kevin the chicken

You don't have to spend a great deal of money to get a good van, my wife wanted a particular layout which was not the most popular and we picked one up for a grand. We could have moved in and gone on holiday straight away. It came with a telly,hook up lead,awning,pots and pans,crockery,water containers in fact everything we needed plus some we sold on. Sometimes family circumstances or space becomes an issue and people need to move stuff on in a hurry. We did use it once or twice then had it serviced and last year we probably went away in it seven or eight times including a trip to Devon. If its a few years old then expect little things to need replacing now and then but there are plenty of parts available cheaply on the Internet. As with everything else you get what you pay for and I don't have large amounts of money available to sit around the garden while the children are bashing stuff against everything. Spare money is for kits!

Changed my 14 inch alloys for 15 as there was virtually nothing available ithat size. There is plenty of choice and they are cheaper than the less common sizes. I got four federal 595 rsr for less than 70 quid each delivered and they came from holland!

The duck is right, you may get one that is close to the weight but that is before you put anything in it. Do some research on model weights and then work out what the stuff you will put in it will weigh. I know only too well how much clutter two small children demand. On a positive note our 5 berth was a lot lighter than we expected and came in under mam and obviously under gross train weight but above all is safe and stable to tow

Whoops. I meant vivaro, the peugots are low roof but long wheelbase and are called expert I think

Avoid fiat, royal mail bought hundreds of them and they may be economical but they spend a lot of time in the garage. One of ours had a problem with the brakes and the workshop have found so many things loose and out of alignment that they are insisting it has been in an accident . The Peugeot that has replaced it is less economical and seems gutless for a brand new modern vehicle. There is a lot of roaring from under the bonnet but not a lot happens at the speedo. The best van we have is the vauxhall movano as in earlier posts. Nothing has fallen off, it has a good payload and goes well. I couldn't say anything about mpg as it does a lot of stop start motoring but it seems reasonable

Does it have a separate ecu or control module other than the one that controls the engine? The range rover mark 2 (land rovers fastest depreciating model ever!) suffers a similar problem due to the body electrical module not hibernating or even being woken up by Bluetooth, phone signals or other radio waves. It is a cause of battery drain and a flat battery causes fault codes on things that are ok, mine was showing gearbox fault the other day. I plan to leave a trickle charger on it all the time when I get an outside socket installed. Maybe this is a route your son in law will have to go down too.

We bought our two rechargeable remote control helicopters designed for indoors and they are brilliant! It says for 14 years and up on the box but my two at ten and six are really good with them, managing to land them wherever they want.

Strange because the private plate on the motor I have just bought was transferred over in less than two weeks and when I posted off my slip from the log book it was less than two weeks before I got the new log book back. When you factor in the time it has spent in the post that's not bad service. Credit where credits due! It is frustrating when you can't use a vehicle because you are waiting for paperwork though. Mind you today is not a good day to be on the road around here, I have already been out on the fire engine to three accidents passing a further one on the way and having a rather large opposite lock moment ourselves on black ice on a road we shouldn't have been on due to an incorrect address being given.

Might be easier to pop a v8 in than mess about with electrics!

Glad to see you've got your priorities right. Have a good christmas!

I'll have a look at that as soon as I can get the kids off the wii! At least they are racing ferrarri's

After all the cursing and name calling, the new registration number and log book was back with the owner in just over two weeks so that wasn't too bad. Well done DVLA. I am now the proud owner of a 1997 Range Rover which drives beautifully. A 70 mile drive home was enough to make me reasonably confident that it was ok and that there were no faults other than the ones I was aware of. Just need some snow now.

How are you going to fix it to the floor?

I have just bought an old Range Rover for myself as a runabout for when the weather is too bad for the kit (no wet gear) and the wife is using her car. I now have to wait for the owner to sort out his number plate transfer which is a pain in the butt. His mate has bought a new car and he has bought his old one and now I am stuck waiting for my car to be issued with a number plate, either its original before the personal plate was put on it or a new one if the other is unavailable. Anybody know how long this is liable to take? Is there any other way around it? I thought about trailering it home but it weighs too much for the other car and my Unimog is off the road. I'm afraid that although the chap I bought it off seems a genuine sort of bloke he doesn't seem to have much idea about this sort of thing and he's already had the paperwork sent back once because of a mistake and obviously DVLA rather than phone up would rather delay the whole thing for another week than ask a simple question by sending all the paperwork and the payment cheques back which doesn't help me. How I miss the local DVLA office, nothing was too much trouble and letters always came back by return post!

My Unimog has a leaky hub and when I checked the oil level in the hub there were lots of little metal flakes meaning that the final drive gears have gone and need replacing. When I checked they were a grand for each side. That's a proper ouch. Needless to say its been parked up for a while. I did wonder if a specialist gear maker could custom make me some, got to be cheaper than Mercedes ones if it was possible.

Lucky you. Havent had one day where I have been able to go out when there has been good weather since mot day at the end of october. Think I will be sorning it next year.

Mine is slightly different again to the one in your last post. The cap is of the top turret type where the leads exit toward the bulkhead. I was told this was a dizzy conversion from a mk 2 cavalier. Magnecore made some custom leads up for me. Works very well

I used Pickles because they were the cheapest and they have only gone up by less than a tenner in the last two years. Sent me a renewal letter, phoned up and paid by card, job done.

Quality!

Made my day. He is a worthy winner, would have been wrong if he had lost due to the double points score after winning 11 races. Roseberg was gracious in defeat too, must have been hard to give that post race interview. Next season should be a cracker

Did you get the copy I sent you Mick?

Good news that you managed to put it out without too much damage and without injury to yourself. Webers can be a bit leaky if the gaskets are in poor condition or if too much fuel pressure is used. If you are using an electric fuel pump then maybe a fuel pressure regulator would be a good idea. Should be no need for one with the mechanical one though. Although there was a leak there must also have been a source of ignition for a fire to occur. If it wasn't due to spitting back through the carbs then check all the electrics, even the ones not near the fire as fuel vapour has a habit of spreading a lot more than you might think and it could have flashed back from a point well away from the carbs. Having said that if you are still building then you should know your electrics are up to scratch so that should narrow things down for you.

Yes I mean tachograph

Good point, I will check that before I do anything. If anything though that may make things easier if its so. Surprised its not air operated though, everything else is!

Three? theres a couple more I didnt mention so I can always find one that starts. No they are all reliable if you use fresh fuel and look after them. I must admit though i will have a look at the leccy ones as that would mean I could start sawing earlier in the morning without upsetting the neighbours.