The All New, New "What have you done to your Bay today" thread.

Stuck fault code reader on Eberspächer heater, who declared his innocence. Noticed the leisure battery had run right down, charged him up, full toasty warmness now restored

Fitted USB charger, mainly to bung up large hole in dash. Does appear to charge, which is quite surprising.



Fitted Chinese lantern to rear.

 

Which lantern did you go for?

 

This one...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/20-LED-3rd-Third-High-Level-Mount-Brake-Turn-Stop-Light-Bar-Bracket-Car-Truck/333791181181?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Won't win any prizes for quality (I had to respray the rather flimsy brackets), but the light's actually ok. It's screwed to the base of the headbanger locker at the back, so no cabling running to tailgate.

 

Thusly...

 

welded up some holes


then stuck the top back on

and just for fun SLLammed it

now at least i can sand the roof without the need for steps.....

 

It's a funny old world Mark, what I look forward to the most by a big margin is NOT doing anything to my van.

My front seats need covering too but If I covered them I wouldn't be so happy to pile up the passenger one with sacks of coal.

 

Be a hipster and get them upholstered in used hessian coal sacks. Win win!

 

Not bad, my homebrew light was attached with rivnuts (a practice session) to the rear hatch at the bottom of the window, some spare two core Halfords finest oxygen free fine stranded speaker cable was used to power it.. Basically its a very flexible stranded cable and it was also the best thing for my solar panel feed up the side of the springs on the Devon poptop. It was also cheaper on a 10 metre reel than the stuff over in the electrical spares section.

 

Worth having I think, given the number of people who are determined to run into the back of my van. Classic Car LEDs stop/tail an improvement as well - much brighter/even than the standard jobs (photo doesn't really do the red colour justice).

 

It's a great idea! As long as I don't bang my bonse on it when looking in the back side locker. Might be a summer job.

 

Tucked quite well out of the way, so head-butting fairly unlikely. Fairly.

 

I'll grab a photo tomorrow, in the daylight, I wonder if the light would sit a the back of my head banger and therefore be protected from knocks

 

Would depend how low the locker is and how far back it goes. The "thickness" of the tailgate might get in the way. Mine's a version of the Devon locker (except I used a drill to make holes, rather than an old teaspoon), which is chamfered right up to the frame. Fits ok, tho'. Quite chuffed with it.

 

Can you provide a quick idiots guide on how to wire one of these in please?
Is it simply fed by one of the rear brake lights, if so how have you routed the cable from the original lights into the headdbanger

 

I've ordered one today so maybe a weekend job...all being well. There's 3 wires,do I need to use all 3 for just a brake light?

 

The thing comes with three connections (although seems to vary from eBay pic). Ground/earth (black) and two others. Taking one (likely red) to +12 turns the light on, taking the other to +12 makes it flash, which I'm not sure the MOT man would like. Mine had a separate small flasher box, which I chopped off, leaving just the red and black. You'll likely have to extend the leads to get down into the engine compartment. Black goes to a convenient earth, red goes to the brake light connection to the rear cluster (black/red cable). That's it, really.

The hassle is running the cable: I went up through a drilled hole into the locker base and across to pop out by the hinge. I already had a hole (previously bunged up) in the inner rear three-quarter panel put there by the PO. Don't know why, but quite handy. The cable goes through that, into the back of the air vent, then down to the rear light cluster wiring.

You may have to improvise. Worth doing tho', IMO.

 

Oh I like that! You may have already put a link up somewhere but what one did you fit?

 

^ up there

Not great, but it does the job.