MOT Test

It's that dreaded time of the year; the MOT test.

I dropped Tyrion off at Jaggers, where I bought him about a year ago (a little over to be honest, but if you don't tell, I won't) and hopped on a bus into work. That was on Friday morning. Friday afternoon they delivered the verdict, two anti-roll bar bushes and two ball joint dust covers. Oh, and a number plate light bulb.

I've had to wait until today to collect him because they were booked up and couldn't get him ramp space, but he's all sorted and parked back on the front where he belongs. He drives a lot better now - seems more solid at the front and the noise I was used to hearing from the front suspension has disappeared, so clearly the work was worth doing. We're two hundred quid lighter now, but thankfully we don't have to do that again for another year.

First Night

Once I was parked up and plugged in I decided to stay there for the rest of the day. I popped a can of Carling, set my phone to work as a wi-fi hotspot and settled back on the bed to watch some speedway on my laptop.The electric hook up worked perfectly. I used a four-way plug so I could run my cool box, charge my phone and laptop and boil the electric kettle when I needed to.

It took some effort organising everything for 'camping mode' as during the trip my bags had sat on the bed and on the tiny bit of floor space in the back. I piled them up on the front seats to get them out of the way and make some space.

I made lunch mid-afternoon but this was a bit tricky. With the worktop full of laptop I had nowhere to make sandwiches. I ended up having to balance the bread on my knee to put the margarine on. At that point a tray might have been useful - and a plate definitely would have been. That's two more things on my 'must remember for next time' list.

At bedtime I played with the curtains a little and changed the way the front curtains overlap the side ones. This made them sit a lot better over each other and ruled out gapping. I used a couple of magnets on the sides of the back door windows to close the very small gaps here - these could be sewn into the edge of the curtain if I remember when I have a bit of spare time.

Getting changed in such a cramped space was actually much easier than I expected it to be. The difficulty was getting to what I needed and stashing the clothes I took off. All in all, between struggling to make a sandwich and fighting to find space for everything it quickly became clear that there isn't enough space inside to do everything.

Once I was settled in bed I was warm and comfortable right through the night. I woke at one point in the night and found it was quite cold out of bed, but wrapped in the quilt I was as snug as a bug in a rug.

Parked Up and Plugged In

I left the house at six thirty this morning. I made two short stops on the way - one for coffee and one to use the toilet. Traffic was very light, as you might expect for a Sunday morning, and I made it to King's Lynn in around three hours. I had plenty of time to get a MacDonald's breakfast.

Once in King's Lynn I absolutely had to visit the speedway stadium. There were few people about and no sound of engines, but I'm betting they are full speed around there this afternoon, practicing for tomorrow.

From King's Lynn I drove to Swaffham. Thanks to the weather the pictures I took of the Butter Cross in the market place came out very well. I bimbled over to the duck pond where I used to play as a child. Lots of photos later I finally decided to head to the camp site.

On arriving at the camp site I found out that arrivals are supposed to take place after 2.00pm and the chap behind the counter was very keen that I understood that this is standard practice on camp sites all over the country. He must have been in a good mood because he let me book in early without an extra charge (although his good mood must have arrived fairly recently because it hadn't quite reached his face at this point).

Because I added an extra night to my booking it took him several minutes to work out which pitch I should be on. However, when I got to the pitch there was no electric. I drove back round to reception to ask about this and he explained that I should plug in on the next pitch but one. I explained in return that there was no way my cable would reach that far. He sighed and told me that it was standard practice to carry a twenty-five metre extension cable. Once he was satisfied that I now understood I had made another newbie mistake he gave me another pitch number.

So here I am parked up and plugged in. The cool box kept cool all the way here, it's buzzing away on the mains now and I have a few tins of beer chilling in there with the milk, margarine and Mars bars. I have uploaded some pictures to Facebook, texted Mrs and now have my feet up, alternating between watching Netflix and typing this out for the blog.

It is very warm and sunny, and very peaceful. I am relaxed and enjoying myself immensely.

