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