to start from the ignition safely and put the PC into standby for a set amount of time when you switch off the engine, it then does a full shutdown if you don't restart the car in a preset time. I just have it set to switch boot up and shutdown instantly using the switch in the seat base.

The M2-ATX power supply has a maximum output of 150 Watts which is more than enough to power my PC, it will use around 35 Watts maximum. It also has regulated 12 output which can be used to power pc related items such as a monitor. I'm using it to power my Compaq monitor which requires a 12 volt regulated supply.

The computer case was fitted underneath the drivers seat and screwed onto a piece of 18mm ply which had been glued onto the seat base with Sikaflex. (I have a battery tray on my seat base as its out of a multivan so had something to glue to) When cabling the van I had already introduced the necessary power cables and a vga cable which goes under the cab mat up the windscreen pillar and under the roof lining to the monitor in the back of the van. I've also ran a 3.5mm jack cable from my head unit under the floor so I can get the sound through the stereo system.

After everything was fitted and plugged in I fired up the PC and checked how much power it was using. As the processor I use has a thermal design power of only 21Watts and it is pretty frugal when its not being taxed. I checked the power consumption whilst watching a film and the PC and Monitor only used around 2 Amps, this will be its main use. This does not include the head unit though as this is still running from the van battery, its my intention to rewire this to take power from the leisure batteries.

Sink Unit and water pump

2007-07-06T22:41:00.000Z

I'd originally planned to build a lightweight unit for my VW campervan made from aluminium to house my smev sink. I had a go but to be honest my first efforts didn't look to great and because time is running out I've bought a 400mm kitchen base unit from Ikea to house the sink. This is about the largest standard size kitchen unit I can accomodate without stopping the multivan bed sliding out fully. I also bought some stainless steel side panels and a stainless door so its not exactly light weight.

I've also used standard kitchen worktop which has been cut down depth wise. At the side of the unit I added some folding hinges from a motorhome shop so I can have a small fold up pieces of worktop where I use my cooker.

The Ikea unit was very simple to build and only required a small modification to allow the smev sink unit to fit properly in the unit. Once the sink was installed in the unit I connected some 15mm flexible food safe pipe through the back of unit and along the side of my van to where the pump is fitted under the back seat. The pump I used was a small and cheap inline whale pump which has a flow of around 10litres per minute, it uses a separate Whale pressure switch for connecting / cutting the power to the pump when the tap is opened and closed. I intend to hide the water pipe at a later date when I have more time, to be honest though its not very noticeable.

Once all the pipe work was installed and the jubilee clips were tightened I added around 30 litres to the fiamma tank. I then turned on the pump, opened the tap and nothing happened. I then realised you have to adjust the pressure switch using a small knob on the top of it, I followed the instructions and low and behold I had water and the pump even switched off when I closed the top. I then installed a waste pipe on the smev sink which leads to a 10 litre containing which is housed inside the unit.

The unit was screwed through the floor using some large spreader plates but I intend to rebuild the unit using lighter materials when we return from our trip. Unfortunately I didn't have any pictures of installing the sink / pump but I have one of the completed unit which is displayed above.

Watts Up Meter

2007-07-03T21:06:00.000Z

I'd bought the Watts up meter a while ago and it is a cheap and simple amp hour meter. It is normally used for measuring power consumption on radio controlled vehicles and can handle upto 60 amps at 12 volts. It can also measure Amp hours, Voltage, Minimum Voltage, Watts, Amps, Maximum Watts and it is reset when the power is removed to it. Unlike more expensive amp hour meters it only meaures power in or power out and not both. It will still be useful for me for measuring my power consumption though as I'm not sure how much power my compressor fridge and eberspacher are taking out of the Leisure batteries.

Since I'd wired all the items which run from the leisures through an earth ring this made it really quick and easy to divert the earth through the watts up meter supply it a positive feed through the fuse box and get it working. I mounted the meter on one of the arches at the back of the van as I won't need it look at it very often. I also add a switch to turn it off and an extra switch for the water pump which I will be adding in a day or so.

Once it was fitted and I turned on a some lights it seems to do what it says on the tin and told me how many watts I was using.

Batteries and Watertank

2007-07-01T22:07:00.000Z

We now have now set a date for our trip around Europe and we depart for Norway very soon and I haven't fitted a watertank, sink or secured the batteries properly yet. :o(

My intention is to mount a fiamma water tank and the two optima batteries under the rear part of the bed. I obtained a sheet of 15mm ply and I mounted the tank to this using the supplied fitting kit.

