Van crew - assemble

[blutarsky]

9 hours ago, Pear_Cider said:

Never mind that, what about the important stuff!! Is your Glasto CV fields sticker in place yet? 😂

Not yet - got to figure out what to do with it! Want it displayed internally so need some sort of Perspex pane, or maybe to put it in a frame. 

[blutarsky]

I’ve actually had a bit of a disaster this week. I had a gas engineer round to connect the job to our underslung LPG tank. It was at this point I realised I hadn’t plumbed a gas line to the water heater at the back of the vehicle, so no hot water on this trip as we don’t have time to rectify it before going. When I then tried to fill the LPG tank at a garage I discovered the filler valve appears to be faulty and that there is a leak on the tank’s panel, where my assembly was not tight enough, possibly because I didn’t use enough PTFE. 

The upshot is, no Gas tank, and no water heater. I’ve got the hob working by putting a calor gas bottle under the counter connected via a hose. 

Today the van is at a local auto electrical workshop to have the reversing camera fitted, the Voltage Sensing Relay connected and the central locking fixed. I opted to pay someone to do these jobs after spending half an hour reading the instructions and watching videos for the reversing camera and still feeling as of I had no clue how to even start. Obviously the central locking wants a professional too. 

I’ve now got 1.5 days I can work on the van before we go away, so the priorities are to get the water supply working for cold water, and to build cupboard doors for the kitchen. 

Over the past week I’ve fitted plastic panelling in the bathroom, having had to disassemble a whole wall and remove the toilet to get the panelling in, and rebuilt the wall. I just need to fit trim and sealant to the corners of the room now and it should be watertight.  

We also had a bit of a disaster with an awning. Bought a Quechua Base Connect Air Seconds XL one which looked great, but when it arrived we realised it didn’t have any beading attached to fix it onto a Kador strip and our awning rail (which I also still need to fit). As a result we’re taking a detour to a Decathlon to get a refund when we head towards Folkestone on Saturday, and are waiting on delivery of a different awning, an Olpro Loop Breeze XL. 

I haven’t taken many pictures of the van recently, so not much for you to look at, but here’s the LPG tank with the problematic valve circled, and a stock image of the awning we’ve ordered. 
 

[blutarsky]

We have water! 
Chuffed with this. 

A few hiccups along the way, mainly around needing to figure out how to wire the toilet and pump without instructions or a helpful video. Fortunately I got it right - although for 5 minutes I thought I hadn’t before realising I hadn’t put a blade fuse in the control board! 

Once the pump was operating I had a few more hiccups, namely these:

I had plumbed it back to front so had to disconnect and flip it round. 
Due to the issues with the water heater documented in my last post, the circuits were incomplete, so had to have a look at that - eventually resolved by connecting the hot water feeds to each other, creating a loop. 

The rest of today and tomorrow will be spent sealing the bathroom, building drawers and cupboard doors for the kitchen and fitting the awning rail. 

No time for anything else before we leave on Saturday. 

 

Edited July 28, 2022 by blutarsky
Typo

[Jay Pee]

1 hour ago, blutarsky said:

Chuffed with this. 

A few hiccups along the way, mainly around needing to figure out how to wore the toilet and pump without instructions or a helpful video

Whore or wire? It's important.

God work again..cap doffed mate 

[blutarsky]

The van in Paris - we made it. 

[Twiggy553]

Reviving this thread for 2023

who’s with us in the CVs this year?

[paulshane]

I'm in 🙂

 

Today is Day One of unhibernating my early 1980s 'Elaime' folding caravan.

A good scrub to start with:

 

A bit tidier 🙂

This is what it looks like whrn 'unfolded' :

 

 

I'll open it up some point in the next few days and evict anything thats made a home in it, then see what parts need replacing - it's a wood frame with ali panels glued on, but it's so old all the wood is rotted, so every year, some part of it needs fixing up.  Should be ready by June though 🙂

[Mich1268]

8 minutes ago, paulshane said:

I'm in 🙂

 

Today is Day One of unhibernating my early 1980s 'Elaime' folding caravan.

A good scrub to start with:

 

A bit tidier 🙂

This is what it looks like whrn 'unfolded' :

 

 

I'll open it up some point in the next few days and evict anything thats made a home in it, then see what parts need replacing - it's a wood frame with ali panels glued on, but it's so old all the wood is rotted, so every year, some part of it needs fixing up.  Should be ready by June though 🙂

I love those! I have serious caravan envy

[Paul ™]

Not us this year, though have just pitched up at our first working event of the year, Badminton!

This was our new set up last week on a test run 😁

 

[BlueDaze]

We will be in East Quiet this year… minus the annexe on the awning unless youngest daughter wins the co-op comp.!

 

[carlosj]

Another passed MOT, we'll be there in Quiet (except for my cousin's snoring!)

[Twiggy553]

Despite best efforts seem to have knackered another engine starter battery this winter. I was charging it pretty regularly but seemingly not regularly enough 😕

Just got one of these Solar battery maintainers from Halfords in the hope it’ll keep the engine battery topped up while not in frequent use…

[Skip997]

Here's some photos of my van refurb, Part 1 was removing the previous terrible fit out. As you can hopefully see the original windows were household UPVC, heavy and ugly.

