FINISHED !!!!!

FINISHED ! ….. well almost. As far as insurance criteria being satisfied, gas safe certification and it working as a campervan all relevant things are now in place.

All that’s left now is a bit of fine tuning and trimming.... A local engineering co. is fabricating some stainless steel guards for the cooker/grill this week, a cutlery tray to be sourced and thats it.

First trip out was from Yorkshire up to The Borders for a night then down to Northumberland camp site for another stop over before returning home. We got a very satisfactory 32.5 mpg on a 450 mile round trip on motorways, A roads and country lanes. Everything worked perfectly.

Next time we sleep in it we will be in France ...... just cant wait :)

Waste bin

It may seem trivial but somewhere for rubbish and waste is essential, we used to hang a bag off the back of the drivers seat but this time we have gone up market....We found a slimline bin in Wilkinsons (Wilco) that fits between the Cannon Forge bed and the units... its even got a carbon filter smell absorber thingy in the lid. Velcro on the bottom and on the bed brackets holds it in place nicely but is easily accessible.

Cab curtains

Cab window privacy typically means …

• 
  stick on thermal screens … that fall off and are very bulky
• 
  external wrap around screen …. that means going outside to put it on or remove and having to store wet and drippy screens in the van
• 
  bulkhead curtain … cutting off rotating passenger seat from van body
  
  None of these are acceptable so ace seamstress (AKA Mrs MAB) called in to help and a bespoke curtain was made to clip onto the door pillar coat hooks using a key ring and the sun visor clips by means of a button hole in the curtain.

What about condensation at night I hear you cry .... well you are going to get some somewhere so I would rather it was on the windscreen where I can wipe it off in the morning rather than some other deep recesses of the conversion.

High top storage

Fitting the storage in the high top was achieved by more use of foam card templates to create ply frames.

Then I fitted a shelf in the rear for storage over the camping chairs.

Covering of the frames and door hanging was pretty straight forward ... carpet, glue, screws ... the usual stuff.

But ...trying to find door stays to hold the doors open that were sufficiently robust was a problem so in the end I made my own.