What Have You Done To Your Van Today?

[Toffermora]

Not today but the last couple of weeks, replaced interior bulbs:

Replaced the stone chip sticker after having my dents repaired:

And fitted some new side repeaters:

 

[Bav]

Must have missed this but what is it?!

A retractable cupholder from a Renault Laguna I believe.

 

[Samro]

Back to winter mode!

Excuse the crappy state of the van. I was going to wash it but with the intermittent rain I decided to be proactive and swap the wheels instead.

Been using Avon ZV-7 tyres for two summers now and only covered a total of 10000 summer miles with them. I swapped the front to back at the beginning of the summer and have been running the at 37PSI front and 36PSI rear. I went to these pressures at the beginning of the summer when I noted that the centres were well worn in autumn 2022. I would have thought that these pressures were easily low enough to avoid wear on the central section of the tyres, but it seems not:


Maybe I should have gone with 35 psi all round?

I liked the Avons because of load rating and they are really comfortable with the lower pressures. My other van has Goodyear Eagle Sports all round which need 39psi front and 38 psi rear to obtain even wear, but I get 22k miles out of the fronts and at 25k have no notable wear on the rears on that van. (Which I drive more in a more "sporty" kind of way!)

Anyone else had experience of Avon ZV-7 tyres needing to be run a low pressures to avoid premature wear?

I'm now torn with the option of going with Avons again and reduce the pressure or Goodyears all round which will annoyingly stiffen up the ride (Which I don't want!), but at least they'll last.


Edit: The summer tyres at 255/45R19.

 

[cgtmiles]

Back to winter mode!
View attachment 220278View attachment 220279
Excuse the crappy state of the van. I was going to wash it but with the intermittent rain I decided to be proactive and swap the wheels instead.

Been using Avon ZV-7 tyres for two summers now and only covered a total of 10000 summer miles with them. I swapped the front to back at the beginning of the summer and have been running the at 37PSI front and 36PSI rear. I went to these pressures at the beginning of the summer when I noted that the centres were well worn in autumn 2022. I would have thought that these pressures were easily low enough to avoid wear on the central section of the tyres, but it seems not:
View attachment 220280

Maybe I should have gone with 35 psi all round?

I liked the Avons because of load rating and they are really comfortable with the lower pressures. My other van has Goodyear Eagle Sports all round which need 39psi front and 38 psi rear to obtain even wear, but I get 22k miles out of the fronts and at 25k have no notable wear on the rears on that van. (Which I drive more in a more "sporty" kind of way!)

Anyone else had experience of Avon ZV-7 tyres needing to be run a low pressures to avoid premature wear?

I'm now torn with the option of going with Avons again and reduce the pressure or Goodyears all round which will annoyingly stiffen up the ride (Which I don't want!), but at least they'll last.


Edit: The summer tyres at 255/45R19.

It’s interesting to hear this, I have these exact same tyres and have experienced the exact same problem. I first noticed the wear in the centre after a service so when finding the pressures at around 40 I was a bit confused as I expected them to be overpressure, I guessed that VW must have dropped the pressures and this was sort of confirmed when my tyre fitter commented that as a van the pressures should be 50+ (so really my fault for not checking sooner!) but running them at 36 didn’t help limit the central wear and so all 4 now need replacement (10-12k miles I reckon). I’m going for budget tyres next time as I don’t think I’ll notice any difference in performance or life. Also this is the second set of tyres worn equally back and front which makes replacing them even more painful!

 

[t6blo]

More messing about under the passenger seat for my audio upgrade…

Eventually settled on this solution - plywood and right angle brackets bolted through existing holes in the top of the seat base on either side.

The Audison SR5.600 and the Helix DSP Mk2 Mini fit OK and I’ve tried to do some cable management, used ferrules and fused the amp power at both ends and the 12v ignition supply at the add a fuse and just before the Helix.

Still no ETA on the subwoofer enclosures so am abit stuck now but still got to look at the DSP software and amp knobs as I haven’t adjusted anything yet.

Somewhat disappointed that I now can’t fit the rear plastic seat base cover because some idiot put a bit of plywood in the way.

Also can’t get to the amp controls with the seat in place either.

And I’m not happy with the gauge of speaker wire I have used to bring the high level speaker outputs from the headunit - it is too heavy which means the ferrules that fit the wire are too big to fit into the screw terminals on the DSP and vice versa

So I might end up ripping it all out and starting again….

 

[dandan88]

More messing about under the passenger seat for my audio upgrade…

Eventually settled on this solution - plywood and right angle brackets bolted through existing holes in the top of the seat base on either side.

