It’s already March and only now do we get the first entry for the “Silliest Vanagon Mod of the Year Award”
I decided to relocate my fire extinguisher from behind the front seat to the stock westy location at the sliding door. Here’s an old pic of the behind the seat location.
It’s just a bit of pvc tubing mounted to the cabinet and really it worked quite well for years ( originally in my 82 westy and transferred to the syncro). But with the solar panel charge controller on the same cabinet face, making the connections to the portable panels was more awkward with the extinguisher there.
But the harebrain fairy must have visited me during the night, I ditched the pvc tube style mount and and went leather.
I’ve got a bunch of full grain leather off cuts, all different colours and none very large. So silly things like this use them up.
shooftie 
#1 by Simon on March 12, 2017 - 8:28 pm
Well, count me as one who loves it. I can smell the leather from here 🙂
But I hope the leather’s not too grippy, you wouldn’t want to be struggling to pull it out when the scenario-that-shall-not-be-named was happening.
#2 by albell on March 12, 2017 - 8:49 pm
Oh it’s tight, tight leather hugging the cylinder…
Hold on, I need a drink.
The way I figure it is, if I need it I’m going to be pulling it with some urgency 🙂
Ab
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#3 by daswolfgang on March 13, 2017 - 2:40 am
I have located my extinguished near the sliding door Alistair. Originally there was a bracket there which I assumed was for strapping in the buddy seat which is an optional extra for the westys in Europe. There is also a similar strap mount on the opposite side of the battery compartment. I haven’t got the buddy seat and didn’t want to go drilling holes for my extinguisher bracket, so I just removed the strap mount by the door and mounted it there. I like your bespoke cover. Very Pocahontas 😉
#4 by albell on March 13, 2017 - 7:44 am
Andy,
Over here westies came with a small extinguisher by the sliding door. That’s one of those assertions that is based on observation rather than full knowledge. They all seemed to be a small dry chemical unit and a flimsy plastic wall mount bracket. My van being originally a tin top never did have the bracket. Pocahontas? I was thinking of a completely different marketing approach…. “the Guardsman” 🙂
Cheers
Ab
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#5 by David McNeely on March 13, 2017 - 6:45 pm
My 1991 Volkswagen Vanagon GL Campmobile had the original flimsy plastic bracket and extinguisher that came in it new when I bought it in 2008. It was originally titled in Arizona. The extinguisher had no “oomph” of course, but was filled with a white powder. I relocated the bracket from the bulkhead in front of the sliding door to the back of the passenger seat pedestal. But now that location is only useful when the jump seat is not in place. The jump seat is not original to this van, but I found a seat and its mount, and installed it, including the floor receptacles for the legs.
#6 by albell on March 13, 2017 - 7:40 pm
Dave,
Years ago I had a slightly larger CO2 extinguisher on board. I used to to put out a fire that was on the dash of a hot rod roadster by the side of the Hwy. The owner too shocked to offer replacement and when I went to get the thing refilled the guy at the shop said it would be cheaper to buy a new one and he had an under the counter deal on a halon unit. So that’s what the blue cylinder is. The pvc tube mount worked really well behind the driver’s seat but as I said in the blog post other things started to encroach.
For what ever reason, I’m not a big fan of the dry chemical type extinguishers.
Cheers
Ab
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#7 by paul gordon on March 14, 2017 - 6:07 am
Alister, May I suggest the next prototype be a clear acrylic tube housing the extinguisher with multi-coloured LED illumination from the bottom. Very “hip” these days. Paul :-)))
#8 by albell on March 14, 2017 - 8:37 am
Well paul, I’ve read that colourful iridescent glass surfaces are the hot thing in architecture…
But no 🙂
Cheers
Ab
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