I then attached some battens to the ply to hold the batteries in position and secured some cheap straps to hold the batteries to the board. I then connected the batteries together and connected all the wires for my appliance circuits to my fuse box. The wires were neatened up with tie wraps and the main feed was connected from the batteries to the audio type junction box. I inserted the fuses and tested all my electrical items and they all worked correctly.

T4 Spare Wheel Carrier

2007-06-18T21:41:00.000Z

I'd put this off for a while but I now have a spare wheel but no place to put it. When my T4 was a panel van rather than a camper the spare wheel was located on the passenger side wheel arch. This is because on the SWB T4 Syncro there is no space to mount a spare wheel under the van because of the rear diff.

The options are to a obtain an offical VW carrier, strap the wheel to the roof or do something else. I priced up all the bits for the VW carrier and it was nearly £800, so that is out of the question. Chucking the spare on the roof was out of the question as I don't really have the space once my bikes and spare wheel are up there.

So I bought an EMPI stainless steel spare wheel mount for a VW T2 from just Kampers for £18.95. (PN J10552) I think these are normally used on a T2 to mount the spare to the front of the van but I intended to bolt this to one of my barn doors. I know this is normally frowned upon as its not good for the hinges. However the door has some locating pins in the centre and the spare wheel weighs only 25kg which isn't much compared when you hang some bikes off the back.

The bolts on the spare wheel mount were to short for the Merc ML Alloy so I cut the welds and removed them and then welded some longer stainless steel bolts in there place. I then cut a 3 mm steel plate to fit behind the top of the barn door and bonded the plate to the inside of the door with Sikaflex. I then bolted the spare wheel to the door using 6 m6 stainless allen bolts, these of course passed through the reinforcing plate on the door. I left the Sika to cure overnight and the next day I mounted the ML Alloy to the plate using some rubbber spacers and some washers.

I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures during the process but here is a picture of the finished article which was taken at a later date. The only problem with mounting the wheel this way is that it makes the door a little bit heavy but I don't use it very often so its not a problem.

Mercedes ML Alloys and Grabber AT2s

2007-06-14T23:07:00.000Z

Fitted the Merc ML alloys which are I bought off ebay. The reason I went for these wheels is because they have the same PCD as VW wheels, the ML has GVW of 2800kg the same as my VW T4. Also I wanted to go for 16" wheels to fit AT type tyres and I now have 5 wheels as I didn't own a spare before.

I went for General Grabber AT2 as they get good write ups for on road and light off road use, the size I went for is 215/70 so they are about 9% larger than std T4 steelies. I had to get some spigot rings made up as the Merc centrebore is larger than VW but it only cost me a couple of beers.

Went for a test drive and they don't seem to noisy. I just need to sort out some covers for the centrebores and sort the rust wheel nuts.

You might have noticed my new Kamei carbon design roof box which is fitted ready for our trip.

Rear Light Guards

2007-06-10T23:04:00.000Z

I fitted some rear light guards which are produced by VAG. They are simple to fit and just fit behind the lights and the bolts on the lights pass through them to hold them in place.

Mercedes ML Alloys and 225/75 16 Tyres

2007-06-10T21:23:00.000Z

Out of interest I had a go at fitting some Mercedes ML 16" alloys to my T4 with the original tyres which are 225/75x16". I bought these wheels second hand from ebay and the reason for fitting them is because I'm a bit unsure of the load rating of the Momo alloys I currently own and I need a spare wheel.

They actually fitted at the front of the T4 without catching from lock to lock even though they were very close. At the back the back edge of the sill caught on the tyre but this could be fettled to allow them to fit. The bumper would also need some work though as I think this would catch one the van was loaded. They did give some impressive ground clearance though as there was about 15" to the bottom of the sill.

I've now decided to go for some 215/70 16" General Grabber AT2 to fit on the wheels and will order them tonight.

Fitted Eberspacher Hydronic Heater

2007-06-03T07:24:00.000Z

I bought a brand new 5KW Eberspacher Hydronic engine preheater / parking heater from Ebay.de a while ago so decided to get it fitted as I'd finally managed to acquire the mini timer which fits on the dash and controls it.

The kit I'd bought was designed to fit the Ford Focus but the only thing which really needed modifying was the bracket which holds the burner. So I cut off the original brackets which were at the wrong angles and my mate welded on some others.