Godsend

Yesterday I took a trip to Grimsby to take my son back to his mother but during the trip I became rather unwell with a migraine. I dropped my son off then spent some time with my eldest daughter on the beach. I was hoping the fresh air would help to clear my head, but it didn't.

So after I took her home I drove to Weelsby Woods, a large park near where I used to live, and parked up in a quiet corner of the car park. I closed all the curtains, shifted the driver's seat forward, set the alarm on my mobile and lay down in the shade.

It was rather warm at first, but with a side window ajar, the shade of the curtains soon became nice and cool. I did notice that the curtains didn't block out quite enough light (and my migraines are always susceptible to light) so I had to lie with my fleece over my head.

After an hour of lying in the cool and dark comfort of the van my migraine subsided enough for me to start driving again, although while I was there I took a few pictures.

If I'd been in a car I would have had to park up with my coat over my head, cooked by the sun, reclined in the front seat, which wouldn't have done my migraine any good at all. With Tyrion I had shade, comfort and privacy, and so recovered very quickly.

An absolute Godsend.

Ready

Tyrion is ready for his road trip. All of the curtains now have wraparounds on them (the last one was hand-sewn) and bundle up very tidily. The cupboard is stocked with food and water for the weekend - I just need bread and milk, which I will pick up on Sunday morning as I head out.

I have found my satnav cradle, which is a shame really because I've ordered another from eBay thinking I would need it before the trip. I have tested the coolbox working with the satnav and camera and the three of them do not overload the socket. This means I shouldn't have any trouble keeping cold things cold and battery-powered things charged during the trip. I have ice packs for the coolbox to help keep it cool when parked - at the site I will run the coolbox on the mains, but when I park up for the speedway or visiting anywhere else it will not be powered. I don't expect a few hours here and there to make much difference, but the ice packs might mean the difference between the milk staying fresh or going off.

I have checked the storage box and made sure it has everything in it I will need. I have spare gas, mess tins for cooking, teaspoon, sporks, cleaning cloths, a mug and a bowl. In the wash-bowl I have my gas kettle, electric kettle, washing up liquid and sponge-scourers.

Later this evening I will be packing a rucksack with clothes, towel, tea-towel and wash kit. My brew kit will be packed on Friday after work, as I am taking the small plastic tubs I use for coffee and sugar at work.

There's nothing more I need so as long as I remember to pack my speedway tickets, I'm ready.

Update: I haven't mentioned it here, but I also have toilet roll - there's a roll in the chair-back organiser and a spare in the storage box. I also have a 'waste water' bottle under the bed because I'm not trekking across the campsite in the dark looking for the toilet block if I need a wee in the middle of the night.

Camper Limo

I came across this picture on Facebook and shared it immediately, with the comment Oh My God!

I can't believe someone would chop up several VW campers and weld them together to create this absolute monstrosity - with half a VW Beetle welded backwards on the roof, complete with door handle.

The inside isn't much better - there are curtains on some windows, but not on others, which strikes me as plain weird, and the inside of the Beetle just looks ridiculous perched up above. There is wood-effect flooring and ceiling, but these do nothing to detract from the awful green colour used both inside and out.

All in all this is an appalling vehicle. Whoever has made this has taken four or five classic vehicles and created an absolute monstrosity. I feel sorry for anyone who orders a limo and has this turn up to collect them.

More Electricity

I've had to replace several bulbs today - on a routine lighting test I realised that I only had one out of three brake lights working and no side-lights. That's all sorted, but while I was in Halfords I found a handy little 12V extension with a doubler on the plug end.

This means I can send power to the coolbox all the way at the back of the van and still plug my switching adapter in to power my satnav, dash cam and phone. While the coolbox draws 6A, the satnav and dash dam draw well under an amp each and the phone charger about half an amp. This means that the 10A fuse for the 12V socket should be sufficient.

It also means that I have another pretty light in the front.

Wiring Repair

I have a switched 12V doubler with a USB socket mounted in the front of the car. Using this I can plug in my Garmin, dash-cam and phone all at once. However, recently one of the sockets failed.

