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Old 12-15-2015, 09:06 AM   #101
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After calling Webasto tech support and leaving messages with no response. I finally.found instructions for the altitude adjustment over at TheSamba.com on this page scroll down to the last two posts.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/vie....php?p=7496330

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Old 12-01-2016, 11:28 PM   #102
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I guess I haven't been doing a good job of keeping this thread updated. So here is what has been done since my last real update.
I finished the trim panels around the back doors. Baltic birch shaped and joined to match the curves and then wrapped in vinyl.





I picked up a set of interior trim panels for the barn doors. No windows so I made a panel out of Sintra board covered on one side with vinyl and reflectix on the other to fill in the window space. The sheet medal was first covered with the foil and foam insulation. I picked up a set of junkyard doors with windows, but I need to do some paint and body work before they go on. (Low priority). I also added a small LED light on the door that works for outside light when the door is open and provide light for the sink cabinet when I get to that. We tend to use this little light a lot when we don't want the bright overhead lights.




I made some panels to cover the upper half of the rear doors. Same construction as the side doors except I was out of grey vinyl so I used some grey carpet instead. This was a last minute addition before leaving for a trip and I was trying to get all the insulation and bare panels covered up. I will possibly change these to grey vinyl at some point. They are attached with Velcro strips.
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Old 12-01-2016, 11:29 PM   #103
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I got the heat exchanger all plumbed up with silicone heater hose so the hot water is working. I used an ACDelco 15-5533 Heater bypass valve tapped into the heater hoses to control the coolant flow through the heat exchanger.


This valve is controlled by a switch on the dash.

While I was at it I added the radio switch you see next to it. This is a Double Pole Double Throw (DPDT) rocker switch. It switches the radio between startng battery and house battery. In the down position the constant and key on power are both connected to the radio as normal, when it is flipped up they are both switched over to a circuit off the house battery. This allows the radio to be used while parked with out using the starting battery or needing a key in the ignition.
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Old 12-01-2016, 11:31 PM   #104
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The van has been working great and my wife and I used it a lot this last winter. I spent over 60 nights in it traveling for skiing and I have put over 15k miles traveling in it. During February and early March I lived out of it for a month, 2 weeks with my wife. This trip took us through seven states, British Columbia and Alberta. We hit twelve ski resorts, spent several days backcountry skiing, and got some heli skiing in BC. The best part was between the Powder Alliance and Mountain Collective passes I only paid for one $25 industry ticket at Whitefish.

We really had no agenda except for hitting Grand Targhee so I could compete at the Telemark Big Mountain Freeride Comp. We originally set out to hit some Northwest resorts, but by the time we got to Oregon most of them were getting rained on, so we headed inland through Idaho up to interior BC. We then went east to Lake Louise and then back down through Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah. My wife flew home from SLC and I went back up to Montana and spent a week around the Bozeman area before heading down to Grand Targhee for the comp. Then I spent a few days in Tahoe before heading back home. Pretty much we just went where the forecasts looked the best.
There was several nights below zero and I think the coldest was around -15F. The heater and insulation kept us nice and warm and I was able to keep the water system filled the entire time.





Gas prices were great compared to Calif. especially around Idaho
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Old 12-01-2016, 11:32 PM   #105
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There was a few problems along the way. I was having some issues with the webasto gasoline heater. It would work for a while but it build up a bunch of carbon and eventually fail to ignite. I have made the altitude adjustments, but it still seems to plug up after about 4 weeks use. I first had issues with it in Tahoe in December so I cleaned it out and leaned it some more for higher altitudes. This lasted until early March towards the end of my long trip, fortunately it was warm enough to get by with out it until I got home. I cleaned it out again and leaned it out some more and it seems to be working since then. I think it tends to plug up when I set the thermostat to really low temps while I am away from the van. At these low temps it runs for such short intervals that it never really gets hot enough to run clean. If I only set it at higher temps it runs for longer periods of time and stays clean
Here is what the inside looks like before cleaning it out.



