Author: minirollsrule

Diary of a camper conversion

I’ve got the best brother. While I was in a work training course, he was taking on one of the most stressful jobs I had been putting off.

Installing skylights means cutting whopping great big holes in your nice new, clean, smooth and watertight roof. I was dreading it because I’ve been so many examples online where people have installed them and then after the build is complete, they find water running down inside their van walls.

That would be the worst thing so I’m grateful he took this on and completed the first one for me. And it looks great! Huge thick sealant bead around the inside and it’s fitting nice and flush.

However… When it hinges up to open, the glass hits the roof, so it doesn’t fully open 90 deg, meaning it doesn’t stay open by itself. This is a bit of a disappointment as this was a feature I was looking forward to. But thinking about it, I probably wouldn’t leave a huge glass panel balanced up there unattended, so I would probably have made a stay for it anyway at some point.

The only other downside to this is that if you push it to hard, it’s going to lever up the whole skylight and break the sealant… But we will conveniently ignore this blatant design flaw and move on!

The second skylight was left for me to have a stab at. Cutting huge holes, then jig sawing around the carefully drawn line. Deburring and painting the edge to prevent corrosion. And finally, squeezing out half a Sikaflex tube of sealant to glue it in place.

Now we really for it to cure, and I check it for leaks when it next rains.

Diary of a camper conversion

Working around the insulation is a pain, but it kept Kai and I warm-er when we took the van out on its maiden overnight trip to Sussex. It did mean that the odd bit of fluff got covered in wood glue, but that’s not the end of the world.

Today David helped me start framing out the van with batons. These were ripped strips from 18mm ply because it’s structurally more consistent than plain wood, is thick enough to fill the depth of the van pillars and will be strong for mounting the bed to it later. It was counter sunk with a spade bit and then metal self tapping roof screwed into the ribs. We added a little glue behind it to prevent squeaks.

Diary of a camper conversion

I used this stuff in the last van and it seemed to go well. I didn’t open her up to check, but 11 years of service speaks for itself.

This is recycled bottle insulation. It’s cheap, readily available from B&Q, not itchy like the rockwool stuff, and doesn’t hold moisture so it’s widely used in camper conversions.

To install you just use spray glue and then whack it up. It’s very satisfying to see so much progress being made.

Diary of a camper conversion

My roller didn’t arrive in time so I built one from spare wheels I had laying around.

I basically spent the day peeling and sticking sheets of butyle rubber to the ping-ey parts of the van bodywork. This adds mass and reduces vibrations that are really noisy in the van. It’s a quality of life job, but I think it will be worth it in the end for a quiet van.

I used my DIY roller all day and prefer it to the “professional” one, for the majority of the install. Only when I needed to reach behind a panel was the handle useful.