Jump to content

Cobblers's VW T25 Syncro Doka


cobblers

Recommended Posts

4 hours ago, cobblers said:

Diesel heaters are just ace.

Can I just ask you an Afterburner question - to operate it using my phone when I'm out and about, I think I have to put the wifi into station mode, connect it to a mobile hotspot with a second phone, then access it over the internet that way. I've done this sort of thing with a home router and port forwarding, so guessing it should be similarly straightforward, but I wondered whether I had to use MQTT (which I know nothing about!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, mat_the_cat said:

Can I just ask you an Afterburner question - to operate it using my phone when I'm out and about, I think I have to put the wifi into station mode, connect it to a mobile hotspot with a second phone, then access it over the internet that way. I've done this sort of thing with a home router and port forwarding, so guessing it should be similarly straightforward, but I wondered whether I had to use MQTT (which I know nothing about!)

MQTT is 9000 times easier than port forwarding, but like anything else on the afterburner, the documentation makes it seem harder than it is.

I seem to recall I followed a youtube video telling you how to get it to work, and it was all sorted in minutes. Roughly you go to the http://afterburner.mrjones.id.au/mqtt.html webpage and put in the ID of your afterburner and "broker.hivemq.com" then bookmark the page and now you have a webpage which controls your heater from any device on the internet, so long as the heater has some way of accessing the net (even if it's via port blocked mobile routers etc)

heres mine, I'm at home and my camper is 30 miles away at work with the afterburner connected to either the 4g router or the wifi at work depending on how close I parked to my unit.

image.thumb.png.07e6b81dc1042b00e779cf2789f7fefd.png

If it gets to 2.5c the heater will turn on in frost mode and warm the whole van up to 15c (I used to have it stop at 6c but then it would do three cycles a night, it's better off just getting it nice and warm and not coming on for the day)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, cobblers said:

like anything else on the afterburner, the documentation makes it seem harder than it is.

That's what's been putting me off! Cheers for that, must admit there've been a few times when it'd be great to come back to a nice warm van. Probably most of them outside any kind of mobile signal, but still...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quite curious about these diesel heaters.. are they a bit "all or nothing" ie do you get you van hot with them and then rely on insulation rather than keeping them ticking over all night? How much electricity do they consume? I guess the glow plug draws a fair bit? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As standard, they will tick over on minimum output all night, but with any remotely well-insulated van, the temperature will keep on rising. The Afterburner controller mentioned above will turn off the heater if this happens, and back on again if the temperature drops. Glow plug draws something like 10 amps for maybe 30 seconds, under 1 amp continuous on low.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What he said /\

They are roughly 700-1000w on their lowest setting, which can be too much for small vans overnight unless it's absolutely freezing. You can crack the windows open a little which is a bit of a waste of fuel, but helps dry the van out etc.

I like to sleep with the van pretty cold (13c) so In my big moderately insulated peugeot boxer I only really run the heater overnight when it's freezing or very close to, and I leave the roof vent open just a touch. 

When I'm up and plodding around in the van, I set it to 22c and it has no problem keeping that maintained accurately. The coldest I've camped is -7c for 3 days and the heater spent most of the  time on about 50-75% power. The warmest I'll run the heater permanently on is about 10c outside. 

The main power draw and noise is starting and stopping them, so you're better off wasting heat out of the window in order to keep it ticking over on low.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • cobblers changed the title to Cobblers's VW T25 Syncro Doka

Rotated the tens 90 degrees so it opened onto the bed at the back. Much better this way round, it makes putting it up and taking it down quicker, and I can tie the guylines into the load anchors on the back of the van, so it's all secure.

1352616708_2022-02-2613_39_43.thumb.jpg.0abd03c350b5a25bcdc4d25661d03d52.jpg

Takes 7 minutes to put up, 9 minutes to take down which is quite reasonable.
I'm pretty pleased with it. They do an annex that zips on underneath, but it's 2.1m high, I'd only need the top half of it but it would make a nice enclosed area to put my boots in, a couple of camp chairs and do the cooking.

Might give it a try tonight if I can find my thick sleeping bag!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

After driving for about ten miles with the handbrake on, my back brakes were totally shafted. Finally had a bit of time today to get em sorted. Quite a war getting the drums off, there is nothing to get hold of to pull them so I sent a tap in and wound them off. Worked well! 

20220402_132655.thumb.jpg.4ef33902f1e4ecd13e532aa215e37776.jpg

Drums were mint and have zero lip, but the shoes were very cooked. 

Did the fronts while I was at it. 

 

 

20220402_142116.thumb.jpg.1a498e2f6fde5f3b56aba145e26eb11c.jpg

 

Can't believe how much better the pedal is, it's like a different van. I've even put a new bulb in the handbrake warning light so I don't do it again. 

I've had an intermittent high idle, so I went round looking for air leaks. 

