[Perfect Windows]

Good point. And the maths is the same: if you're on the EV tariff and you heat the water with the immersion heater, again you're looking at about £1.50.

One of our guys had an immersion heater fitted and, with an inch of Celotex insulation, it would stay warm enough all day.

Vin

[the king]

a immersion heater sounds ok but running a thermo pure would be better as you get much hotter water im not sure if they added to leisure batterys as a buffer to the main van battery ?

[the king]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8uveArWkhc&t=31s&pp=ygUYc3RyZWFtbGluZSBkaWVzZWwgaGVhdGVy

[Perfect Windows]

Another thought. Charging the van battery and running a 3kW immersion at the same time would add up to about 50 amps running through your house wiring. Not insignificant and worth checking with the sparky fitting the EV charger.

Vin

[windowswashed]

Extension lead for van has a maximum of 3150 watts fully unwound but 720watts coiled on reel for a 13amp extension lead which would start a house fire as the lead would melt for sure if running 3kw immersion heater and that's without using a battery charger.

[AuRavelling79]

Extension lead for van has a maximum of 3150 watts fully unwound but 720watts coiled on reel for a 13amp extension lead which would start a house fire as the lead would melt for sure if running 3kw immersion heater and that's without using a battery charger.

When I had a 3kw element I used a 16amp caravan socket.

But when I changed tanks I went for 2kw and reverted to standard 13 amp plugs.

[AuRavelling79]

Another thought. Charging the van battery and running a 3kW immersion at the same time would add up to about 50 amps running through your house wiring. Not insignificant and worth checking with the sparky fitting the EV charger.

Vin

Yes. And if you are future proofing you might want to consider that your house might be supplying two EVs (van and family car) and an immersion.

Always check with a qualified electrician.

[Ched]

Another thought. Charging the van battery and running a 3kW immersion at the same time would add up to about 50 amps running through your house wiring. Not insignificant and worth checking with the sparky fitting the EV charger.

Vin

Quite often the sparky installing the EV charger will ask the DNO (Distribution Network Operator) to install a 100Amp supply fuse it the incoming cable is of sufficient size.

[Perfect Windows]

So, yesterday was crunch time.

Set off at 5:30 to reach Cleevely Motors in Cheltenham by 8am.

They dropped the battery out in about 45 minutes then the fun started - basically they left the vehicle on one of their ramps for us to work on it.

Above the propulsion battery the Vivaro floor is pretty flat but with a few braces running across it.



On top of the battery is all this. The middle set of hoses is roughly where the bulkhead sits.



So the fun is fitting the spreader plates and associated bolts under the floor such that they aren't over the wiggly coolant hoses in the pic above and (obviously) are on a flat, brace-free part of the underside of the floor. But for 16mm, it should all have been so simple. However, it wasn't. The problem was a brace rather than a hose. After a huge amount of head-scratching we came up with a compromise, so our rear spreader plates don't have a central hole, they have one 16mm off centre. However, given it's a 100x200x10 plate, that's not going to be a problem.

All in all, fitting the tank cage and all the rest took five hours but it's done.

Now just to refit all the other crap that goes in the back of the van...

Other thoughts.

Still an utterly lovely van to drive.
Motorway miles absolutely hammer the range. 170 indicated miles turned into 135 despite sticking to 60mph.
Country roads mean you get as many miles as you're expecting
Town driving, you have more miles than the indicator tells you
Driving down from Birdlip into Cheltenham (a five mile drive) not only didn't use any electrons; it added six miles of range
We added 100 miles in about 20 minutes at a high speed charger. Cost us £33. Hopefully the last one ever (see next point).
At home we added 100 miles (our weekly maximum mileage) overnight via our new EV charge point. Cost us £3.50.
Today's UPS, DPD and Amazon deliveries (various bits for filling the van with crap) were all electric vans.

That's all.

Vin

[Perfect Windows]

Final fitment was a nightmare. The last two spreader plates, the ones I mentioned that had holes 16mm off centre, took a day and a half to fit. The problem was that the holes were half on single skin floor, half on double skin floor, with weld between. Drilling them took every bit of ingenuity we possessed and almost everything abrasive in our toolkit.

After that, all went swimmingly. Because of the potential complexity of charging a leisure battery from the main one, we've decided to use our Lithium leisure battery straight connected with a bench charge at the end of the week. That drastically reduced the amount of wiring we had to do.

First day out today. All good bar one leak from a fitting I hadn't tightened enough. Shortish day covering a handful of miles. Longer test tomorrow with a trip to our most distant area (a 35 mile or so total for the day).

Van hasn't caught fire yet, which is lucky.

