Van updates

Posted on July 13, 2018 by yellowvanmountaineering

So the great thing about having self converted is that we can continually add or change things as we go – it’s never really finished.
While the main test of this will be next year’s addition, for now I’ve got a few photos of the latest updates from this year.

Back when we hired cars, we used to have a ‘car bag’ of useful things that came with us. With the van, most things are permanent, but we’ve recently started using a ‘van box’ and it has been fantastic – keeping goodies tidy in the front, while easy to carry to and from the house. Simple idea, but brilliant.

Stocked with enough stores to get us to Italy

The ‘AA hole’, left by the previous owner has now been adapted to hold the bluetooth to FM converter, that connected phones to the van radio. A neat little sliding door hides it all.

We soon found that actually the device needs to have a near vertical cable to broadcast the FM signal, so it’s an empty box…

While the device is now neatly stored on the passenger side, with the cable running inside the pillar

Another wee addition – removable lip under the seat near the door. We’ve been storing the repair kit, brush and tarp/awning here for years, but after loosing 2 brushes out the door, this now keeps everything in place

Kept in place by a small tab behind the seat post and resting against the side, yet surprisingly secure.

A set of boxes behind the stove, tied together and to the van gives us more organisation space – yet to be beautified by someone with paint or carpet…

Lights almost all working after a bit of tinkering.

Sadly my poor soldering skills couldn’t save this one, but I found a blanking plug for the meantime

Particularly proud of the dual colours, and the fact it only took me an afternoon and used up some cord I had lying around.

Finally, after 6 months we bought a second van key, which required a key ring. I’ve made a few of these style over the years, but this is my best.

Van updates

Posted on July 13, 2014 by yellowvanmountaineering

So we’ve been working quietly away at the van making updates and new features, and fixing old ones.

Included in the pictures is the new wine rack, a new shelf in the front for the passengers (made from perspex), new storage pockets, various storage attachments and some other things.

We’re almost ready for the Alps – just a few more things that could be done, but they may wait until afterwards.

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Van accessories

Posted on December 17, 2013 by yellowvanmountaineering

We bought a few things for the van to make it more homely, including enough tea to make it through many long winter nights.

Exciting kit for the van

Dave is also frantically adding the final touches to the van so we don’t have things sliding off shelves, water getting everywhere or have a power outage.

Tea collection

It’s now a campervan

Posted on November 24, 2013 by yellowvanmountaineering

The last few weeks we’ve been too busy to post, and the few weeks before that were frantically finishing the van.

We spent a few weeks varnishing at every available moment – sometimes squeezing a quick coat in before work, while dinner was cooking or just before bed.

We then spent a weekend putting all the furniture in van – which was surprisingly difficult to ensure things were vaguely straight and upright. We also had to incorporate fixing the water pump, pipes and gas regulator at appropriate points to ensure we had room to fix things down.

During the next week Dave spent most of his spare time working out how the sliding table rail and leg (that were meant to work together) would ever fit nicely in the van. After a few days, the table leg was cut in half. Drastic, but it works very well, although we do have the lower half of the leg floating around the van ready to be used when the table is put up.

This all meant that we had everything needed to change the DVLA status of the van to a motor caravan. It also allows us to change the insurance to that of a motor caravan rather than a motor caravan in conversion.

It doesn’t mean the van is finished though. We still need to connect some of the electrics (mains charger and usb chargers for our electronics) and fit removable things such storage boxes, pots, pans, plates etc etc. The window insulation also needs some thought.

Further plans include some major renovations to the cab interior and maybe the addition of a sound system for the rear.

We have spent a few nights in it though – a quick trip to Scotland for a wedding, and a CUHWC trip to the Lakes. We found the van a bit cold on some nights, but lovely and warm on others. Living in it has shown us what we need to add to the van – but doing those things may take a while in the cold Cambridge evenings.

The build starts

Essentials – drill, screws, and ‘stixall’

some final adjustments…

The gas box with magnets and seals

Trying to keep the pipes and electronics clear of the build

Shelves in

water pump in

installing the water pump

piles of varnished things waiting to go in

Gas box with regulator being installed

so the gas box needed a little extension to meet the drop out

in place – looks surprising good!

glue to seal the butter tub in place

end of the day – everything looking good, but still quite a bit to go

checking the stove top lid works

view of the bodge that keeps the worktop tied down the correct level.

Stove connected

It works!

Attempting to get the table level

sink all plumbed in

The living area

Seating area

Sleeping area

Furniture Finished

Posted on October 7, 2013 by yellowvanmountaineering

All is built, it just needs varnishing and the final glueing together.

We’ve got a yellow cool box

Checking the sink fits

Part build mess

The bed is a really useful shelf already

Slightly strange shaped gas box. We later stapled the last joint as we could screw it.

