does cd/radio reduce the travel distance and weight idea

[sticks]

hi all ,

just wondering if power for the radio/cd/ electric windows/ciggy lighter are taken from the travel battery or the one under bonnet as at the mo ive got the original tape player fitted and no code to unlock it so i was gonna install a cd player,

also i was wondering ,i saw someone had converted their berlingo van into a people carrier and on their project pics it showed the guy took out the rear metal floor and said that all berlingo vans are fully carpeted underneath the rear metal floor,so surely its gotta be worth taking the metal floors out and using the standard carpet to save on weight,
has anybody done this and is it worth it as i dont think a metal floor is worth having as you cant put anything heavy duty in there ,well you can but you wont get far

[ChrisB]

All the ancilleries are taken from the 12v BUT this is charged via the traction battery via a DC-DC convertor, so yes it does use power from the traction battery but TBH its not enough to worry about, the most power consumed is the power steering pump, but even thats nothing really when you look at the traction motor gobbling up a potential 15kw
I've not found any real difference in range at night with all the lights on etc compared to the day, rain makes a slight difference due to friction on the tyres.

Re the floor, I think you've got it confused with the bit behind the seats, that bit is carpeted, the actual load space in the berlingo is just the metal floor and it IS pretty heavy duty, I know as I sling 160kg of deisel genny in the back when I'm going somewhere where theres no power the other end and the floors fine

ChrisB

[timpootle]

i saw someone had converted their berlingo van into a people carrier and on their project pics it showed the guy took out the rear metal floor and said that all berlingo vans are fully carpeted underneath the rear metal floor

I guess you are looking at http://www.berlingo-e.co.uk/ , which is a very good website with lots of useful information. As Chris has said, Robin (who wrote that website) was talking about the rear seat footwell, which is carpeted on all Berlingos.

Tim Strutt, up here near Buxton, has also removed this section of floor with a view to fitting rear seats. He told me the job was not so straightforward has he had thought, with the floor held in places he had not dreamed of. This is only a concern if you are anxious to do a neat job - there is nothing an angle grinder can't shift ;-)

Regarding the load-carrying capacity, one of the design criteria for the van was to maintain full loadspace and full weight capacity from the diesel version (500kg). It was designed for delivery jobs around a city, where range is not an issue and there are seldom hills to worry about. Us driving them as essentially private cars is well outside the design brief, and we should be surprised that they perform so well.

[Flying John]

Its fairly simple, you want a spot weld cutting drill, this sorts most of it out, the tricky ones are on the door pillar. Once split with a chisel the whole panel lifts out to expose a partly carpeted footwell ready to install the seats for the rear seat passengers.

[sticks]

Does the floor weigh much as I'm only thinking of shedding weight to increase distance,and cheers John recieved them parts,just waiting for abit f good weather and time

[Flying John]

What you take out is about 18 inch wide x width of the van 3/16th pressed steel plate, doesnt weigh a huge amount a few pounds maybe.

If you are not going to do the seat modification then dont bother. It will make the loading area of the van shorter and what you save in weight isnt really worth the effort.

Get yourself the seats on ebay or from a mobility garage that rips seats out of Berlingo Multispaces to make space for wheelchairs.

Should only cost 50 -100 quid for the seats.

John

[ChrisB]

Rob "did" have a set of rears here viewtopic.php?f=14&t=577 but it was a while ago now and he might have found a buyer

ChrisB