The Audison SR5.600 and the Helix DSP Mk2 Mini fit OK and I’ve tried to do some cable management, used ferrules and fused the amp power at both ends and the 12v ignition supply at the add a fuse and just before the Helix.

Still no ETA on the subwoofer enclosures so am abit stuck now but still got to look at the DSP software and amp knobs as I haven’t adjusted anything yet.

Somewhat disappointed that I now can’t fit the rear plastic seat base cover because some idiot put a bit of plywood in the way.

Also can’t get to the amp controls with the seat in place either.

And I’m not happy with the gauge of speaker wire I have used to bring the high level speaker outputs from the headunit - it is too heavy which means the ferrules that fit the wire are too big to fit into the screw terminals on the DSP and vice versa

So I might end up ripping it all out and starting again….

View attachment 220306

View attachment 220307

i thought you had a signature setup from absolut5 ?

 

[Ali-G]

Nice tidy looking work though.

 

[t6blo]

i thought you had a signature setup from absolut5 ?

No, I bought all this stuff myself.

Have (currently) got a VW Composition Media head unit and Alpine SPC-106T6 upfront with some Alpine 6x9s in the back.

(am eyeing up a Halo9)

 

[LBird80]

Added the wing decals.

 

[Drive Wayne]

More messing about under the passenger seat for my audio upgrade…

Eventually settled on this solution - plywood and right angle brackets bolted through existing holes in the top of the seat base on either side.

The Audison SR5.600 and the Helix DSP Mk2 Mini fit OK and I’ve tried to do some cable management, used ferrules and fused the amp power at both ends and the 12v ignition supply at the add a fuse and just before the Helix.

Still no ETA on the subwoofer enclosures so am abit stuck now but still got to look at the DSP software and amp knobs as I haven’t adjusted anything yet.

Somewhat disappointed that I now can’t fit the rear plastic seat base cover because some idiot put a bit of plywood in the way.

Also can’t get to the amp controls with the seat in place either.

And I’m not happy with the gauge of speaker wire I have used to bring the high level speaker outputs from the headunit - it is too heavy which means the ferrules that fit the wire are too big to fit into the screw terminals on the DSP and vice versa

So I might end up ripping it all out and starting again….

View attachment 220306

View attachment 220307

As my dear departed dad would say, "if in doubt, pull it out", still not sure what he was talking about....

 

[Taggiss]

Hi, the bumper was from travlin-lite. It was meant to be a bundle but due to stocking issues I ended getting the gloss inserts from Transporter HQ (upper) and Vee-dub (lower). I thought the price seem pretty competitive from travlin-lite and happy with the quality too.

Great mate cheers - I’ve been holding out due to poor weather

 

[n10n]

Blocked the grilles, both upper and lower, for winter. This allows the engine to heat up quicker and helps to avoid coolers and breathers from freezing.

 

[tomek12]

Blocked the grilles, both upper and lower, for winter. This allows the engine to heat up quicker and helps to avoid coolers and breathers from freezing.

View attachment 220352

Where did you get cover from?

 

[archersam]

Blocked the grilles, both upper and lower, for winter. This allows the engine to heat up quicker and helps to avoid coolers and breathers from freezing.

View attachment 220352

I was wondering where you were from to need to do this, then clicked your profile - enjoy the Finnish winter

 

[Trouts]

I was wondering where you were from to need to do this, then clicked your profile - enjoy the Finnish winter

ha did exactly the same!!

 

[gvicker1]

Finished fitting the Eibach suspension and some Devonport wheels.

 

[n10n]

Where did you get cover from?

Couple of years back from a local Finnish car parts shop. Not sure if these particular ones are available internationally but at least Heko makes hard shell covers - search for ’T6 Heko winter’ on ebay

I was wondering where you were from to need to do this, then clicked your profile - enjoy the Finnish winter

Thanks! To be fair these are most useful when it gets < -15° or so, which we only get like two or three weeks in winter in southern Finland. But they don’t really hurt anything and can be kept on until about +5°, I’ve used something like these in all my diesels over the years.

Edit: also the covers stop salty slush and grime from getting to radiators so might actually prolong their life a bit

 

[bmc054]

Followed the dpdt light switch mod and added a USB to the pillar

 

[BuilderJay]

Washed and ceramic detailer sprayed.

 

[tomek12]

Washed and ceramic detailer sprayed.

View attachment 220409

View attachment 220410

What ceramic stuff did you use?