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What have you bought for your Cali today :-)

A brand new spare wheel and locking bolt because someone stole the old one on a recent visit to Legoland. :headbang

Received a very comforting email from them to let me know they are aware of the problem!

VW wanted £300, a big thank you to Benn who sorted me out with a new spare at 1/2 that cost. :thumb
 
Sorry to hear that gaby.

Have you considered a Sparesafe?
seems like the way to go, I am tempted to have both a Sparesafe and a locking bolt.
 
campandfly said:
Sorry to hear that gaby.

Have you considered a Sparesafe?
seems like the way to go, I am tempted to have both a Sparesafe and a locking bolt.

Sparesafe is designed to be used with a locking bolt. No point in having spaesafe without locking bolt as would still be able to get socket onto the bolt head & undo it.
 
Alas, this week it was a new sliding door after someone reversed into the side of our Cali, which we had only had for ten days! Needless to say no idea who did it and no witness. Parked outside my father in laws house in quiet residential street. The air turned very blue.....

Insured through VW, who have been brilliant, but the £350 excess really hurt. Still, returned as good as new so we went away for a night as soon as we collected it. The adventures continue, love it!
 
We plan to buy our COTF tickets this week, just need to decide whether to take the kids out of school and do the full four days. Really looking forward to it and being nosey round other peoples vans :cool:
 
Tom. One thing you have proved to any Cali user.... In 99% of cases, a hookup is not essential with solar. Not many users will achieve / exceed 140 almost-consecutive nights away in the van, including in Autumn / Winter!
 
Tom. One thing you have proved to any Cali user.... In 99% of cases, a hookup is not essential with solar. Not many users will achieve / exceed 140 almost-consecutive nights away in the van, including in Autumn / Winter!


Thats where you (and many others ) are wrong ....Tom just has proven that hooking-up is essential.
Everyone can perfect do without hook-up lead / hooking up at sites IF you drive every day or each two days .
But the batterys need to be charged on 220v for a 24h cyclus once in a while (each month would be ideal)
Driving/alternator does not complete this cyclus even if you drive 1000km a day .
You will do fine without hooking it up but it does bring down the lifetime of the battery.(Tom has proven this even having a solar panel )
If Tom had a hook-up lead when he took of at the start of his trip and he plugged it in each time when he was at a site that provided hook-up in the price (witch many sites do) he had not flattend his batterys , i think two times now .
The price of the lead could saved him the trouble he had when his batterys where dead , and saved him buying a new battery for his Cali after only one year(witch he probally wil need now to be sure ) , and using a 220v kettle a shorter wait for his tea in the morning:D
Fully flatten a battery is never good and again shortens the lifetime everytime you fully flatten it.
Even with solarpanels the batterys need to be topped-up on hook-up to keep them in the best posible condition.
Everyone uses his Cali he think is best , but some things need serious concideration and charging the batterys on 220v is a essential thing to do.


So back ON topic , what do you all need to buy for your Cali today (if you do not allready have it ) .....a hook-up cable like Tom just did.
;)
 
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Even with solarpanels the batterys need to be topped-up on hook-up to keep them in the best posible condition.
The information I have is that solar panels, with the charger I have, keep the battery in even better condition than hookup. Once the battery is charged, the charger goes into "float charge" mode, keeping the battery in tip-top condition.

My problem is almost certainly caused by my over use and abuse of the battery, and the panels not being able to keep up the charge, in particular, by parking under trees, by parking with the roof raised pointing away from the low winter sun, by short daylight hours, and by prolonged periods of dull weather.

I am confident that at the end of the Scandinavian and Baltic leg of our trip our battery was in near perfect condition, always showing full or nearly full charge.

Then we bought a 12v kettle to use up spare capacity on the occasions when we had pre packed our gas in preparation for an early start. We may have got away with it if we were still enjoying long daylight hours - but winter began.


Follow my blog: www.au-revoir.eu
 
@Amarillo
Ok , the solar panel can keep the bats. top condition if 100% ideal conditions .
But when is this 100% at all time ? You proved it....
Simply plugging in a 220v at a campsite is always 100% ideal conditions .

I'm pretty sure now having a hook-up lead , within' a few days a 220v ketlle and a small electric heater will be on your shopinglist .
 
I found my unfitted T5 mudflaps in their box today - I wonder if they'll fit my T6?
 
1BA723CB-BBD1-472A-980D-8BBAC2FB3238.jpeg As promised at the informal Dorset meet. These bags are really versatile, we have had our first one over 20 years ago and have bought from these manufacturers and the products are of the same quality, and made in UK. We really bash them around and have been used as Everything from boot bags, wet clothing kit, shower tub/bath tub for the littlest and the dog, booze bucket at parties...uses are endless and they squidge down!
They are called Kaboodlebag
kaboodlebag.co.uk
Two sizes (we have both) and our very old one has holes in the bottom which makes it useful in the garden if you don’t want buckets filling with water...
 
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