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.

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

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.

Excellent VW Caddy

Also on eBay recently was this excellent VW Caddy conversion. On the outside it looks to be in great condition, with nice paintwork, alloy wheels and a bonnet protector. To me it definitely doesn't look its age.

Ignoring the cab (which I generally do), the back of the van is a fairly standard layout, with the bed down one side, storage down the other side and a small space between. The bed is a sofa during the day, with a cushion attached high on the side of the van - presumably to avoid banging your head. The laminate flooring is nicely edged with angled tread-plate aluminium, while the sides and roof are nicely covered in carpeting material. 

The rear doors both sport hinged tables, which are secured by hook-and-eye when not in use. This is a great way to create a safe surface for a stove when using a small van. It solves the twin problems of ventilation and headroom, without resorting to expensive and heavy slide-out units. Also visible in this picture are the mains sockets, which are presumably attached to an inverter.

The LED lighting in the roof and the worktop look to be sufficient to light the back of the van while being small and unobtrusive - and, of course, being LEDs, they will be less of a drain on the battery.

The TV and DVD player sits nicely between two small storage units and the worktop gives plenty of room for a laptop or a wash-bowl - or somewhere to rest a plate at mealtimes.

I like this van very much. The build quality is good, showing a lot of thought and attention to detail. The van looks cosy but not cramped and the tables on the rear doors save valuable inside space. I have a single criticism, which is that there don't appear to be any curtains. The windows in the back doors are tinted, but not blacked out. Privacy would have to be addressed to use this as an overnight van. However, that could be sorted fairly simply and once done, this van would be pretty much the perfect micro-camper.

Road Rage

This morning I was driving MyRedVan to work and became the victim(ish) of a road rage(ish) incident.

I let a couple of vehicles out of a junction in stop-go, rush hour traffic, then almost immediately had to stop to let a bus pull away from a bus stop (it's in the Highway Code that if the bus isn't in a lay-by, you are supposed to stop and let it pull out).

The chap in the blue VW behind me clearly decided that in spite of the volume of traffic, I was somehow slowing him down significantly. He flashed his headlights to get my attention, then once I was looking at him in my mirror he made an up-and-down gesture with his hand that every male on the planet would immediately recognised.

Perhaps he had read the 'please leave space for my wheelchair' sticker in the back window and decided that I would be easy to intimidate, or perhaps he thought that a Kangoo could only possibly be driven by an elderly person or a woman. Either way, he seemed surprised and not best pleased with my reaction - which was to grin at him and wave. I may have restricted mobility, but I'm not about to be intimidated by an impatient bully.

Once the traffic started moving again he stayed well back - so far back, in fact, that he was barely visible in my mirror. I'd like to think that my charming smile and wave pacified him, or that he thought I might just be crazy enough to reverse into his pride-and-joy in a fit of anger. However, it was more likely that he just slowed down to use his mobile phone while he was driving to explain to his boss that he was going to be late for work because of the slow-moving little red van in front of him.

I strongly believe that people shouldn't be able to drive how they like, berating others aggressively, and get away with it. It's bullying, plain and simple and bullies on the road are as bad as bullies anywhere else and I believe that they should be treated with utter contempt.

Next Project - Lighting

The next project I am going to try in the van is a two-switch lighting system, with one switch by the left sliding door and the other where I can reach it from the rear doors and from the bed. Many people are familiar with the two-switch system from hallways in their homes - moving either of the switches will turn the light on or off.

The wiring for such a system is simple, you just have to make sure you used double-throw switches. These are switches that have three connections which 'make' according to the position of the toggle. This excellent image from a guitar pedal website, http://www.cubisteffects.com/ makes that clearer:

Add caption

The wiring diagram for the system is shown below:

Put simply, the live feed from the battery is connected to the centre contact of one switch. A twin wire is run between the two switches and connects the outer contacts to each other. The centre contact from the centre switch is connected to the +ve side of the light (or lights) and the -ve side of the light is connected to the vehicle chassis. This will make the two switches control the light in exactly the same way as a domestic hallway two-switch system.

The difficult part for me is going to be working out how to mount the switches so they are where I need them to be. Again, any advice or suggestions are welcomed by comment or by email to myredvan@outlook.com.