Camper Van Conversion

We took our first trip in the van this weekend, camping near Scarborough, and going walking in the North Yorkshire moors.  The Van is still not finished however, but enough of it is now done that a lot of bits now work.  So how did in go I hear you all cry, well quite well.  All the systems I've fitted gas/water/electric all did what they where supposed to-do, and did it well.  There where some small inconveniences, but they where all of the category of things I did not pack, like no tea towels for dry dishes etc.  So I've got a number of small things to buy for the kitchen to keep permanently in the Van. The idea being that when we want to go some where, the only things we need to pack is some food, and clothes, not have to remember to pack things like pans, tin openers, wooden spoon etc. 

The only big problem was that the bed is just not very comfy.  The odd thing is, as seats they are very comfy, but when the form a bed they are not completely flat, all the little raised areas force you to lie in odd positions, so you don't sleep that well.  I think it can be worked round by using the odd pillow, and a mattress topper.  I guess I'll soon see as we are going to the lakes for a few days walking, so I'd best get it fixed by then, or my other half won't be pleased.

I've been doing a bit of work over the last few days, the part of the kitchen unit that hold the gas bottle now has a door.  I've also started tiling the kitchen wall, it turns out tiling is a bit harder than I thought but it seams to be going well. 

The door was a bit of a pain to sort out, it might not sound like it would be tricky but there is one thing about the van I bought that is not obvious. There are no straight lines in the back of the van, it gently slopes towards the front, and is slightly wider at the back than the front. This means if you install something that is exactly level, or square, it just looks wrong. So we built all the units in such away that they mach the slope of the van. So this means the doors can't be exactly square, hence making them takes longer than you would think. I can now see why a camper van normally has a square body.

Once again my van failed to start this morning. Having fully charged the battery only two days ago, it would tend to suggest that the battery had died.  It's the original battery came with the van so it's 6 years old, and has not been treated too well lately, so it's death was to be expected. This afternoon I replaced it, however it did cost some what more (£98) to replace than the one in my car. The replacement seams to have done the trick, and it seams start some what quicker than before. 

This was the last day so it was time to make good the work done so far, It was time to glue down the now flatter carpet.  The carpet glue absolutely stank, we had to open all the doors and windows and still the fumes where quite strong.  We did not glue down all the carpet, as we've not exactly worked out where the bathroom walls will be, so the carpet in that rough area got tacked down.  I also glued the first bit of wall lining fabric in place on one of the wall, as my dad pointed out it would be very difficult to put the lining fabric on in one place when the seats where back in place. We then fitted the seats back in place.

With only two days left and this day not being a full day, I decided not to work on the bathroom as there is no way it would get finished before I left.  So we started to fit the carpet, so first we had to remove all the seats.  Then most of the day was spent cutting the carpet to the right size and shape, but as it had been sitting in a role in the garage for 5 months it was not laying flat, so we put some weights on it and left it over night.  We also fitted all the locker doors on the kitchen locker and started work on the cover for the water boiler, also all the fire safety stuff got fitted as the gas is now connected.

The day started by me working on the water tank filler pipe again.  The next stage was to get a hole in the side of the van for the filler cap.  There are proper hole cutting tools but they are very expensive so I don't have one, instead I had to do it the slow way.  I drilled a collection of holes in a circle, then used a side cutter to cut through the thin bits of metal between the holes, I then filed out the hole to the correct size.  This whole process took about 2.5 hours, but once it was done I fitted the filler cap, then connected the hose to the tank.  Then all that was left to do was connect up a pipe between the tank and the pump. Once that was done I had a fully working water system.   Work was finally completed on the second locker, and we fitted it into the van.

I spent most the day working on the plumbing, started off with fitting the filler pipe for the water tank.  The plan is to get a filler cap on the out side of the van then run the filler pipe through the inside of the van though the floor to the tank.  I started by cutting the hole in the floor, basically I drilled a number of holes in at circle the used the dremal to cut between the holes, the once again used the dremel to grind away the ruff edges.  Unfortunately that's when the shaft of the dremal snapped stopping me from cutting the hole in the outside of the van.  With that plan down the spout, I set to working on the rest of the plumbing a few hours later the plumbing was done.  I then tested it by putting the supply pipe in the bucket full of water, put the drain pipe in the waste water tank then switch on the pump.  Much to my surprise water did not come shooting out of every pipe, there was in fact only one small leek, where the pipe connected to the water heater.  All it need was to replace the jubilee clip with a less rubbish one and all was water tight.  While I was doing the plumbing Dad pressed on with building the second lock cabinet doing quite a professional job.  The last part in the day was spent varnishing again, and putting an edging strip on the counter.

