LuDVig - great name!

After all these years that I owned this LDV, I had not come up with a name for it.. And then my friend Ken gave it the name LuDVig. Brilliant! So finally this LDV has its name. 

Last Pictures before the sale

I have removed my stuff and the clutter from the camper, so that it is ready for sale.

Sad to let it go, but my new camper project requires all my attention an resources.

Here are the pictures which I also put on the ad.

The outside:

Inside the living area:

Curtain open:

Curtain closed:

The kitchen:

The compressor fridge:

From the back: storage under the bed:

12V power (solar and battery) panels:

Seating in the passenger cabin:

The entrance steps:

Entrance steps covered:

Rear seat bench:

Accessing the gas bottle:

Looking good:

This LDV 400 Convoy is now for sale

Sad news: I will sell this wonderful vehicle. Since I got the Renault Master Luton, it makes no sense to keep two (resp. three) camper vehicles. So the LDV must go.

Here is the ad on Autotrader:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/van-details/202307159688850?postcode=LS71BD&advertising-location=at_vans?lid=ut8joeq6rd8l&utm_source=product-service&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=at_braze_vans_web_email_api_daily_paygo_first-time-live&utm_term=vans&utm_content=

I will still add more pictures. Need to empty the camper, remove all my personal stuff. Then it will unfortunately have to go. Hopefully it will find a happy owner, who will appreciate this wonderful fun vehicle!

Solar installation

Looking down from the window of my flat I can see the beautifully and professionally done cabling of the solar panels on the roof. :) 

The Camper on Google Maps!

When checking my address in Germany on Google Maps, I saw that the camper is in the satellite view!

Here is the screen shot:

It is from the time when there were no solar panels yet on the camper roof; just the roof skylight can be seen. Must have been May or June 2022 - or earlier.

Camper is fit again

The fuel line had a leak, which allowed air into the fuel system. Furthermore, the fuel filter housing was damaged with a crack, letting more air in. Priming did not help, the fuel pump would still draw air in.

Now this has been fixed. The fuel filter cover which I ordered for a MK6 Ford Transit engine did fit well. There is now a new fuel line. And the van runs just fine. 

Another problem

Glad to have the LDV on the road again, the starter works fine, it starts now every time.

But then another problem occurred: Just leaving the M621, Exit 4, I stop at a red light. When the light turns green, I let the clutch come too harsh, and the motor dies. And then it does not start again!

I had to call KD Bros, to tow me away from that motorway exit.

Next day they told me that there is a air leak at the fuel filter cover. The cannot find any dealer who sells these, so I go to eBay and find one. Now the part is with the shop, am waiting to get the van back.

Starter problems - and welding

For a while now, at least since the beginning of 2022, the starter did have some problems: it cranked fine, but often only made a loud cranking noise, without the teeth of the cog wheels engaging. This happened a lot when the van would stand on a slight uphill slope. For some reason, standing at a downhill slope seemed to be better - the problem almost never occurred then.

This problem was especially annoying when being in the mountains, far away from a repair station, and the van cannot be started. So in October 2022 I got a new starter. This did fix it for a while. But after a few months the same problem occurred again.

After the shop examined the problem deeper, it turns out that the flywheel is completely worn. So it needed replacement, together with replacement of clutch etc. Quite an expensive repair - cost me GBP 1600. But now the van has a new clutch and starts every time like new. So it was probably worth fixing it. I had to fix the problem if I wanted to continue driving and using the van. This problem seems to be a recurring problem, just wear and tear, after the 80,000 miles that the van now has.

There was another problem that occurred one year ago: at the driver's entrance, the metal under the step was corroded away. The metal bar under the plastic step cover just broke off, all metal completely rusty. So since then I only entered the van through the passenger side. But now as the van was in the shop anyway, I did let it get fixed too: welding at the driver side entrance step. Another GBP 400.

So after spending GBP 2000, the camper is now again in good shape. Ready for some action during summer.

Fixing solar panels on the roof

Until now I have hesitated to install solar panels. But now it is about time: I want that the refrigerator runs continuously to provide cold drinks. 

Got a electronic solar regulator from Amazon, then ordered 4 flexible 100W panels.

First the roof needed to be cleaned.

Then I placed the panels on the roof. I did not want to drill holes, nor did I want to permanently glue them onto the roof... So I used white duct tape to attach each panel at its borders onto the roof surface.

The panels are connected in parallel with Y-connectors.

The panels provide enough power to fully charge the two leisure batteries 

Some cosmetics: fixing rust holes

The vehicle body has a few rust spots, and I could remove material by scraping it off. Ugly holes were left over.

I filled these holes with some filler, then painted it over with black.

 The result is ok. Not very pretty nor very durable, but at least the rust is kept away.

Correcting the color mismatch of the rear tinted windows

For the two rear windows I had accidentally used two different tinting foils: one had a reddish tint, another a slightly greenish tint.

I did remove both and used the one with the slightly reddish tint to have a consistent color.