Detour to Llanberis

Lots of lakes to view along the way and there is another lake in Llanberis itself
There was a train ride up the mountain for £25 but the 4hr wait, made my mind up.
So the stroll around the lake was extremly enjoyable
Car parks were expensive they want £12 for the train car park and then £4 for a lake side car park so i parked there. Later that day i found a free car park a little further up the lake with public toilets where i filled the water tanks..and had a great night sleep over looking the beautiful lake...

Elan Valley Lakes car park.

This car park at Elan Valley was perfect for a night stop-over, with an amazing vue over the dam

Horse Shoe Pass

Horse Shoe Pass
a very nice place to visit on the way, the camper had no trouble getting up the steep part of the hill
A nice restaurant at the top and some lovely views to take in

Across to the UK

We spent the first night over looking Llyn Clywedog dam a beautiful sight and free of charge ;-) We met a couple with a campervan that pulled into the car park 20minutes after us and decided to stay the night.
We had a few drinks together and thoroughly enjoyed the evening

Maiden Voyage

I took the camper out for its first official trip, we went to Achill Island west coast of Ireland. Very beautiful spot to visit lovely beaches on a nice day its the perfect place in Ireland to visit.
Plenty of space to park up with the camper all along the beach, litterally 20ft from the ocean waves and you can park up for free ;-)
In this photo you can see one of the beaches below this is quite a steep descent and the camper wizzed back up no problem.

I then went to Westport about 30miles away and stayed down on the quay. There used to be a lovely little car park you could pull into put they put a 1.9m height restriction. Anyway there is still a little room on the slip road around the tiny lake so i stayed there for the night and heres a photo of the view next morning.



This beach is amazing, stayed their for days and very few people come to it.
Parking is amazing and free..we stayed litterally 20yards from the crashing waves

Skirts are on !

Well the Skirts are on... took me all day each side, bending them, measuring and cutting slots out and then working how to finish by the rear wheels.
Your probably saying why the hell has he done it like that ;-) well i just dont like the skirt going all the way to the back, but i think i may have to add something to the rear once my tool boxes are fitted underneath ;-)

Cushions n Curtains

Well i cut the memory foam for the seating area and i thought id hang the curtains just to see what it looks like.. Cosy but im waiting to find the material to cover the cushions ;-))

Camper Kitchen

Well the kitchen area is getting sorted now, the chest of drawers that were falling apart is now extremly solid underneath the sink ;-)

Carver Caravelle 4 Tip on how to lite it after months of standing

I have a Caravelle 4 and it would'nt start...
I simply undid one of the wing nuts on the exhaust plate underneath the fire, switched the fire on as normal and lit a long stem lighter up into the ignition chambre.
I could easily turn the exhaust plate back into position and screw the wing nut on again as it was still cold.
Anyway i left the fire on full for an hour and as i thought it dried all the moisture out of it and now it works fine again.
One click and "bobs your auntie" ;-)

Disclaimer,
Im not advising anyone todo this for obvious health and safety reasons.

Wired & Bright

Just finished wiring the lights and i amazed myself it worked first time ;-)
fridge is wired to 12v now along with the water pump and the caravelle gas heater.
Each item has its own switch but i have still run everything through 3 other mains switches.

All piped up

Well the gas tank was fitted a while ago and it taken till now to get the camper all plumbed in but its in and working ;-))
I have a second hand floor vented Carver caravelle 4, it twnty years old and works a treat.
Brand new cooker from Indesit, with its flame-out safety cut-off.
A fridge that i bought new last year for my other van but its in the Iveco now and runs a treat
The Rinnai gas water heater is in and working fine and i have also had a spare valve (BBQ) plumbed in for the gas conversion on my Honda EU10i that i must buy ;-)

Taxed

I went into the tax office in town to tax the Campervan, this is where i wanted to have it passed in the first place but when i rang them for an appointment, they told me i had to go back to the revenue because it looks like they had made a mistake and imported my truck on paper as a "7.5 ton Tipper" not a box van.
Anyway i went to the motor tax office, they wouldnt tax it because they wanted to inspect it.. so i had to wait around.
The office staff came out one after the other to have a look at my campervan, to decide if they considered it as a campervan!!
i dont know what would have happened if they had decided it wasnt a camper seen as it was already a campervan in the eyes of the revenue ;-) Too many departments making themselves look busy..
Anyway its taxed now all totally road legal..
"D-day" D for departure is approaching very quickly...

MOT / Revenue Passed

A very busy day yesterday..
I took the campervan to be MOT'd (NCT in Ireland)and it failed ! i say that with a smile, read on and you find out why.... I gave the test man the engineers report forms that need to be filled in for the insurance company when insuring a campervan.
The campervan was imported as a truck and i needed to take it back to the revenue so that they could inspect it and verifie that it is now a campervan.
Well i now know that i should have gone to the revenue first because the test centre tested it as a truck so they failed it on things related to the tacograph..which isnt needed in a campervan.
Anyway i took the failure form and went to see the revenue... The revenue man came out and looked at the camper and said is there a cooker and a sink? Oh yes ok thats fine lets go and do the paper work..
So that was it is was officially a campervan.
I then returned to the MOT centre they put my new mud flaps on, changed the buld, looked at the campervan cert from the revenue and kindly gave me my MOT certificate ;-))

Plumbing the Campervan

Well i ordered pipe and fittings from CAK-TANKS and then realised that i was missing a couple of fittings so into the old mans shed and ;-) its like Aladins cave in there, theres everything you could possibly think of, from nuts n bolts to a full range of Acorn plumbing fittings and pipe... ooops sorry dad ;-)
I found enough pipe and fitting to do the whole van and more...so if you need your van doing... ;-)
The "Tees" in this photo are going to the water heater..
I have to put a hole in the roof now and i thought i would have gotten away with doing that by taking the flu at a slight angle through the rear wall panel but apparently my gas advisor tells me NO.. Straight up!! so a hole in the roof it is..