Well I've taken some time off work and I'm back at my parents working on the van.  Looking back on the day a lot has been done, but some how it feels like I should have done more.  The first half of the day was taken with traveling, but after that I got down to work.  I spent most the day insulating the exposed bit of metal in the van (rust is bad).  I also got all the holes cut out in the ply wood for the switches, and plug sockets etc, and got them all fitted and wired in.  The wiring took quite a bit longer than though it would.   When my Dad got home from work (he as a new part time job doing accounts for a carpet firm) he set to building the frame work for the second locker cabinet, and clad the bottom of it.  We both spent a while varnishing it, and left it to dry over night.

Today was the day the van was going to the gas fitter to get the gas appliances connected.  There was however a small problem in that plan, for those of you who have been reading the blog you will know that the van's battery has gone flat at an inopportune moment before. Well it went flat gain this morning, meaning I had to wait for National Breakdown to come out and jump start the van. The problem is I'm not driving the van very often, so it sits there for quite a few weeks in freezing weather with out me driving it round and the battery goes flat. The obvious solution is for me to simply drive round more often, but it's not the most fuel efficient van in the world so I rather not drive it round for the sake of it. So I'm going to get a solar powered trickle charger to keep the battery topped up while it's parked, so hopefully this will be the last time I post about a flat battery.

As the van goes to the gas man soon, I spent part of the weekend wiring up the heater, cooker, and water heater.  That way the gas fitter can test the appliances properly, and check they lite correctly. I also decided to bite the bullet and order an awning for the van as well. I was not entirely sure if I should get a awing or not, as I would have to take it down if I want to take the van off the camp site during the day. However I found there are a few awning designed for motor homes/campervans that are designed to be left up while you drive away. So I decided to buy one, I went for the suncamp travel cabin it's 3m square so it's quite a lot of space given the price, and makes for a good space for being social.

At last I've found someone who has agreed to do the gas fitting Bessacar Services, after trying to find some one to do the work for about 3 months.  So on Tuesday next week I will finally have the gas appliances connected up so I can cook, and not freeze during the night because the heater will work, and hot water will be nice.

I've been trying to find a gas fitter to connected up all the gas appliances in the van.  Only corgi registered fitters are allowed to carry out such work (and I'm certainly not mad enough to try), but not all corgi gas fitters have done the training to allow them to do LPG work, and of the few of them I've found, non of them do work on mobile installations.  Corgi are of very little help when it comes to finding such people, and so far Google has not turned up much of use.  Finally I thought I had found some one who could do the work, but if turns out they can not, but they did know a place that does.  This is not the first time I've followed such a chain but hopefully it will turn out to be the last.

Over the last few months I've not done anything on the van, only plan for what to do in March when I take a few days off.  However today with it not being frozen, snowing, raining, I finally did some work on the van.  Not much work but some, which is quite an improvement on the situation of late.  I basically fitted some hinges on some doors, and started to insulate the roofing struts.  I've used the flooring under lay type insulation as it's thin and provides a water proof barrier.

The reason I insulated the roof struts was not to prevent heat loss, but to keep warm water vapor away from cold metal. As water vapor and cold metal equals rust.

Due to having to fit building this camper van around my job rather than the other way round, I have to split the work into blocks.  I normally book a few days off work, before or after the weekend, travel to my parents and spend those days and the weekend working solidly on the Van.  In the next month or two I plan to book of another few days to work on the van again.  So I have to plan what I'm going to do in these few days so as to get the most out of the time spent working on the van.  I'm hoping to take a trip in the van in the none to distant future (get some return of the effort so far), so my next block of time is going to prioritise that.  So my plan is to finish of the water system, and cupboards, fix all the wall plywood in place, and fit properly all the switches and sockets.  If any time is leftover I'll fit the bathroom walls in place, and carpet the floor.  I know the carpet does not seam that important but it will make the van warmer, and keep the noise down while I'm driving.

 On the subject of noise while driving, one of the first things you notice about a panel van compared to a car while driving is the noise.  It's really noisy, basically your driving a large steal drum, with no acoustic damping what so ever.  Then when to take out the bulkhead between the cab and the back it gets even worse.  When I added insulation to the walls for the first time that made quite a difference, and extra insulation I've added over time has also made a small difference.   However its still quite loud.  This is hopefully where carpeting the back will help, most the noise is now road noise, rather than air hitting the walls of the van, and at the moment the only thing between the inside of my van and the road is some thin sheet metal and some thickish ply wood that makes up the floor.  None of these materials in known for their sound insulation properties, fortunately carpet is rather good as acoustic insulation.  So I'm quite looking forward to the day I fit the carpet and my van get quieter, and I can turn my radio down and still hear it while driving.

After struggling to fit the water tank and freezing in the attempt.  I decided to get a garage to fit it, I know it's a bit of a cop out but they have a pit so it's a lot easier for them.  So I arranged for twigg brothers to fit the tank, which they did quite a good job.   So now all I have to do is run all the pipes and fit the filler cap and the water system is more or less done.