Vin

[AuRavelling79]

Final fitment was a nightmare. The last two spreader plates, the ones I mentioned that had holes 16mm off centre, took a day and a half to fit. The problem was that the holes were half on single skin floor, half on double skin floor, with weld between. Drilling them took every bit of ingenuity we possessed and almost everything abrasive in our toolkit.

After that, all went swimmingly. Because of the potential complexity of charging a leisure battery from the main one, we've decided to use our Lithium leisure battery straight connected with a bench charge at the end of the week. That drastically reduced the amount of wiring we had to do.

First day out today. All good bar one leak from a fitting I hadn't tightened enough. Shortish day covering a handful of miles. Longer test tomorrow with a trip to our most distant area (a 35 mile or so total for the day).

Van hasn't caught fire yet, which is lucky.

Vin

Thanks for the comprehensive updates.

[Perfect Windows]

A week done.

In the coolish weather we've been having this week (sunny but cool) in Southampton, we've run three and a half days.

With a bang full tank, plus a cage and two of us we're pretty much up at full weight. Effect on range? We do almost exactly 2/3 of what the van's range tells us it'll do. So it should be what we hoped for, namely one charge a week.

Still as lovely to drive as ever and still fun away from the lights. Customers seem to love the silence as we arrive.

One very weird effect. Must have been there all the time but the sloshing from the water tank is amazingly loud.

Vin

[tlwcs]

A week done.

In the coolish weather we've been having this week (sunny but cool) in Southampton, we've run three and a half days.

With a bang full tank, plus a cage and two of us we're pretty much up at full weight. Effect on range? We do almost exactly 2/3 of what the van's range tells us it'll do. So it should be what we hoped for, namely one charge a week.

Still as lovely to drive as ever and still fun away from the lights. Customers seem to love the silence as we arrive.

One very weird effect. Must have been there all the time but the sloshing from the water tank is amazingly loud.

Vin

Keep the water sloshing, you need it to put the fire out!
Thanks for sharing.

[Ched]

A week done.

In the coolish weather we've been having this week (sunny but cool) in Southampton, we've run three and a half days.

With a bang full tank, plus a cage and two of us we're pretty much up at full weight. Effect on range? We do almost exactly 2/3 of what the van's range tells us it'll do. So it should be what we hoped for, namely one charge a week.

Still as lovely to drive as ever and still fun away from the lights. Customers seem to love the silence as we arrive.

One very weird effect. Must have been there all the time but the sloshing from the water tank is amazingly loud.

Vin

I would say the weather has been warm enough for batteries to work at their most efficient. I find winter (less than 8DegC) the range drops by about 20%. If you can charge just once a week that's great, although having a charging station at home is nice :-)

The torque is quite amazing on electric vehicles - it's not until you drive one you realise how 'peaky' petrol and diesel engines are.
It's surprising just how quiet and vibration free ev's are. You hear things that you never did due to the smooth silent drive.

[Soupy]

Massive U turn from the Sun.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/34437995/cybertruck-elon-musk-bills-tesla-motors/

All of a sudden EVs are the future.

[Perfect Windows]

Massive U turn from the Sun.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/34437995/cybertruck-elon-musk-bills-tesla-motors/

All of a sudden EVs are the future.

Crawling to Musk might not be the wisest move just at the moment.

Vin

[Scottish Cleaning Service]

I was wondering the result on the van's 3 year manufacturers warranty once we drill holes in the van's floor?
I was told the warranty is null and void once we modify the vehicle. It would be good to know the law and I will be clarifying it with my VW dealer before I buy. Any info most welcome.

[Soupy]

I was wondering the result on the van's 3 year manufacturers warranty once we drill holes in the van's floor?
I was told the warranty is null and void once we modify the vehicle. It would be good to know the law and I will be clarifying it with my VW dealer before I buy. Any info most welcome.

Never had an issue.

Not had any large claims though.

[AuRavelling79]

I was wondering the result on the van's 3 year manufacturers warranty once we drill holes in the van's floor?
I was told the warranty is null and void once we modify the vehicle. It would be good to know the law and I will be clarifying it with my VW dealer before I buy. Any info most welcome.

Never had an issue.

Not had any large claims though.

How did you fix tanks in your electric vans Soups?

[֍Winp®oClean֍]

I was wondering the result on the van's 3 year manufacturers warranty once we drill holes in the van's floor?
I was told the warranty is null and void once we modify the vehicle. It would be good to know the law and I will be clarifying it with my VW dealer before I buy. Any info most welcome.

I'd be more concerned that the crash tested installation is now invalid as the testing wasn't on a vehicle with a massive, heavy battery also attached to the chassis directly under the tank. Plus, it has been removed, slightly modified and refitted by a none authorised installer. The original supplier/installer would run a mile in the event of any accidents causing injury!