SIBS arrived ;-)

The satellite internet broadband system (SIBS) donated by "www.Conrad-Anderson.co.uk" arrived today... good job i converted a truck, the dish is huge ;-)
I'd better go and set it up

"Et voila"

Fitting the LPG tank

Fitting the LPG tank to the underneath of the Iveco box, wasnt straight forward, a little bit of cutting and rewelding had to be done before the frame could be bottled up to the bow chassis.

1st photo
Frame clamped in place so that we could see where to drill the fixation holes



2nd Photo
frame re-drilled and fixation holding plates cut off and re-welded to the appropriate place to fit the chassis rails and then that "yuk" red oxide primer paint



3rd photo
"Voila" the tank is solidly in place bolted at both ends and 4 bolts along the sides
a good solid job with the straps to finish off.

LPG Tank

Hoooray !!!!! The LPG tank i ordered has arrived, Well done "FES autogas"



I'll be down my father's tomorrow bright and early get the installation underway

I have the cooker, heater fridge and water heater all working of gas this is why i decided to get an LPG tank.. This way i can refill on the continent i wont have to worry about buying french or spanish bottles ;-)

If you want to buy an LPG tank, buy from a reputable dealer such as FES autogas Caenarfon. Excellent service and information over the phone and by email.
We were very impressed with their great attitude.

Conrad Anderson Internet system

We are very happy to announce our first sponsor

http://www.conrad-anderson.co.uk/




http://www.conrad-anderson.co.uk/

Grey water tank

After fitting the drinking water tank the other day i decided because of the break in this Irish weather that i would fit the grey water tank today. The rain has stayed off for 3 days now...what a miracle ;-) and it was a pleasure to see the underneath of the campervan without lying in a puddle or getting soaked because of the rain.
Any way i drilled the chassis and tank support tubing (2x2 box section) cut the rubber to cushion the tank top and bottom, i measured and cut the all thread.
That sounds easy when writing it ;-) it was a little bit of a struggle to hold the tank and try to tighten up the nuts so my dad came and gave me a hand, he also did the welding of the up-stands on the brackets.
We painted the support brackets and by the time we'd had our bacon and egg the paint was dry (we ate slowly ;-)
Drilled a hole in the tank and fitted the tank connector and the hose then threaded the hose up through the chassis drill a few holes and cable tied it inplace
We bolted up the tank making sur eth rubber strips were in place and voila all done and very happy ;-)

Vicarious Aires de services books

Brilliant... ordered these books the other day and they have already arrived.

Just after a quick glance, there are hundreds of very beautiful and exciting stop-overs, with alot of them being free ;-))



These are a definate for anyone that wants to enjoy their holiday abroad and not have to use expensive campsites every-night or at all..
I recommend these to anyone touring in a campervan.

I'll have a good look at them and expalin more in detail, but they really do look good ;-)

Start to now

Here are a few photos to show you from the start of the conversion to now. I still have a good few bits to finish off but its getting there. I have the LPG tank and the grey water tank to install and then i can make the skirts to hide all the underneath

Indesit Stainless steel Cooker £279 from Dixons

I just put the cooker in place to and started building around it ;-) im getting excited, its starting to look something like a camper now...
There are still a lot of things to be done though

Nigel

Touring Campervan self build

Hi there
well the build continues and now the shower is in, im going to start to fit the kitchen.
It wont be long before i contact the local tax office to get them to look at it so as to pass it as a campervan.

Hi there
the truck is slowly but surely becoming a campervan, i have installed the floors ceiling and walls with 2in polystyrene insulation. The shower and toilet are in not forgetting the door and windows... Sounds easy, all that work done in just a couple of sentences.
The truck conversion has taken me 10weeks so far, doing a little each day on the truck and alot at home surfing the web and ordering stuff.
Today i fitted the toilet external door and made the shelf under the sink to house the fridge.
Whilst its not raining i have to do the exterieur bits and when it rains i can carry on inside..
I still have loads todo but i am really get exited now..its starting to come together now and really looks like a campervan.
The motorbike slides in and out on a steel plate with rollers like a train track all in its own little closed space.
This is the sencond campervan that i have converted now and im starting to get the hang of things but i still make the odd mistake ;-)
Chat soon
Nigel

Hi there
a few months ago my girlfriend and I decided to go on an adventure, around europe in a campervan...but the van i had wasnt really big enough for the time span we intend to go for..
This Blog is all about our adventure right from the get-go,I went and bought a 2005 Iveco Eurocargo box van and decided to convert it into a campervan. I will be uploading all the photos that i took along the way in good time, for you all to see the different stages of the self-build.
I will be explaining where and how i got all the equipment that i am using, the problems i have had along the way and giving you a few tips of what to do and what not to do.
Feel free to watch this space, because we will be updating everyday or at least whenever we can get connected once on our journey
Chat to you all very soon
Nigel