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Old 12-01-2016, 11:33 PM   #106
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The other issue I had and I still can't explain. A few times through the winter the van would flash a service engine light and go into reduced power mode. It would list 20 different codes that really had no correlation. I have the Bullydog tuner so I could read the codes and clear them and it would work fine again. This happened maybe 3-4 times over a month. Then while heading south to Jackson Hole it started happening more and more frequently. I went over every thing and couldn't find anything that would cause it. With the tuner I could clear it pretty quickly and keep moving so we setup an appointment at the Chevy dealer in JH but couldn't get in until the next day. They were nice enough to let us camp in there parking lot for the night. The next day we left it with them and took the shuttle to ski at JH. When we got back they couldn't get it to do it again and it hasn't happened again over several thousand miles and 5 months.
My best guess is it had a bad ground or connection somewhere, maybe some water where it shouldn't be, but nothing I could find. I even removed the tuner and restored the factory tune with no change. Maybe the dealer did something to fix it and didn't tell me, they didn't charge me anything.
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Old 12-01-2016, 11:36 PM   #107
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I had to spend a few days over in Bishop, CA to recert my WFR (wilderness first responder). Since I had to be there in classes for three days I figured we would make a van trip out of it. My wife spent the days I was in class roaming about the area around Bishop and went up to make some turns at Mammoth. The conditions were pretty thin firm snow. We had planned to do some more skiing after my classes were done but the conditions were not inviting.
So instead we went up to the White Mountains and stayed for a couple days and checked out the ancient bristlecone pines. We enjoyed the high desert and views of the Sierra crest from the side we don't see from our home on the west side.

Since a trip was planned I was motivated to get some more projects completed on the van. Funny how that works. So I finished up the last ceiling trim panel over the counter. I made it a small shelf and installed the inverter control panel and solar charge controller display on each end. I am hoping to get the roof rack built so the panels can go on soon.


I also got most of the door galley sink cabinet done, I didn't have enough time or parts to get the door on, but the cabinet is installed and the sink is mostly plumbed. I need a P-trap and have to run the drain back through the door and under the van. To make the cabinet fit tight I ended up cutting the middle out of the factory door panel I picked up. I rebuilt the middle section out of birch plywood and covered it with grey vinyl. This allowed me to put the cabinet closer to the door and bolt directly to the sheet metal. The plastic door panel sat a few inches off the door.



The 3/8" water supply passes from the body to the door using two 1/2" wire strain reliefs and is wrapped in split loom. The water comes from the shower mixer valve so it can be mixed hot and cold. This was to minimize the number of tubes passing out to the door. The faucet is a Watts drinking water faucet used on filtered water systems. The cabinet and counters are the same Alder wood and laminate as the rest of the interior. The door, when I get to it, will match the others with Alder rails and styles wrapping black King Starboard. It will hinge down to create a outside counter for using a single burner stove. I will likely laminate the back of the door with the same laminate as the counters.
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Old 12-01-2016, 11:37 PM   #108
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Here you can see how much the plastic panel stuck out. I ended up making a pie cut on the sides of the bottom piece, heating and bending it in, and then plastic welding the cuts back together.

Some more pics of the sink and the middle panel I took out.



And as you can see we got our first accumulating snow storm here at home and hope to be roaming in search of powder soon.
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Old 12-01-2016, 11:39 PM   #109
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Hinges finally arrived for the door galley, so I got the drop down door built and installed. Also moved the shower hose to the cabinet and lengthened the hose. Just need to run the sink drain line, the waterless p-trap I ordered didn't fit the sink drain. May just run without one for now.
Still trying to decide on a latch. The ones I have on the other cabinets and doors would stick out on the counter side of the door. Trying to avoid making the counter less useful. Fortunately the drop down supports keep the door closed for now.




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Old 12-02-2016, 10:38 AM   #110
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Your cabinet work is awesome!!
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