The double shows a red LED by each switch when they are off and a blue LED when they are on. The blue light on the failed socket wasn't coming on so I decided the problem was likely to be related to the switch.

A quick disassembly revealed a broken track. Now I may not know how to repair a broken track on a circuit board, but I know enough to realise that I could bridge the break by soldering a piece of wire between contacts either side of the break.

Soldering didn't take very long and very soon the unit was back in the van and as the picture shows, both lights are blue.

All Wired In

I couldn't wait. Impatience is one of my weaknesses. I decided to bring everything into the living room and get it done this evening.

I was rather surprised when I opened the plug socket and found that the earth lead had come loose - this was a better way of finding out than an electric shock.

This is likely to have been because the wire was pulling on the earth cable so I made a note to leave the earth lead longer than the others when I rewired it.

It was pleasing to see that the suppliers had included a wiring diagram. This meant that I didn't need to go back onto YouTube to remind myself of where each wire went. 

The picture above is the unit with all the wiring finished. The next job was to screw it to the inside of the unit.

With the consumer unit fitted snugly up against the shelf it is easily accessible to turn it on and off - which is important because all of the instructions I have read say that it should be switched off before plugging it in on site. So I made sure all the switches were off, connected the other end of the lead to the 13A adapter and plugged it into the mains.

The green light in the picture below shows that everything is working. I flicked both the RCD and MCB off and on again and they both cut the power, which means I have wired everything up correctly.

So Tyrion is all ready for plugging in on site, safely protected from current leakage, short circuits and overloads.

The next project I need to tackle is lighting.

It's Arrived

As my consumer unit hadn't arrived in today's post I sent a query through eBay to the seller asking where it was - the estimated delivery for it was Thursday.

Then I realised that although I had updated my address on eBay, I hadn't updated it on PayPal. Sure enough, when I checked my PayPal account, it was showing as having been sent to my old address.

I closed the query on eBay, because clearly it was my fault it hadn't arrived and not the seller. Then I changed my address on PayPal and sent the seller an email asking them to send it to the new address if it came back undelivered.

Then it occurred to me that if nobody has yet moved into the old house, the parcel might have been left in a 'safe' place at the house - we often came home to parcels tucked in 'safe' places. So I jumped in the car and drove the ten miles (ish) to the old place and sure enough, there it was on the doorstep - not very safe, but it was there and now I have it.

So I came home, opened eBay and gave them top feedback, then sent the seller another email explaining that I am a little bit stupid but everything's all sorted now.

It's a little late in the day to start fitting it to the van - and besides, I need another 16A plug and socket before I can do that - so I plan to do that tomorrow.

Cupboard Door

I have been thinking for a while that I should put a door on the worktop unit. This would create some storage space where I can hide things away but can get at them more easily than the things stored under the bed - there's not a lot of other places I can think for storing things, apart from the footwell under the back seats. Rather than just diving into cutting and screwing, I have given it a lot of thought, considering the type of door and how it should open - I even considered using an elasticated net - but eventually settled on a door hinged at the bottom and secured with a magnetic catch.

Today that is exactly what I have done.

Hinging at the bottom means I have more easy access and visibility than hinging at the side.  It also means that I can finally abandon the mucky bungee cord I have been using to hold the stove in place and replace it with a more elegant looking option.

 

Here we can see the finished article. The shock cord attached to the unit serves two purposes, it holds the stove in place but also provides protection against the cupboard door popping open while driving - especially with the potholes around here.

 

So I'm back at work tomorrow and content that I have achieved everything in the van that I had planned to do during my time off. It's true that moving home got in the way a few times, but nevertheless, it's all been done.

 

Things for the future include fitting a 12v socket in the back (mainly for the coolbox while driving) and, of course, fitting the consumer unit once it arrives, so there is still more work to be done.

The Consumer Unit

Once I completed the basic electrical installation detailed in my previous post I began to look into the other elements of installing mains electricity in a vehicle. I figured there had to be a reason for consumer units, RCDs and all the other stuff - otherwise everyone would just wire a socket to a cable and call it an installation.So I have spent the remainder of today researching consumer units and associated technology and I learned a lot.

