OK, I've had a chat with Neil, and an email exchange, this morning. To clarify, the postage cost is now £60+VAT for everyone due to a £20 increase in insurance to improve the cover as a result of a recent loss in transit. Neil has made a decent offer to us of £1000 including VAT and carriage for the Late Bay kit, and £1030 for the Early, if we can get 5 orders. If you want to take this up, I suggest you send me a PM with your name and which kit you want. If we get five takers, I'll collect more details and pass them on to Neil, with your permission, and we can go from there. Mods, if you want to move this to a new thread in another section, please do so. PS. The carriage cost for the UK.
This will explain it https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/25464794...-T95-YYQsy&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
That certainly explains very clearly why the Litesteer kit is worth the extra £ What a chuffing mess!
But a cheaper alternative if you’re not flush and don’t mind fettling. More importantly it roughly explains the process and there are people on here more than capable of making that!
Sure and I could too but it looks like an unavoidable bodge up to fit that particular kit. No automatic speed control, welds and ugly brackets (not included). My van is rather neat and tidy and I don't want to let that standard slip nor do I want to be continually manually adjusting it. The more I think about it the more the Litesteer kit seems worth the extra in terms of ease of fitting, tidiness and auto speed control. I take your point that you could save money this way but...
You can pick up Corsa pas columns for under a £100 if your going to DIY it, so all your getting for the extra £200 in that eBay kit is some wire and connectors, and that naf power control switch. All well and good if you have the skills, but it’s no comparison to the ready made kit from lite steer. Each to their own and all that. Some folk think nothing of spending a grand on fitting blingy wheels, that make their van handle worse..
I made one very similar for my Westy but didn’t use it in the end as I swapped the van for the LT. I sold it on very easily. I was going to do an how to but lost the pictures to the photobucket fiasco. I think it was a corsa motor and control unit and the knuckle connectors were machined by a mate. Tbh it was simple and would have cost about £100 all in including a few electrical items and brackets.
I paid £35 for the corsa psa, machining £30, a few bits of steel for stabilising it and some power control switches. It’s a very simple thing and tbh that’s basically what litesteer started out doing. They have the money to posh em up a bit now and good luck to them, I was content with what I did im not fussy that it would have looked like that because 12 years ago there wasn’t a great deal of option.
Average typical van owners have changed over those 12 years haven't they? Even if they are the same people they're generally better off. Well, I am and have changed too. I have the time to go the cheap Corsa route or perhaps a slightly smarter version of the ebay kit but... I just can't be bothered. lol Meanwhile I'm self hacking the narrowboat, I pick my wars these days instead of doing every single thing myself. I'm looking forward to a morning fitting a smart looking kit that someone else has designed and seemingly keeps improving rather than a week farting about designing it mechanically and probably tearing my hair out trying to work out the speed sensor bit. I probably wouldn't bother at all if that was my only option. I knackered my shoulder a couple of weeks ago and couldn't manoeuvre the van for a week and that's what's nudged me in this direction. Hunching under the dash trial fitting and adjusting things has lost it's appeal too, my back doesn't like that.
I get the need for it I really do. When I got my first van in 78 I never even thought about power steering or my first articulated lorry a few years later but god I’m glad I have it now!
with the diy corsa motor don't you have to weld the column to get it fitted? .. where the LS version is a new entire replacement column- seems like good value for money tbh also i wouldn't want to have to turn a resistor up and down everytime i wanted assistance.
Advancing years, Steve ... I'd be wary of something like the Corsa bodge up. The motor in electric PAS is quite capable of ripping the steering wheel out of your hands at 70mph if the controller goes a bit barmy. I'm not sure the "my mate down the pub stuck something up the CAN bus port and it seems to work" would be quite what I'd want. Hopefully LiteSteer are a bit more diligent. I'd be willing to pay a few bob more not to have my bus somersault over the barrier on the M3...
Not really. You want assistance at low speed only so you'd have to set it every time you changed from low to high speed and from high to low. Power assistance at high speed is freakin dangerous.
You don’t need it at high speed that’s why they’re controlled by the ecu in modern cars so as they turn off at certain speeds!
Any thing done to a Bay could always be done differently - it just depends on how much time and effort you want to spend doing it. For example, I could have machined my own pistons, barrels and heads vs. buying ready made.
I know that, it's exactly why the ebay adjust with a knob one would be half-arsed. You're the one who said you would adjust it once then leave it.