The mounting bracket was then painted with some hammerite and riveted to the chassis member which sits below the battery. This is the normal mounting position when these types of heater were fitted by VAG.

The Eberspacher has its own fuel pump and water pump. I disconnected the hose which comes out of the engine block and goes into heater matrix at the engine block end. I then mounted the pump directly above this outlet to the bracket which holds the expansion tank and connected a new section of hose from the engine block to the pump inlet. The pump outlet was then connected to the inlet on the burner and the outlet of the burner was connected to the original pipe which goes into the heater matrix using a metal coupler and two hose clips. The fuel pump was mounted to the bulkhead and connected to the pipe I'd originally installed in my fuel tank. Tne outlet of the fuel pump was then connected to a pipe which goes into the burner.

The exhaust was then installed under the nearside front wheel arch, luckily there is a cutout for the exhaust pipe to pass through in the engine undertray. I made sure I removed the sound insulation from the engine undertray near to where the exhaust exits and stuck on some heat reflective foil to the undertray which came with the kit.

The mini timer was installed on the dash next to the diff lock control and just required a couple of small holes.

The Eberspacher has its own wiring loom and since this was designed for the Focus I had to shorten some of the wires for the sake of neatness. It is then just a matter of installing the supplied plugs to the correct wires and plugging these into the various components; waterpump, fuelpump, burner and mini timer. You have to make a slight modification to the T4 wiring which is to cut the main wire which supplies the heater fan switch, you then connect both ends of this wire to pass through a relay so the Eberspacher can control the fan when the ignition is turned off. The final connection is to your vehicle or leisure battery.

Before starting the Eberspacher for the first time I performed the following items:

1. Double checked the wiring, water hose connections and fuel pump connections.

2. Primed the Eberspacher fuel pump by applying power to the fuel pump off and on till I could see fuel in the clear pipe passing into the burner.

3. Topped up the coolant in the header tank. Started the engine, set the heater control to hot and ran it at a fast idle with the bleed plug slightly open on the pipe going into the heater matrix. Eventually coolant started to come from tne bleed plug and the pipes going into the matrix were getting hot.

4. I let the engine cooldown and then started the Eberspacher by pressing the heat button on the minitimer. After a few seconds I heard the water pump start and the fuel pump started ticking. Another 30 seconds later the burner fired up and after a few minutes it was running at full chat and sounded like a mini jet engine. Once the water temp had reached 25 centigrade the blower fan in the vehicle started up and warm air came out the vents.

I'm quite pleased with the install and it took me around 8 hours in total but I could do it in half this if I did it again. I was quoted £575 + VAT to install this heater by a company in Derby so do the maths, not a bad little earner.

My future plans are to install a calorifier for generating hot water and to add a Caravelle Heater matrix under the floor at the back of the van or maybe underfloor heating.

Curtains Fitted

2007-06-02T09:06:00.000Z

I fitted the curtains that I obtained from Autocurtains. If you call then ask for Dave, he's a nice bloke and please mention that you found his details from my blog. The curtains are excellent quality and have an ali rail which fits top and bottom to the window aperture using self tappers. I also installed a set which separate the cab and rear of the van, useful for wild camping.

Window Tinting

2007-05-15T21:14:00.000Z

I had the windows of the VW T4 professionally tinted today for security reasons rather than looks.

The work was done by a company called Facelifts in Burton Upon Trent

Replaced Headunit and Speakers

2007-04-27T23:30:00.000Z

I replaced the head unit in my VW T4 today with a middle of the road Kenwood MP3 / CD player. It was very straightforward to fit as it uses a standard ISO connecter and plugs straight into the VW T4 loom. The only modifications I had to make was to connect the rear speaker cables to the Kenwood loom, I'd already run through the roof and down the right hand piller. I also changed the wiring on the headunit so it would work even when the ignition key is removed.

I then replaced the speakers in the dash with some two way Kenwood units. To be honest the standard speakers didn't sound to bad but there was a noticable improvement to the midrange and treble after adding the Kenwoods. You have to carefully prise the speaker grills off the dash and the original speakers pull out with a bit of effort. I did have to cut off the VW speaker connectors and solder on new speaker connectors for the Kenwood speakers as they were different.

My rear speakers are 3 way 6 x 9 Infinity units mounted in the bottom panel of the rear barn doors as this gives them a good size enclosure to work in. I'd previously sound deadened the door panels and added plywood inserts supported my Kingspan insulation and expanding foam. These made a very rigid mounting for the speakers to work from which is important if you want to get good sound quality.