Doesn't look complicated at all!

I had been working on the basis that any electrical outlet, including the one in my garage and those on campsites, would be fused and protected and that this protection would be sufficient. However, unless I inspect the electrical installation of every location I connect to I have no way of knowing how 'protected' they are. Also the protection needs to be appropriate to the device connected. This is why circuit breakers in consumer units have different ratings.

What I don't want to happen.

Having worked out that I absolutely have to have some additional protection, I had to work out what I need. So the first place I looked was on camping supply websites. The most popular unit being sold was a unit containing an RCD, a 16Amp MCB and a 6Amp MCB. A little research on various other sites taught me that the RCD detects differences in the current passing through the device in each direction and breaks the circuit if the difference is over a specified amount (30mA seemed a popular amount).
MCBs are miniature circuit breakers which break the circuit either if too much current is being drawn or the switch is thrown manually. The 16A MCB is designed to protect the mains sockets, the 6Amp protects the lighting circuit. This very informative video explains how an MCB works.

So there is little point me relying on a 16A MCB to protect a 6A lighting circuit which would clearly fry before the current reached anywhere near blowing the MCB.

It took me a while to find an accurate wiring diagram - it seems that the experts are  hesitant to provide this kind of information, perhaps understandably - but after looking at a few images and watching a few videos, I am now completely confident that I can safely and accurately wire up a consumer unit.

The prices I have seen range from £5.00 for a used one (that looks like it might have been on fire at some point) up to £47.00. These have all been the same type, with an RCD and two MCBs. I have settled on £16.00 which gets me a new unit with the right MCBs.

This is what I have ordered, £16.28 including two MCBs of my choosing.

This means that I should have a fully operational and safely protected electrical installation in time for my camping trip in June - only 5 weeks until the Speedway World Cup in Kings Lynn.

Note: Again this isn't a 'how-to', it's a 'how-I'm-going-to'. If I get it wrong, it's my fault. If you copy anything here and get it wrong then it's yours. #justsaying

Electricity

Yesterday it occurred to me that I should be able to add mains sockets to the van without too much difficulty. I mentioned in yesterday's post about curtains (as opposed to the other half a dozen posts about curtains) that I was going to look into this.

Today I am blogging from inside Tyrion with my laptop charging on one of his mains sockets.

I don't yet have a consumer unit with RCD and MCBs in, but I have my eye on one or two on eBay and it will be a simple thing to add to what I have already, but here's what I have got...

I found a new shop in Bradford called Dickinson Caravans and as their website suggests, their accessory socket has hundreds (if not thousands) of parts and accessories for caravans and campers. I had a decent browse around looking for ideas and realised that I could start off with something that's effectively an extension lead with style (to paraphrase Toy Story).

I picked up a 16A plug and socket for seven pounds and considered a length of orange 16A mains cable. When I saw the price I decided I would probably have something at home that would do.

Wickes set me up with a switched double socket and mounting box for less than three pounds and as this was the end of my shopping means that the whole installation has cost just under a tenner.

In the garage at home I found a ten metre (ish) length of 2.5mm three core cable which if my memory serves me should have a rating of around 20 to 25 amps. As mains hook-ups on sites are 16A and the standard mains socket is 13A, this cable will serve more than adequately. It's not orange, so I hope sites don't have a rule about that.

I fitted the cable to the sockets first then pushed the mounting box against it to make sure it would close. The cable is quite thick so I had to make the hole in the back quite a bit bigger to get the front to screw on.

With the mounting box fixed to the side of the worktop I drilled a hole in the wood to match the hole in the mounting box. It's not a very tidy job, but isn't visible with the sockets in place so not an issue.

Then I passed the cable through the hole and wired up the socket and that was that end completed. I fitted the plug to the other end of the cable then used a multimeter to make sure everything was connected.

This was a very important step and I'm very glad I didn't skip it because the earth wire had come loose in the socket which meant that if I had plugged something in it would have worked, but it wouldn't have been earthed. Very dangerous.

