Fulltiming

A bit nervous. Gas and water is almost plumber in, wiring ready for loom so easily linked to a battery for testing. I need a few pipe clamps to firm up a couple of areas but what other excuses can I find to delay the big switch-on. I guess thats when I find out if I have read those instructions right. Wish me luck…

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spotted these on the net. The net is a fantastic place to get inspiration. We were discussing the use of carpet over the weekend. We already have maple board for the walls and I thin this grey/cream wall/upholstery works really well.

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Probably the thing that takes the most time with a self build is working it all out. The day started with a quick call to Propex, the manufacturers of out blow air heating system. When I was installing the wiring loom for it there were no instructions. The termostat cable was straight forward as it was 5 pin and there was only one 5 pin socket but the 3 pin 12v dc socket had a choice of two locations, cn18 which was next to the themostat socket or cn24 which was the other end of the board. I opted for cn18 but made a written note to call and check. I was informed that the less obvious cn24 was the location. It will work from both but apparently create problems in the future. We forgot to include wiring instructions in the manual, they said lol.

Norm got on with the shower room and completed the “wing”. This is a work of art and sadly will never be seen again once installed. It is his own creation, designed to equal out the curve of the van so the shower room wall will be straighter, I am looking forward to seeing how it performs

Clamps are an important part of the self builders tool kit. Here Norm is bonding the wing to a piece of ply. We used a different form of clamp – a spreader for the ceiling boards and when we took a few holding screws out this last weekend the ceiling did not move (or drop lol). The bonding we used, which was Gun and Nails had dried and bonded superbly having been pressured in place.

Meanwhile I kept busy fitting the truma water heater. Again the instructions were a little bit slack in place. I was working on the outlet. A hole was cut in the side of the van, the truma, complete with extension offered through, and all the way through so it connected with a metal plate I had screwed to the outside of the wall. Bedding mastic was used to seal it all, wood battons on the inside to screw into and then finally the unit itself screwed to the floor inside. Sounds easy and quick but in reality it took all day to check and recheck I was doing it correctly. This is gas we are talking about and fumes etc

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It was alovely day yesterday and whilst I played at being a plumber Shona and Jessica made a fantastic job of polishing the van and it now shines like a new one. We also fitted some wheel trims. Meanwhile I took out the gas pipes and redid them. Tom at Magnum advised me that I had done the piping incorrectly. Initially I was taking the feed pipe from the cylinder to the kitchen, teeing off for the hob and then continuing this pipe across the van for the truma and propex. but Tom recommended having the on/off terminals at the kitchen and then taking two seperate pipes over. I could see the sense in this so thats what I have now done. I used some plastic P clips to hold the pipe in place. The P clips came from Maplins.

Today its electrical day and I am going to install the lights

We are all going to work hard this weekend. Shona and Jessica have an array of cleaning products to freshen the van’s appearance. I am going to continue with fitting the gas and electrical parts. The day is now starting to get light and hopefully the forecast for sun will be right

We took the framework from the workshop yesterday and for the first time put it all into the van and it looks great, just like the plans showed us it would..we are really pleased. We made a platform for the water to sit onto. This is initially to give us room underneath to put the outlet of the blow heater under it so we can direct the airflow straight down the van, ultimately we will build some useful drawers under there. Will take some photographs later to show you

Loads got done today. The framework for the L shaped lounge / double bed was made and fitted, the kitchen frame work was fitted after the water pipes and gas pipe was laid under the floor. Glad I check things, for some reason reason I had connected the red water pipe to the cold water supply, lol. Obviously I had done it on purpose (not) to see if Norm would notice.but has he hasn’t today I put it right.

The sliding door was also finished which included insulating it, putting the boards on and the silver screen and fly screen.

A great day

The biggest window went into the sliding door  yesterday and it was the easiest. Was this was just luck or whether we are now getting proficient? lol We started off by cutting the horizontal beam that went across the door. This beam stops the booming sound on vans, obviously this will not be a problem now as there is no sheet of metal to boom!

We then cut the metal as we have before and fitted the window in our now tried and tested way (see earlier posts). The sliding door has been giving us problems in that it was not fitting correctly but we also managed to fiddle and get it to work. It takes a bit of a slam and we are going to have fit a grab handle but overall I think we made vast improvements.

Norm’s wife has her brother and sister down for a few days so today we are hoping to get the L shaped seating arrangement in at the front and then I am going to bring it home to do the wiring up over the weekend whilst Norm entertains. We are working towards getting it ready for the end of March. Shona wants to use her van over Easter!!!!

Is Jessica dreaming of her new motorhome

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Norm finished fitting the Smev hob yesterday to the kitchen unit. Its a nice hob with a sink and double burner and then smoked glass, hinged tops. Really looking forward to seeing it in the van. Once it goes in though, since it goes across the sliding door we will then not have access to work on the door, so today, if the weather is good we are going to fit the window and finish the door off.

Meanwhile yesterday I fitted the water pipes, the propex heater and the water pump. The propex needed two holes drilled through the floor, one 40mm for the exhaust and a smaller one for the air intake. Through these holes I then put the .75metre stainless steel pipes and then attached them first to the propex and then to the underside of the van using P clips. The face opposite ways so the air intake does not suck in the fumes.

Once we have the kitchen installed I can fit the gas pipe. To bend the gas pipe I spotted a pipe bender in a local discount store for £6. The when we have fitted the seating frame I can fit the electrics to power everything. Its all starting to take shape

We have an electrician lined up to check our work but we want to actually do the work ourselves and its a few years since we have done any electrical stuff.

We have purchased a PMS 3H

the wooden box is simply something we have made as a temporary surround to protect it. What I am planning to do is to take the inlet hookup cable to a fused spur and then to the white mains cable of the PMS 3H. There are three AC outputs, one 10A and two 5A ones. I am having a socket ring and I also have a truma water heater with electric facility, I guess it would make sense to use one connector for the sockets and one for the heater. Would you use 5amp for both or the 10amp for one, or would you use all three?

I remember that to wire the sockets you simply take the cable into the relavant holes and then take a new cable out of those holes to the next socket. When you get to the furthest socket you then stop, no need to take the cable back to the PMS 3H?

Then there are the DC outlet sockets. On the back I have a DC output for the pump so the positive cable for the pump will go there. There are also 4 DC -VE connectors so I will then put the pump neg cable there. On the front there is a 10a fuse holder marked pump so I am assuming this will protect the pump and so no further fuses are needed.

Next socket is for DC+ lights so I am assuming that my positive cable for my lighting ring is going there. Light the sockets I assume I simply take the cable to the first light, then out and to the second light. At some point prior to the lights I will put a switch unless the lights I buy all have individual switches. I will then put the neg cable to another of the DC-VE connections.

Then there is two aux sockets and one of these or maybe both will be used for 12volt sockets. I am going to use mainly car cigar lighter style sockets but also put in one of the two pin ones in case its needed. Same system for wiring as the lighting.

Not bothering with a fridge, just a cooler box

Then I have two DC Inputs, car+ and van+. I am assuming I put the positive from my leisure battery to the van one and then the neg to another DC-VE connector. I am not going to use the car battery as I do not want to flatten it.

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