Post 1 About Us

Hi we are Marc and Sam this is about our travels in our Motorhome
We purchased this van in November 2013 and this first post will be about some of the works we have done to it albeit on going
We purchased this van in particular as it had a fixed rear bedroom and plenty of garage space which our previous van hadn't, we also got fed up of making the bed up daily to use the table etc so this van ticked the boxes in that respect. The van was in storage over the winter months at a place in Wisborough Green and we visited a few times to put stuff from our old van into it and to disconnect the batteries

 

So we fast forward to March 2014



 

There were quite a lot of jobs I needed to do firstly was to put extra sockets in

Before

 



After

I also put another double socket under the dinette chair this we can use for the

kettle / toaster and Laptop etc when the hob / sink is in use

My second and most important job was to find a way of allowing Max our Jack Russell access  to the bedroom as there is a significant drop to the floor from the fixed bed and Max being his mummy's boy has always since a pup slept on the end of our bed guarding or that's what he calls it ?

I had searched the internet for a ramp type thing, but nothing seemed to be the length we required ! Then one evening I had one of my many eureka moments and came up with a plan to utilise the ladder supplied with the van to access the double bed over the cab area,

My first effort was to cut hardboard tie wrapped to the frame, but he was very reluctant to come down as his paws slid on the hardboard, then I acquired some off cut carpet and glued that to it and voilà  Max was up and down no problem  

 

Problem Solved

Post 2 Work Continued

The next major job was to Install refillable LPG bottles.
After searching the net and motorhome forums I decided to go with Gas It
The install was not to hard although cutting a hole in the side of the van filled me with trepidation and I made quadruple sure of the size of the hole I was about to cut

           I also Installed an auto changeover suggested on a motorhome forum

All in all it took about a hour and a half including a few tinny breaks

When I filled up it cost £17.50 to fill the two 6kg bottles

Whereas the original 6kg bottle was £20 to fill so the savings over the long term and not having to buy different bottles etc while abroad will cover the initial costs of the sytem

Post 3 More Jobs

The next jobs I undertook was to install an outside 230v socket and a bullfinch point for the BBQ.  This was not as daunting cutting the holes into the van but again I double checked the measurements as you only get one shot at it "Measure twice cut once"

 

 

We have had the van in storage at Wisborough Green since we purchased it, and we have stayed at the site most weekends since April . We could not have picked a better place and have had some fantastic evenings over the summer months

The view we wake up to is also stunning

 

There are a few caravans here in storage,  and their owners come down and use them

But most of the time it is just the three of us pure bliss

 

Well back to some other little jobs I have done since spring

I fitted a fire blanket and extinguisher by the door

A smoke and carbon monoxide alarm,  changed all the halogen lamps to LED.



                                                  A kitchen towel rail

                                               19" TV in the bedroom

22" TV in Living room

 

 

 And a new mixer tap in the bathroom, the one fitted had obviously been retro fitted and was not fitted correctly it also did not have a shower hose. One evening we sprung a leak I found out there was no locking ring securing it to the basin the pipes were not properly fitted into the compression fittings botch job !!! I wish I had noticed this when I picked it up so when we sprung a leak we got a new mixer tap with the shower hose complete

I'm happy with this now and I know this isn't going to leak

Fitted a child guard to the door, Max wasn't best pleased with this
Look at his face bless

 

 And organised the garage as it was beginning to resemble our back bedroom

 

The next job on the list is to upgrade the leisure battery, at the moment we have one  

85AH and I intend to install 2 x 110AH with an Invertor

 

New Batteries

 

Well I bought 2 new 110AH batteries and decided to fit them one sunny afternoon, I initially thought this would be a straight forward task remove both front seats install batteries and bingo, then I realised the handbrake is attached to the drivers front seat and the only way to get over this without disconnecting the handbrake cable was to prop the seat up with wood and somehow slide in the new battery and do the connections, there was very little room to tighten the clamps with a small ratchet spanner and my short fuse blew when one of the clamps I had purchased from fleabay snapped, I had not over tightened it ! it was just cheap crap alloy from the far east "you get what you pay for" anyways I managed to use one of the clamps from the original battery but as the day wore on I was quietly wondering why I had not sourced this job out as my patience was wearing steadily thinner

The photo's show the small gap about 3" to allow me to do the termination of the 25mm cables !

The passenger side was a lot easier as I was able to fully remove the seat so this side was a doddle. and hour or so later I had fitted the invertor and reinstated the seats

This is the set up at the moment I will be installing a Henley Block to the tails coming from the batteries, this is for a future job if we decide to go down the route of installing solar panels, but in the interim I will see how many days I can go off grid when we start going to festivals