Since the speakers were a little to deep for the rear doors I made some spacers out of 6mm thick perspex which was laser cut by my friend from a CAD drawing I made. I used 3 spacers per speaker to bring the speakers forward by just over half an inch. They match the shape of the speakers so well you'd think they are hard to see.

I wasn't sure how good it would sound using the headunits built in amplifier and was pleasantly suprised when I fired up the unit. There was plenty of bass and I put this down to the six by nines having a good size enclosure to work in. The sound was also very very clear and pleasing to the ear and because I'd reinforced the rear doors there were no rattles at all. When you cranked up the volume it was easily loud enough on half volume to completely remove any road or engine noise that the T4 could muster.

This is good as I can now avoid having separate amps to drive the component speakers and a subwoofer. This is good in this vehicle as it means I will save space, weight and power.

One addition I will probably make though in the future is to add pockets to the front doors and good quality component speakers but this can wait.

EGR Valve Cleaning

2007-04-24T23:12:00.000Z

Someone posted about cleaning their EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) valve on the VW T4 forum and the van ran noticably better after this as over time they get quite blocked.

Before I started I went and bought some gaskets from VW. Since I was planning to block the exhaust input on the EGR I bought 2 x 069 131 547D gaskets and 1 x 028 129 748 which is the gasket between the EGR and the inlet manifold.

Firstly you remove the chargecooler and associated pipes and then remove the EGR valve. I then cleaned the valve using petrol as there were a few mm of gunge coated to the inside of the valve.

The inlet manifold also looked very dirty but to clean this it would have to be removed from the engine. Some people say that it will self clean over time once the EGR is blanked off and I will check it in 6 months to see if this is the case.

I then made a plate from 1.5mm aluminium sheet which was the shape of the gasket to block the exhaust input on the EGR valve. Therefore the engine management will think the EGR is working even though no exhaust gas will now be able to enter the inlet manifold.

I then bolted everything back together and used the 2 gaskets either side of my ali plate to get a good seal. I then took the van for a test drive and it felt slightly improved and I'm going to check the fuel consumption to see if this improves over the 35MPG average I normally get.

Fiamma Awning

2007-04-10T15:33:00.000Z

The F35 Zip Fiamma awning which I order 2 weeks ago turned up today. The brackets I ordered allow the awning to be bolted to the Thule roof bars I have on my VW T4 and means it can be easily removed. I'm going to use nuts rather than the quick release knobs as I thinks its a little to easy to remove. The normal brackets require that you drill holes in the side of a T4 which I didn't want.

They didn't fit perfectly though as they are designed for square bars and the bars on my T4 are oval shaped as they are aero bars. I intend to modify the brackets slightly at the weekend to obtain a better fit.

It does look a bit like a plumbers van now but it looks good when its rolled out and blocks the sun effectively. I also have the sides and front which zip onto the awning to make it a room and will take some pictures at the weekend when I try them out for size.

Cat Replacement Pipe

2007-04-09T15:21:00.000Z

I replaced the cat with a stainless steel cat pipe today. The bolts were very rusty so I ended up cutting 2 out of the 3 off and I also had fun and games releasing the cat from the middle backbox.

Once fitted I took the VW T4 for a run and I could notice the difference straight away as I think my cat must have been pretty blocked judging by all the carbon dropping out. There is also a bit more noticeable turbo whoosh noise and the van seems to pickup better from low revs and revs better in general. I'll have to see how it effects fuel consumption.

I took the VW T4 for the MOT 3 days later and it passed with flying colours. With no problem at all on the emissions test.

Lighting

2007-03-18T17:58:00.000Z

The Campervan will be lit by 8 LED downlighters which have between 17 LEDs and 20 LEDs. Each one draws around 2 - 2.5 Watts. 2 of the downlighters will be in the front of the van and indivually switched for driver and passenger. They will be 4 in the middle of the van which will be run from one switch. The last 2 swivel lights (shown in picture) will be at the rear of the van and switched left and right for reading in bed. I also intend to fit 2 LED mini strip lights, one over the sliding door and another above the adjacent window, each of which use only 0.7 Watt. With all of my lights burning I would be using around 1.5 Amps. The main advantage of the LED lights apart from the low power usage is that they run cool and they are supposed to have a reasonably long life span. The disadvantage of the LED lights is that they are rather expensive and they give a slightly cold white light. Since fitting the lights I've found it is perfectly acceptable to have just one of the strip lights going for mood lighting or finding things in the van at night. These only used 0.06 Amps!!! For reading you need to use the spots though.I then carefully cut the holes in the roof lining in the correct places using a stanley knife and a cutting board. I then offered up the rear roof panel to check the wires were in the correct place.

