LDV Commercial Range

It depends on which particular version of the G10 you have. That’s because, around this time, LDV offered three different engines in vehicles badged as G10s. There were a pair of petrol engines – one turbocharged and one without a turbo – and a turbo-diesel. Both the turbocharged petrol and the turbo-diesel used a timing chain, while the non-turbo petrol (which had a capacity of 2.4 litres) used a rubber timing belt.

As such, the two engines with timing chains should not need maintenance in this area, while the 2.4 petrol’s timing belt will need to be replaced at whatever intervals LDV specified. Workshops dealing with these cars seem to recommend a belt-change interval of five years or 100,000km, whichever comes first.

This is a curly one isn’t it? You stand a decent chance of returning the info screen back into English, only if it’s already in English so you can drill down into the menus in the first place. You might be able to flick through the menus until you find the word 'English' (start in Settings if you can decipher even that much). Perhaps the owner’s manual gives some insight into how the language is set.

But, honestly, the quicker way is likely to be to take the vehicle to an LDV dealer and have somebody familiar with the menu system sort it out for you.

It’s tempting to think that this might happen every time you change or disconnect a battery, but who knows? Equally, it could be a glitch within the car’s body computer that controls the dashboard and many other functions in a modern car.

I can understand why LDV is staying a bit quiet on this one. The fact is, you’ve modified the vehicle from standard, and LDV has absolutely no idea of the exact changes you’ve made. That makes it very difficult for LDV to comment. You’re probably going to get a more informed opinion by talking to the company that carried out the camper conversion. They may have seen this happen before and have a solution ready made.

As for the actual problem, even though you’re still within the Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) limits, you might find that the weight of your conversion is not evenly spread across the front and rear axles. Placing heavy stuff at the rear of the van will inevitably compress the rear springs. It’s just a question of how much. Don’t forget to weigh the vehicle with all your camping and gear on board and the fuel and water tanks full, too, as this is how you’ll be travelling. Which means loaded up like that represents your real GVM.

Possible solutions include a firmer set of rear springs that will cope with the load better, or even a set of helper springs (possibly air bags) to assist the standard springs. Either way, these modifications need to be carried out by a specialist and may even need engineering approval to remain legal on the road.