Working on my 2001 Nu Venture

[SandraM]

As long as you have enough for your needs Martinez then time is so much more valuable.

Until you have that time you really don't appreciate how much you miss out on, especially as JimBro says, things like watchng his grandchildren growing up

[JimBro]

I should have said in my last post that I am still underpaid and undervalued but I am now not seeing someone else getting rich due to my endeavours.

[Martinez]

No kids n no grandkids. Just my Maggie, the house, the van, the Pug, the Marcos, the Ducati and the Indian. Not necessarily in that order of preference !
or in that order of attention required either. But I’m free

[Martinez]

I’ll tell you what else is free, the bloody weather, you can keep it! When will it stop raining ?
Mind you, on the other side of the world it’s on fire !

[Martinez]

I’ve started work on fitting new seats up front. Spent 2 days cutting n welding the passenger seat base to allow for the fact that the 2016 Berlingo seats are taller and I wanted to keep the tilt up option to allow access to the water tank. So 2 days wasted. No matter how much I reduce the base height the new seats are still too tall. Got Maggie to try out the seats but her feet don’t reach the floor ! So back to the drawing board and looking like loosing the flip option and keeping the front to rear sliding adjustment.
Ah well, I had to try, and not given up yet so may return to this job at a later date if access to the tank becomes too difficult.
Bloody hell its cold out there !
The good news with these seats is unexpectedly that the seat belt tensioner from the old seats fit these seats. They’re in a different place but they fit and the covers that fit to the sides of the seats fit over them without modification. Winner winner !
The drivers seat may be a slightly different issue as it has height adjustment too. Not that I need it, but good for the vertically challenged. The new seats are also much more comfortable and as mentioned previously match the colour I’m doing the interior.
Just a note about insurance. Your insurance company may not be happy if you modify your van in any way, and most seat conversions I’ve seen are a codge job. They may also want an engineers report or just refuse to insure you, so be prepared.
The madness continues !
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[Martinez]

Day out to Pwllheli. By train unfortunately
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[Owd Bob]

Nice place & views but not much in the proper shops dept' the market was a let down even in the height of summer.

[Martinez]

Yes, the 2 hours until next train was just that, a 2 hour wait and nothing to see or do !
And no drinks on train getting back. 4 1/2 hours on a train in the dark is a long journey !

[gasgas]

Well I managed to sort the rear lights out. It’s worth cleaning the connectors properly every year as these things are exposed to the weather unlike most vehicles where they’re inside in the dry. Here’s my tips for doing it yourself. You’ll need a pozi 2 screwdriver to remove the 8 screws, a pencil, some fine grade abrasive paper (I used 280 grade wet n dry) and some long nose pliers.
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Here’s one of them unclipped from the lens unit. There are 2 clips that hold it in that you’ll need to unclip then put the lens somewhere safe.
Next remove the bulbs, a little wd40 will help free them up if they’re stuck. Be careful if they’re very stiff as if they break you could cut your hands.
Next remove the clips that hold the contacts into the metal housing.

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These come out easy enough by squeezing the 2 plastic tangs inwards and pushing them through to the rear.
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Then take a piece of the abrasive paper and wrap it round the end of the pencil. You can now use this to clean the contacts and the holes where the bulbs fit. Take care that you clean the contacts along their length as they are slightly rounded inwards. Hence the use of the pencil although anything else of a similar diameter will do. Also, make a note of where each contact fits or you’ll get in a right tizz when nothing works right.
And clean the metal parts of the bulbs too just to aid contact. And that’s about it. No more dodgy lights (well for a while anyway !)
I’d suggest you consider fitting a strip of that draft seal stuff along the top edge of where the lens meets the body to keep the water from running down the rear and into the back of the light units. It’s available from most cheapo shops for around a £1
Jobs a goodun!

Yes, after many years of fixing faulty lights on customer's cars whenever I get a new camper or car the first thing I do is remove all the lights, take out the bulbs, clean all the contact areas and put them back with coppaslip grease to prevent any further corrosion.

[Martinez]

Ah well, it’s nearly out of the way now. No, not the camper, the 25th !
Anyway, I’m back to trying to complete the seat conversion. My final fitting has the seats moved around 80 mm forwards of the original brackets and with a slope of 30mm rise at the rear down to 10mm front.
This gives more movement forwards and raises the back enough to miss the floor of the van at the back. Also gives better access behind the seats, and allows the backrest to recline more.
Maggie can now sleep whilst I drive. I’ve lost the ability to flip the passenger seat up, but the fixing bolts are more accessible if I need to take the seats out for any reason. Also, the slight angle reduces what is quite a large slope to the seat bases.
if you fancy updating your seats to the later Berlingo ones I can provide basic measurements. Just need to do the drivers side now, but now I’ve got the sizes right so I can soon get that sorted. The drivers seat also has height adjustment. Dunno if it’ll be any use, but it’s there if I need it, oh and an armrest ! Luxury eh ?

[peterholden]

Having had the M49 Berlingo carwith the sliding passenger seat and an M59 based Romahome with the tipping seat I can cornfirm that it is not possible to have a tipping seat that is adjustable. We are stuck with the tipping seat as our leisure battery lives under ther and so a sliding seat would not work. Howeve with a bit of fiddling I have managed to increase the size of the leisure battery to 120 amphour.

Peter

[Martinez]

Having had the M49 Berlingo carwith the sliding passenger seat and an M59 based Romahome with the tipping seat I can cornfirm that it is not possible to have a tipping seat that is adjustable. We are stuck with the tipping seat as our leisure battery lives under ther and so a sliding seat would not work. Howeve with a bit of fiddling I have managed to increase the size of the leisure battery to 120 amphour.

Peter

I’m afraid that’s not correct. My passenger seat had slide adjustment and it flipped up too. I’ve not yet totally given up on making a flip up seat, but for now it’ll do.

[Martinez]

You’ve all heard I’m sure of tales of soldiers in WW1 who were saved from a bullet by their fob watch or a bible in their pocket, well I’ve got something 21st Century that saved me
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my iphone !
ruined my overalls though

[peterholden]

With the seating arrangement in our 2007 Romahome it cannot be done otherwise I would have done it however the backrest on the passenger seat folds flat. My driver's seat has been modified using the backrest adjusting mechanism from a Renault 5. It is operated by a lever instead of a knob, much easier to use.

Peter

[Martinez]

Don’t know much about Romahomes, but Berlingos come with either the fold flat passenger seat or the fold flat and flip seat. As the seat bases are welded to the frame underneath they’re almost impossible to modify. You either get one with a flip seat or not, they all fold forwards. The issue with the Nu Venture is the need to access the water tank behind the passenger seat. It’s a problem I’ll have to figure out