As the picture shows, with the earth wire reconnected, everything checked out okay. At this point Tyrion was ready to take to a site and plug in (assuming they didn't ask about the consumer unit, that is). However, I am not going to be spending as much time on a camp site as on my own drive so I made a short adapter cable which means I can plug him into an ordinary 13A mains socket.

Remembering that the blue socket cost around three pounds and the mains plug and cable were already in the garage, I saved a few pounds making this myself rather than buying one in the shop. This plugs into an ordinary mains socket and Tyrion's blue cable plugs into this. That's how my installation is little more than an extension lead and why the whole thing cost less than a tenner.

As you can see from this picture, the cable at the moment just comes out from between the back doors rather untidily, but it's weatherproof and does the job until I decide to add an external plug and a consumer unit.

Also in this image you can see the other thing I picked up at Dickinson - a red rubber ball cover for my towbar. It's supposed to protect your caravan in case you accidentally bump it against your towbar, but I bought it because I liked the way it looks - and because it's red.

Note: Do not work with mains electricity unless you know what you are doing. I am not an electrician. This post is about how I have done something and is not intended as a how-to for anyone to copy. If I had electrocuted myself or fried my van today, that would have been my fault. If you do the same after reading this, it will be yours. #justsaying.

Finally! A Camper!

Today I sewed the bottom of the back window curtains so they slip over the wire rather than tucking under it. Once I had done this I realised that a couple of wraparounds ought to tidy them up nicely and I was right.

This made me think that the black curtain along the side of the bed might look better with a wraparound to bundle it up but I was wrong. It looked awful. I tried a couple of different things with it and in the end threw it away and replaced it with a terracotta one. The curtain I had cut up to make the two back curtains had plenty of material left on it so I simply tidied up the bottom, hemmed it on my sewing machine and threaded it onto the wire.

That made me realise that the left hand side of the van was the only side with black windows. I covered the back window infill with terracotta material and started planning a magnetic infill for the sliding door when I realised that perhaps I didn't need to.

I had attached the black curtain to the sliding door on that side when I was using curtains on a stiff pole mounted with magnets. This was because that when I opened this door I didn't want to have to fight through a curtain which didn't slide out of the way.

Using the wire means the curtains do slide out of the way. Because of this I saw that I could put a normal hanging curtain across that sliding door. I also realised that as the curtains move easily, I could put a curtain over the rear window on that side too - the one behind the worktop where the stove will sit. If I am using the stove I can simply slide the curtain out of the way.

So I drilled and screwed and cut up another curtain. This one was a little trickier because I wanted a single curtain all the way across, but it needed to be longer by the sliding door and shorter by the worktop. A minute or two of measuring soon sorted this and the day's practice at the sewing machine meant I was getting quite proficient at hemming by this time.

All of the curtains are now terracotta and all but one have velcro wraparounds fitted - I simply ran out of steam toward the evening and had to call it a day. I have the last wraparound half-completed and will finish it off another day.

Looking at the van with these curtains, nicely bunched up with their colour-coordinated wraparounds, it actually looks like a camper to me now. 

With only a few weeks to go before I head off to Norfolk, I am very happy with the changes I have made to the curtains. Instead of a car with blacked out windows, Tyrion now actually looks like a micro-camper. 

The trouble with this, of course, is that I now have to look at adding an electric hook-up and after looking online briefly, I am pretty confident that this is within both my budget and my physical capability.

Bed Test

I put the bed back in this afternoon.

Now the weather is turning and now we have finished moving house, it felt like a good time to get Tyrion back into micro-camper mode. I have put the bed back in and am using both the mattress (for short stops) and the airbed. I fitted the worktop, added a doormat, found a quilt and some pillows, then decided to test the bed.

I found it very comfortable initially but wondered if it was the sort of bed that would get uncomfortable after a few minutes.

Mrs woke me up two hours later. The bed definitely passed the test.

I have added an electric coolbox which will be perfect for a couple of cans, a bottle of milk and some snacks. Apart from some additional lighting I can't see anything else that is needed.

It might be time to stop playing and actually get out in it for the night.

