Van crew - assemble

[blutarsky]

Anyone have thoughts on fridges vs fridge freezers? 
For a 44/50L unit the difference in price between a fridge with and without a freezer seems to be about £200. The freezer section is generally fairly tiddly. I can only imagine using the freezer section for ice lollies and ice cubes for cocktails. Worth the extra £200 or not? Bearing in mind our budget is tighter than a Yorkshireman with the generosity kicked out of him. 

[eFestivals]

2 minutes ago, blutarsky said:

Anyone have thoughts on fridges vs fridge freezers? 
For a 44/50L unit the difference in price between a fridge with and without a freezer seems to be about £200. The freezer section is generally fairly tiddly. I can only imagine using the freezer section for ice lollies and ice cubes for cocktails. Worth the extra £200 or not? Bearing in mind our budget is tighter than a Yorkshireman with the generosity kicked out of him. 

A gas fridge is decent

[eFestivals]

A friend has a leccy fridge and says it works we'll with a solar pane to keep the batteries charged.

[deebeedoobee]

1 hour ago, blutarsky said:

😂 I was up with baby Blutarsky in the middle of the night - right over my head! A bit more subtle than the joke my neighbour made about washing the windows... 

Definitely putting an awning on. Thanks for the link on mobile WiFi, that’s really useful Neil. 

We have an awning on the side of our vw van. It’s a tent extension from Go Outdoors. You can get them for about £100 . Basically the back of the tent goes over the van and pegs down on one side. So it is slightly higher than the van and about as wide as the van. 

[guypjfreak]

1 hour ago, eFestivals said:

Toilet isn't part of the required spec.

Cheers for that old son thought it was... I remember a friend wanting to go to glasto in his van.... Using it as a live in ie campervan..... And there being a certain amount of stuff NEEDED in the van to pass as a live in.. 

If you look on ebay.... This for anyone thinking of doing a van... You can get a good old caravan and recycle the interior... 

Happy Bank holiday all 

[eFestivals]

1 hour ago, guypjfreak said:

Cheers for that old son thought it was... I remember a friend wanting to go to glasto in his van.... Using it as a live in ie campervan..... And there being a certain amount of stuff NEEDED in the van to pass as a live in.. 

There is hot a toiletone of the things is a fixed bed.not sure of the other rules will bre on the glsdto website somewhere.

Quote

If you look on ebay.... This for anyone thinking of doing a van... You can get a good old caravan and recycle the interior... 

Happy Bank holiday all 

 

[DarrenVonBoathook]

5 hours ago, blutarsky said:

Anyone have thoughts on fridges vs fridge freezers? 
For a 44/50L unit the difference in price between a fridge with and without a freezer seems to be about £200. The freezer section is generally fairly tiddly. I can only imagine using the freezer section for ice lollies and ice cubes for cocktails. Worth the extra £200 or not? Bearing in mind our budget is tighter than a Yorkshireman with the generosity kicked out of him. 

I've got a 3 way 60L  Electrolux fridge with small freezer section in my camper. Personally, for the way we use the camper, I don't think the freezer section is worth it. It takes up a disproportionate amount of space (compared to its tiny internal volume).

It is a rather old school setup, but when running on gas it is reasonably frugal. I did a gas weight before and after one Glastonbury and Tues evening to the following Monday used approx 1.7kg of gas running the fridge and the cooker mainly for boiling water for tea . 

My van use's CampinGaz, the R907 is the largest cylinder I can fit in it. If I was doing it all from scratch I'd definitely be looking at Calor, (unless I planned on lots of trips to Europe) as its much cheaper.

Are you thinking standard 3 way compressor fridge or an absorption type?

Edited April 5, 2021 by DarrenVonBoathook

[blutarsky]

5 hours ago, eFestivals said:

A friend has a leccy fridge and says it works we'll with a solar pane to keep the batteries charged.

What does he say about how loud it is? 

37 minutes ago, DarrenVonBoathook said:

I've got a 3 way 60L  Electrolux fridge with small freezer section in my camper. Personally, for the way we use the camper, I don't think the freezer section is worth it. It takes up a disproportionate amount of space (compared to its tiny internal volume).

It is a rather old school setup, but when running on gas it is reasonably frugal. I did a gas weight before and after one Glastonbury and Tues evening to the following Monday used approx 1.7kg of gas running the fridge and the cooker mainly for boiling water for tea . 

My van use's CampinGaz, the R907 is the largest cylinder I can fit in it. If I was doing it all from scratch I'd definitely be looking at Calor, (unless I planned on lots of trips to Europe) as its much cheaper.

Are you thinking standard 3 way compressor fridge or the newer absorption type?

I think in an ideal world we’d go with an under sling LPG tank and have a 3 way fridge but budget may dictate that we don’t. 
We’re going for solar on the roof so having a compressor fridge, electric water heater and minimal gas set up seems like a good option for simplicity. 
what do you reckon? 

