The Van

Tuesday, 24 April 2012

Wednesday, 18 April 2012

Solar power 

My solar panel arrived this week, it's a 100 watt one.I was hoping to be able to fit two this size, but after laying it on the roof it looks like it's going to be very tight, so may have to get a square shaped one.I just need to get a charge controller and make some brackets to fix the panel to the roof,update to follow.

Sunday, 15 April 2012

Raising the tray.

Also managed to finish raising the shower tray ( as mentioned in an earlier post ).This was achieved by cutting some lengths of 3x2 and some 12mm ply.The tray & toilet are now 60mm higher and the cassette slides out easily. I need to remove the tray later to fit the wast and water pipes.
The picture shows the tray in position and also the wardrobe nearly done and the blue fresh water tank in situ.

Wiring

There's no big bits to bolt on this week, so I decided as it was raining on Saturday, to run some cables. I will mainly be using CBE switches and sockets, and gauges. I started off by fitting the tank gauge loom.The wast tank is under the van o/s and the 70L fresh water tank is going to be under the kitchen unit on the n/s.the kit comes with a tank probe for fresh and two studs to fit to the waste tank.It cows with it's own loom, with is quite long and plugs into the switch. This means that you only need a live & earth feed.

I've decided to fit most of the gauges and switches above the sliding door.Cables for the pump/main light switch have also been installed there.Under the floor is feeds for toilet flush and oven / Hob ignition.The picture is of the other ends of them exiting into the fuse box area.

Sunday, 8 April 2012

First UK camping.

We went to Devon on Saturday and camped out at one of our favourite wilding sites on the way home.It was a good time to try out the bed, we are using a blow up mattress until I purchase a proper memory foam one.
The fridge is great! Just like the one at home .
Temporary fitted the toilet (no flush yet though).We've also decided that we need another window at the end of the bed, so another large hole needed  .
Everything seems to be working ok, need to sort out water supply next.

Sunday, 1 April 2012

Wet room.

Loverly and sunny again in Bournemouth .Didn't go away this weekend, it's still really difficult to get fuel without queuing for ages,why do people panic so much?

Decided to make a start on the wet room on Saturday.First job was to put the shower tray and toilet in place and check on removing the cassette through the access door.After a bit of shuffling and bits of wood, I need to raise the tray and toilet 60mm. This will ease the removal of the cassette.I fitted the access door as low as possible without cutting into the plastic trim strip.

The thetford tray with cut out for the c200 series toilet has provision to be trimmed and made smaller in width and length.I have cut 20mm from the length and 60mm from the width.This was necessary to pull out and remove the fridge if needed.The frame work is 18x44mm soft wood, it will be faced with 3mm decorative ply later.It's coming along quite Nicely, just need to add some more noggins and finalise the door opening size.

No more wet floor.

Every time it's wet or there is a heavy dew and you open the sliding door, the floor gets wet! To overcome this there is Dripstop. It's basically a rubber gutter with 3m sticky tape on the back.

Fitting is quite easy as long as a few easy tips are followed.When the Dripstop is delivered ( 2m length in this case), it's rolled up. When you unravel its all kinked and twisted.I opened it up and straightened it as much as possible

Before fitting Mark a straight line on the van where you want it to sit.I left the gutter on the roof for a few hours as it was very hot and sunny. This made it a bit more plyeable. The trusty hot air gun was still needed though to make it even softer.Make sure it's well sealed to the side of the van ( there are two seams on mine which may need a blob of silicone), no rain yet but quite a heavy dew last night and a dry door .