The most annoying piece of wood to cut

All in place!

We like this a lot.

Back shelves

Lights are on

Bed out

Bed is a bit short, but very comfortable

Jo testing the bed

Furniture build – the shelves and bed

Posted on September 28, 2013 by yellowvanmountaineering

We spent today building the bed and shelves out of ply. Still needs varnishing and sticking together, but well on the way.

It was highly entertaining trying to make things vaguely horizontal and vertical when the van has no straight edges and nothing truly vertical.

Shelves, with boxes that just about fit

shelf across the back

shelf is actually part of the bed

Bottom shelf has a hidey hole underneath

Piece of wood to fit in hole

Conversion (and life) update

Posted on September 15, 2013 by yellowvanmountaineering

Quite a few things have happened since the last conversion-related post, both to the van and otherwise. To sum up: we finished the carpeting, put the lights in (mostly), had windows and a seat/bed professionally fitted, started planning and buying the furniture, went sailing (see previous two posts), and spent six weeks in Arctic Norway (see next post…coming soon). Jo also passed her viva, did her corrections and got a job, and the van passed its MOT.

The silver carpet went on with barely a hitch – Dave did some of it while Jo was away in the Lake District assessing silver D of E groups for Cottenham Village College, and both of us finished it off the following week. We’d been using less than the suggested amount of adhesive for the walls, but made sure we used the full quantity for the ceiling! Dave also fitted eight spotlights with individual switches into the ceiling carpet, though the battery is yet to be connected. Some trimming, tidying and white spirit later, the inside was looking very smart, and the van was ready to be taken to Bletchley near Milton Keynes for the summer.

We left it in the care of Young Conversions, who had kindly agreed to look after it while we were in Norway, even though the work we’d asked them to do on it would only take a few days. Having had to move it out of and back into their workshop every day for six weeks, they were quite glad to see the back of it when Jo picked it up at the end of August! Thanks to their efforts, the van is now equipped with two large privacy-glass windows, one on each of the middle panels, and a crash-tested seat (meaning we can legally transport two passengers in the back) that folds down into two thirds of a bed – Dave will explain this one in a future post about furniture!

Our priority now is to get the van into a state that our insurers will accept as meeting its conditions for a camper van, which include a fixed stove and gas supply, running water and an attached table. We’ve pledged most of our weekends in the coming month or so to the project in the hope that this will be done by the end of October – we want to spend our first night in the van on the first weekend in November…

Here are some pictures of the new developments:

Trying to keep the carpet near the roof long enough to glue it up

Smoothing it down (or up?)

Lights installed (and working!)

New look!

Privacy windows

Extra seats!

Almost a bed – we need to install the last 3rd ourselves.

We also got a new mat for the front of the van. Dave got excited and ordered it with yellow trim

Windows. Lots of them.

Carpet!

Posted on July 7, 2013 by yellowvanmountaineering

So we’ve finished one colour of carpet. It’s amazing stuff, moulding and stretching over everything, making life very easy when carpeting some very awkward shapes.

I’ve also tested that the electrics work. I’ve only tested the lights individually during daylight, so still not exactly sure if we’ve under or over catered in that department. The fan works well (I’m still pleased for installing that ourselves).

Silver carpet on upper walls and roof, then it will be ready to be given a seat and some more windows. It has to pass an MOT in the next week too.

Fighting with 2×4 m of carpet

How do we fit round here?

Give up – trying the other side first.

Admiring the neat edge

Long side finally done

Spraying the back door with plenty of ventilation

Triming and tidying the back door

Back door trim

Wheel arches done

Side door done

Just the silver lining on top to go.

Ice Cream Van

Posted on July 6, 2013 by yellowvanmountaineering

So, we’ve been so busy that every spare minute has been spent working on the van rather than blogging about it – hence some catch up blogs.

I laid the floor with 3 layers of Tesco’s campermat, alongside 2mm ply batons in a suitable pattern for bolting the seat down, topped with 8 mm ply for the floor. We aim to put some lino down once the seats are in.

Some electrical faults were also found around this time – so I invited some friends around to fix them. Phil turned up to fix the rear fog light – we took apart the fuse box and played around, changed absolutely nothing and suddenly it worked again. All the playing around had drained the battery. After wondering about how to push start the van down a hill in Cambridge, I was about to call a friendly car owner to help me out when I realised I had bought a battery charger (for the secondary battery, which is why it took me a while to remember). I hooked up some temporary ‘shore power’ and left it overnight – all looks good now. Constantly being in the van and moving around the driveway without driving anywhere must have taken it’s toll on the battery.

We also filled some gaps in the walls so the carpet fits nicely. After stressing about how to cover these for a day, ice cream tubs worked really well!