[eFestivals]

30 minutes ago, blutarsky said:

What does he say about how loud it is? 

I think in an ideal world we’d go with an under sling LPG tank and have a 3 way fridge but budget may dictate that we don’t. 
We’re going for solar on the roof so having a compressor fridge, electric water heater and minimal gas set up seems like a good option for simplicity. 
what do you reckon? 

Wannagiveuourfridgeadvice paul @Topaz

[eFestivals]

33 minutes ago, blutarsky said:

What does he say about how loud it is? 

I think in an ideal world we’d go with an under sling LPG tank and have a 3 way fridge but budget may dictate that we don’t. 
We’re going for solar on the roof so having a compressor fridge, electric water heater and minimal gas set up seems like a good option for simplicity. 
what do you reckon? 

I've got LPG for fuel on my vw which is chea fordrivung  but pumps are dissaopearing. With electric getting popukar. 

Edited April 5, 2021 by eFestivals

[DarrenVonBoathook]

4 hours ago, blutarsky said:

What does he say about how loud it is? 

The absorption type of fridge are supposed to be silent. Having said that once its down to temperature, I can't say I've particularly noticed much noise from my compressor version.

 

4 hours ago, blutarsky said:

We’re going for solar on the roof so having a compressor fridge, electric water heater and minimal gas set up seems like a good option for simplicity. 

 

Solorwise, after a using a rigid polycrystalline panel for a few years I moved to an ETFE flexible type, stuck to the fibreglass pop top with 3M VHB 5952 tape. I hedged my bets a little, as the panel had an eyelet in each corner, I mounted it so that one eyelet coincided with a roof bolt so I passed it through the panel as well. I needed haven't bothered, the 3M tape has done the job really well, the panel isn't coming of the roof until I cut it off. You are supposed to consider differing thermal expansion of the roof and the panel when bonded together, but I don't know how many people do.

However, despite ETFE panels supposedly being more robust, mine has failed. For next years Glastonbury I'll replace it with another one, this time with a 5 year warranty. Charge controller, I had a basic PWM type for a few years, it did the job well but when I needed to do some work on the van I swapped it out for an MPPT type as its more efficient. There are lots of cheap charge controllers that claim to be MPPT, but are really PWM. YouTube has a lot of videos sorting the MPPT from the PWM.  (You've  probably been down this road already) 

Even with the solar panel and twin battery's (split charged) there is no way I could run my fridge on 12v overnight and into a overcast morning. When stationary, gas is the only sensible way for my setup. When driving it works fine on 12V.

The van came with a 12v DC to 240v AC inverter but I binned it. I've only ever camped on a site providing hookup once, it was just extra complexity and space. As you posted, keep it as simple as you think you can get away with.

Edited April 5, 2021 by DarrenVonBoathook

[grumpyhack]

I'd go for a 3 way fridge - it's what I have in my caravan.  12 volt (from the car battery when towing), Calor when camped up and can also run from a 240 volt hook up if you happen to be at a site that offers the facility.

[eFestivals]

On 4/5/2021 at 9:02 AM, eFestivals said:

Consider getting an awning sas the extra space is nice particularly if it's raining cooped up in a van in summer humidity can be unpleasant.getyouself a mobile WiFi setup something like this

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08CZYM51X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Its probably worth trying to find a different eifi solution this kit is huge in physical size not sure where i can put it in my van. 

Ignore me with what I said about the size which was basedona wierd dreamnot sure why I'm dreaming odd things about techy kitbut I've just checked it out properly and it's about the size your expect a router to be

Edited April 8, 2021 by eFestivals

[blutarsky]

2 hours ago, eFestivals said:

Its probably worth trying to find a different eifi solution this kit is huge in physical size not sure where i can put it in my van. 

Thanks Neil. 
Mrs B and I had fun last night - after putting baby B to bed we undid 30 bolts holding an aluminium frame to the floor so we can take it to the scrap merchants today. 3-4 near the near side wheel arch had rusted threads that jammed so I need to grind those today before we can get the frame out. 

Annoyingly we discovered those bastards at Fiat have glued a section of the ply flooring to the floor of the vehicle so that’s another job to contend with today, rather than just being able to lift it out. 
 

Good news is I have sold the majority of the seats. I put them on eBay 3-4 days ago and haven’t had a sniff so decided to put them on Facebook and within an hour I’d had all bar 2 claimed. Most are being collected today. Now worried I put them on too cheap! £30 for a single (x4) and £50 for a double (x5). 

Thanks for all your fridge chat. We’d like to be able to spend a few days at a time off grid so it’s looking like a 3 way is going to be required. We’re fitting solar but sounds like it may not be enough to keep a fridge permanently going on it’s own, particularly in the uk. 