Look at this fucking mess! 

20220402_155603.thumb.jpg.22a1fecf2e14d21442f4b29108b539cb.jpg

Those vacuum pipes have been on there for two months! Supposedly din fuel hose! 20220402_155605.thumb.jpg.7bf80255636f4c0239ce2b6095b3811a.jpg

What a bag of shit, I'm going to give the seller a right gobfull. 

At last I've come away camping in it. Dropped on really well with the camp spot - I'm on a farm and the guy usually has one small field for campers, but since he's got no cows on at the moment he said I could go wherever the hell I wanted. So I went through the ford. 

20220402_183957.thumb.jpg.00d6cadd6a8c9f479fdf378d61a3f4e7.jpg

It's only about 18 inch deep if that. And here we are :

 

20220402_181803.thumb.jpg.a434a4f06085e90046bfb17fad3251a9.jpg

 

Views not bad either 

20220402_182315.thumb.jpg.6620315fbf39910024e425bafda3884d.jpg

 

I've got my long johns for tonight, it'll be minus two apparently. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It always surprises me how small the brakes on the T25 and LT are compared to the Mercedes T1.

IMG_20190422_162053.thumb.jpg.6dd793a5f0984653e47c56ccf4a563b2.jpg

Great to see the van being used properly though.  Really hope we get out with ours this year.  I do need to get to the bottom of why she's down on power though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, it was quite a cold one! My "definitely safe" chinese gas heater made my eyes sting and the condensation made everything wet, so I sacked that off. I won't be using it again.

1371441694_2022-04-0220_08_12.thumb.jpg.d84b2b5d7c955b6efa9df1a5d27d854c.jpg

Had the best nights sleep I've had in about a decade. 

837529214_2022-04-0308_04_42.thumb.jpg.cc706793f846cb152bcb3a0282b44bfb.jpg

 

Have you ever smelled a video? Well you'll be able to smell this one. Fantastic!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, cobblers said:

 

20220402_142116.thumb.jpg.1a498e2f6fde5f3b56aba145e26eb11c.jpg

Much better design than my early air cooled T25, the brake disc doubles as part of the hub and has the wheel bearing in it! Makes changing the discs much more involved! 🙄

looks like you’re taking good care of this one, nice work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All the 2wd T25s are like that as far as I'm aware, this has a different front hub setup because of the driveshaft etc.

I was worried brake parts would be tricky to get for a syncro, but they were all on the shelf at brickwerks. I can't really knock that place, they are priced reasonably and have good stuff in stock. 

Apparently there's a load of brake upgrades available that bolt on (both front and rear) so while I was tempted, it stops fine really and many of these upgrades would need bigger wheels.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, cobblers said:

All the 2wd T25s are like that as far as I'm aware, this has a different front hub setup because of the driveshaft etc.

I was worried brake parts would be tricky to get for a syncro, but they were all on the shelf at brickwerks. I can't really knock that place, they are priced reasonably and have good stuff in stock. 

Apparently there's a load of brake upgrades available that bolt on (both front and rear) so while I was tempted, it stops fine really and many of these upgrades would need bigger wheels.

I use brickwerks too, also use campervanculture.com they do loads of OE quality westfalia parts, but specialise in syncros and off grid camping stuff, really good service too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, mat_the_cat said:

Another vote for Brickwerks too, who are happily doing more and more LT parts. You can actually email them and get a prompt reply too, which is always welcome.

A lot of people are very upset that you can't ring them, but I 100% support them on this emails only thing. I'm trying my best to steer my business this way. The constant phone call interruptions cost me at least a few hours of productive work every day, whereas if it was all emails I could just schedule a couple of email sessions and get them all done in half an hour. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Makes total sense to me too. The time lost by switching focus to the call, or other interruption, and then getting your mind back to where it was before is far greater than most people seem to think. I've tried to encourage people to phone only if it's urgent, and then reply to my emails at the end of every working day when I could allocate time efficiently.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 20/02/2022 at 15:51, Fabergé Greggs said:

Quite curious about these diesel heaters.. are they a bit "all or nothing" ie do you get you van hot with them and then rely on insulation rather than keeping them ticking over all night? How much electricity do they consume? I guess the glow plug draws a fair bit? 

Glow  plugs surely only needed on start up, and within a few seconds the generator will surely have recharged the battery ? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • cobblers changed the title to Cobblers's VW T25 Syncro Doka and other 4WD VW transporters
15 minutes ago, garbaldy said:

Nice thread which I will keep looking in on now, are panels easily available?

This was First spot in the flesh and it wasn't exactly as clean as described.

20220405_172829.thumb.jpg.ed3f5b91ffcce1ba3fea67ddf68f3c0d.jpg

 

nowt better than a well used old van. Most panels are available, but a lot are klokkerholm garbage that seem to have been designed using google earth!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...