Waste water tank

We aim to have fresh water stored inside the van so we can see that its clean and refill the container at a tap. The waste water from the sink however (smelly stuff) is to go to an outside tank. I bought a 203 waste tank from CAK and had to return it. Several hours were spent under the van trying to make the tank fit. It was a well engineered complex wedge shaped box that goes in front of the spare wheel. HOWEVER …. The water inlet pipe lines up with the bodywork holding the suspension … or if dropped a little to avoid that, it lines up with the exhaust. Calls to CAK resulted in loads of advice by phone and email but I just could not see how I could get water into the tank from my offside sink without 2 meters of waste pipe holding water as it dipped under the exhaust before entering the tank. That is of course if it did not foul the exhaust and melt as the pipe gets hot … in the end it had to go back. Full refund given. Two other CAK tanks that go under the off side step or skirt were not suitable in my mind as I did not want to chop away vast parts of my under tray to accommodate the tanks.














Plan B then kicks in …search GOOGLE for T5 water
tanks…… but nothing filled me with joy.

Plan C make my own from 5mm PVC sheet and pipe weld ( still an option )

But surprise surprise …. I spotted a possible solution … I am going to try a collapsible water carrier squashed into the bodywork void with tap through under tray. More on that later :)

Leaking windows and delay :(

Things have been rather quiet on the van front of late. I have spent most of my time with tape measures and pencil drawing out the positions for the units while the van was returned to the dealers to sort out the leaking window !.... Yes a T5 with a leaking window! The off side opener was letting in water. The dealer was very good about it and no quibbles they collected the van & filled the tank. First we had a new seal then waited for rain – make sure van parked facing up hill and oops! still coming in. So back goes the van and in goes a new window … wait for rain make sure van parked facing up hill and double ooops !… still coming in … heavy discussion in the house this time. The work could not progress to the first major conversion work …. i.e. cutting a hole in the roof till we were happy with everything & we were unsure if another window would sort it. So – decision made – forget the opener and let’s have a fixed window. We rarely opened that window in previous vans over 8 years so no huge loss. Again – no quibble from the dealer – job done and we are moving again.

While this was going on I applied MAJOR hammering on the credit card buying all sorts of bits and we also took a second trip out to Cannon's Forge at Scotland Farm in Worksop to take a closer look at their Rock ‘n Roll bed. Dave popped one in the van so I could take measurements. We want to put stuff between the drivers’ seat and the fridge so we agreed that we were to have a corner cut out of the foot of the bed (seat) so that we can open the fridge while the bed is pulled out …. Order placed …. And now ready for collection.

Sorting the leak delayed us getting the van to Drive Lodge for the high top roof to be installed. Any way once the window was fixed we had to wait for a slot at Drive Lodge but that’s where the van is right now and should be back in a week then straight off to Worksop for the bed installing and that’s when I need to really get cracking !