[Paul ™]

Well done on selling the seats. Can't recall what I sold mine for, think maybe £10-20 more than you. 

[paulshane]

On 4/5/2021 at 9:07 AM, eFestivals said:

I had to get the vehicle type changed for my van about a year ago and I don't remember that as part of the criteria. Satisfying DVLA was easy with photos of the inside of the van

The rules changed about eight months ago, info here:

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/converting-a-vehicle-into-a-motor-caravan/converting-a-vehicle-into-a-motor-caravan

 

[blutarsky]

Finally got all the framing for the raised floor out and got the floor clear. I gave it a rub down with wire wool to get rid of the few spots of surface rust and it was looking handsome (pic below). 

In the end I took 30 to 40 bolts out of the floor of our minibus, which were holding the aluminium framework for the raised floor in place. 

This left me with the same number of 10mm holes in the floor of the bus which needed sealing. 

Clearly I could have just chucked the bolts back in to seal the holes but it was a real pain getting them all out and on five or six the threads were so rusted I had to cut the bolts with an angle grinder. I also would have had bolts sticking up proud of the floor.

I read one suggestion online to use coach bolts and initially planned to do this but then decided against it because it would again involve a lot of time underneath the van and would probably need another person inside as well. 

It then occurred to me that I could just use rivets which would have the added advantage of being much more light weight. Cue lots of faffing with rivets trying to find the right size, including getting help from the lovely duty manager at my local Screwfix. However, this didn’t work as the rivets I got weren’t chunky enough to fill the hole. 

Luckily necessity is the mother of all invention and I came up with a bodge using some old stainless steel washers I had lying around at home. They are large diameter but with a small hole in the middle, so I used these on the underside of the van and these made a seal at the bottom while the large flanged head on the rivets sealed the top. 

The only problem I had was how to get the washers to stay in position under the floor whilst I got the rivet started above. In the end I used CT1 silicon to stick the washer in place under the floor before fixing the rivets from above. I then added a bit of silicon on top of the rivet too, just for added security in case of any future rattling. 

I was quite pleased with myself when it was finally done. 

Edited April 7, 2021 by blutarsky

[paulshane]

you could have just used rubber grommits :)

 

[blutarsky]

Rivets don’t perish mind you... 

Edited April 7, 2021 by blutarsky

[eFestivals]

On 4/6/2021 at 4:42 AM, eFestivals said:

Its probably worth trying to find a different eifi solution this kit is huge in physical size not sure where i can put it in my van. 

Ignore me with what I said about the size which was basedona wierd dreamnot sure why I'm dreaming odd things about techy kitbut I've just checked it out properly and it's about the size your expect a router to be.

[blutarsky]

On 4/8/2021 at 6:04 AM, eFestivals said:

Ignore me with what I said about the size which was basedona wierd dreamnot sure why I'm dreaming odd things about techy kitbut I've just checked it out properly and it's about the size your expect a router to be.

Noted. Have stuck the kit on a wish list on Amazon to look at in future. 
 

I got the floor in yesterday, then filled some holes and insulated the wheel arches this morning. Currently removing interior trim. 
Although obviously a long way off finished we went for our first trip today. Mrs B’s mum had Baby-B and we got a takeaway and parked up to enjoy the view and a picnic in the back of the van. 

[oneeye]

Bought our first ever campervan this morning, a 2010 VW (sorry guy 😂) Transporter 2.0 TDI T30 SWB semi high roof day van. Should take delivery in a week or so, to say we're excited is an understatement; cannot wait 😎👍

[blutarsky]

5 hours ago, oneeye said:

Bought our first ever campervan this morning, a 2010 VW (sorry guy 😂) Transporter 2.0 TDI T30 SWB semi high roof day van. Should take delivery in a week or so, to say we're excited is an understatement; cannot wait 😎👍

Use every minute you can to work on it - it takes an age! Got mine wired and some insulation done. Toilet and shower tray arrived today. I am really struggling to get enough time to do any work on it though, with work and a baby to look after. Today was lost to a family wedding - I am finding myself resenting anything I have to go to that means I’m not desperately trying to get the van into a usable condition by summer. 

[oneeye]

6 minutes ago, blutarsky said:

Use every minute you can to work on it - it takes an age! Got mine wired and some insulation done. Toilet and shower tray arrived today. I am really struggling to get enough time to do any work on it though, with work and a baby to look after. Today was lost to a family wedding - I am finding myself resenting anything I have to go to that means I’m not desperately trying to get the van into a usable condition by summer. 

Thanks blutarsky, we're in no hurry, it's a decent enough day van and we have a shit ton of camping gear. Good luck with your on going project, it'll be ace when finished 

[ian the worm]

Sold my car last week. 😁 
Currently walking everywhere. 🙃
Van viewing starts next week. 👀
 

I’m only doing partial conversion (no fixed furniture) and 100% stealth. 😎