Part 2, window replacement.

It's progressed a fair bit since.

@guypjfreak you might spot the back of a Bedford CF, which is currently off road due to needing an replacement engine.

 

[gazzared]

5 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Here's some photos of my van refurb, Part 1 was removing the previous terrible fit out. As you can hopefully see the original windows were household UPVC, heavy and ugly.

Part 2, window replacement.

It's progressed a fair bit since.

@guypjfreak you might spot the back of a Bedford CF, which is currently off road due to needing an replacement engine.

 

This looks more interesting than the actual Glasto build ...get a webcam setup 🤣

[Twiggy553]

32 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Here's some photos of my van refurb,

I converted a van recently, happy to give advice if anything puzzles you along the way 🙂

[ukmountie]

Here's my Bongo. I'll be bringing her this year if I can get some welding done and get down a list of MOT fails that fills half a page. Starting on the work I can do this weekend. 

Edited May 5, 2023 by ukmountie
Changed .png for .jpg so it would display.

[guypjfreak]

10 hours ago, Skip997 said:

Here's some photos of my van refurb, Part 1 was removing the previous terrible fit out. As you can hopefully see the original windows were household UPVC, heavy and ugly.

Part 2, window replacement.

It's progressed a fair bit since.

@guypjfreak you might spot the back of a Bedford CF, which is currently off road due to needing an replacement engine.

 

Nice old son.. 

We're picking up a piece we need for the engine.. Thermostat flange...????..tomorrow after watching the king.... I know where I have to put it lol but I've still got to get mine started.. Driven and ready for glasto.. Its been a nightmare year.. I just have to keep saying she's 43 years old done 10  glastos and will be OK.. 

Trouble is the fucking E10 petrol I left in but once going she'll be OK 

 

 

 

 

I hope lol

 

Good luck your end old son.. Gx

[philipsteak]

Might give my van a clean before the festival this year. Traditionally I only do that during national lockdowns, but we'll see. I have got a busy few weeks coming up though...

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

22 hours ago, Twiggy553 said:

I converted a van recently, happy to give advice if anything puzzles you along the way 🙂

Apart from price, would there be much of a difference in quality between your Halfords one, and, for example, this one (much less cost);

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353421482787?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853

It seems to me such an 'involved' / specialised area = solar power for vans etc

[Twiggy553]

3 hours ago, Yoghurt on a Stick said:

Apart from price, would there be much of a difference in quality between your Halfords one, and, for example, this one (much less cost);

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353421482787?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853

It seems to me such an 'involved' / specialised area = solar power for vans etc

I don’t know tbh. I went for the biggest one I could find (20W) because even though it’s only to keep the engine battery topped up, our street only gets sun in the mid afternoon so it won’t be charging all day.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

1 minute ago, Twiggy553 said:

I don’t know tbh. I went for the biggest one I could find (20W) because even though it’s only to keep the engine battery topped up, our street only gets sun in the mid afternoon so it won’t be charging all day.

Thanks for answering. I hadn't looked at the surface area of each. I'm bewildered by all of that type stuff. My campervan is off the road at the moment, but I don't even know how its electrics work, and it doesn't even have solar! I have dreams of having a converted Optare bus (one of the smaller ones) e.g.

 

In my minds eye, I would ideally like to complete the works myself - complete with solar, exhaust pipe heat retainer type things that heat your water etc. However, that is the stuff of dreams, when one can't sleep for days after changing an electrical plug. 

[BBC7BBCHEAVEN]

We'll be there this year, with the awning I bought immediately after Glastonbury last year as I was jealous of everyone else's space!

Van in a much better place this year as it was a rush job to be sleepable for last year's Glasto so should be comfort all round.

 

 

[Twiggy553]

2 hours ago, Yoghurt on a Stick said:

Thanks for answering. I hadn't looked at the surface area of each. I'm bewildered by all of that type stuff. My campervan is off the road at the moment, but I don't even know how its electrics work, and it doesn't even have solar! I have dreams of having a converted Optare bus (one of the smaller ones) e.g.

 

In my minds eye, I would ideally like to complete the works myself - complete with solar, exhaust pipe heat retainer type things that heat your water etc. However, that is the stuff of dreams, when one can't sleep for days after changing an electrical plug. 

I’ve got a 150w panel on the roof charging the leisure battery but that’s completely separate. Learnt all the skills from watching a lot of YouTube tbh

 

[philipsteak]

2 minutes ago, Twiggy553 said:

I’ve got a 150w panel on the roof charging the leisure battery but that’s completely separate. Learnt all the skills from watching a lot of YouTube tbh

 

Before buying my already converted van I looked in to doing my own. And I know YouTube is a great resource but just non of it went in. I'm a reasonably smart guy but it might as well have been in an alien language

[Twiggy553]

There’s a guy called Greg Virgoe, his van build videos are amazing