More Curtains

The 'found' curtains I used for the front of the van have been changed. I had four large terracotta-coloured curtains and realised that if I used two of those for the front, I could cut the other two into smaller sections for other windows.

The cardboard panels in the back windows have been falling out recently - the cardboard has soaked up some moisture from somewhere and lost some of it's rigidity, so I decided that it was time for a change.

I now have hand-sewn curtains at the back windows. To attach them I used net curtain wire which I have screwed to the inside of the doors - this meant actually drilling into my van, which was something I wasn't keen on initially, but after the first couple of holes I didn't think much about it.

Mrs suggested using another wire at the bottom of each window to stop the curtain flapping and this works perfectly (please excuse the dirty back windows, Tyrion is overdue a wash).

The success of these curtains made me want to try more, so I replaced the black curtain along the offside of the van. I used another net curtain wire, again screwed to the metal of the van, and ran it above both the windows on that side. As the bed presses up to this side of the van there is no need for a lower wire, which is good because it would block access through the sliding door on that side when in 'car mode'.

This left one single red shiny window infill. I thought about replacing this with a curtain but quickly realised that this was right over the worktop where the gas cooker would sit. I don't think having a fabric curtain that close to a gas burner would be a good idea, so I removed the infill, placed the fabric between it and the window then pushed the infill back in place. A quick trim with scissors left my GMB logo still visible on the inside, but the outside now showing black fabric.

So I have terracotta fabric front and back and black fabric down both sides. A very productive day's work.

Table Still Stable

It's been a hectic time recently but I still found time to clip my worktop in place and drive around for a while to see if it stayed where it should.

I am happy to report that it did.

Feel free to ignore the cardboard boxes ready for a run to the recycling centre.

Stable Table

My multi-purpose worktop has been very successful so far, but the issue I had with it was movement while driving. It was held in by a bungie cord which stopped the top part from moving but the bottom kept sliding out.

The easy answer would have been to attach it to the inside of the van with brackets, but it has to be removable so this wouldn't work for me. Instead I have used toggle clips (I didn't know they were called that until I found them in B and Q and read the name on the packaging). I have riveted an angled piece of tin to the interior trim in the back and riveted the hook to this tin. The toggle clip itself is simply screwed to the bottom of the unit. To prevent the toggle clip popping open while driving I have popped a split pin in the holes.

This sounds fairly simple but I had to cut holes in the trim using my dremel then cut and shape the tin, drill and rivet the hook and then put it all in the van so I could accurately mark the holes for the toggle clip screws. It was time consuming and for someone as inexperienced with tool work as I am, a bit of a challenge, but I finished it and it works.

Once again the craftsmanship is well below the standard anyone would expect from a tradesman, but as DIY done just for me, it's a pleasing thing to look at and it does what I need it to do.

New Curtains

On moving into the new place I investigated the loft and found that it is going to be perfect to set up my keyboard and guitars and maybe even do some more recording. None of that is relevant to this blog, but the curtains that were left behind by the previous occupants certainly are.

I found several pairs of very large curtains - more than six foot square. Two pairs are a terracotta colour with some sort of arty writing on them. The other pair (perhaps two pairs, I can't remember without climbing back up the loft ladder) are dark brown, almost black.

I had a few metres of shock cord in the van (the stretchy stuff bungies are made from) which I had bought with something else in mind, but I found that this was the perfect solution to 'hang' these curtains. The cord runs from the hooks in the roof each side, just above the sliding doors, around the front of the cabin and hooks onto the sun visors. Once the idea had occurred to me it was a simple case of knotting a loop in each end and hooking it on. There was some playing to get the length and tension right, but that was the hardest part.

The pictures below show the original black curtain solution compared with the new brown curtains.

The black curtain ran across the van behind the front seats. This meant that when lying in the bed my feet pushed against the curtains. The new curtains run around the front of the cabin, meaning there is a lot more space in the curtained-off area. Their size means there is no issue with gaps and they are thick enough to block out a lot of light.

I am very happy with this new curtain solution and hope to make something similar happen in the back of the van, which is currently blacked out with window-shaped infills, one of which keeps falling off and is currently held on with sellotape.