Dirty Harry's westy

Early Bay Forum

Help Support Early Bay Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Hi there Harry.

Did you have any problems with your engine (when it was still stock) running too hot? Is the 15" idea a bad one if you live in the mountains? I live in the french alps and I am getting more and more fed up with my lowered setup. I want to get more use out of my bus, riding some gravel pistes and such.
I would really like to put some General Grabber AT2s (27/8.50 R14) on my stock 14 steels.
But AT tires in 14" seem to be almost impossible to find in europe.
So if I should find splitty wheels in 15" that don' cost me my arms and my legs that would broaden tire search a lot. But does it make sense? Don't have the funds upgrading my engine at the moment.
 
No engine runs pretty cool actually, and don’t see a difference in temperature with the 195r14 tires in comparison to the 215/75/15 and i’m running the complete stock cooling setup with thermostat and flaps, the only non stock is the type4 oilcooler in a wider doghouse.

14ty68m.jpg
 
Hi Harry,

Not sure if my email reply has gone as it’s not showing in the sent folder.

I mounted the heater under the bus and made a splash guard for it. I don’t have a centre pipe in the mid section or heat exchangers, so was able to plumb the heater pipe into the old front section to utilise the totem pole controls, which works a treat, especially clearing the screen on rainy days.

Fuel tank is mounted behind the buddy seat/portaloo and the controller is mounted up front under the dash.

The only thing I may change is to draw air to be heated from inside the bus (perhaps a vent under the rock & roll) that way I’m recycling warmer air rather than trying to heat cold damp air from the outside, it’ll be even more efficient then also.

There’s some pics on my galley thread.

Hope this helps [emoji106]

Dave M


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Here are a few upgrades i did this winter.
First my solar power upgrade, i decided to go for the 120 WP foldable panel of the German company Wattstunde.

The socket is in the vent cover from the sink and the wires go trough the vent pipe to the controller.

The controller is under the sink and i made a little protection cover to protect the LCD display.


The second upgrade was fitting a diesel heater, i went for the Chinese 2 KW and i’m running it on kerosene.
I didn’t wanted any holes in the original laminate so i converted the magazine box behind the jump seat.
All this can be build back to original as i didn’t drill any holes other then the inlet in the side and the outlet in the bottom of the magazine box.
For the outlet i used the original fresh air vent and sockets from the dashboard to give it a bit of that OG look and feel.


The heater is located under the seat next to the battery.


The controller is behind the passenger seat.

The 5 liter tank behind the driver seat.

And the exhaust with cover when not in use.

This thing is absolutely amazing very quiet and puts out a awefull lot of heat at very low cost, mostly the lowest setting is enough and with the kerosene it burns very clean.
I also found a hella map light that i can put in my fridge socket where normaly my USB charger is, this is the original water tank filler that i converted.


Next upgrade thanks to Covid 19 and to be fully self-sufficient is a shower inside the bus whitout any drilling and completely foldable ;)
 
Very neat and tidy work as usual. Quite a unique solution to the ‘where to put the heater’? question. [emoji41]
I am sure the new solar panel will keep the battery topped up whilst the fridge keeps the beers cool [emoji481]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Very impressive work !
Plenty of thought and work has gone into your updates - especially the heater :)
 
Thanks guys!
My first plan for the heater was under the bus but the best spot was allready taken by the external brake booster so i went for this option and the magazine/book box was only to house the first aid kit and some magazines, first aid kit now behind the driver seat attached with velcro to the backwall and my little transitor radio fit’s nice in the new box with lid.
The foldable solar panel fits nice in the place where normally the sliding roof slides in place when opened on a the luxe bus.
For the vent cover that is now the socket for the solar panel i will draw a nice cover with o-ring seal to close the gap when the roof is opened and solar is not in use, i will 3-d print this cover.
It’s like a swiss army knife in progress, every now and then a new tool is added 8)
The knife is not done yet :lol:
 
Hi guys, i’m looking for a power steering system and it looks like the litesteer kit is the way to go or are there other systems out there that are worth looking at?
Shame these don’t fit with my rabambus parcel tray but i have a idea to overcome this.


Cheers, Harry
 
sparkywig said:
Neil at LiteSteer is a good guy, I'd use him personally.

Thanks sparkywig after a lot of searching today it looks like the best route ;)
I asked them today the question: what if the 12 volt power is interrupted, is the steering the same as stock or heavyer then stock?
 
Old versus new....
This guy from the UK did a serious offer to buy my bus, i thanked him and refused his offer ;)

 
We had a great 5 days in Bloemendaal aan zee,
the weather couldn’t be more perfect for the end of september.
The area was declared covid code orange 2 days before we left for Germans and people from Belgium who left in a hurry so we had the place practically to ourself :mrgreen:








 
Looks perfect, we had to cancel our trip last weekend when I had a bad reaction to a local anaesthetic.

Is that the sun canopy rubber from NLAVW? With the canvas sewn with an industrial sewing machine?

https://nlavw.com/free-gifts/255-sun-canopy-rubber-per-metre.html?search_query=awning&results=21
 

Latest posts

Top