The final task was to drill the roof lining centre support so I could fit some light switches. The centre support is plastic and has metal in the middle so I ended up drilling some small holes and then enlarging them with a file. I then refitted the roof lining and fitted the lights one at a time by soldering spade terminals for them to plug into. The lights are held by 2 springy strips of metal which you open up once you push the light into its hole. The final picture was taken at a slightly later date when I'd refitted the styleline panels.

Campervan Wiring

2007-03-16T18:48:00.000Z

The first task for today was to remove the Styleline panels and roof lining from my T4 Camper. It took me around an hour to remove this and another half hour to remove the roof lining and trim from the front of the van.

I had originally planned to install my two 75Ah Optima Gel batteries separately under the drivers and passenger seat boxes. I have now decided to install them at the back of the VW T4 underneath the bed because I'm going to install my PC system under the drivers seat and possibly an amplifier or safe under the drivers seat. The other reason is so the batteries can be sat very close to each other as this is advantagous as they need to be wired in parralel to make them appear as one larger battery.

The main disadvantage of having the batteries at the back is that I will now need to run a hefty charging cable from the alternator to the batteries at the back of the T4. There are 2 possible ways of doing this, I can run the cable underneath the campervan and then up through one of the back lights. Alternatively I can run the cable up the windscreen pillar and then along the roof and down the rear piller and out through the light. I chose the latter method as even though I'll need a longer cable run I'd rather not have wires dangling down underneath the van.

Before starting the wiring it is best to make a list of all the electrical appliances including power consumption you intend to run in your campervan. You should also try and decide there location and estimate how much wire you'll need from the appliance to the power source which is normally the leisure battery fuse box. You can then decide how thick a wire you'll need to keep the voltage drop to a minimum, I decided on 3% as the maximum voltage drop some people decide that 5% is acceptable. You may also wish to consider using a ring of cable (both ends joined to the power source) as this will halve the voltage drop. I chose a ring for my lighting and also for the accesory sockets as I intend to have a few of these.

I decided to run all the wiring through the roof and down through pillars when required. It will all be run through PVC sleeving to protect it from chafing a shorting, the thicker wire such as the 25mm cable for the split charge will be run through convoluted tubing. It will all eventually exit the roof through the rear pillars and out through the rear lights.

It turned out to be quite a slow process as its difficult to pass long lengths of wire through the PVC tubing and I spent around 2 days threading the wiring and soldering the required spurs for appliances. I then used foam matting and carpet adhesive to secure any wires that were dangling down.

Roof Vent

2007-02-27T14:26:00.000Z

I wanted to add some extra ventilation on the roof as I only have a sunroof which is little use when its raining. I had a look at all the boat vents and solar vents but the ones that work 24 hours using a rechargeable battery were very expensive (> £100). I decided to make my own powered vent using a ECS ventilite which cost £10 and a 80mm pc fan which cost me 50p.

The ventilite is designed to take there own fan but these cost about £70 and actually only contain a pc fan.

To fit the ventilite you have to cut a small hole in your roof which I cut using a jigsaw, my van used to have a wind ventilator fitted so there was already a small hole.

I then bonded some 18mm plywood to the inside of the roof using Sika this was bigger than required but is also going to actually support my 15" LCD monitor.

The bottom part of the vent then screws through the top of the roof into the plywood, its best to add some sealer around the base of the vent. The top part of the vent then screws into the bottom half, it comes with a mozi net. It is also called a ventilite because daylight can shine through but you could always paint the top cover to colour code with your vehicle or if you didn't want any daylight shining through.

I then inserted a pc fan into the hole in the plywood and added a piece of black perspex with an 80mm hole to hold it in place. (The perspex is oval because it was the cutout from my 6 x 9 " speaker spacers I made) I inserted the fan so it would extract air from the vehicle.

Once the roof lining was back in I added a PC Fan trim which cost about 25p but looks pretty good.

The Fan is switched from a remote switch and uses about 2 watts so can be run all night if required. Of course you get ventilation through the vent even when the fan isn't running.