Engine preheater

As the vehicle may live in countries with a very cold climate, an Eberspächer D5W Hydronic engine preheater provides kindness to the engine.

GPS

Unless you earn your living on roads, travelling from one specific location to another, GPS's in cars which rarely travel beyond the limits of the driver's home base are toys. GPS's in travel vans which trek countries with maps that are at best inaccurate, and at worse, non-existent are essential navigational tools.

When finding your way back through unmarked villages on dirt tracks at night, a GPS is the difference between advancing and going around in circles. On some foreign roads on which I've travelled with the GPS (not in the FC101), no downloadable GPS maps were available. However, the bread crumb trail gives confidence that you are going in the right direction, and lets you go retrace your steps safely if required.

The GPS fitted in the FC101 is a Garmin GPS-Map 176C. The vehicle's vertical windscreen restricted the GPS's satellite-view, so an external roof mounted antennae was installed. For a power supply, it is connected via the ignition to the vehicle's battery through a delay-off timer. This prevents having to continually turn on the unit after the ignition was turned off, yet prevents the unit remaining on continuously when the vehicle is parked up.

At the time of purchase, the Garmin GPS-Map176C was one of only a few units which had a large colour screen, and with sufficient road-based features. Most GPS units of this screen-size are designed for marine use.